Posted by
Juliana Johnson on Friday, May 09, 2008 11:33:36 AM
While Archimedes-in-a-pantsuit tries to rewrite the laws of
mathematics, the rest of the nation has properly begun to weigh the
Presidential contest between Sens. McCain and Obama.
Obama
has, however, learned a valuable Clinton trick from this protracted
primary--how to obliquely reference the "vast, right-wing conspiracy"
to misdirect people's attention away from glaring, personal
deficiencies.
During his victory speech in North Carolina on
Tuesday night Obama said, "We know what's coming...the same names and
labels they (Republicans) pin on everyone who doesn't agree with all of
their ideas."
Actually, we have some new names and labels thanks
to Mr. & Mrs. Obama's own words and ideas, as well as the Senator's
cozy relationships with corrupt influence peddlers, domestic
terrorists, and a hateful, bile-spewing spiritual advisor.
That
right-wing conspiracy shtick--being "Swift-boated"--is going to work
out about as well for Obama as it did for Clinton and for the same
reason-because it is without merit.
"Swift-boated" has been
added to our political lexicon by the Left to lament the alleged unfair
attacks to which John Kerry was subjected in the 2004 Presidential race.
And
yet, it was John Kerry who made his military service an issue. He
sought to use his service to distinguish himself from President Bush
and to characterize both Bush and Cheney as reckless chicken-hawks.
It
was John Kerry who saluted the nation nearly four years ago and said,
"I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty." It was John Kerry who
brought several of those with whom he had served in Vietnam on stage at
the Democrat National Convention to show them off to the country.
On
the contrary, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were effective with
their anti-Kerry message because it was a substantive one. The facts
were on their side. The fact was that Kerry's entire chain of command,
every officer under whom Kerry served in Vietnam, questioned his
fitness to be Commander-in-Chief. Many Kerry detractors were Democrats
but they were also proud and decorated veterans who believed that Kerry
had acted dishonorably and that his campaign was being run
disingenuously. Theirs was a legitimate perspective for the country to
hear.
Similarly, it is Barack Obama who has presented as his
core argument that he possesses the superior judgment to be President.
That demands a thorough examination of both his personal history and
professional record.
The process demands and will extract the same from John McCain.
So
as we begin the compare and contrast on the matter of the two men's
judgment, at the behest of Obama, consider these two snapshots at a
watershed moment in each one's life:
At the same respective
points in their lives as grown men in their early 30s, Obama decided to
sidle up to Chicago political machine bosses and their financiers and
the chichi Hyde Park set of pseudo-intellectual socialists to advance
his political career. That earned Obama an appointment to a State
Senate seat in 1996.
At a similar age, John McCain made an
important decision as well. He decided to forgo his early release from
a North Vietnamese POW camp, an offer extended to him because of his
father's position in the military. McCain would not walk unless the
other POWs who had been captured before him were also released. That
earned McCain an additional five years of torture in a Viet Cong prison
camp and, for all he knew at the time, was a decision that would cost
him his life.
What would you have done if presented with the same offer with which McCain was presented?
What
do you think Barack Obama would have done as you have watched him over
the last couple of months provide ever-evolving answers and,
ultimately, denunciation of his 20-year pastor (only because Rev.
Wright wasn't properly concerned about Obama's campaign)?
These
snapshots of course do not tell the whole story of either man, but they
do tell an important part of the story for each, about the values that
have informed their lives.
Call it "Swift-boating" if you want
but Obama's ethereal campaign will be done in by his own bad judgments
measured against the very standard he has set to define the race for
President.