Posted by
John Caile on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 10:59:47 AM
Just when Obama was running into serious resistance to his massive government takeover of healthcare, he was presented with an "incident" involving possible racial overtones. And once again, when caught in a bind, like a master magician, Obama saw an opportunity to misdirect the public's attention away from the healthcare discussion.
Now, I don't for a minute think that the whole Gates affair was intentionally "set-up" - it was likely simple serendipity. But it is now clear that the White House did indeed request that a reporter ask Obama about it during his healthcare press conference.
And now we're all talking about Gates instead of discussing what's actually in the 1000 + page "healthcare" bill. Unfortunately for Obama, not to mention Gates, the facts of the case increasingly put the professor in a less than flattering light - he "went off" on police who clearly did nothing to warrant his diatribe.
But beyond the clumsy handling of the Gates issue, one does have to wonder about Obama's seeming obsession with race - it infuses every aspect of his, and his wife's, rhetoric. Which is rather odd, since, just like the equally race-obsessed Professor Gates, the Obamas have benefitted immensely from the very culture they keep describing as having only limited opportunities for "people of color."
It seems not to matter one whit how many black Americans now own their own homes, run their own businesses, get college degrees, become CEO's of major corporations, and otherwise participate in the American dream. If you listened to Michelle Obama, you'd think we were still having slave auctions at the nearest mega-mall.
We understand why the professional race-baiters like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson cannot afford to let racial discord dissipate - without racial tension, they don't have jobs. But Professor Gates and the Obamas have racial attitudes that do not appear to be economically or socially based - all three of them have both money (the Obamas are millionaires), and prestige.
No, both Gates and the Obamas seem to have what is little more than a deep-seated animosity toward "whitey" - and they are not at all shy about expressing it, sometimes in "code" and others, as in the case of Mr. Gates, in blatantly racist comments. And they are not alone.
But the worthy goal of eliminating racial distrust will never be fully achieved as long as there exists the media-driven double standard that gives credence to every claim of "racial profiling" - yet ignores genuinely vile racist rhetoric from the same peple who claim to be the victims of racism.