Herman

Cain

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March 17, 2008

Wall Street Journal Dead Wrong About Barack Obama

The only thing new about the presidential campaign’s latest “race card” episode, which was triggered by former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, is that the Wall Street Journal’s March 13 editorial analysis of her comment was dead wrong. It started with the opening sentence:

Is it just us, or does Barack Obama seem a mite too quick to play the race card when facing criticism from political opponents?

Yes, it is just y’all. Obama did not play the race card, he simply responded to a racial comment by a high-profile Hillary Clinton supporter.

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,” Ferraro said. “And if he was a woman of any color, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”

When asked by a reporter about the comment, Obama said it is silly to suggest that with a name like his and black people making up only 12 percent of the population, that his color got him to center stage of the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination contest. He got there because he is a well-educated orator with great political instincts.

A great leader or problem-solver he is not.

Ferraro’s assertion is that people are caught up in the concept of electing this country’s first black president. I totally disagree, because America (black or white) is only temporarily color-blind from time to time.

Most of us can remember the times in the 1950s and 1960s when Obama’s color would not allow him to get to first base in a presidential primary, and now Ferraro asserts that he is being given a home run because he is black.

Times have changed, but not that much. For anybody.

Granted, some people are going to vote for Obama because he is black, just as some people are going to vote for Hillary because she is a woman. I am not one of those people in either case, just to be clear.

The opening statement of the WSJ article also contends that Ferraro’s comment is just criticism from political opponents. I thought criticism is a critique of someone’s ideas, proposals, policies, job performance, beliefs, congressional voting record, qualifications, etc. I did not think criticism is attributing one’s success to one’s color.

Maybe I was a vice president of a Fortune 500 company, the president of a 700-unit pizza restaurant chain, the president of a major national business association, the recipient of eight honorary doctorate degrees, and now a prime-time radio talk show host on a major radio station in one of the biggest markets in the country, all because a black man’s time had come.

I’m not bragging, just highlighting the ridiculous.

The WSJ editorial went on to say that Ferraro’s remarks reveal little more than a firm grasp of the obvious. The only thing obvious about Obama is that his skin is dark. There’s been a lot more mystery about Obama through the lens of the mainstream media than obvious revelations.   

I’m still waiting for him to quantify one of his campaign themes, “change”.

Although the WSJ was dead wrong about Ferraro’s comment, she was absolutely right about one thing: “He (Obama) happens to be very lucky to be who he is.”

Yes, because we are all lucky to be who we are.

We are Americans first. We live in the greatest country in the world. We enjoy an opportunity-filled society. We are free to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Some of us just happen to be black, white, brown, beige, red and purple.

As I said in my February 18, 2008 column about a previous “race card” episode, let’s get back to the presidential race, at least until the next episode.

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