Oprah Winfrey can shill for Barack Obama. She can host glitzy events and collect cash for him. She can campaign with him, maybe even do some commercials for him. What she can’t do is take a candidate who’s clearly not ready for the big leagues and make him a president.
Mrs. Obama’s recent revelation that her husband stinks was just one in a series of missteps. Earlier, there was Mr. Obama invading Pakistan, and meeting various dictators with no preconditions, and stating that as president he wouldn’t use nuclear weapons to fight terrorism “in any circumstance.”
Then there was his declaration that he’d immediately call the president of Canada to try to amend the North American Free Trade Agreement. That could be tough, as Canada doesn’t have a president.
Barry blames some other fumbles on campaign workers. It’s just so hard to find good help these days. Lynn Sweet, Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times, is an enthusiastic Obama Girl, going so far as to lament her inability to follow him into the East Bank Club’s locker room. Yet even Ms. Sweet noted in a June column about one other slipup, “This is the third time Obama has blamed staff for mistakes.”
I’m not surprised Mr. Obama is tripping over his empty suit. He may well be a rock star to his fans in the mainstream media, but his history as a candidate isn’t all that impressive.
After punching his ticket as a state senator for several years, Obama decided it was time to move on up. He ran against Democratic incumbent congressman and former Black Panther leader Bobby Rush in 2000. Breaking with his customary practice of remaining neutral in primaries, Bill Clinton endorsed Rush over Obama, who lost by a 2-1 ratio.
Four years later, Barack decided he’d make a darn fine U.S senator. Among seven Democratic candidates, Obama was tied for second place with 17 percent of the vote according to a Chicago newspaper poll taken three weeks before the primary.
The frontrunner in the race led his two closest opponents by 10 points. His campaign imploded shortly after.
As a general rule, it’s not good when a candidate needs to refute press accounts that he threatened to kill his wife. That’s what Obama’s opponent had to do.
Barack was on his way after winning the primary. The only person who could stop him was the Republican candidate, who by the spring had cut down Obama’s lead in the polls to just eight percent. His campaign imploded shortly after.
As a general rule, it’s not good when a candidate needs to refute press accounts that he pressured his wife to have sex in public. That’s what Obama’s opponent had to do after, in a great victory for freedom of the press, the Chicago Tribune and TV station WLS sued to have the man’s divorce documents made public.
The estimable Alan Keyes, former deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, was recruited in August as a last minute substitute. His campaign imploded shortly after.
As a general rule, it’s not good when a candidate needs to refute press accounts that he’s an extremist. Mr. Keyes and his views were quickly deemed “ultraconservative” by the Associated Press, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Springfield Journal-Register, the Rockford Register Star, and other media outlets.
With a little help from his friends and a lot of luck, Mr. Obama went to Washington. A star had been born, or at least crafted by an adoring press, which fawns over him. An example, from a nationally syndicated report the day after the election: “But anyone who has seen him speak will find it hard to be untouched by the charisma of his personality and the maturity of his intellect.”
But now that he’s under the microscope of a presidential campaign, the fact he’s not ready for prime time is all too apparent. Not ready for prime time at the top of the ticket, that is.
I think there’s a reasonable possibility that Mrs. Clinton may take Mr. Obama along for the ride after she secures her party’s nomination. Vice presidential candidates don’t receive as much scrutiny as their running mates do.
A Clinton-Obama ticket won’t offer the balance that so many politicians think is essential. They’re both, more or less, from Illinois, so there won’t be a geographical balance. They’re both liberals, so there won’t be an ideological balance. They both take contributions from questionable sources, so there won’t be an ethics balance.
Then why would Mrs. Clinton choose Mr. Obama? Because in a world where symbolism transcends almost everything, the world of most liberals, the sheer, undiluted ecstasy of voting for a woman for president and a black man for vice president at the same time cannot be denied.
Clinton-Obama would energize the Democratic base. He could help her by bringing favorable coverage, money and votes. And just imagine how pleased Oprah would be.
This Michael Bates column appeared in the September 13, 2007 Reporter Newspapers.
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steven deluca said,
I liked the way Obama presented himself in his latest book until he started kissing women’s butts and tipping his hat to the needs of women - to get the vote. He seemed to, according to the book, think highly of his wife, his daughters, his mom and grandmother and he didn’t think much of the men in his life. Soooooooooooooooo despite black males filling prisons and graduating at less than half the rates of black females from college, he want to “help women” - despite women’s lower incarceration rates, owning more wealth, living years longer, having work options and family “options” that men are denied, he has bought the feminist story and wants to help sell it… lost me there too. He is what a feminist I know said of such men “Philosophically castrated by the victim feminist movement.”
Nice guy but clueless about gender while sucking up to women for the vote… not presidential it appears, just another kiss-ass politician. He ended Audacity of Hope with saying about his wife “she is right, as usual” or something close to that which seems to be his view of women - if they said so, must be true, men are rapingbipedwarmongers - must be true. The idea that men have sacrificed their bodies, their lives, to protect women and children, an odd form of oppression, doesn’t seem to be on his radar. No vote from me. And can you imagine him as the VP to Hillary, kissing her ass on every gender issue that comes up… during the next ten years even feminists will see the damage that they have done to our culture, to our families, to our ability to compete with other countries, and to protect ourselves, because you can’t neuter the boys, and care little about their welfare, and then expect the men to care about the women and society that rejected the needs of boys and men. It’s an odd form of suicide for our culture where the women tell us how men should be and take recess, and rough sports away from boys, and then complain about there not being any real men. Castrate male dogs, better pets perhaps, but not much of a watch dog for protection. Soft men are running the show and allowing strong women to “put them in their place” and Obama is just a tool for women and he thinks he is a cutting edge man, protecting women. And he could be our next president.
September 13, 2007 at 12:23 pm