-By Warner Todd Huston
Abe Greenwald over at Commentary Magazine had a blog post today that I couldn’t disagree with more. With the recent news that Robert Malley finally exited the Obama campaign over his past anti-Israeli ideology. Greenwald correctly states that the sort of anti-Jewish rhetoric that Malley and his own associates indulge in have no place in an American presidential contest (or any other contest for that matter), but where Greenwald goes wrong is to posit that Obama has somehow purposefully decided to keep “political enemies” close to him.
“Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” When it comes to following Don Corleone’s sage advice, Barack Obama is a natural. Sure, he’s tight with Ted Kennedy and Bill Richardson, but they didn’t baptize his kids (like Jeremiah Wright), or advise him on foreign policy (like Robert Malley). Obama’s talent for cleaving to his political enemies is definitely a “change” from politics as usual. But is it change we can believe in?
It is true that Obama has been linked to many people with extremist positions. There is the racist Reverend Wright who wants God to “damn America.” The anti-American, bomb maker — literal bombs, not metaphorical ones — William Ayers who has never apologized for his intent to murder his fellow Americans. Of course, Ayers wife, Bernadine Dohrn, a killer like her hubby. There is Obama’s tech advisor Larry Lessig who is fond of using anti-Christian slurs to introduce his lectures, and his chief campaign blogger Sam Graham-Felsen who is an admirer of communists and an activist for Parisian labor strikes, not to mention his angry, bitter wife, Michelle, who can’t find it in herself to be proud of the US. And there have been a slew of others large and small in his campaign that hold extremist, unAmerican ideas and who harbor hatred for the very country that Barack seems to want to become president of.
So, yes, Barack Obama does surround himself with enemies to the country. But are these extremists actually Barack’s “political enemies” as Greenwald paints them? Is Barack Obama “cleaving to his political enemies” as Greenwald states?
I can’t agree with Greenwald that Obama is cleaving to any “political enemies.” It seems more like he is indulging in “birds of a feather” because NO politician works closely with, and exposes his family to, people who supposedly hold positions that are violently antithetical to their own viewpoint.
One president came close to such a policy, but even his actions don’t exactly “cleave” to Greenwald’s rhetoric. Lincoln filled his cabinet with “political enemies” to the most amazing degree, but NONE of those ostensible enemies were so poles apart from the Republican party line and Lincoln’s own basic philosophies as the racist Rev. Wright is suddenly supposed to be from Obama’s.
Obama is not telling America the truth by claiming that these people are not representative of his own views. He is only caught in his extremism and thrown those advisers and friends under the bus to save his own political skin. All we have is plausible deniability, NOT political enemies.
Instead of a politician who keeps “enemies” close, it seems more like he is surrounding himself with people he trusts and who’s views he admires and agrees with. He only dumps them when it begins to look like they could be a liability. Then its all of a sudden that he “denounces” their views as if those views are a shock to him. We are forced to either imagine that Obama is so stupid that he never knew the views of his closest advisors, or that he is a liar and knew all along — even agreeing with those extremist views. Either way, it looks bad on the candidate of “change.”
Who can doubt that Obama is a Trojan Horse for the anti-American left?
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston