Right on the heels of the rejection of Mccain's amateurish editorial submission to the NY Times read it for yourself http://drudgereport.com/flashnym.htm Obama is in the Middle East meeting with leaders and learning more about what challenges he will face upon becoming president. Last night turned on the tube to see Bret Hume trying to insinuate some sorrt of Muslim connection between Obama and Hamas by saying that they were part of the security force guarding him while he was in Palestine. Oh Bret, what will you do when you run out of straws to grasp?
The most important news story so far is that Maliki and Obama agree that the U.S. withdrawal should be sooner rather than later. This peeved the hell out of the whitehouse as well as Foxnews http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/21/white-house-unhappy-over-iraq-support-for-obama-timetable/ I think this sort of endorsement is huge and puts the US and Iraq on the same page when it comes to withdrawal and provides an out for us to leave this quagmire. It also gives us the troops to go after the real terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The real question now is the Public Relations war that the Obama camp has to wage in convincing the American People to shift resources and focus from Iraq to Afghanistan. It seems as if this should be easy to do considering the long standing sckepticism of the American People fromn the outset of this war. However, the Bush bullypulpit should and cannot be underestimated in it's influence over the coming months in insisting that the real fight is in Iraq where in reality Bush's legacy is the only thing at stake.
Obama must also walk a fine line in the coming months. He has to remove the troops without seeming to do it too soon. The Maliki announcement is a Godsend in this regard giving him the political cover he needs for a more rapid withdrawal. By removing the troops quickly he pacifies the left. By arguing that the Iraqis have their own timetable and that we are only heeding their wishes he begins to reach out to the moderates as well as the Europeans who want to see a truly independent Iraq not a puppet American proxy in the Middle East. Maliki is also able to show his muscle to the surrounding Middle Eastern governments and colleagues that he actually holds some real power.
As we continue to get grainy feed from the Middle East this week and hear the spin on why or why not Obama's trip is significant the other glaring truth is that Mccain simply can't drum up this type of publicity. Mccain had months to plan some large events to highlight his foreign policy experience which he did but it hardly got a notice but Obama is beating the press off of him. Thr right would have you believe that it is the vast left wing conspiracy called the Media that prevents McCain from getting more airtime. May I submit that it might be his awkward laugh, pasty white TV image, and lack of charisma on the platform. The man comes off as old, let's face it. In comparison you have a vibrant young man who seems sure of himself and is extremely personable with regular people. It probably doesn't help that Cindy Mccain looks like a 1950's Barbie Doll just recently released from her box. Michelle Obama hasn't been a plus or minus yet but The Mccain camp has definitely underutilized Cindy Mccain's business background probably to pacify their more Dobsonesque conservative members who think a wife should be seen and not heard.
I personally like Michelle Obama but as a black woman she is an easy target for Foxnews and the right. So she said something that made people question her patriotism, that this may have been the first time in her adult life that she was proud of her country. The black experience in America is the chasm that the Obama family has to traverse publicly and quickly in order to be deemed acceptable by more conservative white voters. The Rev. Wright issue was about more than the words he used in the pulpit. It was about the huge disconnect between the black and white experiences in America. This disconnect left white viewers baffled as to why this black man is so angry at the United States. He can vote, can't he? He can't be discriminated against, it's against the law? Segregation no longer exists as a government policy. So why is he so angry? I would go even further to say that It frightened some whites who might not be familiar with the African-American preaching tradition and Black Theology in America today. I would go even further to say that Foxnews and Sean Hannity in particular knew it would have this effect and so we have prime time race-baiting in the year 2008 plastered all over television in the United States.
The most important news story so far is that Maliki and Obama agree that the U.S. withdrawal should be sooner rather than later. This peeved the hell out of the whitehouse as well as Foxnews http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/21/white-house-unhappy-over-iraq-support-for-obama-timetable/ I think this sort of endorsement is huge and puts the US and Iraq on the same page when it comes to withdrawal and provides an out for us to leave this quagmire. It also gives us the troops to go after the real terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The real question now is the Public Relations war that the Obama camp has to wage in convincing the American People to shift resources and focus from Iraq to Afghanistan. It seems as if this should be easy to do considering the long standing sckepticism of the American People fromn the outset of this war. However, the Bush bullypulpit should and cannot be underestimated in it's influence over the coming months in insisting that the real fight is in Iraq where in reality Bush's legacy is the only thing at stake.
Obama must also walk a fine line in the coming months. He has to remove the troops without seeming to do it too soon. The Maliki announcement is a Godsend in this regard giving him the political cover he needs for a more rapid withdrawal. By removing the troops quickly he pacifies the left. By arguing that the Iraqis have their own timetable and that we are only heeding their wishes he begins to reach out to the moderates as well as the Europeans who want to see a truly independent Iraq not a puppet American proxy in the Middle East. Maliki is also able to show his muscle to the surrounding Middle Eastern governments and colleagues that he actually holds some real power.
As we continue to get grainy feed from the Middle East this week and hear the spin on why or why not Obama's trip is significant the other glaring truth is that Mccain simply can't drum up this type of publicity. Mccain had months to plan some large events to highlight his foreign policy experience which he did but it hardly got a notice but Obama is beating the press off of him. Thr right would have you believe that it is the vast left wing conspiracy called the Media that prevents McCain from getting more airtime. May I submit that it might be his awkward laugh, pasty white TV image, and lack of charisma on the platform. The man comes off as old, let's face it. In comparison you have a vibrant young man who seems sure of himself and is extremely personable with regular people. It probably doesn't help that Cindy Mccain looks like a 1950's Barbie Doll just recently released from her box. Michelle Obama hasn't been a plus or minus yet but The Mccain camp has definitely underutilized Cindy Mccain's business background probably to pacify their more Dobsonesque conservative members who think a wife should be seen and not heard.
I personally like Michelle Obama but as a black woman she is an easy target for Foxnews and the right. So she said something that made people question her patriotism, that this may have been the first time in her adult life that she was proud of her country. The black experience in America is the chasm that the Obama family has to traverse publicly and quickly in order to be deemed acceptable by more conservative white voters. The Rev. Wright issue was about more than the words he used in the pulpit. It was about the huge disconnect between the black and white experiences in America. This disconnect left white viewers baffled as to why this black man is so angry at the United States. He can vote, can't he? He can't be discriminated against, it's against the law? Segregation no longer exists as a government policy. So why is he so angry? I would go even further to say that It frightened some whites who might not be familiar with the African-American preaching tradition and Black Theology in America today. I would go even further to say that Foxnews and Sean Hannity in particular knew it would have this effect and so we have prime time race-baiting in the year 2008 plastered all over television in the United States.
Notice how the discussion never turned to the idea that the United States may have once held evil policies such as slavery that have repercussions 200 some years later. No, like Elisabeth Hasselbecks crocodile tears on TV mourning a black woman's reclaiming a word once used to terrorize blacks now being used by empowered blacks, we too should just forget the past, cover it up , bury it, it is too ugly. Looking in that mirror is too hard for most of white America and this is something else Obama has to keep in mind as he campaigns in this still majority white nation as a minority.
