I think I'll let the Democrats define themselves more clearly at the convention before I comment on it. But I cannot help but regard Obama's choice of Joe Biden as a blunder. Hillary must be going nuts and thinking: "How many votes did I get and how many votes did this guy get? Is this affirmative action for white males or what?" Leave aside the fact that the choice is unimaginative, uninspired, banal. It seems that Obama is going after the hoi polloi by naming one of their undistinguished number to the ticket. Sure, Joe is a jovial character, but when is the last time he had an idea? To date his best lines have been plagiarized from others. Let's just hope he doesn't begin his convention speech, "Four score and seven years ago..."
Well, it's Obama who's at the top of the ticket and it's Obama we should be focusing on. So far it sounds like Obama is running not for president of the United States but for president of the world. Obama is a globalist, and in his Berlin speech at the Brandenburg Gate Obama decalred himself a "fellow citizen of the world." I guess this means that in conflicts between our world and other worlds, Obama is decidedly on the side of Planet Earth.
Sure, there's more to Obama's argument than his platitudes. Essentially Obama has been arguing that "there is no challenge too great for a world that stands alone." The problem with this is that there are competing ideals and competing interests in the world. China would like to be a regional bully and kick around the little countries that are in its neighborhood. Russia too would like to restore some of its czarist and later Communist hegemony. How exactly does our Chicago community activist propose to change these global realities?
Obama's answer is: through the power of prose. In his stump speeches Obama has been sounding a Robert Frost note, talking a lot about walls. According to Obama, the greatest threat in today's world is not terrorism or nuclear war. Rather, the "greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another." According to Obama, the walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic, or between natives and immigrants, or between races and religions, "cannot stand."
"Something there is that doesn't love a wall," Frost wrote, and certainly we can all share the feeling. Perhaps the best example of an unloved wall is the Berlin Wall, which came down thanks to the efforts of people like Reagan, Thatcher, the Pope, Havel, Walesa and Solzhenitsyn. Yet Frost's poem ends with these striking lines: "Good fences make good neighbors." Frost's point is that the sentimental resistance to walls must be modified by the recognition of the utility and even indispensability of walls. I'm quite sure the Obamas understand the principle quite well: they would not be happy if their neighbors' kids crossed into their yard and treated it as their own. Good fences make good neighbors.
So when should walls be taken down? Consider a contemporary example. It's possible that the wall the Israelis are building is saving Israeli lives and protecing that nation's security. It's also possible that the wall is unncessary, and that it's fueling further Palestinian grievance. My point is that the correct position is going to derive from a careful analysis of the situation on the ground. Vague and lofty talk about the badness of walls isn't going to help. Yet that is precisely the level of analysis that we are getting from Barack Obama. Now will the press stop genuflecting before this man and do him--and our democracy--the dignity of critically examining his views?
Reader Comments ( Page 7 of 17)
91. TAX EXEMPT STATUS
I was just watching McCain's buddy the reverend John Hagee deliver a sermon on why Christians need to be politically active. He delivered an impassioned bit of tripe in support of 'Thank God that George Bush was there to stand up to global terrorism..." If Christian organizations are going to be so involved in politics, should they retain tax exempt status? Many Christians complain about the use of taxes for policies that they disagree with. Why not show great moral leadership and eschew tax exemption.
Pliny-the-in-between at 9:25PM on Aug 26th 2008
92. MIW: "Ryan please hang out with them the next time they take a cruise in their car bomb"
Again, FU
Ryan Anderson at 9:27PM on Aug 26th 2008
93. MIW,
Jim Hensley: McCain's Father in Law
The unreported Hensley fortune is an offshoot of the bootlegging and rackets empire of Sam Bronfman of the Bronfman family in Canada and partner to Meyer Lansky, chairman of the board for the international crime syndicate.( His son Edgar Bronfman is a Bush supporter.)
Jim Hensley got his start as a top henchman for Kemper Marley who died in 1984. Marley was behind the scenes political boss of Arizona. Marley was also a protege of Lansky's lieutenant, gambler Gus Greenbaum.
In 1941 Greenbaum started a wire service for bookmakers which he turned over to Marley five years later to help run the Lanskey ran Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. In 47 he ordered a hit on Bugsy Siegel for skimming profits. The following year Greenbaum and his wife were found with their throats cut. The murders were followed by a gangland war in Phoenix, yet Marley survived. He went on to build up a liquor distribution monopoly in Arizona financed by the Bronfman family.
In 1948, fifty-two of Marley's employees (including Jim Hensley) went to jail on federal liquor violations, but not Marley himself.
It is said that Jim Hensley took the fall for Marley who in turn paid Hensley back by setting him up in his beer business. That business which is valued today at an estimated to be worth $200 million financed McCain's career, but without Marley's political ties and support John McCain would not of been elected to squat..
Suck on that
Botts at 9:29PM on Aug 26th 2008
94. MIW: my personal theory about you and those like you... you either got scared on 9/11 and never recovered, like I said before, or 9/11 opened the door for your natural xenophobic tendencies. Much like the Reichstag Fire.
Just theories.
Ryan Anderson at 9:29PM on Aug 26th 2008
95. Ryan Anderson
I am doing fine. About your comments, nationalism is just another form of the same stuff as racism or sexism as far as I am concerned. All people on earth have as much right to be here as any one, and it is sad that people do not understand this for themselves as well as everyone concerned. Hope you, and the family, especially the baby is a ok.
Jerry Brown at 9:31PM on Aug 26th 2008
96. Jerry; baby is doing great! She's been sleeping through the night for about a month now. Have a good night.
Ryan Anderson at 9:34PM on Aug 26th 2008
97. NP - no just a wealthy beer distributer that you dems so readily finance. JM says thanks...
Man_in_Wilderness at 9:20PM on Aug 26th 2008
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
He was far, far more than just a wealthy beer distributor. You're afraid to find out how he really got his start and how he was able to become so prosperous. Yes, you are.
naturalpuppy at 9:39PM on Aug 26th 2008
98. I wonder if Obama's "World Without Walls" bother Dinesh and others so much because they've spent so much time hating those on the other side of the walls?
Ryan Anderson at 9:47PM on Aug 26th 2008
99. DoubleD can't wait to see your in depth analysis of Hilary's speech.
Should be a real yawner.
JefFlyingV at 10:29PM on Aug 26th 2008
100. MiW Sez
"please hang out with them the next time they take a cruise in their car bomb."
T.Brough at 11:46PM on Aug 26th 2008
101. So MIW - suprised you did not ask Ryan if his kids or Grandkids are going to Hell. Or Telling him outright that they are. Coward.
T.Brough at 11:49PM on Aug 26th 2008
102. As usual, Denise's view of the world around us is distorted and out of touch with reality (Biden was a great selection as VP). >>
Obamy needs commander in chief cred ... so he picks a guy that voted against the frist Gulf War, and for the second. And Obamy had to go out and get that sort of judgement? LMAO
thomas J gassett at 2:05PM on Aug 27th 2008
103. You can slam Obama, the Dems and liberals in general all you want, but nothing you say will change the fact that the absolute worst American president in history by far was a low down, stinking, conservative, Republican and self titled born again Christian with the IQ of a pile of tepid excrement.
>>>
That tepid pile got better grade than that Left Einstein John Hines Kerry at Yale, and went on to earn an MBA from Harvard, while young Alvin Gore and Teddy Kennedy were both asked to leave Harvard empty handed. Alvin later dropped out of divinity school, but we are pretty sure he graduated from High School.
All Obamy has is a Harvard degree. AT least Bush ran a big state. Obamy hasn't run so much as a business. Clearly, he is the most unqalified clown to ever win the nomination. Vote Obamy, and you'll get real change ... the most unqalified fool ever to win the White House. Oh how high we aim. LMAO
thomas J gassett at 2:03PM on Aug 27th 2008
104. Remember, my friends, especially you, MIW, for I am particularly fond of you, my friend....where was I? Oh yes, I was in a cell long ago without even a table...not even a table, Chet...this is Chet Huntley I'm talking to, isn't it? Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, in my cell, tortured like a true patriot, with only the kitchen tables to console me.
And remember, my friends, I was a part of the Keating 5, and Barack Obama was not. My wife is a drug-addicted felon, and Barack Obama's wife is not. I call my wife a c*nt in public, and Barack Obama does not. I have a huge gambling problem, often spending 14 hours straight at the craps tables, and Barack Obama does not. But remember, my friends, I was in that cell, without even a kitchen table, for five and a half years...and Barack Obama was not.
Drill Drill Drill Bomb Bomb Bomb Drill Drill Drill My Friends at 7:16AM on Aug 27th 2008
105. As I always say, my friends, whenever I come to Minneapolis...where was I? Oh yes, whenever I come to this great city, I always say...
BOMB HERE, AND BOMB NOW!!!
Drill Drill Drill Bomb Bomb Bomb Drill Drill Drill My Friends at 7:19AM on Aug 27th 2008