Saint Obama

Starbucks this morning, Judy speaking: “I think it would be great to have a black president, like Barack Obama.” Sue: “He sure does have charisma.” Me: “But he has not accomplished very much.”

Judy, again: “He is older than John Kennedy was when he was elected.”

Joan Vennochi: “Barack Obama is making headway in presidential politics by following a formula John F. Kennedy would appreciate: promise change, ooze charisma, and downplay experience. While Obama has a good model to follow, he has a way to go before he deserves billing as the next JFK.”

And so it went.

People are just getting to know Obama, who has only been in the Senate for two years. The media treat him like a rock star and it’s nicely symbolic that Obama chose the day of the season premiere of “American Idol” to launch his presidential exploratory committee. To some secularists he is a saint; more on that later.

Let’s take a look at the guy. Barack Hussein Obama Jr. (Yep, his middle name is the same as Saddam’s last name.) was born of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya. Media people call Barack “black” or “African American” for several reasons (See Judy above for one.), including his own preference for those labels.

Black author Debra Dickerson called “the swooning from white people” about Obama “a paroxysm of self-congratulation.” We good!

But black activists are not so sure. Harry Belafonte, who called Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice “house slaves” on the Bush plantation, says America needs to be “careful” about Obama, according to the London Times: Hmmm.

One of Barack’s problems is …… (hushed tones) … He smokes. “The party that reveres the memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who jauntily flaunted his smokes in a fancy little cigarette holder, now is the first to exile those who pollute their own lungs. Senator, snuff it out!” Is he going to be in trouble for subjecting his little girl children to second-hand smoke?

Another problem, this I have on good authority, is that he is NOT Hillary. That’s right -- the Hollywood libs who paved the way for the female (Hillary) presidency with a Gina Davis preview, now have a BIG problem.

DreamWorks moguls Steven Spielberg and David Geffen and actor-ivists George Clooney and Barbra Streisand, forked over $2 grand each to Obama's Senate campaign, and Clooney proclaimed an Obama presidential bid “would be the most electrifying thing to happen to the Democratic Party since Kennedy.” But all of these Hollywood intellectuals also donated to Clinton's Senate bids, so it's unclear which way they'll go. It surely portends trouble in liberal city.

On a more serious note, there is the matter of Obama’s position on human life. Occasionally an aborted baby lives and, under the care of compassionate doctors and nurses, grows to be a healthy child. Such disregard for the intent of the woman is, of course, anathema to NOW and not to be allowed. Thus when the Illinois Legislature voted on a bill (the “Induced Infant Liability Act”) to make sure that doctors provide care to such unusual babies, some women’s groups opposed vehemently, and Senator Obama voted with them. It was important to him to let the babies die.

Obama’s radical stance on abortion puts him further to the left than even NARAL Pro-Choice America. That same year a similar federal law, the “Born Alive Infant Protection Act,” was signed by President Bush. Only 15 members of the U.S. House opposed it, and it passed the Senate unanimously. When the federal bill was being debated, NARAL released a statement that said, “NARAL does not oppose passage of the “Born Alive Infants Protection Act” ... since floor debate served to clarify the bill’s intent and assure us that it is not targeted at Roe v. Wade or a woman’s right to choose.”

This is a troubling issue, that is for sure.

Is Obama one of the liberal elitists who have used the courts to ram social change down our throats without regard to the democratic process. Does he believe activist judges should interpret the Constitution through a left-wing prism and the people should have no say in such matters? Most liberals believe so.

And is Obama tough enough? A president must have the credentials and the worldview to be a credible leader. He must be respected, even feared, by those who want to destroy America. Will he be like “Hillary's co-president, Bill, who lavished a Michael Jordan-autographed basketball on Kim Jong Il -- in hopes of keeping North Korea away from nukes?” Will Putin eat him for breakfast?