And repeating the lie "over and over and over and over again" [context doesn't matter] that he is a racist will never 'swiftboat' it into being true.

Nor is Barack Obama a racist because liars and cheats desperately seek to attribute the words of somebody else to him, or because they try to project their own mendacity and racism onto his wife and daughters. If smear and false imputation is the only way these liars and cheats have of maligning his character and making their slurs stick, then they're in a swiftboad-load of doo-doo, or hosepucky.

Defamation and slander by false attribution is an old mud-slinging tactic. It's not a very clever one either. But it is effective. People have a lazy mental tic of assuming that the merest proximity between two things also implies a causal link between them. It doesn't.

Barack Obama, take heart: It's only just begun and already they're running scared.

...for defending him.

You do know that he's running for POTUS and not for Taoiseach right?

We all have a big share in you guys getting it right, especially us colonies here on the margins.

Merest proximity? I very much think not. This isn't Farrakhan, who he can wave off as a nutter. This is his pastor of twenty years. He's a very devout Christian, as we know. Loves Jesus. Goes to church.

And this congregation claps and cheers at all of these, ahem, controversial, preachings. And he's not aware of this.

This is going to be a huge problem for him for many, many months. You have to see this.

The President has to deal with Congress, the Courts, the professional bureaucracy and a bunch of other groups that he/she can't really control. We have a stable system for better or worse. Is who we elect really going to change your life that much?

Unless you naively suppose the installation of mad King GW hasn't already affected the quality of everybody's life, worldwide. Think about the ripple-effect of his policies globally for a moment. Besides, I lived over there for over 2 decades and so have more than a passing or vicarious interest.

Whatever we do, it'll have ripple effects that impact you. George Bush didn't invent sub-prime mortgages or overvalue dot.coms or do a lot of other stuff that originated here and hurt you there.

And I'm not sure Al Gore wouldn't have fucked up the GWOT either. Look at how we acted during the early Cold War.

Just say a prayer that the Congress is a different party than the Executive Branch and that no one blows up any more of our real estate.

and the attempt to tar him as such will fail.

But the swiftboating of his patriotism by the right will succeed. He has done some politically stupid shit, that doesn't really matter except to the dumbasses who put Bush in office twice--American voters in the general election.

This is the pattern they will show over and over and over again:

His refusal to wear a flag pin (horrors!!)

His refusal to put his hand over his heart during the National Anthem (string him up!!)

His spiritual advisor is anti-American (drag him behind a truck until dead)

And this *is* America, after all. Saying it over and over again makes it true (see: Iraq has weapons of mass destruction)

Have you been to Ireland lately?

Our culture has been invaded and overtaken by yours, completely and totally. Our economy owes more than 60% to the presence of US companies. Our oil prices are largely determined by the strength of the dollar. Our national security is fashioned in the Post-9/11 world after yours. We are your 51st state. When you sneeze we get a cold. US hegemony is unavoidable. It's as if you guys owned us.

But you're right. Mostly, we just go about our lives in the micro-level.

On the other hand, if you're really only challenging my right to converse here, then let me say in my defence I find the level of discourse very stimulating and infectious. I enjoy weighing in even if some may feel my nationality disqualifies me. If you feel that way, then you'll be the first to have ever expressed that view.

I went to the Irelands in 2003. Nice places and everyone looks pretty well off.

Face it, the Northern Earls have fled, the Wild Geese have flown, your a little Anglo-Saxon country squeezed between a bunch of much bigger Anglo-Saxon countries. If not the US stomping around your green fields and business parks then the UK or Canada. It's geography.

I'm not questioning your right to say whatever you want. I like reading what you say. Say on!

(You're not mad at me are you? I'm not going to have to check underneath my car every morning for the rest of my life am I?)

The racial aspects will reverberate for a while, but in the end it will bring people closer together rather than apart - except for those who will never honestly reconcile themselves to the issues of color.

Patriotism is a tougher issue. In the broadest sense, patriotism is nothing more than the decision to stand together and it's difficult for some people to see beyond symbolic acts to the real choices in what it means to have common purpose.

I was amused by the controversy over Michelle Obama's admission that she was finally proud of America. I haven't hit that point myself. I am pleased that we haven't totally lost sight of what we intend to become, but there are a lot of things we have become that concern me.

Patriotism generally does more harm to a nation than good. Patriotism is simply loyalty and I am loyal to family only. I know family well enough, but I have lived in this nation many years and still don't really know it. I don't find it honest - particularly with itself. I trust its leadership and it's process for defining and enabling that leadership even less.

Ambrose Bierce defined patriotism as combustible rubbish. He was being kind.

Zoo-Boy.

And saying he is not, over and over, will not change that fact.

Jack

consumed by racism.

But let me ask you one question. The man is as much white as he is Black. What do you suppose made him select the one culture over the other? I don't buy into the theory that he was not welcomed in his alternate culture. In fact I don't buy into the theory of sub-culture at all, at least not any more.

Right now it's not so much his personal views that are at stake. Anyone who listens to the man for a length of time I believe would be satisfactorily convinced that his thoughts dwell in a plane above skin color. The real question is how far from his chosen roots can he travel? That remains to be seen. The office of national leadership here in this country has the worst possible selection process attached to that we might imagine for such an important job. I would hazard to guess that none of the candidates out there now could even pass a civil service exam. That's just plain scary!

Also I don't know that they are running scared. I pointed this out in the last election cycle and I will point it out again in this one. The conservative vote is notoriously eleventh hour and has a habit of coming out of nowhere like a tidal wave. The GOP is still more unified than the Democratic party, perhaps less unified than in times past but the march of former hopefuls behind the heir apparent has been amazing. You just don't see that on the Democratic side...with the possible exception of Bill Richardson who looks to be a rather sleazy opportunist.

This country missed its chance to get something done when they snubbed Ron Paul. Settling for the low road candidates demonstrates that we have grown addicted to our pain.

jo

and one that many people tend to overlook and yet I believe it may be the single most motivating factor in almost any election...jingoism!

It is almost never mentioned and yet it remains the 800 pound Gorilla.

I have already heard comments from the public that they understand that Obama's personal views are different from his Pastor's. The real question is why did he sit there for so long and listen to this garbage? It will be a very, very tough question for him to answer.