Obama gives opponents plenty of ammunition
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Chances are you’ve seen the video clips. First comes Sen. Barack Obama, responding to the charge that he’s long on rhetoric, short on substance. “Don’t tell me words don’t matter,” Obama told voters. “‘I have a dream’ — just words. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’ —just words. ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself’ —just words. Just speeches.” It’s rhetorically brilliant, even thrilling. In four pungent sentences, delivered in an accent and cadence very like Martin Luther King Jr. ’s, Obama associates himself with King, Thomas Jefferson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. It’s bedrock Americanism, sheer magic. No wonder Obama has amassed fervent mass of followers. It’s also a steal from Obama’s friend, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. You can watch Patrick on YouTube delivering virtually identical remarks to a cheering crowd in 2006. Obama’s better, a far more convincing actor. But is it plagiarism, as the Hillary Clinton campaign charges ? Well, if I passed it off as mine in a column, I’d be fired, deservedly so. It would merit an F in a student term paper. But it’s a political speech, and Patrick, who probably didn’t write it himself—consultant David Axelrod masterminded both men’s campaigns—says he’s not offended.
Obama dismisses it as a minor gaffe. Any Democrat who didn’t get a queasy feeling, however, has definitely succumbed to Obamamania. Back in 1988, Sen. Joe Biden’s presidential run ended after he borrowed a line from British Labour leader Neil Kinnock. To the Washington media, it proved that he was a big faker, who, in the usual formulation, “would say or do anything” to become president.
It’s also not the first time that Obama’s been accused of lifting others’ words. Announcing his own presidential candidacy in 1993, Sen. John Edwards said, “I haven’t spent most of my life in politics... but I’ve spent enough time in Washington to know how much we need to change it.” For months, Obama has been saying, “I know I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.” An Edwards aide commented dryly, “Next thing you know, he’ll be rooting for the Tar Heels.” Of course, they all run against Washington, except Sen. Clinton, who’s touting her experience. There are a limited number of ways to say it.
But did you catch Obama in South Carolina, warning African American audiences, “Don’t be hoodwinked, don’t be bamboozled” ? You can also Google those words and watch actor Denzel Washington deliver them in Spike Lee’s brilliant film “Malcolm X”: “You’ve been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amok.” The irony of Obama’s borrowing the fictive words of Malcolm X, a black Muslim, to rebut a scurrilous e-mail campaign calling him a secret Islamist would be almost disabling, except for the greater one: All this was going on while Obama’s media acolytes were accusing the Clinton campaign of “playing the race card.” (A brilliant tactic to guarantee landslide defeat in South Carolina. )
In context, Malcolm X was warning audiences to disbelieve politicians sent by the “white man.” Speaking of Black Muslims, are you aware that the charismatic pastor of Obama’s Chicago church, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., who invented the phrase “the audacity of hope” and whose “Afro-Centric” gospel has already been parodied on FOX News, is an admirer of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan ? Last year, Wright presented Farrakhan with a Lifetime Achievement award.
That and Obama’s longtime relationship with Columbia University Professor (and one-time PLO adviser ) Rashid Khalidi have provoked speculation in the Israeli press that he may be secretly anti-Zionist. Another Chicago academic ally of Obama’s is Professor William Ayers, a Weather Underground radical in the 1970 s.
Obama’s Chicago benefactor, Syrian American real estate mogul Tony Rezko, goes on trial in a federal court next week. The prosecutor is Patrick Fitzgerald, the judge former Kenneth Starr aide Amy St. Eve. Evidence embarrassing to Obama will not be kept hidden.
Did you know that Obama campaigned in Kenya for opposition leader Raila Odinga, who claims to be his distant cousin ? That Odinga has been accused of scheming to bring Sharia, or Islamic law, to Kenya ? How credibly ? Would it matter once GOP propagandists got to work on Obama ? So far, Obama’s strategy of playing upon the Washington media clique’s loathing for everything Clinton has succeeded. To the extent that Hillary Clinton is polarizing, however, it’s due to 16 years of deliberate character assassination, accusing her of everything, including drug smuggling and murder. The basic GOP method is to portray Democrats as fraudulent elitists who “Blame America First” and seek power by encouraging minorities to see themselves as victims. (The real victims, of course, being Rush Limbaugh listeners. ) Obama, alas, has given them plenty to work with. If he wins the nomination, will voters still recognize him come November ?
—–––––•–––––—Free-lance columnist Gene Lyons is a Little Rock author and recipient of the National Magazine Award.
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