http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/05/its_obamas_character_stupid.html
May 02, 2008
It's Obama's Character, Stupid
By Kyle-Anne ****ver
I picked up a copy of Time magazine yesterday, in which a columnist
declared that issues of "character" were a "distraction" in the
Presidential race. Obama actually said the same thing in his North
Carolina press conference, that the Reverend Wright affair has been a
"distraction."
Isn't this what liberals usually say when their own characters come
under public scrutiny?
What a heap of pure poppycock!
Character is the primary issue in every Presidential election.
Period.
And we, the voters, have an inalienable right to know the specifics,
as much as can be discerned, of a candidate's character.
But don't take my word for that. Take John Adams' words on the
matter:
"The people "have a right, an indisputable, inalienable, indefeasible,
divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge -- I
mean of the character and conduct of their rulers.""
Obama has blown his claim to integrity.
We, the people, now have indisputable evidence that Barack Obama lacks
the integrity of character to be President.
To some, that might seem a bit extreme. However, writing as the
mother of grown children, I have seen some pretty sorry excuses for
incorrigible behavior, but I haven't witnessed many as morally
repugnant as those offered by Barack Obama concerning his decades-
long, close association with Jeremiah Wright.
The words, "morally repugnant," are strong and I use them carefully.
With Obama's Philadelphia-speech, hedging and squirming around
specifics, and now with his final, "unequivocal," outright disowning
of Jeremiah Wright this week, I have more evidence than I need to
conclude that Barack Obama is either one of two things:
Behind Door #1: He is a reprehensible liar, who privately still
believes, and has always believed, in the philosophy espoused by his
long-time pastor, spiritual mentor and "uncle" figure, Jeremiah
Wright, but for op****tunistic motives, now publicly disavows his own
true beliefs; or
Behind Door #2: He is a man of no integrity whatsoever, who has
partaken of another man's friend****p and political help for nearly 20
years, who has now publicly dumped and disgraced this benefactor for
personal gain. Jeremiah Wright is not some flunky that Obama hired
last week out of a far-left think tank or fresh from the halls of
Harvard. The two men were close, like family, by the candidate's own
pronouncements.
Whether the real Obama is behind Door #1 or Door #2, only Barack Obama
now knows for certain. But either way, he has disgraced himself in
the eyes of many Americans, and if he offered his hand, some of us
older-timers would decline to shake it.
If he truly believes the philosophy of his chosen church, and now
denies it because he sees that it is a small-minority view, he defines
himself as a wimpy scoundrel, unworthy of being Commander in Chief.
Having the courage of one's convictions is something I would hope my
twelve year old would have, and if he didn't, I would be deeply
ashamed and know myself to have been a very bad parent. Barack Obama
was nearly 30 years old when he first met and befriended Jeremiah
Wright, and upon their very first meeting, the Reverend Wright
informed Obama that his "fellow clergy" considered him "too radical."
He was warned by Wright himself. Obama was no innocent waif, as he
now contends.
On the other hand, if Barack Obama vehemently disagrees with the
tenets of Wright's philosophy and worldview, but stayed with the man,
respected him enough to have him perform a wedding and baptisms, and
gave thousands of dollars of his own money to sup****t the black
liberation cause, and garnered prestige and political clout from his
association with Wright, then Obama demonstrates that he is a man
without a well-formed conscience. An unabashed user of another for
personal gain.
Some may argue (and have) that Obama could have stayed in this church,
in spite of Wright's perverted slant on Christianity, because of the
wealth of friends in his church community. This might be true if the
contentious beliefs were of fringe im****tance or would not do harm to
one's children, but this was not the case with Trinity and Jeremiah
Wright. No man, and certainly no father, would expose his
impressionable children to beliefs with which that man so
fundamentally disagreed. At least no man with a well-formed
conscience and integrity.
Would I take my children to a church where someone like David Duke was
passing himself off as a minister of Christianity? Would you?
Every church has a community of believers and a whole lot of
charitable outreach going on. One need not compromise his basic
morals, nor his intelligence, to find one.
Highfalutin words do not one's character make.
From day one of this presidential campaign, Barack Obama has drawn
crowds of enthusiastic Americans with his polished oratory and often
borrowed phrases. Yet, we are all aware that a man's word is only as
good as the character that backs them up in action.
And we all know, too, that words can be deceptive.
Obama is well aware of the power of words himself, as he eloquently
expounds upon in his book, The Audacity of Hope:
"We know how high-flying words can be deployed in the service of
cynical aims, and how the noblest sentiments can be subverted in the
name of power, expedience, greed or intolerance." (page 8)
In his book, Obama asks readers to believe that he is a politician of
a different sort, one who would not stoop to deception in any
malevolent thirst for power. This is what he asks American voters to
believe now.
He asks us to believe that he is not an unprincipled phony.
At 47 years old, Barack Obama had no substantive experience to bring
to the table in his bid for the Presidency. He has staked his entire
campaign, with his utter lack of experience, on his judgment and the
content of his own character. His words to that effect, really, since
there is nothing of record to back up his audacious claims.
Obama tells us that he has keen judgment, that he knows the ways of
the world.
Obama tells us that he has a strong "moral compass," that he knows
right from wrong.
Obama tells us, the American people, that we should give him the keys
to the White House and all the power that goes with them on the
strength of his word alone that he knows what he's doing and can
change America, presumably for the better.
Obama's actions over 20 years at Trinity, and in the frequent, close
company of Jeremiah Wright, and now his day-late-dollar-short denials,
belie all his own high-flying words.
No one but Barack Obama knows who he truly is. His words and his
outward behavior are the only measures we have regarding the content
of his character.
"Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow
is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." - Abraham Lincoln
And just as no tree can avoid casting a shadow in the noonday sun, so
can no man avoid the scrutiny of his character, especially when he is
seeking the highest office in the land.
Barack Obama might have paid more attention to the development of his
character and the building of his reputation, than to the flaunting of
his audacity, in my opinion.
Character is what the Presidency boils down to, and in this regard,
Mr. Obama is most ashamedly lacking.
------------------
Kyle-Anne ****ver is a frequent contributor to American Thinker.
|
