Barack Hussein Obama entered the marathon of presidential politics with the thinnest resume of any aspirant to the White House in modern times.

He gamely set forth to win his party’s nomination by parlaying weakness, the very lightness of his empty political suit—a first term senator with no legislative record of any merit—into strength as a post-racism candidate promising to unite a divided country.

The gamble almost worked—it might still with the Democrats—for Obama’s empty suit rode the jet stream of political discontent in a country at war. The jet stream raised him to popular heights his party rivals with longer resumes could only watch with disbelief.

Obama’s candidacy, like any gamble, was a risky venture. It was made more risky given the tightly guarded knowledge that revelations about Rev. Jeremiah Wright—Obama’s pastor of some 20 years—could well bring down the junior senator’s “audacity of hope” to be elected America’s first non-white president.

But Wright did more, as Bob Herbert of the New York Times wrote, by going to Washington “not to praise Barack Obama, but to bury him.”

The senator’s pastor derogatorily dismissed the promising post-racism candidate as a mere politician, meaning an individual who will say and do whatever is needed to get elected.

The question then is who has it right? Is it Wright who has known the aspiring politician for the past two decades, or is it Obama?

The candidate lately has been appalled that his pastor, preaching sermons laced with bigotry, is not the same person he knew and of whom he said some weeks ago in Philadelphia he “can no more disown than I can disown the black community.”

UNELECTABLE

In Steele’s view Obama is unelectable because he “has fellow-travelled with a hate-filled, anti-American black nationalism all his adult life, failing to stand and challenge an ideology that would have no place for his own mother, who was white.

Obama’s candidacy, to quote Steele again, has been “based more on manipulation of white guilt than on substance.”

The primary season has worked as it is meant to work, and for now it has brought down to earth a candidacy filled with hot air.

Here is what Eklund the anonymous hockey blogger had to say abou the issue.

In game 1 in Montreal I didn’t really hear the booing of the American Anthem, but I did hear a lot of talking through it. In Game 2 I did...Both REALLY bothered me as an American, but even more so as a hockey fan.

I truly hope that there aren’t some idiots who take the eye for an eye mentality in Philly tonight.

But I fear there will be, so I implore those of you heading down...If you are near someone who begins to boo the anthem tonight: shut them up.
Hockey is NOT about politics. It is our escape from such things. There are real problems in this world of ours. Real issues that I have with both of our Governments. I am very active politically and express those views elsewhere. I encourage all to do the same. Make a difference with your government…

But NOT HERE.
This is just hockey. And as far as I’m concerned there are no borders in North America in Hockey. We are all Hockeyans. It is our religion and where you live, your status, or the colour of your skin has no bearing on it whatsoever. If you love hockey you are my brother or sister.

In America especially, since hockey has NEVER really been mainstream, we Hockeyans have been FORCED to stick together. We are connected by a bond stronger than politics and lobbyists. Hockey is the biggest cult sport in American history. And if you love it you are all in…

American Hockeyans take a deeper offense to the Anthem being boo’d because let’s face it..We grew up rooting for our players in Canada Cups wearing that big Maple Leaf...still my favorite jersey of all time. I sat and cheered for Bobby Clarke and other Flyers against the Russians time and time again. (read the whole blog here)

I like Eklund plea to the fans in Philly do not stoop to that level.

View more hockey related articles at Goon’s World.

Of course; maybe Obama already thinks he has the nomination wrapped up and doesn’t think he needs to attend anymore debates. Hillary is right IF he becomes president his free pass from the media will be taken away from him and he will have to answer tough questions.

By Karen Leigh and Catherine Dodge

April 26 (Bloomberg)—Hillary Clinton challenged Barack Obama to debate her before primaries in Indiana and North Carolina on May 6, an encounter her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination immediately declined to take up.

``I’m offering Senator Obama the chance to debate me one- on-one, no moderators,’’ Clinton said this afternoon at a rally at a baseball stadium in South Bend, Indiana. ``Just the two of us going for 90 minutes, asking and answering questions. We’ll set whatever rules seem fair.’’

Obama campaign communications director Robert Gibbs replied by saying that the candidates have participated in 21 nationally televised debates, including four exclusively with Clinton.

``Over the next 10 days, we believe it’s important to talk directly to the voters of Indiana and North Carolina,’’ Gibbs said in a statement.

After the candidates’ last debate, held April 17 in Philadelphia, Obama hinted he might be finished debating Clinton, dismissing the forums as little more than a chance for her to ``twist the knife.’’ Clinton, who trails Obama in total delegates, won the Pennsylvania primary this week, giving her campaign much-needed momentum.

Referring to the April 17 debate in Philadelphia, Clinton said, ``Senator Obama’s supporters complained a little bit about the tough questions.’’

``The tough questions in a debate are nothing compared to the tough questions you get asked when you’re president,’’ New York Senator Clinton, 60, said.

Obama, 46, has said the Philadelphia debate ``set a new record’’ because ``it took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people.’’
(Read the whole article right here)

MINOT — I had to chuckle when I read former Democratic candidate (and former aide to Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.) Kristin Hedger’s column in favor of earmarks — aka government pork — in the Saturday Herald (“Congressional earmarks serve a vital national purpose,” Page A4).

I’m not surprised that Hedger loves government pork given that her family’s business, Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing, got a big, juicy earmark courtesy of her old boss. To quote from an August press release from Dorgan’s office: “U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad … have secured more than $8 million to help KMM develop new technologies for the military.”

It’s easy to be in favor of pork spending when you’re more on the getting end than on the giving end. Chalk it up to the enticing allure of other people’s money.

On a serious note, however, I’d point out that Dorgan’s direction of public money to his political supporters is exactly the sort of political backscratching that gives earmark appropriations a bad name.

Rob Port

Port is the owner of Say Anything blog, http://www.sayanythingblog.com.

The die-in (it was called a lie-in, actually) was organized by Protect Minnesota, an umbrella group representing five gun-control organizations pushing for tighter rules on sales and universal background checks on buyers. Thirty-two people wore black T-shirts that said, "Minnesotans Against Being Shot" as well as ribbons of maroon and orange (Virginia Tech's colors) made by families of the victims. One by one, to the solemn beat of a drum, they went down on the Capitol steps and remained motionless, as if asleep.

It was like the state Senate, but without the pompous speeches.

OK, it was one of those media events that is easy to mock and, indeed, it was mocked by a few underemployed members of the gun-rights lobby who couldn't resist the temptation to spoil a somber moment by holding up frat boy signs to the effect that a teacher or student packing heat could have stopped the carnage, which is the kind of thing I wonder about when a cop gets shot.

Guns don't kill people. People with guns kill people. And sometimes people with guns kill other people with guns. It's as complicated as our feelings, and nobody's come up with a convincing response to slaughters such as Virginia Tech, especially proposals to let college kids carry guns on campus. Rep. Tony Cornish, a Republican from Good Thunder, introduced one such obscenely timed proposal Wednesday. Are you kidding, Cornish? Have you ever been to a kegger at Mankato or St. Cloud or the U of M and thought, "Cool! I hope these dudes have guns!"