-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.
Continue reading “Obama Keeping Enemies Close? Hardly, He’s ONE of Them!”