Warthog At Large

BBC Europe editor Mark Mardell has this to say about European leaders Silvio Berlusconi and Nicolas Sarkozy. When you think about it, this team-up actually sounds ingenious: Berlusconi is ill-mannered and Sarkozy is ill-tempered. Perfect. Together, they can set the EU summits on fire and make the boring ones like Merkel and Brown eat their dust.

Hillary Clinton actually released an ad about Obama’s “bitter” remark?! Come on! It’s silly at best and pathetic at worst which, when you think about it, pretty much sums up how her campaign is going these days. If Obama had been as inane as her, he would’ve also made an ad taunting her for that ludicrous sniper fire story.

What’s utterly absurd about all these criticisms against Obama’s statement is that they were nothing more than blatant misinterpretations of what he really said. I didn’t think he was being elitist or condescending. I thought he was merely being truthful. When people lose their jobs and the economy gets worse by the minute and all the while their president cheerfully declares “we’re gonna be just fine,” I’m pretty sure they’re not exactly in the most positive mood.

When people get screwed over and over by government, of course they’re going to be bitter and cynical and when somebody comes along talking about social welfare and economic reforms, the initial reaction would naturally be skepticism if not outright distrust. So they end up casting their votes based on the candidates’ religious affiliation or policies on gun ownership because it’s no use discussing health care and economic programs which will ultimately fail anyway. And Clinton says this point of view is out of touch. Hmm… I wonder what planet she’s living in right now.

The way Hillary is making such a big deal out of this merely shows her desperation and it doesn’t make her look good at all. Let’s talk about Iraq or the economy or health care or just anything remotely important because this “bitter” brouhaha is already going overboard.

Apparently, the Italians just can’t get enough of Silvio Berlusconi and his pompous, impolite, politically incorrect, and utterly hilarious quotes that not even The Daily Show can top. “The best political leader in Europe and in the world” (as he describes himself) is back and that means of course that we’ll definitely have more of this.

Who cares if he’s not a statesman. George Bush is a dumb-ass monkey and he got to be the so-called leader of the free world. And contrary to what Walter Veltroni said, we do need a premier who sticks up his fingers and tells dirty jokes at European summits. Otherwise we’ll all be bored to death and the mainstream media won’t have anything to talk about and that’s just tragic.

Just imagine smooth talker Il Cavaliere making a pass at Carla Bruni, model wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, at the next EU summit. I can already tell that this is going to be a fun year.

It’s been almost two weeks since Barack Obama gave that phenomenal speech on race to explain the larger context of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s inflammatory statements. He tried to engage the people in a broader discussion of racism, asking them to see the big picture and take a deeper look at the root causes of racist sentiments. I would’ve thought it was enough to make people understand and respond in a more intelligent manner.

Unfortunately, some folks never managed to absorb the point of Obama’s speech and are still stuck on Rev. Wright and how much of a racist jerk they think he is. Elizabeth Hasselback on The View was still harping about the pastor’s stinging words and seems to be intent on building an archive of his controversial quotes. Barbara Walters pointed out that Obama has got a foul-mouthed racist for a mentor. In an interview, Hillary Clinton said she wouldn’t want Rev. Wright as her pastor.

With all the attention this guy is getting, one would think he’s also running for president.He’s probably more famous now than Ron Paul. It’s sad that some people just don’t get the point. It’s even more tragic that the opportunity for having a more open-minded examination of racism was just lost amidst all the myopic criticisms against Rev. Wright. Sure, a lot of people liked Obama’s speech and pundits were falling all over themselves heaping praises on him. But after the excitement over his brilliant oratory skills has died down, they just conveniently forgot the points he raised and went back to their simplistic rantings about his former pastor.

Apparently it’s still too much to expect a more mature response from people who have long been used to pettiness and narrow-minded thinking.

I’ve never cried at a political speech before and I never thought I would but after watching Barack Obama deliver this transcendent message about racism, I just couldn’t keep my eyes dry for too long.

What’s so moving about this are not the well-crafted words or the catchy yes-we-can-type phrases or even the charismatic figure of Obama himself. It’s the utmost sincerity and the undeniable ring of truth that reverberates throughout the speech. It’s the honesty with which the issue of racism is discussed; not clothed with overly complex analysis or simplistic rhetoric, not draped with patronizing political lingo that only wants to get on the good side of everyone, not treated as a peripheral pest that should just be swept under the rug.

Obama could’ve just stopped at condemning Reverend Wright’s statements and dissociating himself from his pastor then moving on to deliver a lively, applause-heavy stump. Let’s just forget about this nasty episode and move on. But he chose to flesh out the issue in a way that showed his thorough understanding of where racism stands in America today. And he still declared that this guy who received so much flak for anti-racist comments and who is a big PR liability to his campaign is like family to him. That’s a commendable act of political courage.

The great thing about this is that it is not just a political speech. It is an enduring message that will definitely be remembered long after this election, long after this generation has passed.

One of the false rumors circulating about Barack Obama is that he’s a Muslim. Apparently, some of his detractors are using this to smear his reputation, even emphasizing that his middle name is *gasp* Hussein. These are silly attacks, I know, but what pisses me off is the underlying idea that identifying someone, accurately or not, as a Muslim is somehow disparaging. They’re essentially saying “This Obama guy is a Muslim. He’s bad news.”

This reinforces the idiotic concept that equates an Islam adherent with religious extremism, suicide bombing, and terrorist attacks. I grew up and went to school with a lot of Muslims and some of them are my friends. They’re not gun-wielding, “diaperhead” terrorists and they certainly weren’t jumping with glee when 9/11 happened. Sure we don’t go to the same churches, recite the same prayers, or read the same religious books but aside from these I don’t see much difference between us. So honestly, I really won’t mind being mistaken for a Muslim. There’s nothing derogatory about that.

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I know most Americans can’t stomach the idea of having a Muslim president. Heck, some of them even have a problem with Obama’s skin color or Hillary’s gender. Others are not too pleased that Romney is a Mormon. And there are those who think that McCain is too old. How many prejudiced -isms can you count there?