The good senator from Illinois and the Great Black and White Hope for America Barack Obama has been absurdly and ridiculously raked through the coals because of "guilt by association" with his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. I'm not going to dignify that nationally destructive feeding frenzy with any statement except that it is the perfect example of how not to help our country recover and heal -- get back on its feet -- after the tremendous and purposeful demolition of these dis-United States over the last seven years. The reverend was and is a non-issue, and this campaign was purely an attack against Barack Obama that the traditional media pathetically -- again -- fell for.
Initiated by whom? Hillary Clinton looked into the cameras, as she usually does whether she's telling the truth or flat-out lying, and said that she would've left Wright's church if she had been a member. Whatever. She didn't stand up against George Bush or Dick Cheney when they were publicly spewing about truly important issues like going to war and stamping their approval on torture and spying on us and acting like they were supreme patriots for doing so. Hillary bought into and helped keep the Bush/Cheney illusion going with her statements and votes -- like she was a Republican.
And maybe she is a Republican. She's embraced some of the worst aspects of the Republican Party, including their immoral campaigning. It's politics after all, you say. Shame on you if you do! Politics may be politics, but this is part of the reason our country is in the mess it's in right now. We should NOT expect a lack of integrity from our leaders. We should expect them to measure up to what the U.S. was and is meant to be. We should expect them to lift us up with their example -- not to drag us into the muck of their hypocrisy, cynicism, and what is ultimately disrespect for us. Want another George W. Bush? Hillary is looking more like him every day.
Public manipulation at any cost to her party and to her country, and, sisters, yes, to her sex -- as long as it gives her a leg up to win the presidency. That's what seems to define Clinton ethics.
So Sidney Blumenthal, the creator of the phrase "the vast right-wing conspiracy," is now sending out prolific smearing emails from/like "the vast right-wing conspiracy" to wreck the best chance America has had in years by electing Barack Obama. And Hillary pays him to do this. Where is the crowd fomenting the "guilt by association" now? By not only embracing but so creatively employing these tactics that almost did the Clintons in AND cozying up to the GOP that used them in the 90s, I would say that Hillary and her campaign have set a new record for lowness in politics. I consider this worse than the Republicans, because we expect the GOP to have no ethics about such things. That's their calling card.
Hillary got into bed with both Rove and Blumenthal and seems to like it there. Then she looks into the eyes of the public and the television cameras, and she says she's sorry that the Republicans are using the Wright (non)issue against Obama. But this is exactly what her campaign has done every single day. And, again, bedmate Blumenthal is paid a lot of money for this. Where is the respect for the working class that she claims to have? Probably in that bar where she left her photo-op shot glass.
Was it good for you, Karl?
Beth Arnold lives and writes in Paris. You can see more of her work at www.betharnold.com.
Posted May 3, 2008 | 08:18 AM (EST)