The Obama Affair Must End

The speeches Barack Obama gives are peppered with comments such as “change will come to America,” or “I want to be the president of the UNITED States of America.” There is something very unsavory about his remarks, and I wasn’t able to put my finger on them until last night.

Obama has promised so many pretty things with his flowery language that he could easily be mistaken for Miss Daisy’s chauffeur, driving us into “peace and prosperity” or reaching up for “a hymn that will heal this nation and repair the world.”

Being in the neighboring state of Iowa, I recall how Obama got elected to Congress. His opponent dropped out of the race because of some nasty personal publicity; and Alan Keyes, a last minute replacement from another state, volunteered to substitute as his opponent. And on many occasions after that Obama promised, “I will serve out my full term.” But then he changed his mind – maybe his own ‘change’ mantra got the better of his promise.

In summer 2006, I was invited to the RainbowPUSH Coalition (RPC) organized by Rev. Jesse Jackson in Chicago. Many people from both political parties were present, including the “white” Senator – Dick Durbin of Illinois. The one star who was not present was Barack Obama. When I asked some people who voted for Obama why he was absent, the answer I got was that Obama is “a white person’s senator” and does not want to be associated with being an African-American senator. He does not want to commit “the same mistakes” that Jesse Jackson did in his presidential runs. And therefore he maintains his distance from such events, unless, of course, he needs the African-American vote.

Nowadays Obama unashamedly claims the mantle of Martin Luther King, even though he doesn’t associate with the RPC in fighting for social change. He does not accompany Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton in their march for justice in the tiny town of Jena, Louisiana, where nooses were hung from a tree in August 2006. It seems as if Obama’s only connection with the Civil Rights movement was reading about it like millions of other folks.

His record in the Illinois legislature, which meets 60 days in a year, is also riddled with holes. In a presidential debate, he explained that in the Illinois legislature it was a “tactical matter” to vote Present on some bills instead of a Yes or No vote. The reason why he voted Present on more than 100 occasions was “to get some bills passed that otherwise would not have had a chance.” He has also been motivated by such personal calculations in his voting record in the U.S. Senate. Like several others, he trumps personal gain over matters of principle. By doing so, he cannot still remain a servant of the people who put him in office. But Obama understands that to pass bills you need to cultivate members of Congress who owe you favors, and one way to accomplish this is to cast convenient votes. To a large extent, the public also understands this concept.

About Obama’s position on the Iraq war – his views were private like millions of others who knew that going to war was a flawed idea. He did not have to vote on the issue. He was not briefed by the NSA or the Senate Intelligence Committee. He was not even in the senate at the time. To milk this private view of his, shared by millions of other people, into a MAJOR accomplishment shows how shallow his true accomplishments really are. He is a less-than-one-term senator and will have little clout in Congress if elected as President. He can’t even keep his own promises for more than a few months.

In November 2006, the public sent its strongest message to Congress to end the war in Iraq. But Obama missed this memo. Because he has continued to vote Yes on funding the war in Iraq after being against it “from the start.” Even if he had voted No, there were not enough votes to overturn the funding bill, so what better way to curry favors than by voting Yes. But the millions of others who thought before that the war was a flawed idea, and who continue to think that it is a flawed idea, and who sent a mandate to Congress to withdraw our troops – these people are not being listened to by anyone, including Obama. Have we heard Obama talk about “change” on this? Not a word. He continues to milk the issue like the rest of Congress about “troops needing our support,” that we should “stand by them,” and “my position before the war is not the same as after the war,” et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseam.

And the capstone of his unsavoriness occurred in a speech last night (he may have said this earlier, and I may have missed it): “We need a president who will be RIGHT from day one.” This clearly demonstrates that hot air rises to the top. Such statements are made by cult-like personalities, not presidents. Leadership is not about being right, but being humble enough to accept when you are wrong and to have the courage to change direction. Flowery words and the promise of a rosy future will not secure the peace in Iraq or fix a broken economy. It is time for the Democrats to swiftly put an end to the Obama affair.