Barak Obama recently became the first presidential candidate to request the Secret Service for protection.
Thank god. 
Seemingly arriving from nowhere (Krypton?), Obama’s meteoric rise has been remarkable. Faster than a speeding Edwards, able to leap tall Clintons in a single bound, the man of community organization has seemed invulnerable to attack. Meanwhile, Hillary has a bit of Lois Lane/Jimmy Olsen—always the target of the enemy. Hillary is already a well-worn punch line, yet Conservatives are hesitant to throw frivolous dirt at Obama.
A whole mess of parking tickets?
Aww, he’s one of us.
Says ya’ll just because he’s in the south?
Well, we can’t tell a black man not to say ya’ll, can we? So what if he’s from Hawaii.
Has a provocative, hate spewing family preacher?
Wait, should we say he’s an angry Christian or angry Muslim?
Hillary, on the other hand, is abused like the Conservatives’ unwanted adopted stepchild. In the first Republican debate, the only thing all the candidates could agree on was that they didn’t want Hillary Clinton in the White House. They had a little competition about who could find the prospect more objectionable. The minute her accent shifts because she’s in the South, the sound bite goes National (granted, the grating screech in her voice has something to do with that).
In this regard, Obama’s advantage lies with his race. Even Conservatives seem to stick up for him with a patronizing ‘he’s one of the good ones’ attitude. A Con can use Hil as a punching bag and say, ‘It’s okay, I’ve got a white woman back at home.’ They can’t take a shot at Obama and say, ‘It’s okay, my best friend is black.’ They could get Imused.
Does this mean more white people will vote for Obama? Probably not. But a major weapon in the Neo-con arsenal is somewhat neutralized. The weapons Obama is rightly worried about are the literal ones. He’s running against the gun party. Its Vice President shot his buddy in the face. Obama should use some of the 25 mil he raised for a down-payment on the Pope-mobile.
How many JFK comparisons do you need before you refuse to set foot in Texas?
This entry was posted on Friday, May 4th, 2007 at 3:32 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Excellent piece T: from pseudo Superman to the Popemobile and the Hill, enjoyed the images and thought the underlying assessment of US is unfortunately ‘right’ on. Would it help if he changed his name to Barry O’ Bam?
Has Obama addressed the dark legacy of assassination attempts directed at African Americans and civil rights allies who have dared to climb the power ladder? This is a deeply disturbing pattern in American history on which I’d love to see him comment. It’s not fair to single Obama out, however. All candidates should comment on this death threat, especially in the context of our nation’s shameful record. Too many civil rights leaders and high-profile people of color have been killed because of pathological racial prejudice. As a voter, I want to know that our future president understands the gravity of this legacy and has a plan to move this country toward greater social justice.
I believe he did address this in an interview. His wife said something like ‘he’s black, he could get shot buying groceries’. I’m paraphrasing. I feel he does have a deep grasp of this issue. I read that there wasn’t any specific threat, so I think the request was just him being mindful, but who knows.
It’s not just black leaders who’ve been assassinated, but our most beloved president of the last fifty years. There seems to be a limit to how much the right will allow a politician to be loved by the people, and with JFK there was the danger of becoming another larger than life figure like FDR. Clinton too was the victim of a far sloppier attack by the right, a tactic which, while futile, has managed to stagnate impeachment talks for the current war criminals in charge. Obama has the potential to really shake things up, threatening to expand what’s considered the country’s electorate. That means power, and those that be might just do something about it.
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