For all the praise that Barack Obama has received during the Democrat's nomination, you gotta wonder why the party was so split and tormented in the primary season. Judging from the raves from both Clintons, Obama has no shortcomings for the presidency. Bill Clinton forcefully announced today that Barack Obama is ready to be president. John Kerry stated that Obama is a patriot and that no one should question that.
Yet a mere four months ago, the Clintons were questioning just those issues. Hillary's 3 a.m. ad asked whether a freshman senator with literally no experience in foreign affairs would be right to lead America and be commander in chief. Now the Clinton's are backpedaling faster than Michael Phelps' Beijing backstroke.
As I wrote yesterday, this is not really surprising. The Clintons cannot afford to be seen as undermining Obama's presidential ambitions, if they want to preserve their legacy. However it is striking how many crutches they have to provide him. No one would think it necessary to endlessly reiterate that John McCain loves his nation or is ready to be commander in chief. McCain's life's story speaks for itself.
The sore point is, Obama's actions also speak for themselves, but the tale is not a good one. Reverend Wright, Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers are but a few in a long list of close Obama associates that seriously put the candidate's judgment in doubt. People will ask themselves: If Obama is so patriotic, why did he sit for 20 years in a church whose pastor called for God to damn America? Sure, we would not expect all of the 8000 church members to get up and leave. But should we not expect better judgment of the man who wants to lead our nation?
I suspect the questions surrounding this pattern of judgment lapses will keep coming up. No amount of Botox can smoothen out these faults. The republicans will remind the public of this long list of questionable characters in Obama's tailwater and ask the question: Do we really know this guy? Is he who he says he is? Can we trust him to lead our nation?
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