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 March 25, 2008
This past week, Senator Obama gave a remarkable speech on issues surrounding race in America. It was a speech timed to close down speculation around controversial remarks of his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, Jr., but the Senator did more than that.
Obama took the occasion not only to end speculation about Wright’s comments, but to begin a much larger and too long delayed conversation about race and about the politics of distraction and division.
Not the product of speech writers or handlers, this was a personal speech, crafted by Senator Obama, and it tells us much about who Obama is, and how he will deal with controversy, with attacks, and with those with whom he disagrees. It demonstrates a largesse that is rarely seen or heard in American politics today and stands already as an important speech to be heard and read by students of American history. [His speech may be seen in two segments on YouTube.com at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWe7wTVbLUU.]
Standing in sharp contrast to Obama’s coolness under fire, the desperation with which Senator Clinton is pursuing a nomination that she continues to steadily lose to Obama seems to increase in direct proportion to her sense of entitlement to the office. But no one is entitled to our presidency. It is ours, after all, not hers, or his, or theirs.
It is time for the Clintons to gracefully step down and endorse Obama’s candidacy and stop running ads that play to John McCain’s benefit. Another couple of months of sniping can only harm the democratic party, and harm the electorate, and harm the country. Her campaign has such a small chance of securing the nomination – put recently at 5-10% by outside observers – that clawing her way toward an outcome with such slim odds of success only plays into Republican hands, with little benefit to the Democrats and much harm.
Extending the Bush presidency with a McCain presidency is a nightmare that can be readily avoided with a little self-sacrifice on the part of the Clintons. And acquiescing to the will of the people would buy Senator Clinton goodwill that she will desperately need, if she is to run again in 2016.
Given the performance of these two candidates under pressure, it is clear that Senator Obama has the temperament and leadership qualities we need in American politics. Senator Clinton should step aside and spare us a spring and summer of grief that will only strengthen the Republicans in both the short and long run.
Sincerely,
Scott Ainslie, ainslie@musician.org
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Obama's speech on race may have raised more questions than it settled.
And the
matter of Rev. Wright is of concern, as Mr. Obama has explicitly made
him part of his campaign and put him on his webpage. Otherwise, Rev.
Wright would be a private matter. Some questions:
(a) While Sen. Obama has been an active member of that Church,
Rev Wright on several occasions promoted, extolled and rewarded Louis
Farrahkan - probably the most famous and reviled anti-Semite
in this country. Sen. Obama never appeared to have a problem with this,
and even now, after public disclosure, and after the usual Obama lawyerly
evasions, only
grudgingly distanced himself from this.
(b) I won't list all of the other hate filled statements of Rev Wright -
the Internet and YouTube are full of them. As Rev. Wright himself noted -
when his sermons become public, Jewish support for Obama will melt like
a snowbell in hell. Sen. Obama's failure to deal with this issue is raising
his negatives - Americans tend not to like their candidates allied with
hate-mongers, whether Rev. Wright or David Duke or Rev. Hagee or
whomever.
(c) Many gays are still outraged that Senator Obama put forward a
well known homophobic minister to speak with the campaign in order to
win conservative black votes in South Carolina.
(d) Bill Clinton has been the only Democratic President in the past 32
years. By all accounts, his was a Presidency that had the greatest respect
for blacks and support from blacks. Toni Morrison famously called him the
first black President. His
current office is in Harlem. The atempt by Obama campaigners to portray
the
Clintons as racists is odious, offensive and contrary to fact.
Certainly there are pluses and minuses with both candidates. The
people that Hillary surrounds herself with appear to be a bunch of losers.
She is a poor campaigner. She often seems to have a tin ear. OTOH,
Obama seems at times to be little more than a mirror - a fog - onto which
everyone projects their hopes and dreams, with little knowledge of
whether their projections are based in reality of not. I follow politics
closely and I see the lawyerlike evasions and technicalities which abound
in his statements. I am pretty even ias to which candidate I like more.
Suggestions that Hillary drop out are inappropriate and unnecessay. I will
be
very interested in how Obama ultimately deals with concrete issues, if he
is forced to move from generalities. I know what Hillary's positions are
that she will go to the wall on - whether I agree with them or not. I am
still awaiting to find out what issues Obama will draw a line in the sand
about.