Richard Cohen Suggests Obama Has A 'Farrakhan Test,' Obama Responds

Democratic frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have vowed to make nice and heal the racial rift that has lately erupted in the race for the Democratic nomination. But Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen must not have gotten the memo, because today, he offered his own flailing, inane take on the matter in an article titled, "Obama's Farrakhan Test."

Displaying the same sort of reasoning that made "Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon" such a popular concept for six, even seven, minutes back in the late 1990s, here's how Cohen arrives at the standpoint that Obama has a "Farrakhan test" to take. Obama worships at the Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. That church's minister, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., also publishes a magazine. That magazine gave Louis Farrakhan an award once. So, ergo, Barack Obama totally hates the Jews.

Cohen notes that "nothing in Obama's record suggests he harbors anti-Semitic views or agrees with Wright when it comes to Farrakhan." He also notes that David Axelrod has averred that Obama and Wright "sometimes disagree." He goes on to confirm that the Farrakhan award is "one of those instances." He finally concludes: "I don't for a moment think that Obama shares Wright's views on Farrakhan." Uhm...okay! Case closed? Naturally, there's a "but."

"But the rap on Obama is that he is a fog of a man. We know little about him, and, for all my admiration of him, I wonder about his mettle." This would be a fair point in macro, but on the matter of Obama's opinion of Farrakhan, Cohen himself has duly recorded the candidate's unfogging!

Larded with a thoroughly pedantic recital of Martin Luther King and multiple violations of Godwin's Law, the whole piece is an identity politics cheap shot masquerading as high-minded outrage. It's a masterwork of tortured logic, to boot, seeing as the available facts suggest that it's Wright who has explaining to do, not the candidate. Having received confirmation that he doesn't agree with Wright's stance on Farrakhan, what more does Cohen expect Obama to do to make his position clear? Will this statement suffice?

I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan. I assume that Trumpet Magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decisions with which I agree.

So there you go, Mr. Cohen! But hey, since we're talking about allegiances and the six-degrees-of-separation concept, maybe you could take up the matter of Clinton surrogate Robert Johnson and his history of providing minority veneer to all sorts of bad Bush administration policies. Because that seems to still be a little foggy.

Comments

[xrayman]

Clinton's fault

Clinton's fault

Clinton's fault

Clinton's fault

[Ides]

How much you wanna bet this hits the news tomorrow and plays out completely despite the fact that it's officially over before it began?

Obama's response is right there ON THIS PAGE!

"I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan. I assume that Trumpet Magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decisions with which I agree."

Are people so desperate for controversy that they'll perpetuate it in the face of PROOF?

[bkholmes79]

louis farrakahn is the worst of the worst. Obama needs to get as far away from this vile trash as possible. I don't think anything would happen with her #'s if Hillary Clinton denounced David Duke as the trash he is. If Obama did that his popularity among african american voters would plummet. The real test will be when Farrakahn dies because we all know he's very sick. WILL OBAMA ATTEND THE FUNERAL OR ANY MEMORIAL for that TRASHBAG. If Obama doesn't do this then he's toast. You can call me what you want after this post but I'm a realist and Hillary is going to bring this issue up again.

[bitabingbitabangbitaboom]

There is nothing worse than a JEW WASP. Nobody going to say Kadish for this Kailika when he dies......­.well maybe for $10,000.

Schmak!

[EinChicago]

Y'know, if Obama gets teh nomination, it's much better that all of these attacks come out now because the GOP won't be shy about using them.

[fearwig]

In this brave new intellectual age, Godwin's Law will come to apply not only to Usenet and HuffPo comment boxes, but also to politics, the mainstream press, and everyday speech.

"Anti-Semite" will become so popular as to replace basic value judgment words, like "bad". E.g. "My steak and eggs is really anti-Semitic, but the service was pretty decent, so I guess we can tip fifteen."

This is what you get when you exaggerate fucking everything: eventually, nothing means anything anymore.

[musetta]

This article really calls into question two of the main themes of the Obama campaign unity and judgment.

When you choose a church that worships based on skin color, how can you call yourself all about unity?

And when you choose intolerant people as your spiritual leader, how can you brag about your judgment?

[vbond]

Thanks for this post.

I was so incensed at Cohen's column that I could not see straight enough to type.

Thanks for doing it for me... and the rest of us.

At a certain point, this blather moves from the inane to the insane.

Did Cohen actually say that he "admires" Obama, the FogMan?

Yes, he did.

Is there a psychiatrist in the house?

[LeftistDragon]

I'm sorry to be patting myself on the back for this but I called the Obama - Farrakhan comparison last month..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-sedaei/obama-is-right-on-527s_b_78308.html

##If Obama takes a combative approach against the right, they will liken him to Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan or Osama bin Laden - all of these analogies are coming by the way.##

[SubparDude]

I ate at a McDee's once. So did a mass murderer. Ergo, I am a serial whopper!

[lovethesinner]

As if we needed more proof that Bush/Clinton and the Washington Post are working for AIPAC.

An unexpected source made a claim that both the NY Times and the Washinton Post were working for American Israeli interests in a 1974 interview by Mike Wallace for "60 Minutes." It is instructive to consider that he was deposed shortly after making these remarks. I give you, the Shah of Iran:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQgZ3oLp_WY

[Teri]

is the washington post going to stop running his column?

[GoldenOne]

My letter to Mr. Cohen...

Mr. Cohen:

Dr. Wright isn't running for president.

As an African American woman, I am deeply offended, that you would chose to pen an essay that plays to what divides us. Senator Obama has been very clear in every word written or spoken that he will be a president for every American. That means me, you, and even people we disagree with. You can point to nothing he has said or written that contradicts that notion. To imply that there is somehow some secret agenda, because of the church he attends, is frankly irresponsible and repulsive. My pastor, as I am certain is true for your rabbi, does not always do and say things that I agree with. My relationship with God is a personal one. My pastor is not my intercessor.

If we truly believed in guilt by association, former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton would not only be disqualified for office, they would be in jail with their compatriots. I certainly did not equate Bob Johnson's appearance on stage over the weekend as Bill or Hillary Clinton's tacit approval of the hyper sexualized, misogynistic images and glorification of the "thug life" seen on BET all day, everyday. Mr.. Johnson made himself a billionaire while simultaneously making it exponentially more difficult for Black parents to maintain health and balance in their homes. I am the parent of three teenagers and grew up in the Hip Hop culture. As a single mother on the front line, I fully recognize that Mr.. Johnson was not on my side. And when questioned about it, he blamed parents. So forgive me, if I do not accept his pontifications on behalf of Black America and his attacks on Mr. Obama.

According to your reasoning, I should blame the Clintons for not only not standing up and rebuking the remarks, but also providing the platform. I should also blame them for allowing Mr. Johnson to blatantly lie about his intent using their campaign press service.

[Kane]

If anyone actually believes that the Clinton campaign plans to "play nice" from now on, I offer this from Jonathan Alter:

"But as John Edwards says (and Obama also knows, from his community-­organizing days), the old order never relinquishes power without a fight. "Iowa Nice" is over. The sweet culture of the cornfields that made Hillary's weeklong attacks on Obama in late November one of the dumbest political strategies of recent years is giving way to states with a more bare-knuckle tradition. The question is how rough the Clintons and their wide circle of political operatives will get. A frantic scramble is underway to feed reporters as much negative information about Obama as possible, but it's slim pickings. I've been leaked stories-if you can call them stories-ranging from his failure to leave more of a mark while he was in college (he made up for it in law school) to his failure to hold more hearings as chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on European Affairs. Not being Eurocentric enough for the foreign-policy establishment is hardly going to sink him."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/84540

[DeLuxe]

The Cohen article relied such a lazy piece of innuendo that I am surprised it was published. It makes you wonder if a white candidate would be asked the same questions in a similar way if one of his associates had expressed some positive feelings towards Farrakahn.