Press of Atlantic City

Obama's odious associations are relevant, fawning media aside

Published: Oct 12, 2008

Convicted felon Tony Rezko. Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters. Yet let the McCain campaign raise the issue, and the mainstream media begin fulminating about dirty campaigning tinged with racism and McCarthyite guilt by association.

But associations are important. They provide a significant insight into character. They are particularly relevant in relation to a potential president as new, unknown, opaque and self-contained as Obama. With the economy overshadowing everything, it may be too late politically to be raising this issue. But that does not make it, as conventional wisdom holds, in any way illegitimate.

McCain has only himself to blame for the bad timing. He should months ago have begun challenging Obama's associations, before the economic meltdown allowed the Obama campaign (and the mainstream media, which is to say the same thing) to dismiss the charges as an act of desperation.

McCain had his chance back in April when the North Carolina Republican Party ran a gubernatorial campaign ad that included the linking of Obama with Jeremiah Wright. The ad was duly denounced by The New York Times and other deep thinkers as racist. More

Oct 12, 2008

• State must consider tough choices - including an end to tax rebates

No one can get away from the fiscal meltdown all around us. Many of us turn our heads away from television monitors during the day that report the most up-to-date stock market crisis. We all wonder when it is going to hit bottom, and hopefully begin to turn around.

Oct 12, 2008

• Maher's mockery of religion is shallow, irrational, wrong

There are three problems with Bill Maher's new movie mocking faith: It misunderstands religion, misconceives God and gets human nature all wrong.

Oct 10, 2008

• To win, here's the speech that McCain needs to give

John McCain is probably going to lose this election. The economic crisis, which he is ill equipped by training and interests to handle, threatens to wipe out his campaign. Though Barack Obama has shown no greater insight or skill in handling the disaster, McCain's personal deficit on economic policy redounds to his opponent's benefit.

Oct 10, 2008

• GOP turns to culture war

"I'm not going back to Woodstock for awhile," Canadian hippie rock star Neil Young sang no less than 35 years ago now. "I'm a million miles away from that helicopter day."

Oct 10, 2008

• Media easier on Palin than they were on Hillary Clinton

Reading William Kristol's Oct. 5 column in The New York Times, I discover that Sarah Palin and I have something in common. Kristol, who was once Dan Quayle's chief of staff and therefore, shall we say, has a Mister Rogers approach to certain politicians, got Palin on the phone and reported that she does not "have a very high opinion of the mainstream media." This is where we are in agreement. On account of Palin, neither do I.

Oct 09, 2008

• Debate didn't make McCain look better

Time was, the Baltimore Orioles manager was Earl Weaver, a short, irascible, Napoleonic figure who, when cranky, as he frequently was, would shout at an umpire, "Are you going to get any better or is this it?" With, mercifully, only one debate to go, that is the question about John McCain's campaign.

Oct 09, 2008

• There is no 'context' for some words, Chris

Dear Chris Rock:

Oct 09, 2008

• 'Show pony' Palin shows the dearth of women leaders

Years ago someone referred to me as a show pony, trotted out to prove a point. It was at some conference, on one of those professional panels: John, Jonathan, Joe, James and me. No question, I was there to instantly send a visual message that women were surging, in journalism, in opinion writing and in the public discourse of the country.

Oct 08, 2008

• FBI has dangerous new power to spy

This is a cautionary tale.

Oct 08, 2008

• Deregulation didn't cause credit crisis

The financial turmoil has pushed the Obama campaign into the lead, and this is mostly justified. Barack Obama is more thoughtful on the economy than his opponent, and his bench of advisers is superior. But there's a troubling side to the Democratic advance. The claim that the financial crisis reflects Bush-McCain deregulation is not only nonsense. It is the sort of nonsense that could matter.

Oct 07, 2008

• Add sweeteners, Congress caves for bigger, uglier bailout bill

If I were in Congress, I'd hold out. Every representative who voted no on the bailout got something totally sweet in the bill that passed the Senate. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., changed his mind once he got the health insurance for mental illness he has been fighting for. The Senate is trying to bribe Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., with tax breaks for Arizona solar companies. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who rides a bicycle, is supposed to be tempted by a tax deduction for bike commuters, as Democrats Adam Schiff and Brad Sherman of California are by tax breaks for movie producers. If enough no votes had been cast the second time around, the next version of the bill would have included a federally funded movie about a schizophrenic guy who rides his solar-powered bike to work. Which will win 8,000 Oscars.

Oct 07, 2008

• To chop the cost of health care, sometimes we must say no

In an interesting paradox that we often see in health care, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey was viciously attacked for fulfilling its obligation to provide access to affordable health care for its customers. Steven Altschuler, the president of Children's Hospital of Philadel-
phia wrote the Sept. 30 column, "Horizon de-
nying N.J. children treatment at CHOP: Why?"

Oct 07, 2008

• Early voting by mail increases fraud, devalues democracy

Election Day? Who needs it?

Oct 06, 2008

• TR makes a scary model for McCain

John McCain, like many Americans who should know better, extravagantly praises Theodore Roosevelt. He is a kindred spirit of the impulsive Rough Rider, but the visceral McCain is rescued from some of TR's excesses by not having TR's overflowing cupboard of ideas.

Oct 06, 2008

• Guest editorial / The Chicago Tribune / Breast-milk ice cream? Utterly crazy

I scream, you scream ... we all screamed when we heard that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had asked Ben & Jerry's to start making Cherry Garcia and Chubby Hubby with human breast milk.

Oct 06, 2008

• Don't ruin the joys of reading

School has started. I can tell because parents drag their embarrassed children up to the reference desk at my library to ask, "Where are the fifth-grade books? We need a 5.6 level that's worth at least seven points."

Oct 06, 2008

• We forgot the wisdom of the old cliches Including this one: What goes up must come down

Novelist David Foster Wallace, who recently committed suicide at age 46, once told an interviewer that his generation had been morally "gutted" by a pseudo-sophistication that sneered at boring everyday truths. He explained that privilege had caused so many of his contemporaries to forget that plain-spoken wisdom - the sort of truisms that supposedly only children and suckers believe - is actually, you know, valid.

Oct 05, 2008

• Did Palin do better than expected? Betcha! But debate changed few minds

What did they do with the other Sarah Palin?

Oct 05, 2008

• A case where justice must trump emotions

The first time, Troy Davis came within 24 hours of death. The second time, he came within two.

Oct 05, 2008

• Obama adept at the game: To win, just be acceptable

Krauthammer's Hail Mary Rule: You get only two per game. John McCain, unfortunately, has already thrown three. The first was his bet on the surge, a deep pass to David Petraeus who miraculously ran it all the way into the end zone.

Oct 03, 2008

• House must OK financial bailout

To all you "Main Streeters" who protested the federal bailout plan for its lack of accountability and socialization of losses, I have a message for you. I feel your pain, I share your pain, but things are only going to get worse if Americans don't come together and tell their members of the House to vote for it today.

Oct 03, 2008

• Exposing a campaign's lies often has little helpful effect

When political candidates say things that aren't true they're exploiting the marketplace of ideas at its weakest point. That's because although the marketplace handles the clash of opinion reasonably well, it has never done a good job filtering out falsity.

Oct 03, 2008

• Third parties could be spoilers if the race for president stays close

The presidential election could well turn on a factor that has gotten virtually no discussion this year - the votes drawn by Libertarian Bob Barr, Green Cynthia McKinney and independent Ralph Nader.

Oct 02, 2008

• Columnist dismayed by readers' reaction to her view of Palin

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a traitor and an idiot. Also, my mother should have aborted me and left me in a dumpster, but since she didn't, I should "off" myself.

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