[Rhodes22-list] Say What, Barack?

[Hank]

 Here is some more slick talking from Obama.

Hank



http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2007/03/obamas_selma_speech_text_as_de.html



Say What, Barack?



By Paul R. Hollrah



Tuning in to C-Span recently, I found myself listening to a speech by
Senator Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. He was standing in the pulpit of a black
church in Selma, Alabama, and as I studied the body language of the dozen or
so black ministers standing behind the senator, I couldn't help but be
reminded of the little head-bobbing dolls that people used to place in the
rear windows of their 1957 Chevrolets. If their reactions are any
indication, the new "Schlickmeister" of the Democrat Party is actually a
pretty accomplished public speaker.



However, as he spoke, I found my b.s. alarm going off, repeatedly. But I
couldn't quite figure out why until I actually read excerpts of his speech
several days later. Here's part o f what he said:



"...something happened back here in Selma, Alabama. Something happened in
Birmingham that sent out what Bobby Kennedy called, "ripples of hope all
around the world." Something happened when a bunch of women decided they
were going to walk instead of ride the bus after a long day of doing
somebody else's laundry, looking after somebody else's children.



"When (black) men who had PhD's decided 'that's enough' and 'we're going to
stand up for our dignity,' that sent a shout across oceans so that my
grandfather began to imagine something different for his son. His son, who
grew up herding goats in a small village in Africa could s uddenly set his
sights a little higher and believe that maybe a black man in this world had
a chance.



"So the Kennedy's decided we're going to do an airlift.  We're going to go
to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give
them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country
America is.



"This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to
this country. He met this woman whose great great-great-great- grandfather
had owned slaves; but she had a good idea there was some craziness going on
because they looked at each other and they decided that we know that, (in)
the world as it has been, it might not be possible for us to get together
and have a child. There was something stirring across the country because of
what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march
across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. Was born. So
don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma , Alabama. Don't tell me I'm not
coming home to Selma, Alabama."



Okay, so what's wrong with that? It all sounds good. But is it?



Obama told his audience that, because some folks had the courage to "march
across a bridge" in Selma, Alabama, his mother, a white woman from Kansas,
and his father, a black Muslim from Africa, took heart. It gave them the
courage to get married and have a child. The problem with that
characterization is that Barrack Obama, Jr., was born on August 4,
1961,while the first of three marches across that bridge in Selma didn't
occur until March 7, 1965, at least five years after Obama's parents met.



Obama went on to tell his audience that the Kennedys, Jack and Bobby,
decided to do an airlift. They would bring some young Africans over so that
they could be educated and learn all about America. His grandfather heard
that call and sent his son, Barrack Obama, Sr., to America.



The problem with that scenario is that, having been born in August 1961, the
future senator was not conceived until sometime in November 1960. So if this
African grandfather heard words that ''sent a shout across oceans,''
inspiring him to send his goat-herder son to America, it was not a Democrat
Jack Kennedy he heard, nor his brother Bobby, it was a Republican President,
Dwight D. Eisenhower.



Obama's speech is reminiscent of Al Gore's claim of having invented the
Internet, Hillary Clinton's claim of having been named after the first man
to climb Mt. Everest, even though she was born five years and seven months
before Sir Edmund climbed the mountain, and John Kerry's imaginary trip to
Cambodia.



As one of my black friends, Eddie Huff, has said, "We need to ask some very
serious questions of the senator from Illinois. It's not enough to be black,
it's not enough to be articulate, and it's not enough to be eloquent and a
media darling. The only question will be how deaf an ear, or how blind an
eye, will people turn in order to turn a frog into a prince."