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What next, Obama?
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot
June 6, 2008
The Democrat primaries are over
and Obama is the presumptive nominee, no matter how slow or
reluctant Hillary is to admit this outcome. Still, it is not
over. Until the
convention happens in August, there is enough reason for some
Democrats to worry for Obama.
There are people among the
Democrats who do not wish Obama well, who would wish that
something spectacular happens to knock him off, in the hope to
have Hillary installed instead.
These folks will be working hard
through, and perhaps, after the convention.
Of course, Hillary would never
concede that the above is true.
But her acts up to this moment, especially her refusal to
concede immediately after the South Dakota and Montana
primaries, invite this conclusion.
Hillary and her devotees are not
finished with Obama yet.
But just listening to some
media types these days will help reinforce the belief that there
are some in Hillary's camp who are vehemently opposed to Obama.
For these folks, Obama cannot
explain himself well enough.
No matter how sensible his positions are, he is still not
ready for the presidency when compared with Hillary.
Their entire claim hinges on the
belief that not much is known about Obama.
Of course, much is known about
Obama. He has
managed to accomplish a lot in youth, more so than what others
have at a far advanced age.
To raise doubt now about his experience is a deceptive
way and a wink to the racists.
But the anti-Obama forces within
the Democrat party are working hard to do just that.
And with the convention still ahead,
the wait, the Obama supporters think, can trigger some mischief
from the Hillary camp before his nomination is affirmed.
The Clinton supporters are
already threatening to rebel against the party, even though they
have been members of the Democrat party for generations.
With all these anti-Obama forces
out there, it is time for Obama to be cautious.
“It is not over until the fat lady sings,” as they say in
America. And that
fat lady will not be singing until the August 2008 convention is
over.
However, surprisingly, all the
set-backs of Obama’s candidacy are the doings of others much
close to his camp; Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Father Michael
Pfleger being the principal ones.
These pastors through their
rhetoric of late have given groundings for the doubt to be
raised again that “much is yet
to be known about Obama."
Rev. Wright and Father Pfleger,
both intelligent men and supposedly supporters of Obama, at this
stage, have done enough to compel well-wishers to ask whether
these two men intend to help or hurt Obama?
In the consideration of a
possible slip before the August convention, these two pastors
have become questionable factors.
As noted
recently in the polls, acts from these two helped to drive Obama’s polling
numbers down before the crucial primaries In Ohio,
Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Montana, and Hillary became the
beneficiary.
Hillary’s late rise in the polls
can be attributed to these two pastors and their past sermons,
which can be found on tapes out there.
Ironically, it is not what they
said. They spoke the
truth. Both preachers
said what could be said, that coming from pastors who practice liberation theology
is allowed.
However, the fault is in the timing and the time-line of
their stories.
They said it when a Black man, for the first
time, was running for the presidency.
When Rev. Wright’s hidden
tapes were aired, the resulting controversy went on for a while. Well-wishers of Obama hoped that the story would quickly
pass before more damage was done.
But just when it seemed to be
ending, and on the verge of the critical primaries of
Pennsylvania and Ohio, Rev. Wright re-surfaced in-person to
rekindle the controversy.
The result was a massive setback
for Obama and a huge gain for Hillary in both states.
Obama was badly bruised coming
from the polls in Ohio and Pennsylvania. After that, things
quieted down.
On
notice should be the marked difference in what had happened to him in previous races
and what was to follow, where blue-collar workers and white women had
voted for him. In Iowa, they voted against him.
After Pennsylvania and Ohio,
there were two crucial ones left, Montana and South Dakota.
Obama was leading in the polls in both places.
Then, on the weekend of the
polls was Father Pfleger’s sermon that lambasted Hillary.
You couldn’t help but wonder what this intelligent man
was thinking of when he showed up in the same Church of Rev.
Wright, to preach the same message that had caused Obama so many
headaches already.
Fortunately, Obama won Montana
but lost South Dakota. Had he lost both, there would have been
doubts about his ability to lead his party to victory in
November 2008.
It is still summer and not yet
October. But doubts
lurk in the waters of the mind.
And it is not so much about what could happen before the
August Democrat’s convention.
It is the fear of what is known as the “October
Surprise,” when dark things happen to frontline candidates.
Like the shark in the movie
“Jaws," we wouldn't want either Rev. Wright or Father Pfleger to re-surface with another sermon, unless they declare
that they are doing the bidding of Hillary.
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher
www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, June 6, 2008
Permission to publish:
Please feel free to publish or reproduce, with
credits, unedited.
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