The Rise and Fall of Barack Obama’s Presidential Ambitions
Barack Obama has seen his presidential ambitions rise meteorically after his speech at the 2004 Democrat National Convention and he has seen his fortunes fall precipitously after the news of his twenty year relationship with his bigoted separatist church pastor was released.
Obama’s historic rise began when he ran for the Senate while he was still a state legislator of
Not long after winning his Senate seat, Obama began seeking the presidential nomination of the Democrat Party for President. Barack Obama was the perfect candidate—he was highly intelligent, a gifted speaker, and delivered a populist message. The fact that he was black was not an issue. Obama’s oratory skills would rival those of the famed Silver Tongued Orator, William Jennings Bryan who unsuccessfully ran for president several times on a populist platform. Although he is running as the candidate who is against the war, these particular words of Obama’s stand out (from the Convention) because they do not signal that he is against the war. Rather they show he believes we should pursue our enemies wherever they might be found.
When we send our young men and women into harm’s way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they’re going, to care for their families while they’re gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world.
Now — Now let me be clear. Let me be clear. We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued. And they must be defeated.
All during his run for the Democrat nomination for President, Barack Obama ran on the twin slogans of hope and change. At no time was he the ‘black’ candidate. Most of
Then the Obama train jumped the track. Word began to circulate about Obama’s fiery pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Over the next several days, both he and his campaign tried to deflect questions by feigning ignorance of his pastor’s racist statements. The wheels came off the Obama train as he tried to explain a twenty year relationship with the bigoted pastor. CNN among others are calling this the pastor disaster.
Finally after much deflection and equivocation, Barack Obama went on to redefined himself as the black candidate. The question is, why? Why after running a highly successful campaign in which race was never an issue does Barack Obama redefine himself in this way?
To me, the answer is obvious and threefold. By defining himself as the black candidate, Obama shores up the black vote, many of whom did not believe the Senator was ‘black enough.’ The second reason was ‘white guilt.’ Believing they would alleviate their guilt from slavery and Jim Crow laws, many whites, especially liberals, will vote for Obama believing it will in some way make them feel better about their pasts.
The third reason Obama redefined himself was political cover. If he should go on and lose either the Democrat nomination or ensuing National election, he will not lose because of his message. He will have lost because of his skin color. This is a win-win scenario for Barack Obama. If he wins, great, he made the right move. But if the Senator loses, he will have deflected the blame onto the ‘typical white person’ who in his eyes is racist.
When Obama rose, he rose fast. And when he fell, he fell fast. The rise and fall of Barack Obama came about because of his political inexperience. Liberals wanted to support a populist. The fact that he was a black man who did not define himself as black was a plus. That is indeed refreshing. We are all, regardless of our political affiliations or skin color, Americans, period. In the end, Barack Obama could not help himself as he returned to the same old tried and true method in dealing with failure and racism—blame whitey.
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