From Thomas Sowell:
Now that Senator Barack Obama has become the Democrats’ nominee for President of the United States, to the cheers of the media at home and abroad, he has written a letter to the Secretary of Defense, in a tone as if he is already President, addressing one of his subordinates.
The letter ends: “I look forward to your swift response.”
With wars going on in both Iraq and Afghanistan, a Secretary of Defense might have some other things to look after, before making a “swift response” to a political candidate.
Because of the widely publicized statistic that suicide rates among American troops have gone up, Senator Obama says he wants the Secretary of Defense to tell him, swiftly:
“What changes will you make to provide our soldiers in theater with real access to mental health care?”…
…Does Senator Obama know how the rate of suicides or homicides among military veterans compares to the rate of suicides or homicides among their civilian counterparts? Do the facts matter to him, as compared to an opportunity to score political points?
Perhaps even more important, do the media even care whether Senator Obama knows what he is talking about? Or is the symbolism of “the first black President” paramount, even if that means a President with cocky ignorance at a time of national danger?
The media have been crucial to Barack Obama’s whole candidacy. His only achievements of national significance in his entire career have been media achievements and rhetorical achievements.
Perhaps his greatest achievement has been running as a candidate with an image wholly incompatible with what he has actually been doing for decades. This man who is now supposedly going to “unite” us has for years worked hand in glove, and contributed both his own money and the taxpayers’ money, to people who have sought to divide us in the most crude demagogic ways.
Sowell notes that the actual suicide rate amongst veterans is lower than the suicide rate amongst the comparable, civilian demographic group – so, the whole “soldier suicide” issue is something cooked up by the MSM in order to: denigrate our soldiers; denigrate our mission in Iraq; slander George Bush by implication. The MSM doesn’t know the facts. Obama doesn’t know the facts – but while its not that big an issue that the MSM is ignorant, it is highly troubling that Barack Obama, who aspires to the White House, doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
This is the problem when you nominate the “un-named Democrat” made flesh. You might recall from 2004 how in poll after poll, an “un-named” Democrat beat President Bush…of course, once the Democrat was named, President Bush clobbered him. For 2008, the Democrats have figured out how to get what they needed for 2004 – a man know one really knows, who can be presented as the alternate, un-GOP answer to all problems. Obama is an empty suit, and a rather ignorant person into the bargain – emerging from the ideological hothouse of leftwing community activism (an effort, by the way, which does nothing for communties but does do a lot for people on the make and on the take), Obama comes to the table without the foggiest notion of what is going on in America and the world – and the more he speaks, the more clear this becomes.
The race we have is between Obama’s facade and McCain’s truth – if we can tear down Obama’s facade and present McCain’s truth to a majority by November, then we will win, and present Obama the opportunity to be ignorant about why he lost. We can do this, and we must do this – America is too important to be entrusted in such weak hands as Obama’s.
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