Distraction -- Obama's word for
questions about the allegations of wrongdoing by himself and/or his
close associates. When Obama talks about "distractions" he's
dancin'.
Distractions -- They Began Early
March 28th, 2008 -- It's All a
Distraction! (Posted:
Brian Faughnan on March 28, 2008 02:25 PM)
Obama on Jeremiah
Wright:
Part of what I hope to do in this campaign and as
president is to get us beyond these divisions that distract us
from our common challenges and our common opportunities and move the
country forward.
On going to war in Iraq:
What I am
opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to
distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty
rate, a drop in the median income -- to distract us from
corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the
worst month since the Great Depression.
Obama on attacks by
Hillary:
We knew that the closer we got to the change we seek,
the more we'd see of the politics we're trying to end -- the attacks and
distortions that try to distract us from the issues that matter
to people's lives, the stunts and the tactics that ask us to fear
instead of hope.
On gay marriage:
The heightened
focus on marriage is a distraction from other, attainable
measures to prevent discrimination and gays and lesbians.
Obama on race, gay marriage, abortion, and illegal immigration:
We get distracted from solving problems such as health care,
employment or the environment because of these divisions. It happens in
every election, and it's not just race. It's immigration, gay people or
abortion. There's always one of these issues that crops up and prevents
us from focusing on vital issues that this country's long-term
well-being depends on us solving.
It's not all that original
to note that much of Obama's rhetoric is pretty vague -- often vapid.
But I've begun to notice how many things Obama regards as distractions.
When he labels a given issue a 'distraction,' he's saying that someone
is whipping up a an issue from whole cloth simply for political gain.
So who does he think is being insincere: gays who want to marry, or
people of faith who think marriage is for a man and a woman? How about
in the competition between border enforcement advocates and those who
want amnesty for illegal aliens? Or between those who favor abortion on
demand, and those who believe life begins at conception?
All of
these are important public policy questions, with divisions among
Americans that prevent easy solutions. Obama shouldn't denigrate broad
swaths of the population just because it would be difficult to address
their concerns.
Distracting Questions
Obama
will not debate Hillary any longer. And the reasons are pretty
clear after last Wednesday’s debacle in Pennsylvania. Obama simply
doesn’t fare well when forced to defend himself extemporaneously.
He gets almost incoherent, and not just on the supposed "distraction"
questions, but also on policy. His answers on capital-gains tax
increases had Hillary smiling and the rest of the nation wondering if he
had bothered to study the issue at all.
After last Wednesday, it looks like a retreat. Obama got a bloody
nose, and suddenly he doesn’t want to appear on national TV, even up
against a cupcake like Katie Couric. The strategy may be sound,
but only if one has no confidence in Obama’s ability to stand up to
tough questioning. In fact, his withdrawal from the debate appears
to be an admission of exactly that.
It’s like a championship boxer refusing to spar so that his pretty face
doesn’t get messed up. Then he expects to step in to the ring and
go toe to toe with the real deal and win.
Obama’s campaign strategy now mirrors his cut and run tactics on the war
in Iraq.
Dismiss All Questions As Distractions
Obama understands that the
real threat to his candidacy is less Hillary Clinton and John McCain
than his own character and cultural attitudes. He came out of
nowhere with his autobiography already written, then saw it embellished
daily by the hagiographic coverage and kid-gloves questioning of a
supine press. (Which is why those "Saturday Night Live" parodies
were so devastatingly effective.)
Then came the three amigos: Tony Rezko, the indicted fixer; Jeremiah
Wright, the racist reverend; William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist.
And then Obama's own anthropological observation that "bitter"
working-class whites cling to guns and religion because they
misapprehend their real class interests.
In the now-famous Pennsylvania debate, Obama had extreme difficulty
answering questions about these associations and attitudes. The
difficulty is understandable. Some of the contradictions are
inexplicable. How does one explain campaigning throughout 2007 on
a platform of transcending racial divisions, while in that same year
contributing $26,000 to a church whose pastor incites race hatred?
What is Obama to do? Dismiss all such questions about his
associations and attitudes as "distractions." And then count on
his acolytes in the media to wage jihad against those who have the
temerity to raise these questions. As if the character and
beliefs of a man who would be president are less important than the
"issues." As if some political indecency was committed when
Obama was prevented from going through his latest -- 21st and likely
last -- primary debate without being asked about Wright or Ayers or the
tribal habits of gun-toting, God-loving Pennsylvanians.
Issues Of Character Were A Distraction
Yesterday, a
Time magazine a columnist declared that issues of "character" were a
"distraction" in the Presidential race. Obama actually said the
same thing in his North Carolina press conference, that the Reverend
Wright affair has been a "distraction."
It's what liberals usually say when their own character comes under
public scrutiny?
What a heap of pure poppycock!
Character is the primary issue in every Presidential election.
John Adams' words on the matter:
The people "have a right, an indisputable, inalienable, indefeasible,
divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge -- I mean
of the character and conduct of their rulers."
We, the people, now have indisputable evidence that Barack Obama lacks
the integrity of character to be President.
Three Components Of The Obama Distraction
Defense
The Obama campaign is seeking to preemptively declare what they
unilaterally have decided -- with the implicit assistance of the media
-- are the permissible
rules for engagement
of their gaffe-prone candidate?
There are three basic components to the Obama "Distraction" Defense:
1. The ordinary meaning of words spoken by the candidate, his
supporters, surrogates and wife (especially his wife) are always to be
placed in a larger "context" or dismissed as incidents of "misspeaking."
2. Obama’s lack of significant experience is not to be held
against him, but rather, we are to assess his qualifications based on
his superior judgment.
3. Troublesome voluntary associations with nefarious, noxious and
infamous characters are to be dismissed as trivial and unimportant.
Add The Blago Scandal To All The Other Distractions
Inauguration Day is more than a month away and Obama can add the Blago
scandal to all the other "distractions" he has to deal with.
Obama is surrounded by more scandals than Nixon, Clinton and a dozen
other corrupt politicians combined and he's not even in office yet, and
these things aren't going to go way.
He will be so busy playing
"cover-your-ass," he will be unable to govern. His entire
administration will be on damage control from day one, and eventually,
this will all crumble around him.
Affirmative action is a
wonderful thing.
Obama Bemoans Distractions
Google News reports that at the
2010 Hampton College commencement, Barack Obama lamented that in the iPad and
Xbox era, information had become a diversion that was imposing new
strains on democracy, in his latest critique of modern media.
Obama, who often chides journalists and cable news outlets for obsessing
with political horse race coverage rather than serious issues, told a
class of graduating university students that education was the key to
progress.
"You're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that
bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of
arguments, some of which don't always rank all that high on the truth
meter," Obama said at Hampton University, Virginia.
"With iPods
and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to
work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of
entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means
of emancipation," Obama said.
He bemoaned the fact that "some of
the craziest claims can quickly claim traction," in the clamor of
certain blogs and talk radio outlets.
"All of this is not only
putting new pressures on you, it is putting new pressures on our country
and on our democracy."
Catch that! -- "some of the craziest
claims can quickly claim traction" -- the
Birther issue is getting to him.
It's on his mind.
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