FINALLY ... SOMEONE SAYS SOMETHING ABOUT OBAMA-AYERS
And it is the Republican vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. On Saturday, Palin said that Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." She was referencing Obama's association with Weatherman Bill Ayers. Here's the quote, "Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country ... This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America." View the video.Finally, someone from the McCain campaign comes out and says what has been on the mind of many. On the same day that Palin made this comment, The New York Times published a piece, which tries to explain the ties between Obama and Ayers: "Obama and '60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths." Seems that the Times hasn't been keeping up with the research of Stanley Kurtz, who has been endlessly shuffling through files at the library of the University of Illinois at Chicago to find the truth.
The Obama campaign has chalked Palin comment to a "smear campaign." Obama says that the Republicans are using "smears" in order to distract the voters from real problems. A presidential candidate who befriends or is befriended by an unrepentant terrorist is a real problem in my eye ... though perhaps not in the eyes of those who hate America.
But Sarah Palin is standing behind her comments. She says that this issue is fair to talk about. She said, "The comments are about an association that has been known but hasn't been talked about, and I think it's fair to talk about where Barack Obama kicked off his political career, in the guy's living room." Man, sure glad the McCain campaign finally let her out of her cage.
Before we get to the most asinine part of this story ... let it be noted that in 2001, Bill Ayers took the infamous photograph of him standing on the American flag. That was also when he told The New York Times that he had "no regrets" about his actions in the Weather Underground. In fact, he wishes he could do more. Now during this same time, Barack Obama was serving on the board of the Woods Foundation with none other than Bill Ayers. [...]
I've blogged about this, plenty of people have. It's seldom mentioned in the campaign, because predictably, any criticism of Obama is met with charges of racism.
The McCain campaign needs to:
a.) Realize that discussing facts is never racist. What is, is.
b.) Realize the Obama campaign is going to try to label them as racists anyway, no matter what they do.
That doesn't mean the McCain campaign has to start flinging mud, but it does mean they ought to stop acting as if they are walking on egg shells that they have to worry about breaking. Let the Obama campaign worry about his thin-as-eggshell excuses. Let him explain himself and his associations. That's his job.
I appreciate that John McCain doesn't want to run a dirty campaign. I admire his wanting to keep standards high. But certain things have to be talked about, things that ought to have been addressed long ago, that weren't.
Maynard at the Tammy Bruce blog has a thoughtful post on this topic:
Obama: The Final Word
With the political arguments swirling fast and furious, here's what I see as the bottom line on Obama.
I don't place much faith in what a candidate says and does after declaring his or her candidacy. Once he steps into the spotlight, he's playing to the crowd. He's on good behavior, and he'll tell us whatever we want to hear. This is a demonstration of his acting ability...and a politician is indeed part actor, but there's more to the job than that. The true measure of the man is what he did with his life when he didn't think he was being watched. That's what you're going to get when the candidate is in power, and never mind the speeches.
As we do with celebrities, we tend to project our fantasies onto politicians. The less we know about a person, the easier this is. With Obama's charisma and short history, and with the sympathies of the mainstream media behind him, he's been allowed to remain too much of a blank slate. This is slowly changing, as the reality becomes known and eats away at his mystique. Note that Obama's greatest string of victories in the Democratic primaries came when he was a new thing. As information trickled out, he lost steam. If more facts had been on the table earlier, Hillary certainly would have been the Democratic nominee.
Our job as voters isn't to nitpick and debate every nuance and gaffe. In a world of trivia and spin, we must seek the most essential truths and make them known. [...]
(bold emphasis mine) Maynard goes on to look at the essential truths about Obama, the man and what he did prior to being in the national spotlight. He addresses many of the concerns I and others have had all along. He looks at the eggshell-thin excuses that have been offered for those concerns, and finds them desperately wanting for credibility.
Read the whole thing. This is the vetting the Democrats should have done. This is the vetting process the MSM should have done, but didn't. Why? Because it's not a pretty picture, folks. I'm amazed that he's gotten as far as he has. I try to imagine a Republican equivalent, who could escape such scrutiny, but I can't.
It seems the Obama campaign's biggest defense is accusing any of his critics of racism: "Don't step on our egg shells, or we will call you a racist". It's not good enough, we need real debate and intelligent discussion. America deserves better.
Related Links:
Obama Needs to Explain His Ties to William Ayers
Obama, Ayers and Dohrn - birds of a feather
Barack Obama; the larger, complete picture
No comments:
Post a Comment