McCain’s Farrakhan

Here’s a taste of the rhetoric from a man who just endorsed McCain in public and embraced him on stage:

"It was the disobedience and rebellion of the Jews, God’s chosen people, to their covenantal responsibility to serve only the one true God, Jehovah, that gave rise to the opposition and persecution that they experienced beginning in Canaan and continuing to this very day."

Hagee is also a virulent anti-gay and anti-Catholic bigot. McCain is "very proud to have Pastor John Hagee’s support." Is Kirchick awake? 

Dissent Of The Day

A reader writes:

If the Obama campaign is allowed to frame the Iraq debate about the initial decision to go to war, then the campaign never has to deal with what actually matters to U.S. security today — how best should the country handle the situation on the ground now?  Just as McCain should be forced to answer what are the consequences of a prolonged US presence in Iraq, Obama should be forced to answer what are the consequences of rapid withdrawal.  And both must justify to the public their rationale and forward planning well beyond "staying for 100 years" vs. "engage in regional diplomacy."

Let’s be clear-eyed about this, as opposed to merely rhetorical.  The multiple players with interests at stake in Iraq mean that, absent a either a US presence or a stable Iraqi governmental authority that is backed by force, whether American, UN, NATO or otherwise, Iraq is highly likely to descend into a much more fertile ground for a civil war pitting Sunni radical against both Sunni moderate and all Shia. How best would either candidate handle a situation whereby US departure equates to Al Qaeda in Iraq versus the nascent Iraqi government versus Iran versus Kurdistan versus Turkey versus, potentially, the Persian Gulf Sunni states with the most to lose from regional instability? (Kuwait, Saudi, UAE, and Oman). Obama was certainly right about the wrong decision to go to war. But that decision didn’t simply stop history, it created new realities in the region that actually do matter to US national security – both economic and political. My problem with Obama’s "Iraq policy" is that it appears to advocate rapid withdrawal without regard for the consequences. McCain, at the very least, has made the honest acknowledgement that there are consequences of both staying longer or withdrawing rapidly, and he’s made decision that staying longer carries less risk than hasty withdrawal.  McCain is at least attempting to focus the debate on where it should be – on what matters tomorrow.  How much longer will you keep letting Obama slide by taking credit only for his correct decision so many yesterdays ago?

Who Said This?

Obama or Reagan?

"Everywhere we have met thousands of Democrats, independents and Republicans from all economic conditions and walks of life bound together in that community of shared values of family, work, neighborhood, peace and freedom. They are concerned, yes, but they are not frightened. They are disturbed but not dismayed. They are the kind of men and women Tom Paine had in mind when he wrote – during the darkest days of the American Revolution — ‘We have it in our power to begin the world over again.’"

I also recall from my misty memory another Reagan line: "We are the change."

The Urgent, Clear Choice For Gay Voters: Obama

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This is telling to me:

An interesting moment came when he was asked a question about LGBT rights and delivered an answer that seemed to suit the questioner, listing the various attributes — race, gender, etc. — that shouldn’t trigger discrimination, to successive cheers. When he came to saying that gays and lesbians deserve equality, though, the crowd fell silent. So he took a different tack: "Now I’m a Christian, and I praise Jesus every Sunday," he said, to a sudden wave of noisy applause and cheers. "I hear people saying things that I don’t think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian," he said, and the crowd seemed to come along with him this time.

To hear someone defend gay and lesbian dignity and equality from a Christian perspective and to do so in the context of a largely African-American crowd, is much, much more than any candidate for the presidency has ever done. It’s a break through. If it were just words, it would be one thing. But he has now done this repeatedly in front of black crowds, when he didn’t have to. And he has put his specific commitments in writing in an open letter.

It’s time to be candid about this – because gay voters, in my judgment, could make the difference in Ohio and Texas and Vermont and Rhode Island. There are very large gay communities in Texas’ cities, and Ohio has the sixth largest gay community in the country. A plea: Do not sleep-walk into that voting booth with vague good feelings about the Clintons. Walk into that booth with eyes open and see what gay people have in front of them.

Now you may have many reasons not to vote for Obama, and no gay voter should vote on one issue. But solely with respect to gay matters, there is simply no choice here. Obama’s positions, candor, courage, generation and religious embrace of us are dispositive.

Yes, the McClurkin flap was poorly handled and a casualty of the usual gay-straight tensions in the African American south. But it is overwhelmed by Obama’s clear support and understanding of gay people and willingness to support our dignity at times and in places where others have not. I’ve seen it unprompted in private and unapologetically in public. I never saw it in the Clinton years, and Clinton herself is a victim of the defensive crouch that has immobilized progress at the national level for a decade or more. The current Washington set-up is broken. If you haven’t seen that these past few years, you have blinders on. It doesn’t deliver – and won’t, without a president who actually believes that gay people deserve full equality. Yes, it’s partly generational – Obama sees gay people in a way Clinton never will, as a function of her age and background. But it’s also, it seems to me, an indication that he really is a Christian. One day, it will seem as obvious that Christians should support gay equality as it is now obvious that they should have opposed segregation. What Obama does for gay people in a religious context is just as important as what he does for us in a political one. Both are vital – because it is the abuse of religion that is at the core of the hostility to gay dignity.

What Obama is doing on the gay issue has the potential transform it and help us as a society to move past it. No, he’s not a savior. No, we shouldn’t expect miracles. No, we should never delegate the work of our equality to anyone else. We, after all, are the ones we’ve been waiting for. But within the Democratic contest, the case for backing Obama at this point in time is, to my mind, urgent, vital, historic.

Gay Americans must not throw this chance away.

(Photo: Jeff Haynes/AFP/Getty.)

The Red Phone

Clinton deploys her smartest ad yet. It really advertizes her inner nerd and workaholic as virtues. In many ways, I think Clinton should have emphasized her frumpy, unglamorous, but diligent side more. She could appeal in a way that Queen Elizabeth II has eventually appealed: a familiar, hard-working, uninspiring grandma who knows what she’s doing and will always be cautious but smart. Alas, Clinton’s boomer narcissism and fathomless self-pity mess up the picture. But as a last minute gambit, it’s smart:

By the way, I’m a little disturbed by how eerily close this image is to the one I posted last night. Yes, it’s boogey-man time. But Clinton wants to let you know she’ll protect you.