How did he think he’d get away with it?
Here is a puzzle. Obama had to know that Wright’s statements would come out sooner or later. What was his basis for believing that his candidacy could survive this revelation? Remember, the only reason the Wright business has not instantly sunk Obama is that Obama already had accumulated a commanding lead in delegates at the time the truth started coming out in March. It was pure dumb luck that it didn’t come out four months or two months earlier. If it had, Obama would have been discredited and Hillary would now be the presumptive nominee.
So I cannot figure out how Obama thought he could survive the discovery of his spiritual guide’s true record, which, again, if it had occurred by last summer or last fall or even as late as early February would have destroyed Obama, but, due solely to his (and McCain’s) astonishing good fortune, did not occur until mid March. Either Obama is so innocent (as one VFR commenter has argued) that he only heard the “good” parts of Wright’s message during all those years and did not take in the vicious parts; or he did hear the whole message, but his arrogance and self-esteem were such that he imagined himself to be invulnerable to the displeasure of typical white people; or he was so ensconced in a left-wing bubble that it didn’t even occur to him that mainstream America would find Wright’s statements gravely offensive, just as it didn’t occur to Michael Dukakis that calling himself a card-carrying member of the ACLU would turn off lots of people living in places other than Brookline, Mass. and similar liberal locales.
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Adela G. writes:
You ask how Obama thought he’d get away with having had the anti-white, America-hating Wright as his pastor: “…or he was so ensconced in a left-wing bubble that it didn’t even occur to him that mainstream America would find Wright’s statements gravely offensive, just as it didn’t occur to Michael Dukakis that calling himself a card-carrying member of the ACLU would turn off lots of people living in places other than Brookline, Mass.and similar liberal locales.”
I think he really was that ensconced in a left-wing bubble, just like the ACLU-card-carrying Dukakis and the effete East Coast John Kerry who bragged about his foreign-born and -educated wife (and prospective First Lady) , specifically the “fullness of her womanness” as “earthy, sexy, European”. Yep, exactly the kind of down-home gal we here in the heartland want to see in the White House. Can’t wait to get her recipe for Apple Pan Dowdy and watch her turn on the Christmas lights.
But I digress.
Obama already demonstrated either a tin ear or a flagrant disregard for consequences when he told the limosine libs back in sunny Cal that the poor and unintentionally squalid white tra … folks back in PA jest couldn’t hep clinging to their guns and religion. Then there was his “typical white person” remark. It may not have caused me to react with Hopkinsian horror—but I won’t forget it any time soon. Indeed, he compared Wright’s racist rants-disguised-as-sermons with his white grandmother’s understandable fear of a black panhandler who pestered her in public, even after she had given him money.
He’s not only culturally insensitive but racially insensitive. No surprise there. I find his arrogance and ignorance typical of the left.
LA replies:
Yes, I think you’re right. The fact that he, a candidate for president, didn’t grasp the offense of the way he spoke about his grandmother and about “typical white people” does strongly suggest that he lives in a left wing bubble in which he does not even understand that there are people in America, lots of people, who do not share his left-wing attitudes and would regard them as disqualifying. Figuratively speaking, Obama (like Pauline Kael) doesn’t know anyone who voted for Reagan.
To put it another way, Obama cannot take in the fact that non-left-liberals exist, except as a merely reactive mass of unenlightened white boobs who will be stirrred to true consciousness at the magic touch of Obama. In the same way, President Bush cannot take in the fact that Muslims actually have their own belief system which is different from ours, and are not merely unenlightened people who will be stirred to true consciousness at the magic touch of freedom. The mark of an ideologue is that he divides the world into those who believe the ideology, and those who are ignorant and living in darkness. The ideologue cannot conceive of a rational or integral principle outside of his own ideology, a principle that would lead the people who adhere to it to become rationally indignant at violations of it. Therefore he does not take into account what non-believers in his ideology think and feel. It is at best mere ignorance and prejudice. Why should he consider it?
Finally, notice how this closed ideological mindset fits with the kind of narcissism we see in Condoleezza Rice, Obama, Mrs. Obama, Sen. Kerry, and so on.
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Paul K. writes:
You are getting at the nub of this mystery. Meanwhile, influential commentators like the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart merely throw their hands up in exasperation and wonder why the media can’t drop this diversion and let Obama discuss the “real issues.”
The most important issue for Obama to discuss is Obama. If he could not see that Wright was a problem, he is too out of touch with the mainstream to lead this country. If he was aware that Wright would be a problem, but was unable to come up with a plan to defuse the issue, he does not have the foresight to lead this country. If, confronted with the Wright problem a month ago, he thought he could put it behind him with a speech, he is too naive to lead this country. And if the Democrats are so in thrall to ethnic blocs that they feel they have no choice but to move ahead with Obama as their standard bearer, then we need another political party to present a sane alternative to the Republicans.
David B. writes (May 3):
I sent you the below message April 30. I said then that Obama knew Wright was a problem from the start. Like many politicians, he believed that he could finesse the situation. However, there is another possibility. Many blacks think they can either talk themselves out of trouble, or ingratiate themselves by telling the white folks what they want to hear. Obama would have learned of this technique from fellow parishioners during 20 years at the Rev. Wright’s church.
DB to LA, April 30:
Barack Hussein Obama KNEW that Rev. Wright was a problem for him from the start of his campaign. When Obama announced in early 2007, he decided at the last moment not to have Wright do the benediction. Obama was aware even then that he had to distance himself from Wright. This means that Obama knew just what the Reverend had been saying in his sermons, which means that Obama had been listening to them all along. This includes the “controversial parts” which Obama claimed he “did not hear.” Obama has been lying. He heard what Wright said, and continued attending with his family. We have to conclude that Obama (and his wife) approved of Wright’s message.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 02, 2008 08:27 PM | Send