Barack Hussein Obama, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, has assembled one of the strangest coalitions of support in recent memory. His primary base consists of poor, inner-city blacks and well-to-do white suburban liberals who fled the cities in order to get away from the poor inner-city blacks.
Being black himself, it's little wonder that he is supported by a majority of African Americans. Irish politicians in places like Boston have long benefited from the strong Irish presence there, and here in the Falls, having an Italian surname is always a plus for potential candidates. In South Florida and Texas, being of Hispanic descent and speaking fluent Spanish doesn't hurt either.
There's a great tradition of ethnicity in American politics, and no one can begrudge a people's pride in having one of their own so close to the nation's highest elected office. In fact, it is somewhat surprising that black turnout at the polls hasn't been higher. In California, black turnout actually fell, from 8 percent of the total in 2004 to 6 percent this year, despite Obama's presence on the ballot.
Obama's most vocal supporters are not black, however. They are college-educated, affluent, upper middle-class white suburbanites. They are the people for whom Wonder Bread was invented, and if you asked them when the last time was they had a black person over to their house for a cup of coffee they'd be at a loss.
Many attended private institutions of higher learning, where black students were rarer than true talent, and they suffer from the same sort of white guilt that invariably leads them to deliver an anecdote about the one black person they actually had some interaction with in the distant past whenever they find themselves within earshot of a black man or woman.
They are not prejudiced. Just the opposite, in fact. As educated people, they are acutely aware of the horrible injustices blacks have suffered at the hands of whites. But the fact that they've never really known any black people, and have quite deliberately set themselves up in lifestyles that would almost certainly preclude them from getting to know any, instills in them a kind of guilt because they are, after all, very liberal, and therefore see themselves as being responsible for righting all the wrongs of this world.
These kinds of people have always sickened me. Although I've been a Democrat all my life, the party is lousy with them. The worst of them are the morons at MoveOn.org and Buzzflash.com, who supported Ralph Nader and handed George W. Bush the presidency in 2000. They are supporting Obama now, and have shown a devious mendacity in their style of campaigning that would make the odious Karl Rove proud. They also support a brand of "animal rights" that would preclude you from eating meat, but that's another story.
Also on board the Obama bandwagon are the limousine liberals who make up our chattering classes. Maureen Dowd, Tim Russert, Mike Barnicle, Chris Matthews and their insipid ilk have far too much time and reputation invested in portraying the Clintons as grasping, overly ambitious hicks to stop now. The savagery they displayed toward Gore in helping Bush get elected has returned in spades, and Hillary Clinton's campaign has been analyzed mainly for her fashion choices, hair style, the tone of her voice, the sound of her laugh and whether or not she was really crying on those occasions when it looked for all the world as though she was crying.
Over the past six months, these vermin have combined to turn what was a certain Democratic victory in November into a question mark. The party itself is so badly fractured that the likelihood of everyone forgetting about what was said and done in time to unite against John McCain seems remote.
That's the Obama coalition and, except for the black people, I don't think I want any part of it. It's about enough to make me support McCain myself, as a matter of fact.
Aside from how nasty his white supporters are, the thing that bothers me most about Obama as a candidate is that no president in recent history has had as little executive and legislative experience as he does. And while I'm sure that the Illinois state legislature is a very nice place, its members have historically been far more likely to graduate to federal penitentiaries than to high federal office.
Illinois has always been a hotbed of political corruption. Just last week an influence-peddler named Antoin Rezko went on trial for extortion and other crimes in Chicago. And, according to The New York Times, at least $10,000 Rezko allegedly extorted found its way into Obama's campaign coffers, along with another $140,000 that came from who knows where!
Obama served in the Illinois legislature for eight years before being elected to the United States Senate, a job he has held for all of three years. That's it. It would be as though state Rep. Francine Del Monte ran for Congress, got elected, and ran for president during the next election cycle.
His supporters have pointed to his opposition to the war in Iraq back when it started in 2003 as evidence of his great wisdom. I opposed it too, wrote a bunch of columns about it and everything, but I wouldn't vote for me for president. Opposing a war, or anything bad, when you're not in a position to do anything about it really doesn't amount to much.
Anyway, last Tuesday, after weeks of indignantly demanding that Hillary Clinton do the right thing and drop out of the race, the Obama cultists were shocked and stunned when she beat their man like a rug in Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas.
In six weeks she will do the same thing to him in Pennsylvania, and thus will have beaten him in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Nevada and most of the other key Democratic and swing states, while he will have won caucuses for the most part in states like Alaska, Wyoming, Idaho, Mississippi, Alabama and North Dakota, where his "O-Mentum" isn't likely to prevail against John McCain or any Republican in November.
If the Democratic Party hadn't bollixed up its primary process with a frankly weird assemblage of both primaries and caucuses that split the number of delegates in every state, to the ridiculous point where a candidate can get the most votes but the other candidate gets the delegates, Clinton would have nailed down the nomination in California.
And still, the liberal elite will sip the pinot noir delivered by tanker truck to the leafy, lily-white enclaves they inhabit, calling for her withdrawal from the race.
How better to show their solidarity with the brothers and sisters in the 'hood?
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 11 2008 |