"This is not the end.
Nor is this the beginning of the end.
But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
-Winston Churchill, 1942
Winston Churchill was a racist butcher of the highest order, but he did have some great quotes. Perhaps my favorite is Churchill's comment about a rival politician who was praised by the press as exhibiting great modesty. Said the British Bulldog, "Well, he has so much to be modest about."
The above quote about beginning and end was Churchill's summation of Hitler's cancellation of an amphibious invasion of Britain during World War II. It also sums up my reaction to the news that Barack Obama's campaign asked that Muslim women in hijabs be removed from the camera's range during a recent campaign appearance.
This is the first thing attributable to Mr. Obama that has genuinely disgusted me. It exhibits a surrender of the parameters of the campaign to the worst instincts in us, and it paints Obama in the most negative light imaginable. I have been pleasantly surprised at Obama's willingness and ability to defend himself against the predictable right-wing diatribes, but why would he fold here?
This clearly stems from the incessant implications that Obama may be a closet Muslim. Obama's first failure was the way in which he denied being a Muslim. He professed his Christianity, but he never attacked the implication that being called a Muslim was somehow a slur.
Being candid, we can acknowledge that no Muslim could be elected president of this country any time soon. That is a fact of which Obama is obviously cognizant, and he has a clear imperative to make it clear to voters that he is not a Muslim, but he must always add the stipulation which he has so far failed to do.
"Everyone's got a big but." Those are the immortal words from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Obama's big but should read as follows: "I am not a Muslim. I am a Christian. BUT, I reject the insinuation that, if I were a Muslim, I would be any less qualified to hold the office I seek. Muslims, as monotheists and brothers in Abraham and human beings, are my brothers and are an integral part of the American citizenry." Obama didn't do that, to his discredit.
Having failed to do that, he has gone even further, running scared in a cravenly cynical and bigoted way. Ask yourself this: what would the reaction have been had Mr. McCain shooed the Muslims off the stage? Don't we all know he would have been figuratively crucified for this? Of course. Obama should not be allowed to use the bigotry of certain opponents as a rationale to justify his own manifested bigotry.
I fear that Obama may have just irreversibly undermined one of what I consider one of the most compelling reasons for his presidency, namely improving relations with the Muslim world. That has been seriously undermined by this transgression, which is Bushian in its own way.
By Bushian, I mean the willingness to violate the convictions you claim to defend with the rationale that violating said convictions are necessary to protect those very same principles from unprincipled and underhanded adversaries.
Is that not what Obama has done? Has he not said, "I can not afford to be seen with Muslims, because that will provide fodder to the worst among us"? The whole logic of Obama's campaign to this point was that he had refrained from doing just that. What's next? Will he start going by "Barry"?
What if Lyndon Johnson had done the same? What if Lyndon Johnson had refused to be seen with black people, afraid of being called a Nigger-lover? To his credit, Lyndon Johnson sacrificed the dominance of his party for 40 years for what he knew to be right, and he met with Martin Luther King at the White House, who his own FBI director considered a communist, an uppity coon, and "the most dangerous man in America."
Obama says he'll meet with Ahmedinejad, but he won't be filmed in front of American Muslim women? Why would this man, who has already achieved greatness, choose to play by the rules of those who he has so thoroughly whipped thus far?
This is not the end of my love affair with what Barack Obama represents. Nor is it the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
Nor is this the beginning of the end.
But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
-Winston Churchill, 1942
Winston Churchill was a racist butcher of the highest order, but he did have some great quotes. Perhaps my favorite is Churchill's comment about a rival politician who was praised by the press as exhibiting great modesty. Said the British Bulldog, "Well, he has so much to be modest about."
The above quote about beginning and end was Churchill's summation of Hitler's cancellation of an amphibious invasion of Britain during World War II. It also sums up my reaction to the news that Barack Obama's campaign asked that Muslim women in hijabs be removed from the camera's range during a recent campaign appearance.
This is the first thing attributable to Mr. Obama that has genuinely disgusted me. It exhibits a surrender of the parameters of the campaign to the worst instincts in us, and it paints Obama in the most negative light imaginable. I have been pleasantly surprised at Obama's willingness and ability to defend himself against the predictable right-wing diatribes, but why would he fold here?
This clearly stems from the incessant implications that Obama may be a closet Muslim. Obama's first failure was the way in which he denied being a Muslim. He professed his Christianity, but he never attacked the implication that being called a Muslim was somehow a slur.
Being candid, we can acknowledge that no Muslim could be elected president of this country any time soon. That is a fact of which Obama is obviously cognizant, and he has a clear imperative to make it clear to voters that he is not a Muslim, but he must always add the stipulation which he has so far failed to do.
"Everyone's got a big but." Those are the immortal words from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Obama's big but should read as follows: "I am not a Muslim. I am a Christian. BUT, I reject the insinuation that, if I were a Muslim, I would be any less qualified to hold the office I seek. Muslims, as monotheists and brothers in Abraham and human beings, are my brothers and are an integral part of the American citizenry." Obama didn't do that, to his discredit.
Having failed to do that, he has gone even further, running scared in a cravenly cynical and bigoted way. Ask yourself this: what would the reaction have been had Mr. McCain shooed the Muslims off the stage? Don't we all know he would have been figuratively crucified for this? Of course. Obama should not be allowed to use the bigotry of certain opponents as a rationale to justify his own manifested bigotry.
I fear that Obama may have just irreversibly undermined one of what I consider one of the most compelling reasons for his presidency, namely improving relations with the Muslim world. That has been seriously undermined by this transgression, which is Bushian in its own way.
By Bushian, I mean the willingness to violate the convictions you claim to defend with the rationale that violating said convictions are necessary to protect those very same principles from unprincipled and underhanded adversaries.
Is that not what Obama has done? Has he not said, "I can not afford to be seen with Muslims, because that will provide fodder to the worst among us"? The whole logic of Obama's campaign to this point was that he had refrained from doing just that. What's next? Will he start going by "Barry"?
What if Lyndon Johnson had done the same? What if Lyndon Johnson had refused to be seen with black people, afraid of being called a Nigger-lover? To his credit, Lyndon Johnson sacrificed the dominance of his party for 40 years for what he knew to be right, and he met with Martin Luther King at the White House, who his own FBI director considered a communist, an uppity coon, and "the most dangerous man in America."
Obama says he'll meet with Ahmedinejad, but he won't be filmed in front of American Muslim women? Why would this man, who has already achieved greatness, choose to play by the rules of those who he has so thoroughly whipped thus far?
This is not the end of my love affair with what Barack Obama represents. Nor is it the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
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