Last night at the Democratic debate, one of the stickier questions for Barack Obama regarded his unsought support by Lewis Farrakhan. This is totally stupid and shouldn't have been asked - even as stupid as Ron Paul is, I never based any of my claims on his endorsements by racists ass holes, only on the evidence that he was one. But still, it was asked and unfortunately the opportunity was not taken to send back the perfect retort, or even a very good retort. He sounded rather on the defensive.
So Farrakhan, a crazy, ridiculous leader of a fringe black power group, said some words supporting the black candidate. This is really kind of a given in any case and to bring it up in a national debate is to play up fears about a black candidate. He should have pointed this out first. Then he should have pointed out that Lewis Farrakhan is a crazy, ridiculous, irrelevant fringe leader. Then he should have asked if Tim Russert would ask a similar question to Senator Clinton regarding her support by another crazy and ridiculous person; a person who has used a sexual slur on a major Democratic candidate, who has called Episcopalianism "barely a religion," and most relevant of all to talks of the anti-Hebrew Farrakhan, has called Jews Christians in need of perfection.
The question must be asked: will Hillary Clinton reject the support of Ann Coulter?
So Farrakhan, a crazy, ridiculous leader of a fringe black power group, said some words supporting the black candidate. This is really kind of a given in any case and to bring it up in a national debate is to play up fears about a black candidate. He should have pointed this out first. Then he should have pointed out that Lewis Farrakhan is a crazy, ridiculous, irrelevant fringe leader. Then he should have asked if Tim Russert would ask a similar question to Senator Clinton regarding her support by another crazy and ridiculous person; a person who has used a sexual slur on a major Democratic candidate, who has called Episcopalianism "barely a religion," and most relevant of all to talks of the anti-Hebrew Farrakhan, has called Jews Christians in need of perfection.
The question must be asked: will Hillary Clinton reject the support of Ann Coulter?
posted by Mephisto at 7:38 AM
1 Comments:
I honestly thought his response was perfect; essentially, "I've already denounced him in the past, but if you want me to 'reject' him, then I'll reject him and denounce him. Let the baby have her bottle."
The better argument was to take the high road, and he did just that. Pointing out hypocrisies would have given Clinton more credit than she deserved for that line of attack.
I've been very impressed with what a professional debater Obama is. He's so good at keeping his cool and not letting people get a rise out of him.
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