Free Press –
Obama letters from Steve, Don, Sandy
Dear Friends,
Good morning. Last week’s column about Barack Obama and the race issue led two of my faithful readers to respond. The paragraph which became a lightening rod was this: “Unfortunately, racial prejudice is alive and well in America. I can’t tell you how many intelligent people I know say that Obama is not ready to be America’s President. Is that a code for they won’t vote for a black man?”
Alas, I didn’t include the other side of the prejudicial divide…the gender thing. I should have included Hillary Clinton in the argument…Are there voters who wouldn’t support Hillary because she’s female?
You bet there are.
The first
letter is from Steve___ who was in my Boy Scout troop years ago. He just moved
back to Quakertown. I look forward to a visit. Steve, please call me at
“You’re column on August 14 hits a nerve with me and I have to write to you about it,” Steve began.
“You seem to be saying that to not support or plan to vote for Barack Obama shows that one is racist. I have lots of reasons why I will not vote for Barack Obama for our next president and NONE of them is that he is black. And I think I am reasonably intelligent.
“I hope that your opinion is not the foundation for the excuse that if Obama is not elected president, it is due to racism. Obama has chosen to present himself as a candidate for president, and I then have to examine all his positions and lots of other facets about him…including his personality, his background, his prior service, his comments on and off the record, and so forth.
“Just as I am doing with John McCain. And I am not enamored with him. But for the most part (I know we can do write-in voting), we have only two choices for this very important office. I do not want Barrack Obama for the next president, and I am not a racist.
“Please do not paint all of us who are exercising our “intelligence” as we consider the candidates and as we make our choice for one or the other as racist if we do not choose the black candidate. Surely you yourself believe there is more substance to Obama than he is black or graduated from Harvard. Do not reduce Obama to the “black” candidate as if that is the only thing about him that matters.”
Steve, that’s a great letter.
The second response came from Don and Sandy____.
“Might we point out...that it was Mr. Obama himself and the major media that FIRST made Mr. Obama’s race an ISSUE in the Demo Presidential Primary, when the MEDIA and PRESS questioned whether Mr. Obama was “black enough?”
“Then, Mr. Obama stated that POOR, WHITE, RELIGIOUS, ‘gun totin’ PA voters wouldn’t vote for anyone who “didn’t look like or wasn’t like THEM!
“Mr. Obama
was certainly RIGHT about his OWN observations, since Hillary DID carry PA,
proving, I guess, that PA Demos really
“American voters simply aren’t as uninformed or just plain dumb as the MEDIA and the political pundits always seem to imply….One only needs to carefully examine Mr. Obama’s past record (or lack of any substantial record) in Illinois and DC….in addition to his ongoing list of reversals of position on some of the most critical issues of the day….for instance:
“He insists (he wasn’t yet a US Senator)…he would NOT have ever voted FOR the 2003 invasion of Iraq…
“During the
DEMO Primary, his position changed from calling for IMMEDIATE withdrawal of
“To what he
“Now is Mr. Obama REALLY all that concerned about US troop casualties in Iraq?
“Presently,
he claims HE would send these very SAME troops to pursue (a probably long-dead)
Osama Bin-Ladin and the Taliban in Afghanistan…Even to the point of invading
the sovereign nation of Pakistan…which theater of operations is
“Need I
even mention his ‘pacifistic’ (diplomacy ONLY) approach to handling Iran…which
has
“Or, that
by keeping our TIRES fully inflated and engines tuned to the
“NOPE! It
isn’t
“His obviously, highly persuasive and articulate oratory; His charming personality and very youthful, handsome good-looks; His equally charming and attractive wife and two delightful children; his constant enthusiastic and highly contagious, mantra of…Hope and Change you can believe in;
“Meanwhile, stay tuned.”
Thanks Don and Sandy for that thought provoking response…even though I don’t agree with it.
Friends, I’ll close this column with a paragraph from last week’s column: “How can John McCain get away with preaching that Washington’s been heading down the wrong road for three decades when he’s been in the Senate for 26 of those 30 years? Won’t voters realize that a McCain victory equates to four more years of the Bush team?”
You can understand why only two senators, Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy, moved directly from the U.S. Senate to the White House. (My Google search reveals that 15 senators have gone on to serve in the White House, but only two did so immediately).
The quandary for Presidential candidates is the public record. That is to say, the longer the public service…the sharper the picture. And since it’s perfectly clear that Americans have not been pleased with the past eight years (at least), isn’t John McCain part of the problem?
Thanks Steve and Don and Sandy for your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith