Obama
Not Yet Out of the Woods
by David Limbaugh
Barack Obama is nothing if not smooth. He seamlessly
turned a would-be apology over his pastor's racism into
an indictment against society's racism.
You can talk all you want to about Obama's "audacity of
hope" theme, but the only audacity I heard in his speech
was his lecturing Americans on their racism instead of
explaining his longtime intimate relationship with
Wright.
It wasn't, "Jeremiah Wright was wrong, and I was wrong
for going to his church for 20 years despite his
apparently unforgiving spirit, his racist and
anti-American utterances, and his vulgarity, including
taking the Lord's name in vain from his very pulpit --
the one venue above all on God's sacred planet that such
irreverence is inalterably forbidden. No matter what
racial injustices have been perpetrated over the years
by mankind toward mankind, they are never an excuse for
disrespecting God, and especially in His house."
Instead, Obama said, essentially, "I reject many of Rev.
Wright's remarks as divisive and perhaps even unfairly
critical of America, but you have to admit, he has a
point."
Obama's forte is not, as many have suggested, waxing
eloquent while saying nothing. His real gift is saying
one thing while appearing to say the opposite, so
mellifluously and disarmingly that audiences shake their
heads in affirmation of the very proposition they
oppose. Without changing their minds, they believe they
have agreed with him. Amazing -- and scary.
In his speech, he needed to condemn and distance himself
from his pastor. And he did -- sort of. But before he
was finished, he had virtually excused his pastor's
statements and given us a history lesson in precisely
why resentments giving rise to such statements came
about -- and were justified. In other words, "Sure,
Pastor Wright sometimes crossed the line, but don't let
his tone obscure the underlying message: Racism is still
pervasive in this country, which hasn't come close to
making amends for its shameful past."
Reasonable people can debate the extent of the continued
existence and effects of racism in both directions
today, but in the meantime, we should recognize that
Obama ducked the questions his speech was purportedly
crafted to answer.
Assuming that not everyone listening to the speech was
so mesmerized by Obama's intoxicating spell of lofty
rhetoric that they forgot its purpose, Obama is not yet
out of the woods on this issue. And that's his own
fault.
Rather, he fed into feelings of racial distrust by
playing to his leftist base and wrongly castigating
Reaganism and conservative commentators for their
alleged racism. He legitimized the noxious notion that
conservative opposition to welfare and affirmative
action are born of racism by saying we must "realize
that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of
my dreams." He implied that conservative resistance to
throwing endless money at public education is rooted in
a "cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn,
that those kids who don't look like us are somebody
else's problem." These are misguided and damaging words.
He needed to speak directly, but he obfuscated with
cleverly concealed contradictions and evasions. He said
his campaign presents a powerful message of unity, but
his words stoked racial unease and divisiveness. While
paying lip service to our national motto, "Out of Many,
One," he couldn't quit talking about people in terms of
their color and ethnicity.
He scolded us for our racism, but he
-- encouraged us to keep race-consciousness at the very
forefront of our national psyche,
-- sloppily conflated Pastor Wright's manifest racism
and anti-Americanism with his white grandmother's
stereotypical remarks and Democrat Geraldine Ferraro's
political observation about the effect of Obama's race
on his electability, and
-- didn't point his accusing finger at the race-hustlers
of our time, who fan the flames of racial resentment and
hostility.
Conservatives promote school choice precisely because
they want to deliver disadvantaged children from their
confinement in inner-city schools. Conservative
opposition to affirmative action and unbridled welfare
is not based on greed, selfishness or racism but on a
philosophical difference over how best to solve problems
while preserving the dignity of all individual human
beings.
It is certainly Obama's prerogative to make his campaign
about race while saying it transcends it. It is his
right to duck the question of his intimate connection to
Wright, and he may take the offensive by deftly turning
the charges of racism back on conservatives.
But it is up to the voters to evaluate his cultural
analysis, his evasiveness and the wisdom of his proposed
big-government solutions for our problems. I am
unconvinced that his eloquence has successfully masked
the deep problems that have begun to haunt his driving
presidential ambitions.
