Tales & Tails of New York

Of all the issues facing voters of this important election -- from a troubled and uncertain economy to the unresolved situation in Iraq -- the question of race relations was probably the furthest thing from most voters minds.

 

Though not "perfect" (as few things really are) most Americans are happy and able to live harmoniously with their neighbors, regardless of race, religion or personal belief systems.

 

However, "race" has seemingly become the # 1 issue in the Democratic primary over the past many weeks..

 

Why is that?

 

Although running as the supposedly racially "transcendent" candidate, Barack Obama has seemingly turned into something less than what he presented himself to be to the electorate.

 

The Obama campaign has taken full advantage of every opportunity to inject race into the campaign, whether it be to disparage Joe Biden for referring to Obama as "articulate," attack Bill and Hillary Clinton for referring to certain facts, such as the sighing and passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by Lyndon Johnson (something that according to the Obama campaign ignored or disrespected the efforts of Martin Luther King) to holding Geraldine Ferraro's feet to the fire for some poorly expressed comments to a small town newspaper in California (The Daily Breeze).

 

When Michele Obama pronounced to a rally crowd that for the "first time" in her adult life, she was proud of her country, some people raised eyebrows and began to question loyalty and love for America on the part of the Obamas.  How could it be that a 40-something-year-old American woman had never felt proud of her country until her husband was a viable candidate for President?

 

What about the United States' victories over Hitler and Mussolini and the freeing of thousands of starving,. tortured victims from German concentration camps?

 

What about US efforts to bring democracy and freedom to oppressed peoples around the world?

 

Did Michele Obama not feel proud when the Berlin Wall fell, thanks in part to American efforts?

 

What about the trillions of dollars in Foreign Aid to poor nations over decades?

 

What about efforts to combat AIDS in African or aid victims of the Tsunami?

 

Many Obama supporters attempted to rationalize and shrug off Michele Obama's curious statement about having never felt proud of America until the early months of 2008 -- though the speaker never herself apologized or attempted to seriously clarify her declaration.

 

The statement however makes much more sense when measured beside Michele Obama's and her husband's long association and relationship with radical, Trinity Christian Church, Pastor, Jeremiah Wright and his Anti-American and Anti-White inflammatory stances and rhetoric.

 

Without help or wishes from the Obama campaign, videos of the "controversial" minister's "better speeches" somehow found their way to the Internet and cable news networks.

 

And while most thinking and sensitive Americans might have recoiled in shock and horror to the loops of seemingly hateful and shouting video, it doesn't mean that voters suddenly wanted to shift the main issue in the Presidential campaign to that of race relations.  

 

Though eloquent and profound, Barack Obama's speech on race, has thus mostly falls on deaf ears.

 

This is, after all, 2008, not 1860 or 1950.

 

Most Americans, both black and white are able to live peacefully with their neighbors, despite what the rantings in the Wright speeches or hidden "resentments" alluded to in the Obama speech might suggest.

 

It seems the Obama campaign has played the "race card" both, at poorly chosen time and once too often.

 

And in the last (and hopefully final) case, it has seemingly backfired -- as well it should. -- PCA