By Dave Kinnamon, commentary
Put a fork in it, ...
(You know the rest.)
The current Democratic presidential primary race has become so overdone. In Old Testament terms, it’s been cooked holy. It’s been wholly cooked, for sure. And then some.
Americans are tired of the Democratic Party primary.
At least the Republican voters had the decisiveness to fix on one candidate — John McCain — fairly early in the process, even though a McCain presidency would be like the “blind leading the blind” when it comes to Iraq War policy. And equally disastrous to the U.S. economy. Are there any other issues that matter as much to Americans these days than the Iraq War and domestic economy?
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidates fighting one another for their party’s nomination, have covered every possible issue ad nauseum. Emphasize the nauseum. It’s become nauseating to listen to them.
The two have dissected, cross-sectioned and over-talked every possible talking point. And there’s still nearly four months to go until the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colo. Yikes.
Kudos to Barack Obama for putting the loopy “Rev.” Jeremiah Wright in his place — the chair of lunacy — this week. Wright has convincingly demonstrated to the American public he is a kook and must have loons floating about his head. Obama has handled his former friend and all the strange attendant issues surrounding him with dignity, grace, understanding and intelligence.
Wright, who clearly is enjoying the media attention, this week let loose some more of his crackpot notions. For example, the U.S. government, claims Wright, invented HIV to infect the black population. Wright’s justification for his wild claim was the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. Wright also praises Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan — a fellow harebrain who also is, like Wright, loved by black radicals and separatists.
Obama convincingly broke relations with Wright this week, and Obama did so with his typical meaningful eloquence. Obama said Wright’s weird rant this week "directly contradicts everything that I've done during my life."
Though columnist George Will this week sanctioned Obama for ever being friends with Wright, one must consider the extreme right wing source when considering Will’s opinion. Obama need feel no shame at having once trusted and befriended Wright. Reactionaries like George Will are notorious for using smoke and mirrors at election time and prior to Congressional votes on authorizing the president to make war with fictional justification. Such smoke and mirrors maneuvers help their candidate get elected or, in the case of the Iraq War vote, it injects hysteria into the population.
Speaking of smoke and mirrors and the idiocy of American politics, yesterday marked the fifth anniversary of President George W. Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” rally aboard the USS. Abraham Lincoln, returning to its U.S. home port after seeing action during the conventional ground and air war phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
That silly banner draped along the bridge of the aircraft has come to symbolize to many Americans the flawed thinking and failed policy of the entire Iraq War. Bush’s spokespersons claim “Mission Accomplished” was only referring to the missions the USS. Abraham Lincoln performed during the conventional phase of the war. The explanations the current administration use for their monumental blunders would be hilarious if they weren’t so sad and tragic.
Unfortunately, the “Mission Accomplished” fiasco also has served as brick and mortar to solidify some of our allies’ perceptions of American policy makers as idiotic brutes when it comes to our foreign policy.
Remember five years ago when Donald Rumsfeld and other Iraq War proponents were bashing the French and Germans for refusing to sign on to George W. Bush’s “Coalition of the Willing?” Some Americans went around calling French fries “freedom fries” and doing other things to bash the French.
It’s those types of actions that cause America to lose credibility with our worldwide allies. The French look like geniuses now. If that was Bush’s purpose — to make French policy makers look more intelligent than their American counterparts — then “mission accomplished.”
Kinnamon is online/special projects editor of the News and Eagle. You may reach him at davidk@enidnews.com
