Str8skeelz--
I'm having a bit of trouble sorting out exactly which vats of Kool-Aid you've drunk from. Let's take them in order:
"You are worried about the mind set of [a] man who has a legitimate right to sit under whatever pastor he wants? He is a human being..."
Is your argument here that Obama is free to believe what he wants (true, but irrelevant) or that his beliefs aren't germane to his qualification to be President (false and bordering on insane)?
"Your problem, as is CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and every other white person and "token" black person that heard the snippets instead of the actual sermon, is that you all are closet racist."
You're going to have some trouble with this argument as the campaign goes along. It's hard to have effective discourse when any criticism of Obama's opinions or outlook is going to be considered racist. That's not exactly going to be conducive to decent debate, is it?
I suppose you could be right and I am a closet racist. Or maybe I'm simply hopelessly misguided. Or perhaps I find Wright's point of view so bizarre that I simply don't understand the man. Please understand: It's not that I think that Wright is unpatriotic. He's clearly sincere and passionate in his opinions. But it's also clear from not just the YouTube snippets but from the NAACP and National Press Club speeches that he believes we're all living in a sick society that needs revolutionary reform. That's a legitimate viewpoint--it's one with which I profoundly disagree, but I can certainly see how you might come to that judgment. However, because I disagree with it, I won't be voting for any candidates that hold the same viewpoint. I'm suspicious of Obama not because his long association with Wright implies that he believes all the nutty things that Wright believes, but because his long association implies that he agrees with Wright that revolutionary change is needed to save our society.
"...but we can't even have a non-biased discussion about race here in the states?"
Eh? What does a discussion about race have to do with anything that I'm arguing? It's a different issue.
"You want to degrade a man running a campaign cleaner than any presidential campaign I can remember..."
I agree that Obama is running an extraordinarily clean campaign. But on what planet is that a qualification for public office? That's a triumph of style over substance that has nothing to do with effective government.
I'll let you in on a little secret: Politics is dirty. It's petty and self-interested and sometimes it's even corrupt. But it's surprisingly effective at getting only the most important things done. I like it when good laws are hard to pass, but when bad laws are even harder to pass.
I agree that Obama's politics sounds much more high-minded than what I've just described. It concerns me that there's very little evidence that his politics produces the same results as bitterly contested legislative wrangling. That sort of high-mindedness goes along with a bias towards revolutionary change. And that's what worries me.
As for "degradation," if that's a synonym for "disagreement," well, that's just silly.
"This country is about to get what it deserves when Obama loses the nomination and/or election. See the thing about a "hope" and "change" campaign isn't the message. Its the fact that the person giving the message sees something way greater than the person they see in the mirror. They see what could be, not what is or has been."
Wait--you want this new kind of politics that's based on "hope" and "change"--and yet you're going to gloat that we're all "getting what we deserve" if your guy doesn't win? Do you see no contradiction here? When it comes to politics, engaging in this kind of all-or-nothing thinking is going to leave you a very unhappy person. As a tepid McCain supporter, I hope that, in the unlikely event that Hillary gets nominated, you decide to take your bat and go home. But as an American, I hope you decide to hold your nose and support whomever you think is the best candidate to represent your views. That's how the system works, you know.
