The Great Divider
By JAMES TARANTO
April 28, 2008
Democratic front-runner Barack Obama was supposed to unite the country, overcoming racial and even partisan division. How's that working out?
As far as bridging the partisan divide, one may give him credit, but only in a backhanded way. His not-quite-insurmountable lead for the Democratic nomination has had the consequence of creating a tactical alliance between Hillary Clinton and Republicans, so that Mrs. Clinton has, at least for the moment, joined the vast right-wing conspiracy, as we noted last month. Mrs. Clinton even got the endorsement of Richard Scaife's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on the eve of the Pennsylvania primary.
But a corollary to this is that his own party is divided--among other ways, along racial lines. The New York Times has some evidence:
The third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives and one of the country's most influential African-American leaders sharply criticized former President Bill Clinton [Thursday] afternoon for what he called Mr. Clinton's "bizarre" conduct during the Democratic primary campaign.
Representative James E. Clyburn, an undeclared superdelegate from South Carolina who is the Democratic whip in the House, said that "black people are incensed over all of this," referring to statements that Mr. Clinton had made in the course of the heated race between his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Senator Barack Obama. . . .
In an interview with The New York Times late Thursday, Mr. Clyburn said Mr. Clinton's conduct in this campaign had caused what might be an irreparable breach between Mr. Clinton and an African-American constituency that once revered him. "When he was going through his impeachment problems, it was the black community that bellied up to the bar," Mr. Clyburn said. "I think black folks feel strongly that that this [sic] is a strange way for President Clinton to show his appreciation."
We were initially inclined to see this Clyburn's way; there months ago, we opined that it was invidious for Mr. Clinton to liken Obama to Jesse Jackson after the South Carolina primary. But this was before we learned of Obama's relationship with "spiritual mentor" Jeremiah Wright, a practitioner of "black liberation theology" who has called America the "U.S. of KKK A." Hugh Hewitt has unearthed another sermon, in which Wright declares that America is doing "the same thing al Qaeda is doing under a different colored flag."
Although Obama has denounced some of Wright's remarks, he has not specified which ones, and he has said, "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community." In fact, Politico's Ben Smith reported last week that Obama's campaign distributed a handbill in Philadelphia before the primary that touted the candidate's relationship with Wright.
Wright himself resurfaced last week, sitting for an interview with PBS's Bill Moyers. It was an embarrassing softball affair in which Moyers at times was even less sensible than Wright. At one point Wright rightly observed that "we have the freedom here in this country" to denounce our government, "whereas [in] some other places, you're dead if [you] say the wrong thing about your government." To which Moyers replied, "Well, you can be almost crucified for saying what you've said here in this country."
Which is true, if being "almost crucified" means being subjected to harsh criticism. By that definition, Wright has almost crucified America on many a Sunday.
During the interview, Wright had this to say about Obama:
He's a politician, I'm a pastor. We speak to two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. Those are two different worlds. I do what I do. He does what politicians do.
Yet at the beginning of the interview, Wright explained that from the start, he has taken a political approach to the ministry:
Wright: Actually a good friend of yours, I believe, and one of my professors, got me in the predicament I'm in today, Dr. Martin Marty, one of my professors at the University of Chicago--
Moyers: One of the great distinguished historians of religion in America.
Wright: He put a challenge to us in 1970, late '69, early '70, I'll never forget. He said, "You know, you come into the average church on a Sunday morning and you think you've stepped from the real world into a fantasy world. And what do I mean by that?" He said pick up the church bulletin. You leave a world, Vietnam, or today you leave a world, Iraq, over 4,000 dead, American boys and girls, 100,000, 200,000 depending on which count, Iraqi dead. Afghanistan, Darfur, rapes in the Congo, Katrina, Lower Ninth Ward, that's the world you leave.
He said, "How come our bulletins, how come the faith preached in our churches does not relate to the world in which our church members leave at the benediction?" . . . What do we do in ministry that speaks to the community and the world in which we sit? That's Martin Marty. That's Martin Marty.
Needless to say, Moyers did not confront Wright about this contradiction.
Politico's Smith has another charming example of unifying rhetoric coming from the Obama campaign:
[Obama campaign manager] David Plouffe tells [National Journal's] Linda Douglass that real racists are probably voting Republican in any case:
"The vast, vast majority of voters who would not vote for Barack Obama in November based on race are probably firmly in John McCain's camp already," he says.
We agree with Wright on one thing: Obama is a politician, and "he does what politicians do." By the standards of politics--that is, besting opponents at the ballot box--Obama has done quite well, a lot better than most people expected when Mrs. Clinton was inevitable. But by the standards his supporters have set for him--transcending the differences that divide the country--one would be hard-pressed to say he's been even modestly successful.
Accountability Journalism
Bill Clinton is not black, the Associated Press reports. Actually, the headline reads "ON DEADLINE: Bill Clinton Is No Brother." Our understanding is that "ON DEADLINE" means it is an opinion column, but still, this is bizarre:
Imagine, for just a minute, the pain of America's first black president.
Not Barack Obama--Bill Clinton.
That's about the only explanation for Clinton's lack of brotherly behavior lately: He's in pain.
He is a figurative black man watching an actual black man soak in all the love that black voters used to save for him.
Suddenly, he looks oh so white. . . .
Nobody bothered to tell Clinton that honorary blackness is also temporary. No matter how much he's done on the subject of race, his brother privileges are always up for renewal.
It's worth recalling where the notion that Clinton was "the first black president" started. It was in a 1998 piece by Toni Morrison in The New Yorker:
Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas.
Isn't "trope of blackness" just a high-toned way of saying "racial stereotype"?
Great Orators of the Democratic Party
• "One man with courage makes a majority."--attributed to Andrew Jackson
• "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."--Franklin D. Roosevelt
• "The buck stops here."--Harry S. Truman
• "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."--John F. Kennedy
• "They came for the steel companies and nobody said anything. They came for the auto companies and nobody said anything. They came for the office companies, people who did white-collar service jobs, and no one said anything. And they came for the professional jobs that could be outsourced, and nobody said anything. So this is not just about steel."--Hillary Clinton
Now She Tells Us
In a New York Times op-ed Elizabeth Edwards praises a former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination:
Did you, for example, ever know a single fact about Joe Biden's health care plan? Anything at all? But let me guess, you know Barack Obama's bowling score. We are choosing a president, the next leader of the free world. We are not buying soap, and we are not choosing a court clerk with primarily administrative duties.
What's more, the news media cut candidates like Joe Biden out of the process even before they got started. . . . Few people even had the chance to find out about Joe Biden's health care plan before he was literally forced from the race by the news blackout that depressed his poll numbers, which in turn depressed his fund-raising.
And it's not as if people didn't want this information. In focus groups that I attended or followed after debates, Joe Biden would regularly be the object of praise and interest: "I want to know more about Senator Biden," participants would say.
But it was not to be. Indeed, the Biden campaign was covered more for its missteps than anything else.
Mrs. Edwards blames the media for the Biden campaign's failure to catch fire. But we don't recall her singing Biden's praises back then either.
Metaphor Alert
"The Democratic nomination is a jump ball in Indiana. The winner will be the candidate who emerges singing "Indiana Wants Me" (with a different storyline from that of the song). If Barack Obama grabs the ball and takes it to the hoop, he'll both win the nomination and put himself on track to win the presidency. If he doesn't, he better watch out for flying chairs."--Robert S. McElvaine, Puffington Host, April 23
Butterfield Hops the Pond
"Despite the fact there are more than 200 million guns in circulation, there is a certain tranquility and civility about American life."--BBC Web site, April 22
Monkey Sea, Monkey Do
Here's an amusing photo caption from the Harrison (Ark.) Daily Times:
Newton County Extension Agent Jack Boles visits with a monkey he and his companions rescued from a jungle river in Borneo before bringing it ashore for lunch.
Apparently this is a real case of monkeyfishing--and they ate their catch!
Stay Away From Wildfire Creeps
"New Round of Evacuations as Calif. Wildfire Creeps Closer"--headline, Associated Press, April 27
Then the Big Band Era Began
"Humans Lived in Tiny, Separate Bands for 100,000 Years"--headline, Agence France-Presse, April 25
'I Can't Read It Without My Glasses'
"Federal Panel Seeks Clearer Warnings on Lasik Eye Surgery"--headline, Associated Press, April 25
We Blame Global Warming
"Natural-Gas Vehicles Hot in Utah, Where the Fuel Is Cheap"--headline, Associated Press, April 25
'Worst Robbery Ever!'
"Man 'Critical' After Comic Book Store Robbery"--headline, WOOD-TV Web site (Grand Rapids, Mich.), April 25
Help Wanted
• "Church Thieves Sought"--headline, Hastings (Minn.) Star Gazette, April 24
• "Well-Dressed Walgreens Robber Sought"--headline, WDBO-AM Web site (Orlando, Fla.), April 25
Someone Set Up Us the Bomb
"D.C. Needle Swap Programs to Shot in Arm, $490K"--headline, Associated Press, April 25
Bottom Stories of the Day
• "Judge: Latin School Can Build Soccer Fields"--headline, Chicago Sun-Times, April 25
• "Nader Presses Anti-Corporate Message"--headline, Hartford Courant, April 28
• "Nev. GOP Recesses State Convention, Angering Paul Supporters"--headline, Associated Press, April 27
• "Olympic Torch Relay Begins North Korea Leg Free of Protests"--headline, Associated Press, April 28
• "Toronto Commuters Face Normal Monday After Weekend TTC Strike"--headline, CBC.ca, April 28
Antiabortion Al?
Last week three New York City policemen were acquitted in a bench trial of manslaughter and reckless endangerment charges in the November 2006 shooting death of Sean Bell outside a Queens strip club. Bell was black, and this case became a racial cause célèbre. WCBS-TV reports this comment from local race hustler and onetime Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton:
"We intend to pursue this case with all deliberate speed and determination. This verdict is one round down, but the fight is far from over," he said. "What we saw in court today was not a miscarraige [sic] of justice, this was an abortion of justice. Justice was aborted."
So Sharpton thinks an abortion is worse than a miscarriage? Who knew he was such an antichoice fanatic? |
