I haven't posted anything about the latest controversy over Barack Obama's former minister, who earlier this week said more goofy stuff once he had a national microphone in front of his face. My silence has been born of disbelief and irritation that a matter as tangential and irrelevant as this is being treated as a Big Deal by the media and that it appears that at least some segments of the American public are being affected by it. My gut reaction is "this can't be happening."
This is the Dean Scream all over again. Actually, it's even worse than the Dean Scream. At least Dean was the one who screamed. Here we have a candidate's ex-minister screaming. By 2012, I fully expect the media to make a Big Deal out of stupid stuff that a Democratic candidate's accountant's sister says:
Smarmy TV reporter (with mock incredulity): Senator, you are no doubt aware that questions have been raised about your opponent in connection with statements made by his accountant's sister that she believes that space aliens caused the 9/11 attacks. Honestly, what do these comments have to do with your opponent's qualifications to be President?
Candidate (with mock sincerity): Well, I think it says a lot, Chris. One of the most important jobs a President has is to be a careful steward of the nation's finances. If my opponent entrusts his own finances to a family which holds such offensive, outlandish and radical beliefs, how will he manage the public treasury? To many people, this shows a troubling lack of judgment.
That almost sounds plausible, doesn't it?
Listening to the news of the the last week with only a half-attentive ear (which is the way a lot of people get their news), you would think that Reverend Wright, not Barack Obama, was running for President. It wouldn't surprise me if a poll taken in a week or two showed that a goodly portion of the electorate thought that Obama said the things that Wright actually said.
Obama keeps voicing his hope that this time around, the people won't be "distracted" by things like this, and I hope he's right. "Distracted," though, is too gentile and passive a verb to describe what is actually occurring. "Hijacked" would come a lot closer to what is actually going on. The national discourse over the Presidential election has been hijacked by the Republicans, the Clintons, our callow, sensationalist news media and a prideful pastor who is clearly envious of his parishioner's superiority and success.
Please spare me the argument that all this is doing is "toughening up" Obama for the general election, and that it he can't "stand the heat" of this controversy he shouldn't be the Democratic nominee anyway. If only one person on your track team can represent your school in the 500 yard dash, what you do is to try to run faster than the other guy. That's why the call it a race. But you don't go out and challenge him to an Ultimate Cage Fighting bout that will leave both you and he bloodied and crippled--not if you really want your team to win.
By adopting Republican memes and Rovian tactics in her race against Obama, Clinton has revealed herself to be unworthy of the nomination. If Democrats behave like Republicans, what's the point of voting for them?
By trying to turn Reverend Wright into this year's Gennifer Flowers, the media (which used to be described as "the fourth estate," an honorific that ceased being remotely descriptive twenty years ago) have at last shrugged off the vestiges of their historical obligation to inform the public about the issues of the day. Things have gotten so bad that it has been suggested that CBS--once home to Walter Cronkite, Roger Mudd, Charles Collingwood and Eric Severeid--ought to simply disband its dismally superficial news division.
I'm an optimist by trade and by habit, but I will admit to being disgusted and discouraged by the last week in U.S. history. What's the point of getting enthused about politics if the best people never win? Yeats nailed the way I am starting to feel:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
And perhaps this is what HRC, the GOP and the MSM desire: a troubled society in which change is impossible, except insofar as it benefits the moneyed and the powerful. An electorate unconcerned with ideas and drained of idealism. But
what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
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