We’ve been seeing a lot this over the last week or so as the freshman Illinois senator’s detractors have called attention to his two-decades long connection with a controversial Chicago preacher.
All the hoorah prompted the senator to give a major address on race in America, in which he distanced himself from some of Rev. Wright’s more extreme statements, without severing his ties with him or the Chicago church Obama has attended for so many years.
The speech satisfied many, but, of course, failed to satisfy others. Endless debate filled the TV talk shows and the print media as to whether Obama had gone far enough to prove he is truly a “post racial,” candidate.
What’s missing again is an examination of where the senator stands on the issues. Issues, with which it appears many of his supporters have little familiarity, enraptured by the lofty rhetoric and skillful delivery of his speeches.
Here is a legislator labeled the most liberal in the U.S. Senate by the National Journal.
Here is a senator who promises a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, a move that many believe could lead to a disaster.
Here is a senator who wants the feds to take over the health care system.
Here is a man ready to gut the Second Amendment, just at the moment the highest court in the land stands ready to uphold the right to bear arms as an individual one.
Should he fail to win the nomination, or achieving that, the presidency, it may be because of old-fashioned racism, either that of his own associations, or of that whipped up by his opponents in the voting blocks less enthusiastic about backing an African-American, rather than because of his policy positions.
When those positions alone should be enough to defeat him.
Sad that questions of race are the weapons of choice of his opponents.
Of course the current ruckus appears to have been raised by supporters of his Democratic opponent Mrs. Clinton, who is as liberal as Obama.
Issues can wait until the fall campaign, when there will be a stark difference drawn between Obama’s and Republican nominee John McCain’s.