<http://www.angrybrownbutch.com/2008/04/30/the-honeymoon-is-officially-over/>The honeymoon is officially over.
Published by <http://www.angrybrownbutch.com/author/jack/>Jack at April 30, 2008 in <http://www.angrybrownbutch.com/category/uncategorized/>Uncategorized, <http://www.angrybrownbutch.com/category/politicsgovernment/>politics/government and <http://www.angrybrownbutch.com/category/racism/>racism.
Towards the beginning of the primaries, I kinda fell for Barack Obama. <http://www.angrybrownbutch.com/2008/02/05/obama-08/>I feel quite a bit harder than I ever expected I'd fall for a front-runner for the Democratic nomination. My girlfriend and I were glued to the TV during the first primaries and especially on Super Tuesday, cheering every time Obama won a state. I felt hopeful, I felt energized, I felt invested. For the first time in the eight years that make up my voting life, I actually donated to the campaign of a presidential nominee. For someone who's quite cynical about electoral politics, these were remarkable things to be experiencing.
As the campaigns continued on, I began to grew weary. <http://www.angrybrownbutch.com/2008/02/22/a-distracted-incomplete-and-biased-response-to-the-democratic-debate/#more-197>The novelty and optimism began to wear off. All of the political posturing, maneuvering and bullshit started to try my patience. Obama kept doing things to remind me that he's still a centrist Democrat and was pretty much destined to disappoint me, annoy me, or straight up piss me off. On primary nights I barely payed attention the the television reports, if I watched at all. And if I did watch, I tuned out about one minute into Barack's speeches, which all sounded the same by now.
When the mess about Obama's relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright started up back in March, I was more upset by the media's response and the Clinton campaign's opportunism about it than I was about Obama's response. I was angry that he'd be so pressed upon to disavow his connections to a man who was simply being honest and upfront about racism, his own experience and understanding of racism as a Black man living in this country. Obama's response wasn't the defiant, firmly anti-racist rebuttal that I would have loved to see, but I understood that he had few choices in this situation that wouldn't just provide more cannon fodder for his critics and the Clinton campaign. I actually thought that some parts of his speech on race dealt quite deftly with both the Wright situation specifically and race and racism in general. Maybe his speech didn't reflect my racial politics, but I understood what he was trying to say and appreciated that he dealt with it as well as he did.
But after yesterday's press conference in which Obama completely through Wright under the bus, I'm officially over him.
I get that Obama had few choices here. I understand that, American society being what it is, Obama would face political demolition if he didn't disown Wright. I can see that the media has been happily fanning the flames of this controversy and that it's miserable timing for Obama's campaign. I know that politics is a game and Obama's playing it as best he can.
The whole thing still leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. Especially this part:
But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS, when he suggests that Minister Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century, when he equates the United States wartime efforts with terrorism, then there are no excuses. They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced. And that's what I'm doing very clearly and unequivocally here today.
The emphasis there is mine. That might be the part that angered me the most. No, Obama, not all Americans are offended by Wright's comments. The implication that all Americans should "rightly" be offended by his comments is, in fact, offensive.
<...> http://www.angrybrownbutch.com/2008/04/30/the-honeymoon-is-officially-over/
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