Double Standards

Obama is talking out of both sides of his mouth.

On the one hand, he says this election is not about race. Oh and he didn't "vote" for the war in Iraq. And the election is not about race. It's about the fact that he was against the Iraq war "from the beginning." Oh, and, the election isn't about race.

But then he makes it about race.

First the whole Geraldine Ferraro hoopla. I read the article in which that quote was given. She wasn't being racist. She was comparing her role as "The First Female Vice-Presidential Candidate" to Obama's run as "The First Black Presidential Candidate."

And while she should have known better than to say a few forceful words that, invariably, can be taken out of context and used against her, she wasn't saying anything that hasn't already been said.

Obama is black. He is running for President. Many people are attracted to his candidacy. Some may be attracted to it because he is black. (Just as some may be attracted to Clinton because she is a woman.)

Why has Obama's campaign decided we can't talk about these issues? Anytime anyone wants to bring it up, air it out, what-have-you, the Obama camp says the election "should not be about race."

Effectively cutting off the discourse.

UNLESS, of course, you happen to be Obama.

Which brings me to my second point.

Today, he holds a press conference to talk about race and how it is an issue in many people's lives.

Basically repeating things that Ferraro said. Saying things that, until just-before-the-press-conference, were off-limits because that isn't what the election "should be about."

But that doesn't make him racist. It makes him....revolutionary (?!)

And he tries to excuse the hateful, bigoted message of his pastor by saying that the anger is wrong but "very real."

Interesting.

I wonder if homophobes or anti-Semites or religious zealots or...racists have ever used the argument that their hatred is based on fake anger.

Don't think so.

Now I have to go back to my studying.