When “Stuff” Comes To “Shove”

Senator Clinton, for about a week now, I’ve been trying to tell you that if you insist upon pushing this “fauxnity,” or “phonity” (faux or phony unity) on your supporters, well, you can just shove it.  Obviously, though, you haven’t been listening.  If you had, you would never have sent out this e-mail:

I cannot wait for the lights to come up and the cameras to roll at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. When I join Democrats from across the country who are unified and ready to get to work to elect Barack Obama, I want you there.

The rest of the e-mail went on predictably; blah, blah, blah, help with the debt, blah, blah, blah, elect Senator Obama, blah, blah-de-blah-blah-blah.  You’re kidding, right?  Are you really asking us (all the people who have supported you because we sincerely believe that if not for a seriously flawed, corrupt nominating process, you, the best candidate in the race, would and should already be the  nominee,) to enable you to continue to allow Obama to treat you like Cagney treated Mae Clarke in “Public Enemy”?  Give me a break. Has this guy somehow magically become competent, experienced, qualified or acceptable while boogey-boarding in Hawaii?  I don’t think so.  Which means you leave us no choice.  You’ve made your pitch, now I’m taking it upon myself to make our position crystal clear.

Not gonna ride the phony pony, Senator, and as far as I’m concerned, “stuff” has indeed come to “shove.”  So take the rah-rah Obaba noise and, well…you know what to do.  We told you we’d take it from here, and we’re not finished yet.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

What’s Wrong With Being A Muslim?

Frankly, I don’t care what anybody’s religious affiliation is.  Ultimately, in my opinion, every relationship with God is personal, unique and sacred, whether one subscribes to any organized religion or not.  However, I do care about a person’s convictions.  What are their values?  What do they care enough about to fight for?  What principles do they believe in?

In the case of Barack Obama, it’s hard to know.  His tendency to flip-flop on issues aside, he has shown a disturbing penchant for abandoning people and things one would believe should be dear.  When it became politically expedient to denounce his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, the man he proclaims brought him to his faith, he did so.  Not only did he renounce his pastor, but, one month later, his church.  The timing of his resignation from Trinity United Church of Christ is forever suspect, coming as it did on the day of the DNC’s Rules and By-laws Committee meeting where he was awarded votes not directly cast for him.  Was that his reward?  If so, what does that say about the man’s character?  The strength of his commitment?

Then, there are the persistent Muslim rumors.  Though Obama has repeatedly denied any allegiance to the Muslim faith, the rumors refuse to die.  On his website there are numeous denials, none of them in his own words, at least as far as I could see in the limited time I allowed myself to peruse it.

“Obama’s campaign aides have emphasized his strong Christian beliefs and downplayed any Islamic connection. The Illinois senator was raised ‘in a secular household in Indonesia by his stepfather and mother,’ his chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said in a statement in January after false reports began circulating that Obama had attended a radical madrasa, or Koranic school, as a child. ‘To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago,’ Gibbs’ Jan. 24 statement said.” [Los Angeles Times, 3/16/07]

Considering how long his relationship with Trinity lasted after that denial, along with the behavior of his surrogates regarding the seating of two Muslim women at one of his rallies, it’s no wonder that people remain skeptical.  To be fair, he apologized directly to the women, but the question remains, what was his staff so afraid of?  Why the seeming paranoia?  Either he’s a Muslim or he’s not, no big deal.  Or is it?

Many people seem to have taken it upon themselves to prove beyond a doubt that he is a Muslim.  A blogger by the name of Texas Darlin, claims to have confirmation that on Obama’s registration to an Indonesian school, under the name Barry Sotero, his religion was listed as Muslim.    A number of recent books make the same or similar allegations, but again, who cares?

Obama’s refusal to take a definitive stand on core character issues, like his own religion, is troubling.  This is 2008, if Obama cannot stand up for who he is, whoever he is, that says more about him as a man than it does about America as a nation.  Because more than forty years ago, another black man took on the world, and won.