30/04: A Rookie Mistake
Category: Campaign 2008.12
Posted by: A Waco Farmer
Some hopelessly devoted advocates of Barack Obama are busy suggesting this repudiation of Reverend Wright is his "Sister Souljah moment." What a strained comparison. What some members of the Obama Nation won't do for love.
The key difference?
Sister Souljah was a nobody to Bill Clinton (and most of us). The vast majority of voters had never heard of Sister Souljah before Bill Clinton castigated her at a Jesse Jackson conference. Clinton introduced us to Sister Souljah in order to make a point. Neither he nor we had a personal stake in the easily disposable human political prop, ruthlessly manufactured to increase the fortunes of the presumptive Democratic nominee in June of 1992.
How is Reverend Wright completely unlike Sister Souljah?
Obama is inextricably linked to his pastor of twenty years. Wright is the man who brought Obama to Christ, married him and his wife, and baptized his two children.
In the most famous address of his public career, drawing on his extensive knowledge of the real Jeremiah Wright, Obama defended his pastor as a flawed but vital member of his extended spiritual family and emblematic of the black community, praising the Reverend for his commitment to the social gospel, his patriotism, and his intellectual bona fides.
Most importantly, unlike Sister Souljah, thanks to the Reverend himself, we have already developed our own impression of Wright, and it is fundamentally at odds with how Obama previously defended him. Now, however, seeing an unfriendly collective wave taking shape, with unnerving alacrity, Obama suddenly repudiates his previous endorsements, adopting our view and delivering his condemnation with an emotionally charged vigor.
This is all a bit unseemly and way too politician-like for the un-politician.
Rookie Mistake.
But, in fact, Obama's statement yesterday was a tactical error made out of inexperience. The Clintons NEVER would have thrown Wright overboard in that manner. They would have hunkered down and told the press to go to Hell--waiting out the storm. Of course, loyalty to a friend would have had nothing to do with it, they would have understood the images were problematic.
That is, now we roll tape of Obama defending Wright, followed by Obama denouncing Wright.
He's family--and you gotta love family. "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community."
Cut to:
I renounce him. I renounce him. Reverend Wright is a bad man.
It all looks ridiculous. Were you lying then? Or are you lying now?
Obama looks silly and confused. A candidate in the crucial final stages of a nomination canvass cannot afford that kind of crisis in perception.
The key difference?
Sister Souljah was a nobody to Bill Clinton (and most of us). The vast majority of voters had never heard of Sister Souljah before Bill Clinton castigated her at a Jesse Jackson conference. Clinton introduced us to Sister Souljah in order to make a point. Neither he nor we had a personal stake in the easily disposable human political prop, ruthlessly manufactured to increase the fortunes of the presumptive Democratic nominee in June of 1992.
How is Reverend Wright completely unlike Sister Souljah?
Obama is inextricably linked to his pastor of twenty years. Wright is the man who brought Obama to Christ, married him and his wife, and baptized his two children.
In the most famous address of his public career, drawing on his extensive knowledge of the real Jeremiah Wright, Obama defended his pastor as a flawed but vital member of his extended spiritual family and emblematic of the black community, praising the Reverend for his commitment to the social gospel, his patriotism, and his intellectual bona fides.
Most importantly, unlike Sister Souljah, thanks to the Reverend himself, we have already developed our own impression of Wright, and it is fundamentally at odds with how Obama previously defended him. Now, however, seeing an unfriendly collective wave taking shape, with unnerving alacrity, Obama suddenly repudiates his previous endorsements, adopting our view and delivering his condemnation with an emotionally charged vigor.
This is all a bit unseemly and way too politician-like for the un-politician.
Rookie Mistake.
But, in fact, Obama's statement yesterday was a tactical error made out of inexperience. The Clintons NEVER would have thrown Wright overboard in that manner. They would have hunkered down and told the press to go to Hell--waiting out the storm. Of course, loyalty to a friend would have had nothing to do with it, they would have understood the images were problematic.
That is, now we roll tape of Obama defending Wright, followed by Obama denouncing Wright.
He's family--and you gotta love family. "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community."
Cut to:
I renounce him. I renounce him. Reverend Wright is a bad man.
It all looks ridiculous. Were you lying then? Or are you lying now?
Obama looks silly and confused. A candidate in the crucial final stages of a nomination canvass cannot afford that kind of crisis in perception.
an okie gardener wrote: