In the survey, 83 percent of blacks had a favorable opinion of Obama, compared with 31 percent of white voters.Which of course means that we in the other 69 percent of the white populace must be bigots. It's apparently the only explanation.
According to NYT/CBS, anyway.
Taken at face value, those numbers certainly seem to be polarizing. Gee, 83 percent of blacks like Obama. Only 31 percent of whites. But let's see why, exactly, the other 69 percent aren't falling all over themselves to paint Obama in glowing terms.
Let's start with his stance on the war in Iraq. The man wants to end it. Fine, I have no problem with that. I'd like it to end as well. Where we differ is in his projecting to the entire world that he will begin troop withdrawals "immediately" ("within days of taking office" I believe he said) and has committed to an actual timetable. While that looks like great news on the Ending Violence front, it's actually just a neat little statement that if Al Qaeda digs a deep enough hole to hide in for the next 24 months or so, they can emerge triumphantly and pick right up where they left off. I find this kind of broadcasting to be incredibly irresponsible and that, by itself, is reason enough for me to have an "unfavorable" opinion of Mr. Obama. Trying to make his anti-surge sentiments suddenly disappear from his web site does not, by the way, help.
I've mentioned his lack of experience. Several years of local state politics and three as a junior senator do NOT automatically qualify a man to serve as President of the United States. His insistence on relying upon extreme leftist policies (not to mention the extremists that helped shape his political philosophies over the decades) means that he won't even try to find a centrist position on any of the domestic issues that are important to me. The man does not have my back, and I expect he never will based on his many teleprompted speeches and rallies. One more notch in the "unfavorable" column, I'm afraid.
Although he has spoken recently about extending the stimulus package (Bush prefers a "wait and see" approach), he hasn't really shown any interest in pursuing policies that would truly stimulate the economy and allow us to wean ourselves off of foreign oil in a controlled manner. Instead we can look forward to either continuing high prices in energy costs, or efforts to nationalize our oil companies under an Obama administration. Big mistake. Still "unfavorable."
There are other issues of course. His likelihood of choosing liberal members of the Supreme Court is a serious concern. We need justices who will stick to constitutional limits rather than bench legislation. Just look at the train wreck that is the California Supreme Court. We just don't need that at a federal level.
Somewhere at the bottom of this list is the word "race." It is undeniable that the man is black (even if only partly so). But the color of his skin is not troublesome. It is instead his allegiance to the same party that brings us the biggest race-baiting demagogues this country has ever seen: Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Two of the most cynical, dangerous men we will ever know. Even then, the color of their skin is not truly the issue. Any fool can foam at the mouth over racial issues as we've seen in an Obama colleague-cum-political-roadkill by the name of Michael Pfleger. So is it Obama's color that I find reprehensible? No. Just his philosophies and his denial of the culture of victimhood that has intensified since the days of Martin Luther King, Jr.
So there in a nutshell is why I am not included in those 31 percent who have a favorable opinion of Mr. Obama.
I can't speak for everyone else. But, really, do I have to?
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