JohnHenry.US

Tag: obama

  • McCain Hands Obama The Presidency

    This is a curated post originally written Sept. 25, 2008. It requires a little context; this was the last two weeks of the US presidential campaign pitting Republican Senator John McCain against Democratic Senator Barack Obama. There was a fairly serious conflict happening in congress regarding a congressional debate over a proposed funding bailout of “Wall Street” investment banks, and McCain made the abrupt and surprising decision to “suspend his campaign” in order to go back to Washington and debate the bill in the Senate. There was also a scheduled debate for the day after, September 26th, which initially McCain had said he would not attend but he ended up doing so.

    For a more in-depth review of those events I direct you to this contemporary article/timeline at National Public Radio.

    It should be noted that the question of whether McCain would’ve fared any better in the election had he not done that is not as open as my writing here would suggest; Obama was enjoying a strong campaign run and the great likelihood was he would win regardless. Still, it’s an interesting look into that election in its last few weeks, and in the major missteps made by McCain that certainly didn’t help his performance, whether it can be rightly said that it cost him the election or not. -jh, 3-Oct-2023

    A final note; this was about a year before I began my college education, and the discerning reader will note some minor errors in the use of labels and language, such as referring to myself as a “liberal” rather than the more accurate “leftist.” It was precisely these sorts of errors that led me to choose the educational path I did.

    So by now the evisceration of John McCain by David Letterman last night is fairly old news (even though it just happened).

    What I hate about this is that Dave made a lot of points I’d been planning to make myself.

    While it would be easy for the liberal in me to take great joy in watching the Palin legend implode, the reality is it just kind of makes me sad. With all due respect to my Republican friends, I just don’t see how you can continue to support the McCain-Palin ticket after this week. Not only did McCain completely blow a chance to take a lead on the current financial crisis, he managed to hand Obama the election while doing so.

    Consider the position that McCain is now in. If he refuses to attend the debate, Obama can blast him for lack of multitasking skills and an indifference to the needs of the voters to be informed about their candidates’ positions. If McCain attends the debate, then he’s reversed himself, as it’s clear that this is simply not an issue that can be meaningfully resolved in two days.

    Perhaps more importantly, however, is that McCain has once again tipped his hand in several different ways. First, he’s impulsive – sometimes recklessly so – in making decisions. Second, he spins and spins; it would take a truly dedicated Believer to not suspect that the real motivation for McCain wanting to delay the debates is rooted in not only his own lack of preparation, but in a fear that his running mate will fare even worse in the veep debates. Third, it says something very unpleasant about the man’s leadership skills that when the merde hits the fan, his reaction is to slam on the breaks, panic, and demand drastic changes in plan that aren’t actually justified by the situation.

    But all of this is secondary to the real revalation hidden behind McCain’s ‘suspension’ of his campaign – the fact that he has zero confidence in his running mate to step in and handle the duties that he would otherwise be performing. There’s no reason that Palin couldn’t have done Letterman last night. There’s no reason that she couldn’t step in for him nearly anywhere other than the debate itself, but it wasn’t even suggested.

    Palin’s performance thus far has been utterly abysmal outside of her stump speech – which aged so fast you’d think it was suffering from Progeria. Her three major interviews thus far have been populated with stock, rehearsed answers, a glaring lack of meaningful responses, and a recurring impersonation of a deer in the headlights of an oncoming Peterbilt. She even managed to make Katie Couric look menacing and tough, and with no disrespect intended to Ms. Couric, that’s not exactly her strong suit. I mean, come on. “I’ll find out and get back to you?” Did a moose eat her homework?

    The shine is off the Palin apple, I’m afraid, and what’s left is just not much to look at. Throughout this campaign, Obama’s decisions and responses have been measured, reasoned, and careful. McCain’s have been impulsive, reckless, fearful, and pandering, from his selection of Palin as running mate to this latest kerfluffle over ‘suspending the campaign.’

    I submit to you that John McCain has indeed handed the Presidency of the United States to Barack Obama, and now it seems the only thing left for the Republican party to do is leave him as big a mess as they can possibly manage, so they can blame him for not cleaning it up. At every possible turn, McCain has said and done exactly the worst possible thing, and frankly at this point my expectations for him are so low that if he just manages to not blow his top and say something ridiculously impulsive, it will count as a victory.

    It’s a pity, really. Eight years ago, I could have seen myself voting for McCain. Unfortunately, the 2008 John McCain is just the same old neo-conservative, trickle-down, right-wing panderer that the previous candidates from his party have been. Any touch of the ‘maverick’ he once was is long gone; while some folks are just coming to that realization, for me the turning point was when he agreed to speak at Liberty University, after criticizing other candidates for speaking at Bob Jones and labelling Liberty founder Jerry Falwell an ‘agent of intolerance.’

    Politicians are human beings. I accept that, probably more so than most voters. I don’t expect them to be perfect. But McCain has been stepping on his johnson for years, and has made a complete mess of this run at the presidency. The Palin selection was a horrendous move, but then to flat-out lie to Letterman about ‘rushing back to Washington’ only to be caught on feed talking to CBS news when he was supposed to be on Letterman is just the icing on the cake. He flat-out lied. Whether it was appropriate for him to appear on a comedy program or not is beside the point – he could have said that honestly. “Dave, I love being on your show and you’ve been a good friend for a lot of years, but I just don’t feel like a late-night comedy/variety show is the place for a presidential candidate to be in the middle of an economic crisis. I’m going to do the news with Katie tonight, can I take a rain check for say two weeks from now?” That was the approach Obama took with his SNL appearance a couple of weeks ago when Hurricane Ivan was heading for Galveston – he backed out honestly.

    With his bumbling ineptitude, his cynical attempts to pander to any voting bloc he can define, and the consistently dishonest tone of his campaign from the lies in his advertising to this most recent gaffe with Letterman, John McCain has shown clearly that the only change he’s going to bring to Washington is the name plates on the doors.

    Hero? Absolutely. Presidential material? Not on your life, and frankly I think he’s realizing it.

    So on January 20th as President Barack Hussein Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States…be sure to spare a moment of thanks for his opponent in this race. Obama couldn’t have won without McCain’s diligent effort to throw the fight.

  • Thanks, America (2008)

    It’s still sinking in.

    I’m 38 years old.  I was born in 1970, at the height of the Vietnam War.

    In my lifetime, my country has been led by:

    • A crook
    • An oaf
    • A man whose good intentions and peaceful nature rendered him too soft on foreign aggression and inept in the management of the economy
    • A bad actor who shut millions of people out of the process of government, refused to confront the most pressing domestic issues of his time, and created a culture of greed that we have yet to grow out of
    • A spy
    • A philanderer
    • Another oaf, this one with an unfortunate mandate provided by circumstance that has allowed him to abuse our military and destroy our standing in the world

    Yesterday, on November 4th, 2008, for the first time in my life…we elected a leader.  A man of courage, of vision, of honor, and of hope.  A man who has spoken his mind, stood his ground, and encouraged us all to reject the politics of hate and fear.

    A black man.

    Last night at 11 pm EST, The United States of America turned the page on nearly two hundred and fifty years of unrealized ideals and unfulfilled potential.  We the people have rejected hate, fear, and division.  We have rejected hypocrisy and greed and envy, and for the first time in our history, we have taken a major step toward living up to that precious founding assertion that all men are created equal.

    Even as recently as a year ago, it was inconceivable to me that a black man could be elected President.  I liked Obama, and I wanted him to win…but I didn’t think he could.  I didn’t think we were ready, as a country. to elect a black person to the Presidency.

    I am proud and honored to say today that I was wrong.

    I am sure that Barack Obama will make mistakes.  I am sure that he will do things I don’t agree with.  I am sure there will be controversy and conflict.

    But I am equally sure that never again can the world look at us and say ‘before you take the mote from our eye, remove the beam from your own.’

    The next four years will be tough.  You don’t need me to tell you what’s going on in the world, you’re well aware.  We have a lot of problems to solve, at home and abroad.  We have errors to correct, and we have some major repairs to make in our systems and processes.  We have a baddly tattered national psyche to heal – one that has never really been healthy in the first place – and we have some soul-searching to do.

    A week ago today I wrote, “…it’s not just time for them to change…it’s time for us to change.”

    Last night, in the most significant positive historical event of my lifetime, we began that change, and for the first time in my life I can say without hesitation or qualification:

    I am proud to be an American.

    I don’t want to get too wrapped up in navel-gazing.  There is work to be done, and it’s up to us to do it, working with our leaders instead of working in spite of them.  This is not the end of struggle, merely the end of the beginning of a long journey.

    But at long last, that journey has well and truly begun.

    Savor this moment, if Obama was your candidate.  If he wasn’t, consider that maybe you have bought in to ideals that are less than ideal, and maybe it’s time for all of us to look inside ourselves and see what could use some adjustment.  Rest assured that although I have great faith and confidence in President-Elect Obama, I will hold him to the same standard, if not a higher one, that I have held our previous leaders.  Don’t think that if you are a card-carrying Democrat or liberal, that your agenda just got a blank check, because it didn’t – I suspect that those lawmakers on the left who still cling to their outmoded methods and ideologies (lookin at you here, Pelosi) are in for a bit of a rude awakening, because we’re still trillions of dollars in debt and we still have major steps and sacrifices to make, and there is much to be corrected and abandoned as useless on all facets of the political spectrum.  For too long, the starry-eyed idealism of our social conscience has been either untempered by pragmatism, or defeated by cynicism.  

    Today, we begin to find the balance.

    The whole world is indeed watching, and in this one night America has taken a major step to not just reclaim the honor and respect we have sometimes enjoyed in the world…but perhaps, for the first time in our history, to make a strong case for deserving it.

    And now…now we have to get to work on maintaining it.  Each of us has our part to play in rebuilding and building up this nation.  Some of us may not know what that role is yet…but we each have one, and it is vital.  If you don’t know yet where you’re going or what you’re doing, then my best advice to you is to work now to get yourself in fighting shape so that when the call comes, you’re prepared to answer.

    Yes, America, we can.

    My congratulations and my thanks to everyone who has played a part in making this happen.  

    Now let’s get to work.

  • Obama a Muslim? So What? (2008)

    Curated post, originally written Oct 10, 2008

    From Time Magazine, via http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080918/us_time/maxedoutmoms

    That sentiment is echoed by Beth S, a factory worker in Cleveland who works the third shift so she can take her son to school and then to practices for the four sports he plays. Pausing recently at a Wal-Mart, she said: “Honestly, I don’t know what to do. I really don’t want to vote for McCain. You can tell he only cares about rich people. Sarah Palin wears glasses that cost $300. McCain’s wife wears Gucci clothes. Which means they don’t know anything about people like me.” Into that stew of assumptions, she adds: “I hear that Obama’s a Muslim. If he is a Muslim, that would be a problem, because the terrorists already attacked us.” (He’s not.)


    Dear Beth S and the rest of the “Obama’s A Muslim” crowd:

    I have a question to ask of you all.

    Let’s assume for a moment that Barack Obama really *is* a Muslim.  He prays toward Mecca five times a day and believes that Mohammed was the pen with which the Word of God was written.  It’s not true, never has been, there’s not the slightest shred of evidence that Obama ever so much as considered *being* a Muslim…but let’s assume for a moment that he is.

    This leaves us with a very important question.

    So what?  Why is this important?  Why is it relevant to the man’s leadership skills or vision for this country?

    And furthermore, why is it such a problem for one person to be a member of a religion with fundamentalist elements that are far removed from sanity, but perfectly okay for another? 

    I’ve been to Pentacostal churches.  Some of my people are Pentacostal.  Have you ever seen human beings “speaking in tongues?”  This is a sect that believes in taking the Bible literally – that every single word is the manifest Word of God, that contradictions are explained only by the reader’s inability to understand what is written – and in the gift of prophecy, that He (and of course God is ALWAYS a “He” with these folks) will choose YOU as the Most Speshul Snowflake to use as his conduit for communicating with the world, if only you believe hard enough and have enough gibberish pouring forth from your tongue.  These are the people who believe that medical problems not just can, but *should* be resolved by the laying on of hands and the channeling of the Holy Spirit rather than a medical professional, apparently neglecting to consider that perhaps medical science is *also* a ‘gift from God.’

    This is the religion of Pat Robertson, who blamed 9-11 on America’s tolerance for homosexuality and abortion.

    While I recognize that as with any large sect, there is a spectrum, rather than a point, that defines beliefs and doctrine, at the same time it must be considered that even the least radical of the Pentacostal movement is quite some distance from the mainstream of modern thought.  I further recognize that in this great land of ours, each of us has the freedom to choose what we want to believe, and how, and it’s not my intent or desire to suggest that anyone should be prevented from seeking elective office solely on the basis of their beliefs.  (Whether they intend to use their position to force others to adhere to those beliefs through the manipulation of public policy is another matter entirely.)

    While it seems extreme to the point of absurdity that Pentacostal fundamentalism and radical Islamic fundamentalism share the same core beliefs…it’s actually quite true, apart from the nature of the dieties they worship.  Both sects believe that they are the ordained and obedient servants of God; that nonbelievers should be punished and excised; that they alone are enlightened to the One True Path; that God bestows gifts upon them for their faith and devotion; that those who believe differently are hellbound sinners; and that they have a sort of charter from God to go into the world and convert as many people as possible to their way of thought. 

    It may seem outrageous to suggest that Pentecostalists are as willing to kill or die for their religion as radical Islamists have proven to be…but then again, perhaps not so crazy, if one considers the war in Iraq a ‘mission from God.’  Perhaps not so crazy, when the leading voice of the Pentecostal movement is so willing to ascribe the attacks of 9-11 as a judgement upon us from God in retribution for “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America.”  Perhaps not so outrageous when another leading light of the Pentecostal movement, Jimmy Swaggart, once said in an interview that if a gay man “looked at me like that, I’d kill him and tell God he died.”

    And I’m sure some of you are reading this and preparing to fire off vitriolic responses filled with righteous indignance…but when you throw away your local prejudice, there’s not a whole lot of space in the gap between the kind of hate espoused by Robertson and the Pentecostal movement, and that espoused by the Mullahs of radical Islam.  Robertson is no more representative of Christianity than Osama bin Laden is of Islam, yet some of us have no problem tarring all Muslims with that brush, even as we object to any suggestion that the knife cuts with both edges.

    So we come back to the question, so WHAT if Barack Obama were a Muslim?  He’s not, and I’d like to say that nobody with half a brain believes he is, but apparently it’s still a pretty common belief.  So What?  Why are we still being so stubborn, blind, and ignorant as to associate an entire religion with 1.5 BILLION adherents with the actions of a small, radical, hate-filled handful of them?  This is no more ridiculous than to assert that every Christian believes the same way Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church does, or that every Christian acts the same way a few Catholic priests have. 

    There’s no law preventing a Muslim – or an Atheist, or a Jainist, or a Taoist, or a Buddhist – from running for and being elected president.  Furthermore, there is no ethical or moral reason why anyone, of any religion, should be prevented from doing so, as long as they meet the constitutional requirements for the Presidency.

    I find it disturbing and frightening that even now, more than seven years after 9-11, when we’ve all had plenty of opportunity to do our own research and gain our own understanding of Islam, to realize that not all Muslims are hate-mongers and terrorists any more than all Christians are bigots and murderers and pedophiles.  I would ask anyone who reads this to confront the next person who throws out the “Obama is a Muslim” tripe to resist the urge to simply deny it – these people obviously don’t care about the facts anyway – but make them explain why it’s a bad thing.  Make them confront their inner bigot and drag it out into the light of day, make them justify it.  See how long they can hold on to their irrational prejudices when they’re forced to verbalize them.

    I’ll bet the majority don’t last long.