FOX News Blogs » FOX Forum » Tommy De SenoTommy De SenoJanuary 21st, 2009 3:44 PM EasternInsults at the Inauguration?By Tommy De SenoAttorney/WriterWasn’t Barack Obama supposed to be the president to lead us to a “post-racial” America?Obama’s inauguration is the first I can recall where a racial smear was contained in a prayer while the president’s speech attacked those who didn’t vote for him.So while we will be held to a standard of judging all by the content of their character, he will continue to judge us by our skin color. While we will be expected to utter no disagreement with his policies, he will openly hammer ours.Let’s start first with the racial prejudice in Reverend Joseph Lowery’s inaugural “prayer.” Here are the words:“Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right.“Let’s check the logic — I’m white, therefore I don’t embrace what is right. Lowery judged us not individually, but lumped us by skin and claimed we of such color suffer the same immorality — we aren’t righteous.He said it in a prayer. What Jesus will do with the prayer will be learned by Lowery at his judgment day at St. Peter’s gate.What Barack Obama did with that prayer is more important to me now. The video of the event shows him smile, not appear shocked, at the racial slur.So post-racial means accepting that “whites don’t embrace what is right?”Lowery and Obama should note that African-Americans are about 13 percent of America. That means it took tens of millions of white people to vote Obama into office. Yet these men still claim white people are prejudiced. If his own election will not dissuade him from believing white people are not prejudiced, what will it take? Will it ever take?If Don Imus were to hurl such a racial insult there would be girl’s basketball teams protesting around the world. But a new President accepts it in a prayer and the Associated Press describes his behavior that day as showing his “grace.” Good grief.On to Obama’s inaugural address.He ran on a campaign of “change” (and nothing else). He’s the anti-George. I get it. For that I expected his speech to put some distance between himself and the administration of the man seated a few feet from where Obama was speaking.There is a big difference though between distancing yourself from a prior administration, which is OK, and distancing yourself from the millions of Americans who did not vote for you; that’s bad form when you claim to be the post-partisan uniter.Let’s start with this line:“On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.”The words “we have chosen” harkens back to the election contest. Obama believes those of us who did not vote for (choose) him mark our choices with “fear, conflict and discord” (I guess that’s why we cling to our guns and religion, right?).“On this day, we come to proclaim an end to…worn out dogmas…”So if my “dogma” differs from his (it does) this is apparently my “end.” How very post-partisan of you, Mr. President!“What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.”Bickering and name calling with the opposition in the inaugural address? Oh, I feel so united!!!You can fool the mainstream media who are head over heels in love with you Mr. Obama, but you’ll not hide your attacks in flowery language so long as I’m watching.Historical note: In his Inaugural Address, Obama said we are a “young nation.” Compared to whom? Our Constitution is in the top three oldest governing documents on the planet.Words mean things Mr. President, except when they are clichés.
Bickering and name calling with the opposition in the inaugural address? Oh, I feel so united!!! You can fool the mainstream media who are head over heels in love with you Mr. Obama, but you’ll not hide your attacks in flowery language so long as I’m watching.
Judge Obama on Performance AloneJANUARY 20, 2009, 11:31 P.M. ET Let's not celebrate more ordinary speeches.ArticleBy JUAN WILLIAMS...It is neither overweening emotion nor partisanship to see King's moral universe bending toward justice in the act of the first non-white man taking the oath of the presidency. But now that this moment has arrived, there is a question: How shall we judge our new leader?If his presidency is to represent the full power of the idea that black Americans are just like everyone else -- fully human and fully capable of intellect, courage and patriotism -- then Barack Obama has to be subject to the same rough and tumble of political criticism experienced by his predecessors. To treat the first black president as if he is a fragile flower is certain to hobble him. It is also to waste a tremendous opportunity for improving race relations by doing away with stereotypes and seeing the potential in all Americans.Yet there is fear, especially among black people, that criticism of him or any of his failures might be twisted into evidence that people of color cannot effectively lead. That amounts to wasting time and energy reacting to hateful stereotypes. It also leads to treating all criticism of Mr. Obama, whether legitimate, wrong-headed or even mean-spirited, as racist.This is patronizing. Worse, it carries an implicit presumption of inferiority. Every American president must be held to the highest standard. No president of any color should be given a free pass for screw-ups, lies or failure to keep a promise.During the Democrats' primaries and caucuses, candidate Obama often got affectionate if not fawning treatment from the American media. Editors, news anchors, columnists and commentators, both white and black but especially those on the political left, too often acted as if they were in a hurry to claim their role in history as supporters of the first black president.For example, Mr. Obama was forced to give a speech on race as a result of revelations that he'd long attended a church led by a demagogue. It was an ordinary speech. At best it was successful at minimizing a political problem. Yet some in the media equated it to the Gettysburg Address.The importance of a proud, adversarial press speaking truth about a powerful politician and offering impartial accounts of his actions was frequently and embarrassingly lost. When Mr. Obama's opponents, such as the Clintons, challenged his lack of experience, or pointed out that he was not in the U.S. Senate when he expressed early opposition to the war in Iraq, they were depicted as petty.Bill Clinton got hit hard when he called Mr. Obama's claims to be a long-standing opponent of the Iraq war "the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen." The former president accurately said that there was no difference in actual Senate votes on the war between his wife and Mr. Obama. But his comments were not treated by the press as legitimate, hard-ball political fighting. They were cast as possibly racist.This led to Saturday Night Live's mocking skit -- where the debate moderator was busy hammering the other Democratic nominees with tough questions while inquiring if Mr. Obama was comfortable and needed more water.When fellow Democrats contending for the nomination rightly pointed to Mr. Obama's thin proposals for dealing with terrorism and extricating the U.S. from Iraq, they were drowned out by loud if often vacuous shouts for change. Yet in the general election campaign and during the transition period, Mr. Obama steadily moved to his former opponents' positions. In fact, he approached Bush-Cheney stands on immunity for telecommunications companies that cooperate in warrantless surveillance.There is a dangerous trap being set here. The same media people invested in boosting a black man to the White House as a matter of history have set very high expectations for him. When he disappoints, as presidents and other human beings inevitably do, the backlash may be extreme.Several seasons ago, when Philadelphia Eagle's black quarterback Donovan McNabb was struggling, radio commentator Rush Limbaugh said the media wanted a black quarterback to do well and gave Mr. McNabb "a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve." Mr. Limbaugh's sin was saying out loud what others had said privately.There is a lot more at stake now, and to allow criticism of Mr. Obama only behind closed doors does no honor to the dreams and prayers of generations past: that race be put aside, and all people be judged honestly, openly, and on the basis of their performance.President Obama deserves no less.
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