The New Nation - Internet Edition

Debbie Menon

SOME say Barack Obama's race speech, A More Perfect Union, might hurt him. Even if it doesn't, there will be plenty to do their best to see that it does. If anyone hasn't heard this speech, I recommend they do.

This was a speech he had to maket one way or the other. A lose-lose, win-win situation. For people like us, it was a winner. But for many, they will turn it into a losing speech.

I don't recall ever hearing a speech like this from Hillary Clinton or John McCain, or any other presidential candidate in the past eight years. Franklin Roosevelt was the last speaker who could have spoken of the things that Obama does, in the manner in which he articulates them.

When was the last time you heard a politician say he 'loved America' as if he meant it? Most of the others sound as sincere as a sailor speaking to a strange lady over their fourth beer in some waterfront saloon.

Obama not only addresses one of the most destructive and divisive issues in America, as he mentions to confront, but addresses hope for a better tomorrow in a time when few people hold out much hope at all for even a tomorrow.

The State Department said it was trying to determine whether three contract workers had a political motive for looking at Obama's passport file. What does motive matter, except to belabour or prove some irrelevant point?

The State Department said it would not release the names of those who were fired and disciplined or the two companies for which they worked. Blackwater? Carlyle? Wanna wager? Apparently, the inspector general is investigating.

Now, they will take it to an 'official investigation' where there is little chance that the perpetrators and their grandchildren will live long enough to read the conclusions of the board, if it is not classified as involving 'national security' and buried deep.

The disclosure of inappropriate passport inquiry recalled an incident in 1992, when a Republican political appointee was demoted over a search of presidential candidate Bill Clinton's passport records. After a three-year, $2.2 million probe, a federal counsel exonerated officials in the incident, saying that while some of the actions investigated were 'stupid, dumb and partisan,' they were not criminal.

Does no one within the beltway or the Press has any sense of proportion? In another shameful instance, the gossip and news website The Drudge Report posted the photograph of Obama in a Kenyan headgear on its front page. I have seen dozens of photographs of US presidents, vice-presidents and Congress members wearing funny headdress for a photo-op with some foreign head of state.

I always thought it absurd, and childish, but I never considered it might imply lack of much except a concept of the ridiculous; certainly this is not another flap-pin challenge, which one must pass in order to become President? George had his Bomber Jacket, allow Barack his burnoose or whatever it was. I think I recall seeing photos of Hillary draped in an Israeli flag, but we hear no mention of it!

At one point, in her initial Senate campaign in New York in 2000, she said that, she was supported by a group with virulent anti-Semitic views. She did not mention that, at the same time, she was supported by a group who advocated virulent 'Semitic' views? I use 'Semite' and 'anti-Semite' in the inaccurate manner in which these groups themselves define the terms.

I think her medical coverage plan involves 'affordable' insurance for 'everyone,' which is a misleading misnomer anyway. It is still a medical insurance industry sales pitch, which supports a helluva immense and expensive legal industry. I have always believed that the millions of dollars Americans pay in income tax are sufficient to provide everyone a full suite of medical care, not at 'government expense,' but at their own. Privatisation of America, as Reagan preached, is corporatising and robbing America blind. And they are blind; blind and ignorant! New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the nation's only Hispanic governor, has endorsed Obama calling him a 'once-in-a-lifetime leader' who can unite the nation and restore America's international leadership.

'As a presidential candidate, I know full well Sen. Obama's unique moral ability to inspire the American people to confront our urgent challenges at home and abroad in a spirit of bipartisanship and reconciliation,' he said. In the meantime, Hillary was pulling ahead of Obama in the Pennsylvania polls, amid controversy over the statements by his former pastor. Only in Dumberica something a pastor said would determine who could lead the country. I refer to my title question. Do they really have a sense of proportion? And I extend it to the entire country!

Obama, sidesteps very neatly the Israeli/AIPAC issue with which Rev. Wright came head-to-head but, no astute politician wishes to shoot himself in the foot and, condemnation, or even the least criticism, of Israel or AIPAC at this point in the game would be tantamount to driving a stake through his own heart. It is a matter best dealt with after the election, and then we will see if he is the man. I think he is.

Gov. Richardson backed Obama despite (or because of?) his ties to the Clintons. He served as UN ambassador and energy secretary in the Clinton administration. Last month, Richardson and Bill Clinton watched the Super Bowl together at the governor's residence. But Richardson backed Obama saying: "Obama will be a historic and great president, who can bring us the change we so desperately need by bringing us together as a nation here at home and with our allies abroad.' 'There is no doubt in my mind that Obama has the judgment and courage we need in a commander-in-chief when our nation's security is on the line. He showed this judgment by opposing the Iraq war from the start, and he has shown it during this campaign by standing up for a new era in American leadership internationally' Richardson said. And that is what all this is about. And this is what makes all the difference!

Obama is definitely his own man, adept at thinking and chewing gum, while still walking fast. He sounds like a free man, who does not need the support of the Senatorial sheep, lives his own life, and stands out among the commonplace, which makes him unique amidst a cage au sheep, and worthy of the vote. A perfectly healthy fast charging dark horse with the potential to plant some new Democrat roots in that rotted hotbed. All Hillary Clinton brings is a lot of dead and dying transplants from the last failed flowerpot.

Whether Obama has the guile and connections to make a difference, or a change, we shall have to wait to see if he gets the vote. But, he is the only one who I think will even try! He has not been around long enough to become part of the problem.