[Rhodes22-list] Politics - Name Calling

[Brad Haslett]

I've already asked the question, "when will it be PC to suggest that Obambi
is inarticulate without a teleprompter?".  Now the question is, "when will
it be socially acceptable to suggest that he's a garden variety asshat?"

Brad

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Obama on Clarence Thomas
August 18, 2008

Barack Obama likes to portray himself as a centrist politician who wants to
unite the country, but occasionally his postpartisan mask slips. That was
the case at Saturday night's Saddleback Church forum, when Mr. Obama chose
to demean Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Pastor Rick Warren asked each Presidential candidate which Justices he would
*not* have nominated. Mr. McCain said, "with all due respect" the four most
liberal sitting Justices because of his different judicial philosophy.
[image: [Barack Obama]]

Mr. Obama took a lower road, replying first that "that's a good one," and
then adding that "I would not have nominated Clarence Thomas. I don't think
that he, I don't think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker
at the time for that elevation. Setting aside the fact that I profoundly
disagree with his interpretation of a lot of the Constitution." The Democrat
added that he also wouldn't have appointed Antonin Scalia, and perhaps not
John Roberts, though he assured the audience that at least *they* were smart
enough for the job.

So let's see. By the time he was nominated, Clarence Thomas had worked in
the Missouri Attorney General's office, served as an Assistant Secretary of
Education, run the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and sat for a
year on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nation's second most
prominent court. Since his "elevation" to the High Court in 1991, he has
also shown himself to be a principled and scholarly jurist.

Meanwhile, as he bids to be America's Commander in Chief, Mr. Obama isn't
yet four years out of the Illinois state Senate, has never held a hearing of
note of his U.S. Senate subcommittee, and had an unremarkable record as both
a "community organizer" and law school lecturer. Justice Thomas's judicial
credentials compare favorably to Mr. Obama's Presidential résumé by any
measure. And when it comes to rising from difficult circumstances, Justice
Thomas's rural Georgian upbringing makes Mr. Obama's story look like easy
street.

Even more troubling is what the Illinois Democrat's answer betrays about his
political habits of mind. Asked a question he didn't expect at a rare
unscripted event, the rookie candidate didn't merely say he disagreed with
Justice Thomas. Instead, he instinctively reverted to the leftwing cliché
that the Court's black conservative isn't up to the job while his white
conservative colleagues are.

So much for civility in politics and bringing people together. And no wonder
Mr. Obama's advisers have refused invitations for more such open forums,
preferring to keep him in front of a teleprompter, where he won't let slip
what he really believes.