Ready, Set, Obama

Barack's in Louisville today, which means downtown Louisville will be a cluster &$#% from 3pm til 8pm. Sorry Obamaniacs, he'll probably lose the Bluegrass to Hilary. Politically KY is old, white and uneducated --- her base!

Though he's already got two Bluegrass superdelegates (Rep. John Yarmuth and Rep. Ben Chandler), Hilary's got three. KY Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo endorsed Barack over the weekend, but sorry again Obamaniacs, Mongiardo is not a superdelegate. That would be our commander-in-hick, Gov. Steve Beshear, who is keeping up the Kentucky tradition of staying neutral.

Anyway, this essay on B. Hussein Obama in Esquire by Charles P. Pierce is a must read. My favorite line thus far: The war in Iraq is the powerful bastard child of the Iran-Contra scandal, which went unpunished. Zing!

Pierce writes with such clarity and wit and cynicism, this is why I write. The essay looks at Barack's entry into the American public scene as the so-called hope-monger and the context of the crumbling American empire. I'd say it is one of the best pieces on Barack thus far.

From Esquire:

“Yet, even as we speak,” Obama said, “there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spinmasters and the negative-ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America, there’s the United States of America.”

(A month later, at the Republican convention, the cynic saw fat little delegates and their fat little wives wearing Purple Heart Band-Aids to mock John Kerry’s war wounds. He saw the Swift Boat ads. The country bought it. The country moved on.)

“There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America, there’s the United States of America.”

(Three months later, the cynic watched black voters be systematically disenfranchised in key precincts all over the country. There was no anger. There were no demonstrations. There was no great rising in defense of a fundamental right. There was, instead, nothing. The country bought it. The country moved on.)

“The pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue states: red states for Republicans and blue states for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the red states. We coach Little League in the blue states, and, yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the red states. We are all of us one people, all of us defending the United States of America.”

(Over the next several months, the cynic watched as the Republicans masterfully used the threat of gay people getting married to gin up turnout where they needed it the most. It was a creepy, shabby election that wasn’t about anything that was really happening in the country. The country bought it. The country moved on.)