Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Random Observations

1. On Richard Adams’ comment on the Founders: Maybe Obama is more Christian than lots of them, but I wouldn’t hold that against him. And maybe he isn’t, insofar as the Wright church seems to be rather secular and ideological. Of course at least the late Lincoln and Solzhenitsyn were/are certainly more Christian than the Founders, as is the current president.

2. I’ve gotten two emails from reasonable men who think that NLT has gone way overboard in nitpicking and such on Obama’s distancing speech. Of course people who write for blogs can say what they please, and so I’m inclined to be a bit more nonjudgmental.

3. Still, I really and truly hope McCain doesn’t make Obama’s religion a political issue. A real problem in this campaign--for both parties--is going to be managing racial animosity--among both whites and blacks. There’s no way the Democrats can deny Barack the nomination without seeming racist. And they’ll be a big perception problem if he loses narrowly to McCain in November. Preacher Huckabee displayed not only pagan genrosity but excellent political instincts in not making too much of the unscripted rantings of a man’s pastor.

4. I might add that it’s not so great for white folks to admonish black folks to take the advice of Bill Cosby and look to themselves alone for the sources of their misery. That might even be good advice, but black folks have to give it to themselves.

5. I see the advice here and there on the web that McCain should campaign as an independent and not a partisan Republican. That is, he should position himself to pick all the voters who are inclined to favor the Democrats on the level of principle but become disaffected with Obama for one reason or another. Is it really true that the only chance for victory of the party that now holds the White House is basically negative?

6. Kmiec’s endorsement of Obama is rather odd, but not completely inexplicable if his support for Romney was basically "socialy conservative" and in spite of the Romney/McCain position on Iraq etc.

7. McCain obviously should not make a speech on race and such matters to counter Obama’s. Maybe one of his strengths is that he’s personally sort of post-racist in the manner of a warrior, and so he’s not focused on the danger of "reverse discrimination."

Discussions - 10 Comments

My understanding is that Lincoln was on the same page as the founders in this regard, as in so many others. If memory serves, he never belonged to any particular church, for example. I almost included him in my initial post, but decided to keep it in the first generation. He was not particularly Christian, although he took religion seriously.

Dear Professor Lawler,

Would black resentment of an Obama defeat be any less if McCain defeated Obama in a landslide? I suspect it is a moot point. As the unemployment rate rises, more people will be willing to take a flyer on the Democratic nominee, regardless of what comes out regarding his past associations - within reason. Will the perception problem be under better control if Obama loses a bid for reelection?

A wise post from an unjustly neglected thanocentric existentialist.

It doesn't matter if Obama is more religious than the Founders or not. He is unfit to be president both personally and ideologically.

You know Obama personally?

I don't care if a guy's religious as long as it's the American religion and not the Arab terrorist one. What kind do you think Barack Hussein Osama is?

Blacks are resentful, period. Obama winning or losing an election won't alter that one bit, and it's fanciful to imagine otherwise.


"Reverse discrimination" - God, I hate that formulation, and all the left-wing assumptions built into it. As for McCain, he is a big affirmative action booster. I think you are off-base in calling him "post-racist". He seems to be a cookie-cutter liberal on this matter.

And does one even have to wonder why 2006, the GOP's hoped-for "Year of the Black Republican(s)" fizzled out so pathetically?

"Blacks are resentful, period.", "Hussein Osama" (!!??) - Give me a break (and something for nausea, while you're at it).

7: John, "reverse discrimination" is a term used almost wholly by conservatives (or people on the side of the angels in re: this issue). It states precisely what is going on. It doesn't, to my ear or I think most people's, imply that two wrongs make a right. Rather, the opposite. As for McCain, I'm sure you're right that he's for it -- or at least doesn't care about it. But to elect a president is also to elect a team. For all his "bipartisanship," McCain would nonetheless draw from a pool of more reasonable people in staffing his administration and the various federal commissions than would either Hillary or Obama.

"Hussein Osama" (!!??) - Give me a break (and something for nausea, while you're at it). Sorry Craig it was an honest mistake. Didn't Ted Kennedy do the same thing once?

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