Tim Inwood     Observations from the Right

March 20, 2008

Obama Bandwagon: Taking America Over a Cliff Like Lemmings

Editor's Note: This column was written and submitted for publication before the nationwide controversy surrounding Jeremiah Wright's comments began.

I must confess that, as a descendant of many soldiers who fought the Revolutionary War, it bothers me a great deal how little thought people put into who they are going to support for President of the United States. My ancestors did not risk their lives to create a nation so a bunch of ill-informed but frenzied voters could throw the presidency into the lap of someone they know very little about.  For the past year I have watched people in the Democrat camp jump on a bandwagon simply because they heard one phrase they liked or just because someone was a woman, a black man or was just photogenic. They really have not given issues or positions any deep thought like they should. Nor have they vetted one of their candidates for scandals or making terrible choices in those with whom they associate. I am speaking of Barack Obama. With Hillary, her history is well known; in fact, her coronation as Democratic front-runner might well have been derailed by that eight-year history with Bill. To the voter, Obama may look fresh, and as he is a relatively unknown fellow they are jumping on board simply because he is not Hillary.

This is a pity, as early on in the Democrat primary process some honorable men did run but have all fallen by the wayside. Now you may be wondering why I have used the term honorable and have disassociated the term from Obama. I will go into some detail.

Barack Obama does have quite a few skeletons in his closet to which most of his supporters are oblivious. There are voices out there that have tried to bring the country's attention to this. Conservative talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Libertarian Neal Boortz have all brought up the issues I will talk about. But the mainstream press -- perhaps as Saturday Night Live suggested in February -- is too star struck to dare bring up anything to question Obama's ugly secrets.

Few know about his drug use. Every time it is brought up, the minion who deigned to touch the subject has been punished so few venture there now. However, to those who will bother to read it, you will find that Obama talked of his drug use in his first book, Dreams of my Father: Race and Inheritance. In that book he also spoke of his flirtation with Marxist groups in college and his relative disdain for Caucasians. For our Democrat friends who may be reading this I will put it in plain English: he does not care for white people and hung out with communists in his college days.

His dislike of whites is not surprising, as Barack Obama has for the past twenty years gone to a very radical black liberation theology church in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. The Trinity United Church of Christ pastor is a man named Jeremiah Wright. Reverend Wright retired from preaching to join the Obama campaign in February, but prior to that he made the news quite a bit, as he has said and done many controversial things over the past couple of decades. Among the objectionable things is his association and praise for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and his visit to Libya to meet with Muammar al-Gaddafi; all this at a time when he has been quite close to the Obama family.

In the middle of March 2008, ABC news obtained audio and video footage of Reverend Wright that was extremely interesting. In it you hear Mr. Wright talk about how the US Government invented the HIV virus to use as a weapon of genocide against African Americans. You will hear him say that September 11th was chickens coming home to roost. He says, "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people." Frankly there are other things he says which are worse and I shall not repeat them here. However I will attach the YouTube video so you can see it for yourself.

Now some have said it is wrong to taint Obama with his minister. I might agree if it were not for a few facts. A man can choose his church. It is free association and this is where you take your family. I would not sit with my children through any of the rants I have seen from Reverend Wright. In fact, I stopped going to the church of my childhood because the minister stood up one Sunday morning and talked about how Bill Clinton should not be impeached in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.  I still go at Easter and Christmas, for my parent's sake, and I must say I am sad to see how many people left the church of my youth because of the liberal tendencies of the previous minister. But there it is. We have the choice to stay or go. Their sensibilities were offended and like me they left. Obama could have made the same choice, but he stayed in that hate-filled atmosphere.

Another reason to link Jeremiah Wright to Obama is that the Reverend has now retired from preaching and joined Obama's campaign as part of its black outreach program. (He has since left the Obama campaign due to the recent controversy.)  Obama has permitted this, and you can hear the influence of this radical in Obama's speeches. Barack admitted that his last book, The Audacity of Hope, was inspired by a sermon by Wright. Barack's wife Michelle Obama has made waves with her comments about not being proud of America all her adult life, and how America is a mean-spirited and hateful place. These statements clearly stem from the influence of Jeremiah Wright.  In mid-February Michelle Obama said, "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback." Some people might excuse this as a misstatement, but she made the same remark twice in one day! She clearly meant it, and it is most disturbing that a woman with so much angst against the US might become First Lady.

Reverend Wright is not the only skeleton in Obama's closet. There is also the corrupt Tony Rezko, who is currently on trial in Chicago. Damaging Obama's squeaky-clean image is the allegation that Obama bought his home from Rezko for well under its market value. The question is, was there any quid pro quo in the matter. As the trial began, the judge insisted those watching from the overflow gallery identify who they were representing. Most were with the press. It was, however, revealed that a member of Obama's campaign staff was sitting in on the trial. She tried to conceal her connection but a member of the press recognized her. Clearly Senator Obama is concerned about what may be revealed in this trial.

Another bony object in the closet is Obama's chum William Ayres, formerly of the terrorist group ''Weather Underground.'' They have known each other since the 1990s and, as Jonah Goldberg recently put it in his National Review article on the subject, ''Ayers' is apparently a left-wing institution in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, and Obama visited Ayers' home as a rite of passage when launching his political career in the mid-1990s.'' For those needing a refreshing, William Ayres was famous for this quote in the 1970s: ''Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at.''  Ironically on September 11th, the very day al-Qaeda attacked the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, The New York Times printed a part of the treasonous twaddle that makes up Ayres' memoirs. In part he said:  ''Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon.'' He went on to say, ''I don't regret setting bombs,'' and ''I feel we didn't do enough.''

Even liberal writer Larry C. Johnson over on the Huffington Post has fretted that Republicans will discover Obama's radical connections and use them against him in the general election, should Obama get the nomination of the Democrat party. Obama's mantra, "Yes, we can," is inspiring and heartwarming, but in the end is an empty phrase that will founder once the Republican political attack machine spins up. He worries that William Ayres and the radial Rashid Khalidi, Middle East professor at Columbia University and PLO activist, will hurt the Democrat chances for taking the White House. Feelings of hope and inspiration about Obama will evaporate when the commercials tying him to a convicted felon slumlord, an unrepentant terrorist who hates the troops, and a Professor of Middle Eastern Studies who has been a PLO official spouting anti-Israeli rhetoric. Oh, YES THEY WILL! YES, THEY WILL!

As I started this article I shall end it. It has disturbed me for some time to watch so many of my fellow Americans take this shallow approach to selecting our next president. I ask that as you listen to them chanting, ''Change we can believe in,'' please note that what they are talking about has not been defined in anyway. They are approaching this presidential election with as much depth as they would if they were voting for a contestant on American Idol. I have just told you things about Barack Obama that the press is generally ignoring. I ask before you go and pull that lever in November that you stop and think about the people Barack Obama has befriended and what those influences mean to our country. There are many issues that John McCain and I do not agree on. In fact, in the primary process I would have rated him tied for last place with Rudy Giuliani. However I think all Americans can agree John McCain is an honorable man. He is a man who has no unrepentant terrorists for friends. Nor has he pardoned any terrorists as Bill Clinton did in his waning days in office to help secure the votes of Puerto Ricans for Hillary in the NY Senate race.

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Many of you independents and liberals crossed party lines to vote for John McCain, so as to saddle the Republicans with a man with whom you knew many in the conservative GOP base have huge problems. However, if you do the research on the bits of information I have given you here today, I think you will find it is in the nation's best interest that the most responsible thing you can do for your country with the choices we have is to vote for John McCain in November. I implore you, do the right thing for your nation.