The Empty Suit Reveals Some Himself Today - A Little

The firestorm of criticism that has rocked the Obama campaign over Reverend Wright's radical anti-American/anti-Semitic/anti-White rhetoric was addressed today by Barack Obama in Philadelphia. It contained his usual flowery prose, as he is a gifted speaker. However, rather than distance Senator Obama from Rev. Wright, I believe it showed a little crack into the mystery that is Barack Obama.

I mean, what do we actually know about Obama? Has anyone he grew up with come forward to tell tales of their youth? No childhood friends? No relatives? We do have two books written by Obama but it seems the only "contributor" to these publications is none other than Rev. Wright himself. We do know that his mother was a white atheist from Kansas and his father was a Muslim from Kenya. We also know that his father moved them to Indonesia so that Obama could attend a Islamic school. We don't know how long he was there but we know he was. We know he lived in Hawaii for time and that he ended up in Kansas again and his father returned to Kenya.

What else do we know? Obama tipped his hand somewhat today in his "mea culpa" speech. He said he was "practically raised" by his white grandmother. His grandmother and grandfather lived in Kansas. He invoked his grandmother's involvement in his life when he was discussing Rev. Wright:

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

So, in essence, Obama threw his own flesh and blood under the bus to defend his relationship with the racist minister. What does this say about Mr. Obama? It tells me that the radical reverend has closer ties to Obama than his own grandmother, who is white. It tells me that perhaps Obama's grandmother didn't have as much to do with raising him as he claims or that he secretly harbors hatred towards his mother and her side of the family. I have always wondered why children of a mixed parentage, such as Obama, grow up 'black' instead of 'white.' And I don't mean that in a racist sense, I mean that in how they identify themselves. Why does Obama see himself as a black man and not a white man? After all, he states that his white grandmother helped raise him. He's not getting an education in black culture at home, so why does he identify with blacks? What I'm driving at is that this equation doesn't add up.

I know black children who were adopted by white couples and although these children are black, they know little firsthand about black culture, mainly because culture is a learned social behavior. (As pathetic as it sounds, the result bore a striking resemblance to the caricature portrayed as Carlton on the "Fresh Prince" without being as dull-witted.) So how is it that Obama, who was educated in some of the finest schools (his own words) and raised in a white household, became black? What makes Obama gravitate to the "bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America?" Wouldn't it have been an "easier" life to just be white?

The point is that I don't believe Obama. I don't think that his grandmother had that big of a hand in raising him. If she did, the first sermon that Obama would have heard by Rev. Wright would have been the last. How could a man that is half-white and raised in a white household sit through a sermon that vilifies half of his own genetics? Furthermore, how could any man throw his own grandmother under the bus to save his relationship with a radical that this same man claims not to agree with?

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

Again, because Obama is a talented speaker, and because we have already endured 8 years of the most-forked tongued double-speaker to have ever sit in the White House in the person of Bill Clinton, we need to revisit the words that Obama has chosen. It is implied in the first statement above that Sen. Obama is condemning the controversial rhetoric in question but because of the sentence structure, we really don't have a time reference as to when he is referring to. Which statements by Rev. Wright that have caused controversy are you referring to? And, once we establish which statements they were, when did you unequivocally condemn them? You see, I'm sure that the Senator's syntax has meaning beyond what we heard and read.

Obama asks if he knew about the reverend's 'fierce criticism' of our foreign policy and then answers 'of course' but then only last week he denied in a speech having any knowledge of controversial or anti-American rhetoric from this same man. So, in less than a week, did the Senator suddenly become aware of this fierce criticism? Even though last week, after attending this church for 20 years and never hearing any of it, he must have heard remarks that could be considered controversial while he sat in church for the first time on the ensuing Sunday. Does that even sound plausible?

Obama stated last week that had he witnessed these anti-American displays he would have quit the church. So why hasn't he? He stated yesterday that he did strongly disagree with many of the reverend's political views but never pointed out which ones, which may be the most disturbing aspect of all of this. Obama strongly disagrees with many of the reverend's political views but not all. So which ones does Obama agree with?

Based on what we have heard from the man and what little history we know of the man I believe I can glean this: Obama was the product of a militant background. His white mother turned away from God at a time that openly being atheist was frowned upon. Furthermore, his white mother married a militant black Muslim at a time in our bigoted history that such behavior was frowned upon. His black Muslim father moved him to Indonesia to study Islam, so Obama's first exposure to any sort of theology was Islam. At some time later, he returned to the US, his father returned to Kenya and exited his life. So, in addition to having militant parents, he is now the product of a broken home, being raised by his atheist white mother and supposedly with help from his white grandmother whom he has labeled a racist in his speech yesterday. Twenty years ago, he becomes a Christian because of the preachings of a minister whose sermons include anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, and blatant racism against whites. This same Christian minister has close ties to Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam.

To this day, we openly ridicule the German people for not seeing the writing on the wall with regard to Adolf Hitler. Hitler even wrote a book before his ascent to power and apparently nobody seemed to notice. The warning signs were there long before 1933 but the German people elected him Chancellor in a democratic election. Are we willing to ignore the writing on the wall with regard to Obama? His rhetoric doesn't square with his upbringing and anyone who dares point it out is immediately shouted down and called racist. Who's the real racist here? Is it me for questioning his background when so little is known? Or is it Obama given his obvious association with an outspoken racist? What is Barack Obama? What truly motivates him? And why can't we ask the tough questions without being labeled a racist?

Hopefully, this entire episode will finally, as Sen. Obama stated, open the dialog on race in this country. But rather than try to solve the entire nation's underlying racial tensions, we need to know the underlying racial beliefs of the man who is running for president. January 2009 is too late to find out that a bigot has taken the reins of our nation. We need to know what "CHANGE" would come about under a President Obama and if it is change that we all can live with. 6 million Jews, if they were alive today, could tell you that change isn't always a good thing.