The Rutherford Lawson Blog

Regardless of how one feels about Reverend Wright, I must agree that the Reverend’s Q&A session at the National Press Club did nothing for Barack Obama’s campaign. I don’t see what more Senator Obama could possibly do besides what he did in today’s press conference.

Now it is up to the media to decide if this issue is resolved. If we continue to see the Reverend on TV 24/7, it will be clear evidence of the media milking this controversy for all it’s worth. The time has come for us to move on to the issues that should really matter to Americans.

Thanks to one of my faithful readers, Lilac, I stumbled upon the following blog entry from Dilbert author Scott Adams. It says something about political mathematics as well as a conclusion on where the collective intelligence of our voters will lead us in November. Depending on your perspective, Adams’ post gives us either a good chuckle or nightmares.

The Dilbert Blog: President McCain

Respectfully,
Rutherford

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I am ashamed to admit that after all the Reverend Wright controversy, I was too lazy to track down the full context of his infamous remarks. I always suspected that the sound bites were distortions and perhaps this suspicion was sufficient to make me feel no urgency at tracking down the facts.

Bill Moyers, whom I greatly respect, did America a favor last Friday night and interviewed Reverend Jeremiah Wright. More importantly, he played fuller versions of Wright’s sermons which put his “chickens coming home to roost” and “God damn America” comments in full context.  Any reasonable person, watching these full excerpts understands that Wright is not the crazy demon he has been portrayed in the media.

Surely, one has to listen to his sermon in the context of religion. On the Sunday following September 11, 2001, he tries to help his congregation make sense of the senseless slaughter that has occurred, and in particular what reaction should a Christian have to the tragedy. He points out, with biblical references to back him up, that all too often we move from attacking the armies of our oppressors to attacking the “innocents”. He points out that nations or governments are flawed just as humans are flawed. He points out that Japan, Germany, England and, yes, the United States of America have done shameful things … have killed and abused innocents to avenge a perceived wrong. His sermon was NOT meant to say that the United States deserved to be attacked on 9/11 but that our response to this attack must not take the form of irrational revenge.

What we have gotten over the past six weeks are the sound bites of Reverend Wright. It is not shameful that Obama’s political enemies sit back with glee as the snippets are endlessly looped on the nightly news. That is to be expected. What is shameful is that every major TV news outlet chose to dumb the story down. None had the courage to play even one more sentence beyond the limit of the original sound bite. After Wright said, “America’s chickens have come home to roost”, he then reminded his audience that these were the words and warnings of a white ambassador, who had been interviewed on Fox news. An ambassador, Edward Peck, who was warning America that its foreign policy had put it in danger. We never saw that part of the sermon. We just saw the damning few minutes that made the story sexy.

The ultimate irony, is that in the hours immediately following Moyer’s interview, the main stream media was again picking the sound bites that would make the best story. “Wright is saying that the Philadelphia speech on race was nothing but politics.” That of course, is NOT what Wright said. In fact, he said that the speech was important and was one of the only good things to come out of the despicable distortions that had preceded it. The fact that Wright said he is a pastor and Obama is a politician is not nearly as fatal a comment as the main stream media would have you believe. As Gwen Ifill pointed out on “Meet the Press” today, Obama is a politician, what a surprise! Wright made no degrading revelation there. He realistically pointed out that truth spoken from the pulpit must use different language from truth spoken on the campaign trail.

There remains talk about whether America is ready for an African American President. I think that misses the point. Is America ready for an intelligent discussion and analysis of people and issues? When the media reduces everything to easily digested simplistic video loops, are they reflecting their own condescension of the audience or are they reflecting our true capacity for intelligent, reasoned discourse?

If we truly are a sound bite nation, then perhaps we deserve John McCain in November?

Respectfully,
Rutherford

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My daughter is four years old so the most sophisticated comment she can make about the current Democratic primary race is, “did Obama win?” In a few years she will be able to understand more of what goes on in these races and I wonder what lessons she will take from their outcome.

Let’s look at the just concluded Pennsylvania primary.

Candidate A:

1. Said that her Christian opponent was not a Muslim “as far as I know.”
2. Agreed to the “rules of the game” when primary season began but now wishes to change the rules in any way that will win her victory.
3. Has executive judgement that prompts her to hire a lead strategist who would engage in business practices that boldly contradict her stated platform. Rather than outright fire said strategist, she essentially demotes him and his poisonous influence can still be felt in her campaign.
4. Years ago advised her then President husband that his response to unenthusiastic working class voters should be “screw ‘em”.
5. Totally fabricated a story about being under “sniper fire” during a visit to Bosnia thereby trivializing every man and woman currently risking their lives in a war that should never have been authorized, a war she voted to approve.

Candidate B:

1. Put aside politics as usual and refused to denounce a reverend respected in the religious community who made controversial comments that are protected by our most sacred doctrine, freedom of speech.
2. Attempted to bring his country together and put his reverend’s comments in context by delivering the most important speech on race relations since Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech more than 40 years ago.
3. Had the guts to tell an audience of supporters that the way Republicans win elections is to use wedge issues like gun control, religion, and immigration to distract voters from the real issues that affect their daily lives. He told his supporters that it was not sufficient to throw the usual talking points at these voters. These voters were falling for the Republican okeydoke because they had given up on anyone in Washington helping them with real issues like health care, employment and rising costs. They needed to know that they were being heard and understood.
4. Consistently takes the high road in his campaign, most recently passing up an opportunity to rub his opponent’s nose in her own deceit during a presidential debate.

So, to whom did Pennsylvania give a 10 point margin of victory? Candidate A. What lessons did they teach our children last night?

1. Lying is ok if you just call it a “misstatement”.
2. Rules are for losers. To win, you have to make the rules fit your situation.
3. One great way to win is to insinuate falsehoods about your opponent.
4. Say whatever pleases your audience at the moment. You may get called on it but there will be no lasting consequences.

I can only hope that the good people of Guam, North Carolina, Indiana, West Virginia, Oregon, Kentucky, South Dakota, Puerto Rico and Montana think about what they are teaching their children before they go to the polls.

Respectfully,
Rutherford

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This week, Barack Obama was endorsed by Bruce Springsteen. It was not lost on most of us that the picture Springsteen paints in many of his songs reflects the mood about which Obama spoke in his now infamous San Francisco “bitter” speech.

This got me to thinking about which other contemporary song writers have written songs that portray the desperate times that some of us live in, times that an Obama presidency directly addresses. So, tonight I leave you with a song from Billy Joel that dates back to the Reagan era. It takes place in Pennsylvania, and sadly, it proves that 26 years of Washington promises haven’t changed the lives of some Pennsylvanians very much at all. I hope the good people of PA consider this when they go to the polls on Tuesday.

Allentown

Well we’re living here in Allentown
And they’re closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem they’re killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line
Well our fathers fought the Second World War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers in the USO
Asked them to dance
Danced with them slow
And we’re living here in Allentown

And it’s getting very hard to stay
And we’re living here in Allentown

(Written by Billy Joel, lyrics obtained from http://billyjoel.com/site.html)

Respectfully,
Rutherford

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It seems that all anyone can talk about today is the dubious journalistic integrity demonstrated by ABC’s Presidential Debate hosts, and the below par performance of Barack Obama.

What seems to have flown under the radar is the following quote from Hillary Clinton regarding her Bosnia comments:

“On a couple of occasions in the last weeks I just said some things that weren’t in keeping with what I knew to be the case and what I had written about in my book.“

Now maybe I’ve lost my grasp of the English language but the last time I checked, when you say something that you know not to be the case, you are … LYING. Up until last night, Hillary has said she misspoke or that she was tired. In Wednesday night’s debate she said unequivocally that she had lied. She then boldly suggested we should overlook it.

We are seeing here the height of hubris. “I will tell you to your face that I am a liar and guess what, you’re still going to vote for me.” Hillary has taken the same old Washington politics and brought it to a whole new and absurd level. I can only hope that Pennsylvania does not reward her for it.

Respectfully,
Rutherford

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Back in January, I wrote about an incident that made me realize that I was married to Dick Cheney. This morning, the following exchange occurred:

My four year old daughter was refusing to get ready for school, specifically, refusing to brush her teeth. In an attempt to motivate her, I said, “I can finish brushing my teeth before you do.” I then rushed into the bathroom. She followed me and said “I don’t want to race.” Since she went over to the sink to start the brushing ritual, I said that no race was necessary if it displeased her.

She wound up finishing her teeth cleaning before I had finished mine and she announced, “I win!” I said, “wait a minute, I thought we weren’t racing?” Apparently, seeing that she had finished first, she could not resist claiming victory despite the fact that no contest was in effect.

My wife said, “wow, she’s Hillary Clinton”. Sure enough, as long as the outcome of Florida and Michigan were unknown, Hillary was willing to agree that those races were beauty pageants only, with no significance to the actual primary race. Of course, once she won the popular vote in both states, she changed her tune.

It says a lot that one of our candidates for the Democratic nomination has the same sense of fair play as a four year old.

Respectfully,
Rutherford

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Yesterday, former President William Jefferson Clinton made the following reference to his wife’s recent Bosnia tall tale:

“There was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated and immediately apologized for it - what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995. … And some of [her critics], when they’re 60, they’ll forget something when they’re tired at 11:00 at night, too.”

I won’t go into the many factual errors in Bill’s statement as that’s been covered elsewhere. I won’t even address why in the world Bill would exhume this story when it had all but faded from the spotlight.

I do however find two incredibly ironic aspects to Bill’s statement. If part of Hillary’s problem was that she made these comments at 11pm after a long hard day (which by the way isn’t true), then how can we possibly trust Hillary to take that 3am call at the White House when all global hell is breaking loose? If her brain does not function at 11pm, just think what shape she is in at 3 in the morning.

If Hillary were to win the nomination, her opponent would be John McCain, one of whose potential weaknesses is his advanced age. However, according to Bill, John is not alone on the age issue. Apparently, Hillary’s being 60 years old also leads to her inventing combat situations in which she did not participate.

Looks like Bill’s latest campaign stump speech for Hillary goes like this: “Hillary Clinton is ready to be Commander-in-Chief so long as you don’t expect her 60 year old doddering mind to function properly 11pm or later.”

With poison pills like Bill Clinton and Mark Penn, Hillary hardly needs an opponent in order to lose the nomination. She’s losing it all by herself.

Respectfully,
Rutherford

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Much has been made of Barack Obama not throwing his spiritual mentor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, “under the bus.” I am among those who find Obama’s loyalty in this matter highly laudable. There is however, a truth that Barack dare not speak; a truth more offensive to the public than if he were to agree with the Reverend’s comments.

That truth is that in all likelihood, religion is to Barack Obama what it is to most Americans (and dare I say most people globally): a salad bar. Belonging to a church is as much a social practice as it is a devout one. Most people are “conveniently religious.” They take from religion what they like. If the edict or practice goes against their core beliefs, or is just plain too much a pain in the ass to follow, they discard it. The Catholic church is an especially good example of this, wherein the most commonsense of practices (such as birth control) are frowned upon. Just about every Catholic you meet, ignores substantial teachings of the church but still calls themselves Catholic. The same goes for most religions. If your primary purpose in going to church is to see and be seen, then it hardly matters what the pastor says.

I’m not suggesting that Barack Obama is a fake Christian. I’m simply suggesting that he falls in the category of most church goers who treat religion like a salad bar. They take the lettuce, tomatoes and shredded cheese but perhaps they ignore the croûtons. My guess is that Reverend Wright’s most controversial sermons were the croûtons that Obama simply chose not to digest. Why did he not leave the church? Because like most Americans, he had no problem staying and enjoying the lettuce, tomatoes and shredded cheese. He got sustenance where he found it, and avoided the parts he found distasteful. How many of you “Sunday regulars” have not done the same thing?

Respectfully,
Rutherford