A congressman backing Hillary Rodham Clinton says white voters are supporting Barack Obama based on the view that he is articulate and his election would allow the nation "to get this boogeyman called race behind us." Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who is black, told Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that Obama "is articulate. In the black tradition, he would probably be mediocre." "For White Americans, it's like, this guy can speak," Cleaver said in the radio interview. "If you put him on a level with a lot of other African-American public speakers, he may not even measure up."
But Cleaver also conceded in the interview that he thinks Obama will win the White House. "If I had to make a prediction right now, I'd say Barack Obama is going to be the next president," Cleaver told Canadian public radio in an interview first aired on Sunday. "I will be stunned if he's not the next president of the United States." Cleaver has remained a strong supporter of Clinton despite pressure from other black leaders and many of his constituents to switch allegiance to Obama. He was not immediately available on Tuesday to discuss his comments. Some black members of Congress, such as Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis, have changed their allegiance from Clinton to Obama in recent weeks.
In the interview, Cleaver insisted he would not back away from his endorsement of Clinton. He claims much of the support for Obama is driven by a sense that his election will prove the country has solved its problems with race. "I think for many white Americans, they are looking at Barack Obama and saying `This is our chance to demonstrate that we have been able to get this boogeyman called race behind us,"` Cleaver said. "And so they are going to vote for him, whether he has credentials or not, whether he has any experience - I think all that's out the window."
Yet Cleaver asserts that Obama as president could actually hamper efforts to curb racial injustice. He said future concerns about race "would be met with rejection because we've already demonstrated that we're not a racist nation."
Cleaver represents a majority white congressional district in Kansas City where Obama won a majority of the vote in Missouri's presidential primary. He is the only ordained minister in Congress and still preaches every Sunday at his mostly black Kansas City church.
Cleaver said he was "outraged over the outrage" at the controversy over Obama's former pastor, who was criticized for making racially charged comments in church sermons. Cleaver praised Obama's Chicago church for having a "long and rich history of being involved in the betterment of the Chicago Black community."
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GET RID OF IDENTITY POLITICS AND THERE'S NO NEED FOR 'A CONVERSATION ON RACE'
Victor Davis Hanson in an editorial titled "10 Things A Candidate Might Promise What We Want To Hear" listed a number of important themes, but one in particular caught my eye:
4. Race. No more "conversations on race" but simply an end to identity politics. Americans are worn out with racial tribalism. The post-racial candidate Obama recently posed with Bill Richardson to gain a "Latino" endorsement, on the hope apparently that just as African-Americans are supposedly voting 90% for Obama, Hispanics might do likewise on Richardson's prompt. But the scene was Orwellian. Both Obama and Richardson are elites of mixed ancestry and they just as well might have argued that they were "white" candidates. When either one claims fides to one side of their heritage, they implicitly reject the other. I can't believe that a naturalized citizen from Oaxaca would vote for the grandee Obama because the grandee Richardson claimed that as an authentic Latino of similar background and perspective he should. And if he were to do that, then we are simply a tribal nation after all.
Eliminate the politically correct, "identity politics" victimhood sweepstakes, and we will have no need for a "conversation on race"--we will finally have swept away the last vestiges of subversive, unconscious racism (AND sexism)--the kind that is relentlessly advocated and championed by the always uninsightful, self-centered political left and their Democratic party shills.
It's truly fascinating to me how they have managed to promote overtly racist and sexist policies and practices on the national agenda while claiming that they are doing just the opposite. In fact, what we have right now within the Democratic party in the fight to the death between the "black" candidate for President and the "female" candidate for President, is the logical end-game of the PC, multi-culti victimhood dogma: racial divisiveness, seething resentment and overweening entitlement-- taken to the nth power.
Right now there is some rather desperate flailing and maneuvering trying to keep everything together, but I predict that it will not work because there is no ability for any compromise between the various victim groups--only a final battle for supremacy which will leave one or the other disenfranchised.
Not only would there be no need for a 'conversation on race', but the entire foundation of today's Democratic party would quite simply disappear, swallowed up by its own devastating and destructive internal contradictions.
You might well wonder what they would do at that point? I mean, how could the political left stand up for the rights of the oppressed if the oppressed refuse to consider themselves oppressed and can stand up for themselves in the world? Heh.
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Obama's Dimestore 'Mein Kampf'
by Ann Coulter
If characters from "The Hills" were to emote about race, I imagine it would sound like B. Hussein Obama's autobiography, "Dreams From My Father." Has anybody read this book? Inasmuch as the book reveals Obama to be a flabbergasting lunatic, I gather the answer is no. Obama is about to be our next president: You might want to take a peek. If only people had read "Mein Kampf" ...
Nearly every page -- save the ones dedicated to cataloguing the mundane details of his life -- is bristling with anger at some imputed racist incident. The last time I heard this much race-baiting invective I was ... in my usual front-row pew, as I am every Sunday morning, at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Obama tells a story about taking two white friends from the high school basketball team to a "black party." Despite their deep-seated, unconscious hatred of blacks, the friends readily accepted. At the party, they managed not to scream the N-word, but instead "made some small talk, took a couple of the girls out on the dance floor." But with his racial hair-trigger, Obama sensed the whites were not comfortable because "they kept smiling a lot." And then, in an incident reminiscent of the darkest days of the Jim Crow South ... they asked to leave after spending only about an hour at the party! It was practically an etiquette lynching! So either they hated black people with the hot, hot hate of a thousand suns, or they were athletes who had come to a party late, after a Saturday night basketball game.
In the car on the way home, one of the friends empathizes with Obama, saying: "You know, man, that really taught me something. I mean, I can see how it must be tough for you and Ray sometimes, at school parties ... being the only black guys and all." And thus Obama felt the cruel lash of racism! He actually writes that his response to his friend's perfectly lovely remark was: "A part of me wanted to punch him right there."
Listen, I don't want anybody telling Obama about Bill Clinton's "I feel your pain" line. Wanting to punch his white friend in the stomach was the introductory anecdote to a full-page psychotic rant about living by "the white man's rules." (One rule he missed was: "Never punch out your empathetic white friend after dragging him to a crappy all-black party.")
Obama's gaseous disquisition on the "white man's rules" leads to this charming crescendo: "Should you refuse this defeat and lash out at your captors, they would have a name for that, too, a name that could cage you just as good. Paranoid. Militant. Violent. Nigger." For those of you in the "When is Obama gonna play the 'N-word' card?" pool, the winner is ... Page 85! Congratulations!
When his mother expresses concern about Obama's high school friend being busted for drugs, Obama says he patted his mother's hand and told her not to worry. This, too, prompted Obama to share with his readers a life lesson on how to handle white people: "It was usually an effective tactic, another one of those tricks I had learned: People were satisfied so long as you were courteous and smiled and made no sudden moves. They were more than satisfied, they were relieved -- such a pleasant surprise to find a well-mannered young black man who didn't seem angry all the time."
First of all, I note that this technique seems to be the basis of Obama's entire presidential campaign. But moreover -- he was talking about his own mother! As Obama says: "Any distinction between good and bad whites held negligible meaning." Say, do you think a white person who said that about blacks would be a leading presidential candidate? The man is stark bonkersville.
He says the reason black people keep to themselves is that it's "easier than spending all your time mad or trying to guess whatever it was that white folks were thinking about you." Here's a little inside scoop about white people: We're not thinking about you. Especially WASPs. We think everybody is inferior, and we are perfectly charming about it.
In college, Obama explains to a girl why he was reading Joseph Conrad's 1902 classic, "Heart of Darkness": "I read the book to help me understand just what it is that makes white people so afraid. Their demons. The way ideas get twisted around. I helps me understand how people learn to hate." By contrast, Malcolm X's autobiography "spoke" to Obama. One line in particular "stayed with me," he says. "He spoke of a wish he'd once had, the wish that the white blood that ran through him, there by an act of violence, might somehow be expunged." Forget Rev. Jeremiah Wright -- Wright is Booker T. Washington compared to this guy
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Pro-life groups slam Obama
Pro-life activists say Sen. Barack Obama's abysmal record on abortion issues is reflected by his remark that he would not want his daughters to be "punished with a baby" if they were to make a "mistake" as teenagers. He would want his own grandchild aborted. It shows a real callous disregard for human life," said David Osteen, executive director of National Right to Life. "This is a window into his soul."
The criticism follows continued scrutiny of Mr. Obama's longtime relationship with a pastor known for racially incendiary sermons, as national polls show him in a neck-and-neck race with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination.
Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said the candidate's comment should not be interpreted as condoning abortions. "What Senator Obama said and what he believes is clear: Children are 'miracles,' but we have a problem when so many children are having children," he said. "Parents have a responsibility to teach their children about values and morals to help make sure they are not treating sex casually. And while he understands the passions on both sides of this difficult issue, Senator Obama believes we can all agree that we should be taking steps to reduce the number of teen pregnancies and abortions in this country."
Mr. Vietor also tried to lay to rest questions about Mr. Obama's familiarity with a 1960s book linked to his church - "Black Theology and Black Power" by James H. Cone - that espouses anti-white views. "Senator Obama didn't read this book," Mr. Vietor said. "What is clear is that The Washington Times is more interested in rehashing an old story and playing 'gotcha' games than seriously covering this campaign."
Trinity United Church of Christ, where Mr. Obama has worshipped for two decades, publicly declares that its ministry is founded on the book, which advocates "the destruction of the white enemy," The Times reported yesterday.
Pro-life groups have long criticized the record of Mr. Obama, Illinois Democrat, who has voted against legal protection for babies who survive botched abortions and against prohibitions on taking a minor across state lines for an abortion. His "punished with a baby" comment Saturday at a town hall in Johnstown, Pa., reignited the outrage. "It is just shocking to hear it come out of someone's mouth," said Charlene Bashore, director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation PAC. "I can't say it is surprising since he has a radical stance on abortion. ... By all indications, he does consider an unplanned pregnancy to be a punishment."
Responding to a question about HIV/AIDS and sex education, Mr. Obama said he supports a curriculum that includes abstinence and contraception. "I've got two daughters - 9 years old and 6 years old," Mr. Obama said. "I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby. ... So it doesn't make sense to not give them information."
Pro-life activists say Mr. Obama's abortion views will hurt him in a general election matchup with presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona. It also could hurt his run against Mrs. Clinton in the April 22 primary in Pennsylvania, which has a large bloc of Democratic pro-life voters, they say. "It's hard to be more pro-abortion than Hillary Clinton, but Mr. Obama seems to have found a way to do it," said Mr. Osteen.
Pro-life groups note that both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama voted against Senate bills in 2006 that would have made it illegal to take a minor across state lines for an abortion. Mr. Obama, as an Illinois state senator, voted against a bill that would have guaranteed medical care for babies who survive abortions rather than letting them die. Mrs. Clinton voted for a similar measure in 2001.
Concerned Women for America (CWA) called on Mr. Obama to recant his comment, saying it stigmatizes babies conceived by teenagers and "provides an excuse for aborting them." "Our society would take a dangerous step backward from the Judeo-Christian belief that we are all created equal if we were to treat one class of humans - those born to teenagers - as a curse," CWA President Wendy Wright said. "Senator Obama should clearly recant and not sidestep this issue. No baby is a 'punishment.' "
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