Obama Will Triumph -- So Will America by Frank Schaeffer

Sent by our sister Dorinda.

By Frank Schaeffer
Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times best selling author.

Before he'd served even one year President Obama lost the support of the easily distracted left and engendered the white hot rage of the hate-filled right. But some of us, from all walks of life and ideological backgrounds -- including this white, straight, 57-year- old, former religious right wing agitator, now progressive writer and (given my background as the son of a famous evangelical leader) this unlikely Obama supporter -- are sticking with our President.

Why? -- because he is succeeding.

We faithful Obama supporters still trust our initial impression of him as a great, good and uniquely qualified man to lead us. Obama's steady supporters will be proved right. Obama's critics will be remembered as easily panicked and prematurely discouraged at best and shriveled hate mongers at worst.

The Context of the Obama Presidency

Not since the days of the rise of fascism in Europe, the Second World War and the Depression has any president faced more adversity. Not since the Civil War has any president led a more bitterly divided country. Not since the introduction of racial integration has any president faced a more consistently short-sighted and willfully ignorant opposition - from both the right and left.

As the President's poll numbers have fallen, so has his support from some on the left who were hailing him as a Messiah not long ago; all those lefty websites and commentators who were falling all over themselves on behalf of our first black president during the 2008 election.

The left's lack of faith has become a self-fulfilling "prophecy" -- snipe at the President and then watch the poll numbers fall and then pretend you didn't have anything to do with it!

Here is what Obama faced when he took office -- none of which was his fault:

# An ideologically divided country to the point that America was really two countries

# Two wars; one that was mishandled from the start, the other that was unnecessary and immoral

# The worst economic crisis since the Depression

# America's standing in the world at the lowest point in history

# A country that had been misled into accepting the use of torture of prisoners of war

# A health care system in free-fall

# An educational system in free-fall

# A global environmental crisis of history-altering proportions (about which the Bush Administration and the Republicans had done nothing)

# An impasse between culture warriors from the right and left

# A huge financial deficit inherited from the terminally inept, irresponsible Bush Administration.

And those were only some of the problems sitting on the President's desk!

"Help" from the Right?

What did the Republicans and the religious right, libertarians and half-baked conspiracy theorists -- that is what the Republicans were reduced to by the time Obama took office -- do to "help" our new president (and our country) succeed? They claimed that he wasn't a real American, didn't have an American birth certificate, wasn't born here, was secretly a Muslim, was a white-hating "racist," was secretly a communist, was actually the Anti-Christ, (!) and was a reincarnation of Hitler and wanted "death panels" to kill the elderly!
They not-so-subtly called for his assassination through the not-so-subtle use of vile signs held at their rallies and even a bumper sticker quoting Psalm 109:8. They organized "tea parties" to sound off against imagined insults and all government in general and gathered to howl at the moon. They were led by insurance industry lobbyists and deranged (but well financed) corporate "commentators" from Glenn Beck to Rush Limbaugh.

The utterly discredited Roman Catholic bishops teamed up with the utterly discredited evangelical leaders to denounce a president who was trying to actually do something about the poor, the environment, to diminish the number of abortions through compassionate programs to help women and to care for the sick! And in Congress, the Republican leadership only knew one word: "No!"

In other words, the reactionary white, rube, uneducated, crazy American far right, combined with the educated but obtuse neo-conservative war mongers, religious right shills for big business, libertarian Fed Reserve-hating gold bug, gun-loving crazies, child-molesting acquiescent "bishops," frontier loons and evangelical gay-hating flakes found one thing to briefly unite them: their desire to stop an uppity black man from succeeding at all costs!

"Help" from the Left?

What did the left do to help their newly elected president? Some of them excoriated the President because they disagreed with the bad choices he was being forced to make regarding a war in Afghanistan that he'd inherited from the worst president in modern history! Others stood up and bravely proclaimed that the President's economic policies had "failed" before the President even instituted them! Others said that, since all gay rights battles had not been fully won within virtually minutes of the President taking office, they'd been "betrayed"! (Never mind that Obama's vocal support to the gay community is stronger than any other president's has been. Never mind that he signed a new hate crimes law!)

Those that had stood in transfixed legions weeping with beatific emotion on election night turned into an angry mob saying how "disappointed" they were that they'd not all immediately been translated to Heaven the moment Obama stepped into the White House! Where was the "change"? Contrary to their expectations, they were still mere mortals!

And the legion of young new supporters was too busy texting to pay attention for longer than a nanosecond. "Governing"?! What the hell does that word, uh, like mean?"

The President's critics left and right all had one thing in common: impatience laced with little-to-no sense of history (let alone reality) thrown in for good measure. Then, of course, there were the white, snide know-it-all commentators/talking heads who just couldn't imagine that maybe, just maybe, they weren't as smart as they thought they were and certainly not as smart as their president. He hadn't consulted them, had he? So he must be wrong!

The Obama critics' ideological ideas defined their idea of reality rather than reality defining their ideas - say, about what is possible in one year in office after the hand that the President had been dealt by fate, or to be exact, by the American idiot nation that voted Bush into office. twice!

Meanwhile back in the reality-based community - in just 12 short months -- President Obama:

#Continued to draw down the misbegotten war in Iraq;
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Thoughtfully and decisively picked the best of several bad choices regarding the war in Afghanistan;
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Gave a major precedent-setting speech supporting gay rights;
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Restored America's image around the globe;
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Banned torture of American prisoners;
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Stopped the free-fall of the American economy;
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Put the USA squarely back in the bilateral international community;
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Put the USA squarely into the middle of the international effort to halt global warming;
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Stood up for educational reform;
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Won a Nobel Peace Prize;
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Moved the trial of terrorists back into the American judicial system of checks and balances;
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Did what had to be done to start the slow, torturous and almost impossible process of health care reform that 7 presidents had failed to even begin;
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Responded to hatred from the right and left with measured good humor and patience;
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Stopped the free-fall of job losses;
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Showed immense personal courage in the face of an armed and dangerous far right opposition that included the sort of disgusting people who show up at public meetings carrying loaded weapons and carrying Timothy McVeigh-inspired signs about the "blood of tyrants" needing to "water the tree of liberty";
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Showed that he could not only make the tough military choices but explain and defend them brilliantly;
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

Other than those "disappointing" accomplishments -- IN ONE YEAR, President Obama "failed"! Other than that, he didn't "live up to expectations"!

Who actually has failed...
...are the Americans who can't see the beginning of a miracle of national rebirth right under their jaded noses.

Who failed are the smart ass ideologues of the left and right who began rooting for this President to fail so that they could be proved right in their dire and morbid predictions.

Who failed are the movers and shakers behind our obscenely dumb news cycles that have turned "news" into just more stupid entertainment for an entertainment-besotted infantile country.

Here's the good news: President Obama is succeeding without the help of his lefty "supporters" or hate-filled Republican detractors!

The Future Looks Good

After Obama has served two full terms, (and he will), after his wisdom in moving deliberately and cautiously with great subtlety on all fronts -- with a canny and calculating eye to the possible succeeds, (it will), after the economy is booming and new industries are burgeoning, (they will be), after the doomsayers are all proved not just wrong but silly: let the record show that not all Americans were panicked into thinking the sky was falling.

Just because we didn't get everything we wanted in the first short and fraught year Obama was in office, not all of us gave up. Some of us stayed the course. And we will be proved right.

P.S. If you agree that Obama is shaping up to be a great president, please pass this on and hang in there! Pass it on anyway to ensure that his "report card" gets the attention it deserves.

Today on the presidential campaign trail

By The Associated Press

IN THE HEADLINES

McCain in new hard-hitting ad hammers Obama over Ayers association ... Obama says McCain trying to divide country with angry speeches and TV ads ... Politically charged and tightly held, Palin ethics report to be released in Alaska ... With economy worsening, working-class voters slowly warm to Obama ... McCain's missing the mark with Hispanics in swing states

___

McCain raises Ayers in ad

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican John McCain on Friday hammered his Democratic rival Barack Obama over his association with former 1960s radical William Ayers in a new TV ad.

"When convenient, he worked with terrorist Bill Ayers. When discovered, he lied," the ad said.

The commercial is arguably McCain's sharpest yet, and it uses Obama's link to Ayers to assert that Obama has "blind ambition" and "bad judgment."

McCain's campaign said the ad will run nationally.

The Associated Press and other news organizations have reported that Obama and Ayers are not close but that they worked together on two nonprofit organizations from the mid-1990s to 2002. Ayers also hosted a small meet-the-candidate event for Obama in 1995 as he first ran for the state Senate.

___

Obama says McCain trying to stoke anger, division

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama on Friday said John McCain is trying to divide the country with angry remarks and TV ads.

"It's not hard to rile up a crowd by stoking anger and division," Obama told Ohio voters.

The Illinois senator said American's aren't looking for someone who can divide the country, but "they are looking for someone who can lead this country."

"Now more than ever it is time to put country ahead of politics," he said. Obama is criticizing McCain's economic plans during his two-day Ohio tour.

He is not directly responding on the stump to the Republican's claim that Obama has associated with a former 1960s terrorist. But Obama has told a radio talk show that he thought the ex-radical William Ayers, now a college professor, was rehabilitated.

___

Sensitive Palin ethics report kept secret, for now

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Sworn to secrecy, Alaska lawmakers have begun reviewing a lengthy and politically sensitive investigative report focusing on whether Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her authority as governor.

The first-term Alaska governor has been accused of firing a state commissioner to settle a family dispute. But the report is also expected to touch on whether Palin's husband meddled in state affairs and whether her administration inappropriately accessed employee medical records.

The inquiry, approved by a legislative committee's bipartisan vote, began before Republican presidential nominee John McCain named Palin his running mate. Since then, the case has been dogged by accusations of political influence.

The investigation focuses on her firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan. Monegan says Palin and her husband pressured him to fire Mike Wooten, a state trooper involved in a nasty divorce and custody dispute with the governor's sister. When Monegan resisted, he says, he was fired.

Palin's critics say that shows she used her office to settle family affairs.

___

McCain losing ground with working-class whites

KITTANNING, Pa. (AP) — The steel mills and coal mines of western Pennsylvania helped fuel the nation's economic engine. Today, old factory shells and boarded-up storefronts stand as bleak reminders of those once-prosperous times.

But the voters in working-class enclaves such as this still are a sought-after prize in presidential politics, and many are belatedly backing Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

In the Democratic primaries, working-class whites consistently supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Later polls showed them overwhelmingly favoring Republican nominee John McCain.

Now, driven by fears that their personal finances could further deteriorate, many see Obama as the better choice — their thinking in some cases driven more by concern about how McCain would handle the economy than any growing admiration for his rival.

"I don't know that there's anything I particularly like about him (Obama), but I dislike McCain, and I dislike the way the country is, and Republicans need to change," said lifelong Republican Ruth Ann Michel, 64, a retiree shopping in a market in Butler on a recent day. She said her vote for Obama would be her first for a Democratic presidential candidate.

___

McCain missing the mark with Hispanics

LAS VEGAS (AP) — John McCain — who once risked his career on an immigration reform bill that was embraced by Hispanics — is now struggling to win these same voters, and falling perilously below the level of support that helped lift President Bush to the White House.

McCain won nearly 70 percent of Hispanic voters in his last bid for Senate in border-state Arizona is watching a first-term Illinois senator run away with those voters.

___

THE DEMOCRATS

Barack Obama campaigns in the Ohio cities of Chillicothe and Columbus.

Joe Biden talks to voters in Springfield, Mo.

___

THE REPUBLICANS

John McCain holds a rally in La Crosse, Wis.

Sarah Palin has no public schedule.

___

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"This election is going to be decided when a husband and wife sit at a kitchen table, or a single parent sits at the kitchen table, looks at their bills and figures out who is most likely to help them with their financial condition." — Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania.

___

STAT OF THE DAY:

An AP survey of election officials nationwide found that as of Oct. 1, the number of registered Democrats had grown by nearly 5 percent since 2004 — outpacing overall population growth in the 28 states where information on voter registration by party was available for 2004 and 2008. During the same time, the GOP lost more than 2 percent of its registered voters

Compiled by Ann Sanner.

"Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets. "
Napoleon Bonaparte

http://hladc-sf.blogspot.com
http://elrinconcitodeaurora.blogspot.com/

2nd ANNUAL PROTEST AGAINST MICHAEL SAVAGE/ANTI-HATE SPEECH

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CLEAR CHANNEL REVISITED AFTER A YEAR OF REFUSING TO MEET WITH THE COMMUNITY- UNREPENTANT MICHAEL SAVAGE CONTINUES TO SPEW HATE! 2nd ANNUAL PROTEST - ANTI-HATE SPEECH & DISINFORMATION DEMONSTRATION! WHEN: Tuesday September 23, 2008 TIME: 4PM-6PM PLACE: CLEAR CHANNE, 340 TOWNSEND SAN FRANCISCO CA.(between 4th&5th St. next to Caltrain Station) As hate speech spirals, a local group of community activists are organizing a demonstration in San Francisco against shock jock Michael Savage. The group, Hispanic / Latino Anti-Defamation Coalition SF and allied Community Organizations, plan to rally in front of the building which houses radio station KNEW-AM where Savage transmits his nationally-syndicated program. On his program, Savage call for troops on the street "to protect us from the scourge of illegal immigrants who are running rampant across America, killing our police for sport, raping, murdering like a scythe across America while the liberal psychos are telling us they come here to work." Or that autism is a "fraud, a racket, that in 99 percent of cases is a brat who hasn't been told to cut their act out" and to stop being 'morons', he also tells fasting immigrant students "to starve to death, then we won't have a problem." These kind of statements incite people who are already angry and resentful, as when Jim David Adkisson entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, opened fire with a 12-gauge shotgun, killed two people and wounded six during the presentation of a children's musical. In his car, police found a four-page letter where he expressed his hatred of the "liberal movement', and wrote he targeted the church "because of its liberal teachings" and his belief that "all liberals should be killed" because they were "ruining the country." Inside Adkisson's home, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage. Shock jocks insist their rants are not hurting anyone and that they are not inciting hate attacks. Meanwhile disenfranchised groups continue to be targeted. Another instance was the senseless savage beating that resulted in the death of Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala by a group of four young white males in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania on July 12, 2008. Luis E. Ramirez was a hard-working father of small children and a decent member of the community. His killers ranted racial comments against Mexicans while cowardly beating him; as reported by eyewitnesses. For too long the Hispanic/Latino, and other minority communities in the Bay Area have suffered Clear Channel/the Savage Nation/Michael Savage and his attacks. His insulting, degrading, sophomoric tirades are racist and divisive to a dangerous level. His rhetoric, has resulted in erroneous definitions of whom we are as Hispanic/ Latinos and he contributes to stereotypes which we have for a long time tried to defuse. We, the Hispanic/Latino community in the Bay Area hold CLEAR CHANNEL/The Savage Nation/Michael Savage and other shock-jocks like him and their Media Channel Broadcasters directly responsible for the increase in crimes against Hispanic US Citizens, Latinos, Immigrants, other groups and individuals; and for destroying and terrorizing our communities through their hateful ON-AIR XENOPHOBIC, HENCE, UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA! " . As in Last year's Protest, the Peninsula Contingent will be boarding CalTrain's "Hispanic Dignity Train" From San Jose to San Francisco as it stops in each local station to join us in front of 340 Townsend St. Contacts info: San Francisco: (650)-740-1910 -- (415)-368-8406 SF Peninsula: (650)-324-4082 -- (650)-992-1680 Hispanic / Latinos Anti-Defamation Coalition SF http://hladc-sf.blogspot.com/

 

 

http://www.latinosagainsthatespeech.org
http://elrinconcitodeaurora.net/docs_pub/hladc-sf/savage_protest_press_release.pdf
http://elrinconcitodeaurora.net/docs_pub/hladc-sf/savage_protesta_comunicado_prensa.pdf
http://elrinconcitodeaurora.net/docs_pub/hladc-sf/anti_savage_press_release.doc
http://elrinconcitodeaurora.net/docs_pub/hladc-sf/anti_savage_protesta_comunicado.doc