July 23, 2007: the CNN/YouTube Democratic Presidential Debate

QUESTION: In the spirit of that type of bold leadership, would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?

Senator Obama?

OBAMA: I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them — which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration — is ridiculous. [Emphasis added]

April 11, 2008: Obama declines to criticize Carter on Hamas

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Friday it was not his place to criticize former President Jimmy Carter if he were to meet with Hamas, although Obama said he would not meet with the militant Palestinian group. [Emphasis added]

April 16, 2008: Obama criticizes ex-President Carter’s Hamas meeting

Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama on Wednesday disagreed with former President Jimmy Carter’s overtures toward Hamas, saying he would not talk to the Islamist group until it recognized Israel and renounced terrorism. [Emphasis added; NOTE: Hamas currently holds a majority in the Palestinian parliament]

Which is it, Senator Obama: Preconditions or no preconditions?

I came dangerously close to making a similar mistake. I was engaged to a woman I had known for nearly 7 years when I called it off 7 weeks before the wedding (the invitations were to go out the next week).

My epiphany came when I was talking to my brother on the phone and told him that I figured the first year of our marriage was going to be hell, but hopefully we’d work things out after that. (My fiancée suffered from clinical depression and wouldn’t stay on her meds.) I can still hear my brother saying, “Listen to what you’re saying! The first year is supposed to be the best year!”

After realizing how much in denial I had been, I sought the good counsel of a family law attorney friend of mine and a clergyman whose wife also suffered from depression. When both of them recommended against me getting married to this woman, I knew I had to do something quickly.

I cried my eyes out on the day we were to have been married, but I eventually got over it and about a year later met the woman who’s been my wife for nearly 15 years now. I also found out that my ex-fiancée got married about 10 years ago. Obviously, I wish her well.

I don’t know exactly why I’m sharing all these personal details in a post about Barack Obama, except to say that voters can find themselves in denial sometimes, too. The only difference is that once you’ve “tied the knot” with a president, you’re stuck with him (or her) for a lot longer than a year!

Well in my case its been until u marry. LOL I knew one of my wives for 5 years before marriage, was divorced a year later.

Slightly off topic, but this is as true about dating relationships as it is about politicians. I used to say that you can’t really know a person until you’ve been dating for at least a year. You need to see that person in all four seasons before you know what makes him or her tick.

Returning to the topic, it’s been almost exactly one year since I wrote this tongue-in-cheek post:

http://www.ivorydome.us/2007/04/05/coincidence-i-think-not/

It remains to be seen whether this recent gaffe by Obama will prove to be the first major chink in his armor, like Hillary’s driver’s licenses for illegal aliens gaffe. But once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it’s pretty hard to get it back in.

Bit by bit the real Obama is beginning to show. A masquerade can only go on so long.

Barack Obama is unique in American politics, not only because he is bi-racial but also bi-cultural, having been raised predominantly in white communities and later, as an adult, joining the black community of Chicago. As such, his perspective on both communities is as both as an insider and an outsider. His intelligence and ability to clearly articulate both points of view give him the potential of being a bridge between both cultures, something that’s sorely needed in this country. Whether he can pull this off will be determined by how much either culture demands that he take sides.[Emphasis added.]

I based my opinion on something he said about us “European-Americans” in his now famous “race speech” that led me to believe that he just might get it:

So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African-American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

But his recent “bitterness” comments regarding small-town Pennsylvanians have forced me to reaccess my initial hope.

Here’s the whole quote:

And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Having grown up in a small town in neighboring upstate New York, I could have told the the junior senator from Illinois that we hayseeds aren’t nearly as one-dimensional as he seems to think we are.

We cling to our faith not out of bitterness but rather out of gratitude to Someone who’s greater than ourselves – Someone who loves us in spite of our shortcomings and calls us to love others here on earth to lift their spirits, just as our spirits have been lifted by Him.

Some of us cling to our guns not out of bitterness, but out of the fact that it’s an inalienable right that the Founding Fathers thought important enough to enshrine in the Bill of Rights. I doubt if the good senator clings to his First Amendment rights out of bitterness; why would he think that those who cling to their Second Amendment rights do so for that reason?

As far as “antipathy to people who aren’t like them,” I think Senator Obama might be surprised to find out that we got along pretty well in my old hometown, even though we weren’t nearly as homogenous as he seems to think. Heck, we even tolerated Democrats!

And as for “anti-immigrant sentiment,” being the grandchild of immigrants, as were many of the kids I knew growing up in upstate New York, we understood first hand that immigration is what made America great. But being anti-illegal immigration is based on a concern for national security, not bitterness. Similarly, being for a rational trade policy is no more the same as “anti-trade sentiment” than being for a rational immigration policy is the same as being “anti-immigrant.”

I never considered Barack Obama serious presidential material because of his lack of experience and his left-wing policies, but I mentioned above, I thought he might have some kind of role in bringing the races together. After getting it so wrong about what motivates those of us from “fly over country,” I’m beginning to reassess his ability to even do that.

There’s still much we don’t know about Senator Obama, and that’s part of his appeal. He’s sort of a political Rorschach test; people see in him what they want to see. He’s much more likeable than Hillary Clinton and still strikes me as a decent, sincere person. I just happen to think he’s sincerely wrong most of the time.