Lying Liars
My wife is great, but sometimes, a little naive. She can be pragmatic and then flighty. Maybe that’s why I love her. In any case, we were coming home from dinner on Friday night and we got into a discussion about the Presidential race. She is firmly convinced that Barack Obama is not to be trusted because he is covering up the fact that he was at one time a Muslim.
You have to understand something about my wife; she isn’t into the whole news thing. I have also explained to her that claims made in viral emails are things to be questioned at the least. So, when she says this, I have no answer for her, because I have none of my research tools close at hand. We’re in the car, I’m driving, and I can’t whip out my iPhone for moral support.
This morning, I was thinking about how I could convince her that Obama is the real deal. I went through my mind and decided my best bet would be snopes.com, the site that helps out dealing with urban legends. Sure enough, they have a full set of Obama pages, one whole one on the Muslim issue. Let’s be clear; most of these viral emails are attempts to paint Barack Obama as a radical Muslim with some hidden “Islamo-fascist” agenda. Whatever the hell that is. There are several reasons that these emails exist. Obama is black, and these people aren’t comfortable with that. His name is Barack Hussein Obama, not Joe Washington; they have a problem with that. He’s articulate, cool and healthy, not the stereotypical black man. There has to be something wrong with him.
Whatever you think, whatever your politics, this is the friggin’ 21st century and we should all be past this chicken-shit. If you don’t like what he stands for, fine. Don’t lie about him and then try to pass off those lies as justifiable reasons to not vote for him. Also, using his race as factor is off the table. We should be past that too.
Barack Obama is a politician, but I firmly believe that he sees the Presidency as an opportunity to mend some fences, and will attempt to make everyone’s life a little bit better.
UPDATE: Apparently, the prediction I made in Twitter about Sarah “Caribou Barbie” Palin lying low until the election is being disproved. She is going around making up more lies about Barack Obama. Particularly, his “ties” with former Weather Underground agitator Bill Ayres. I won’t go into it in detail, suffice to say Ayres and the Weather Underground were doing their thing when Obama was 8 years old. Also, the McCaininnites are unveiling their kitchen sink strategy. Since they have nothing, they have to distract, distract, distract. It’s the economy stupid.
You would think, after the New York Times cover parody, people would be clear on what Obama isn’t. I was very disappointed that Clinton lost to Obama as the Democratic candidate and then that Clinton was not taken up as a running mate, but giving the country to John McCain is just suicide. Palin is an affront to women and the country in general. Yes, McCain is a war hero, but that isn’t enough to run the country. Barack Obama is stunning in his intelligence and ability to take in people and situations with conciseness and clarity. This was very apparent in the last debate.
I agree that the urban legends of Barak Obama are getting to the ridiculous level of stupid. If people would go past the viral emails and actually get the facts, maybe people’s minds might be turned around.Given the alternative of John ‘Die in Office’ McCain and Sarah ‘Caribou Barbie’ Palin, Barak is the best choice. I hope things turn around soon as election day is getting real close.