A New Version of Pot Calling Kettle Black

Here's James Dobson, founder of the ultraconservative religious group Focus on the Family, talking about Barak Obama: "I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology," Dobson said.  "... He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter."

Obama Supporter's Thoughts on Clinton

I was going to write a rant here about how Obama was the exemplary first African American candidate for President while Clinton was never the ideal choice for women, but I think Meghan O'Rourke has already done it in her latest post on Slate, "How Hillary Clinton Went Wrong."  Check it out in full yourself, but here's an excerpt:

In this regard, Clinton never really was the first American matriarch. Instead, she may be best remembered as our last patriarch. The more her campaign floundered as Obama offered ecstasy and she didn't, the more masculine and hard-nosed she made herself out to be. Cannily reversing gender roles, she told Obama supporters that if he couldn't "take the heat" he should "get out of the kitchen"—a subtle put-down of her own gender aimed at working-class male voters who wanted reassurance that Clinton was manlier than the girlie men the Democrats had of late been nominating. Her supporters (among them, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana) invoked stories of steelworkers waxing enthusiastic about her "testicular fortitude." While Obama went on rhetorical flights about hope, she compared herself to the hyper-masculine Rocky Balboa—an underdog, to be sure, but a stoic one who keeps getting up. None of this was accidental, even if the source wasn't always Hillary herself. She was "manning up." Over the years, her hair had grown shorter, and her make-up thicker, like a mask. She played the men's game so well that James Carville eventually quipped, "If she gave [Obama] one of her cojones, they'd both have two."

 

I'll just add that Obama's true strength is that he never stopped being himself.  Despite all the attacks, despite all the adversity, he never lost his cool and he was always cordial and composed.  That's a president, and that's why he'll win in November in a landslide. 

Obama

Sorry for not posting lately--just tons of stuff going on at work (I teach and run a distance ed program) and I haven't found time to actually write up the things I want to write up here.  I am still working on my personal musical history--just haven't posted them yet.  I will.

I have to write something right now, however.  I am disgusted by the turn the election campaign has taken lately.  Obama, my guy, has stayed above the fray for the most part--but Clinton has done nothing but throw muck at Obama and then spend time dancing on top of that muck.  I'm sick to death of Clinton's tactics--so much so that if she wins the nomination, I'm tempted not to vote for her.  I can't possibly vote for McCain, either, and no I won't vote for Nader (though my wife has--twice).  I'll just leave it blank.  So, for me, it's Obama or no one at this point.  And for all those women out there who feel that it's Clinton's turn and she deserves it and I'm being too hard on her because she's a woman and if a man was attacking another man in this way I wouldn't be feeling the same outrage--well, all I have to say is: bullshit.  I was disgusted by the Republican attacks in the last few elections, and it's the same disgust I feel this time around, only with a Democrat attacking a Democrat.  I could care less that Clinton is female, just as I care less that Obama is half-African.  Who cares about that stuff?  Politics uses those things to separate people and galvanize their supporters.  I choose not to use those things when deciding on a candidate.  I'm for Obama because he argues the same thing.  Clinton doesn't.