Friday, August 22, 2008

A Pavlovian Response   [Victor Davis Hanson]

We didn't have to wait long for the much anticipated morally-equivalent message from Barack Obama: “We’ve got to send a clear message to Russia and unify our allies. They can’t charge into other countries. Of course it helps if we are leading by example on that point.”

Let me get this straight: getting a Senate and House majority to authorize a bipartisan joint war-resolution, going to the UN, assembling a coalition, having a national and world debate on the wisdom of such an operation from December 2001 to March 2003, and then attacking a genocidal dictator, and staying on to foster a constitutional democracy are apparently the same "charge" "example" as an autocracy suddenly invading its democratic neighbor during the Olympics, and staying on to annex some of its territory?

Aside from the silliness of these statements, the problem for Obama, again, is that incrementally they really do start to add up—America's "tragic history," the mini-sermon on decline to the 7-year-old, waffling exegesis to Rick Warren about our own evil, the confessions to the cheering Berliners about our transgressions—and these doubts are enhanced rather than ameliorated by Michelle Obama's various rantings, and the creepy things former associates like Ayers, Wright, and Pfleger have said about America and its culture. Some disinterested observer from Mars might adduce that the Obamas at this point can't help it, since the 'everybody believes it' anti-American message they absorbed was of long duration and reinforced where they went to school, where they worshiped, and where they worked.

Team Obama needs to sit him down, law down the law, and give him the Michelle muzzle: "Barack! You are running for the top job in America, so when you mention the U.S., or its history, just dispense with the Harvard qualifiers, the howevers and buts, the oppression studies talking points, the morally equivalent cute examples, the tangled legal nuances, and professorial huffing, and simply say nice things about your country, and if you can't, don't say anything at all about it. The voters know that you believe America is not perfect, but they don't know whether you believe it is good."

08/22 12:41 PMShare