"Great people talk about ideas. Small people talk about other people."
I agree with the sentiment in general, but we are electing a person to be president, not an idea.
His associates are not him, so I've only talked about them to a relatively modest extent, and I might agree that too much may be being made of them and their statements, but IMO it should be an issue, just perhaps not a major one. It does reflect a bit on Obama, esp. because we have much less of a record to go on when evaluating him, than with Clinton or McCain.
My real problem with Obama is not Wright (or all the other negative associates), but his ideas.
Beyond that there is a problem where its hard to nail down exactly what his ideas are, for example you have the famous case where he seems to be opposing trade deals but his advisors give a different story in private in other countries. A blogger we both read (Megan McCardle) supports him, at least partially because she doesn't think he's serious about the policies and ideas he has expressed or implied, that she dislikes the most. He's rather good at getting people to think he supports their ideas, or at least is not hostile to them, even when the people in question have opposing and incompatible ideas. Its hard to really know what a president Obama would do. |
