The Issues, Please The Issues So now they're hammering Michelle Obama for selfishly wanting every voter in America to find ways to help Malia and Sasha Obama (her two young daughters). At least that's the way Michelle Malkin is making it sound. Anyone reading this who even remotely has any respect for Malkin, please stop reading and have the courtesy to let me know (privately, of course) that you have unsubscribed. Malkin is worse than Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh combined, because most of the intelligent public is already aware of their biases, and is on guard. Malkin's not quite as famous, and hence more dangerous, because some folks might unwittingly read her garbage and be influenced by it. She even pretends to be a journalist. At least Limbaugh is unabashedly a comedian doing a schtick, not that he admits it in those words. But I wouldn't say he pretends to be a pundit, noting that his tongue MUST be in his cheek. Mustn't it? I shouldn't worry so much. Anyone who would be influenced by Malkin is solidly in the other camp, anyway. I am happy and anxious to welcome uncommitted and Republican-leaning citizens into the Obama movement, if they're of a mind to join. But for the ones whose minds are made up to never vote for Obama, well, I will generously hold good thoughts for their financial and physical well-being, but if they don't want to think about joining us, then all I can ask is for them to please get out of our way. We ARE going to talk about issues, folks. We are NOT going to talk about Jeremiah Wright. Which was EXACTLY Michelle Obama's point, in her interview with Meredith Vieira, as any intelligent person listening could plainly hear. After one or two opening questions that also had to do with Rev. Wright, here's how it went: MEREDITH VIEIRA: Michelle, do you feel that the Reverend Wright betrayed your husband? MICHELLE OBAMA: I think Barack has spoken so clearly and eloquently about this. MEREDITH VIEIRA: But do you personally feel that the Reverend Wright… MICHELLE OBAMA: You know what I think Meredith? I think we gotta move forward. You know, this conversation doesn’t help my kids. You know, it doesn’t help kids out there who are looking for us to make decisions and choices about how we’re going to better fund education. In other words, practically in the same breath the Senator's wife correctly switched her focus to the importance of ALL kids, not just her own. Not that there was anything terribly wrong in personalizing the answer, conveying quite appropriately that she is a parent who is concerned for her kids just as any parent would be. But of course the other Michelle -- Malkin -- has learned her lesson well from the garbagey likes of O'Reilly and Hannity. Find the crucial sound bite, and twist the meaning and then bombard the reader/listener with constant repetition. She's right about one thing, this Malkin person is. Mrs. Obama was tired of answering variations of the same old Wright questions, and wanted to talk about the issues. ***************************** From now on, every single question about Rev. Wright should be answered in approximately the following vein: I think Rev. Wright might agree (or might disagree; it doesn't matter) with our plan to launch a Children’s First Agenda that provides care, learning and support to families with children from birth up to five years old. Barack believes that the goal of No Child Left Behind was the right one, but that it was written and implemented poorly and it has demoralized our educators and broken its promise to our children. Barack will fund No Child Left Behind and improve its assessments and accountability systems. Our schools will be improved by recruiting well-qualified teachers to every classroom in America, by rewarding expert, accomplished teachers for taking on challenging assignments and helping teachers succeed, and by reducing the high school dropout rate and closing the achievement gap by investing in proven intervention strategies in the middle grades and in summer learning and afterschool opportunities. Barack will create a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that will make tuition at the nation’s community colleges completely free and will cover up to two-thirds the cost of tuition at the nation’s public colleges and universities. This $4,000 tax credit will be fully refundable and available at the time of enrollment in college – when families need the money. (My suggested answer is just one of several possibilities and is taken mostly verbatim from www.barackobama.com.) ********************* Yes, we do need to stop talking about Wright. But I suffer from the same malady as many folks -- whether we're on the transmitting or receiving side of this tiresome issue. The malady is, I can't stop talking about it and I can't stop reading about it and I can't stop listening when the subject comes up. And I can't quite stop writing about it. For others who suffer from the same illness I have, my latest essay -- where I commend Barack Obama on the timing of his distancing himself from Rev. Wright -- appears immediately below this entry. (Just give me two seconds to make it "public.") ********************* [Saturday edit] I've been looking for a video of Barack's March 18 speech -- the link I published on March 19 was to www.barackobama.com, but the now-famous speech on race is difficult to find there -- and so I wanted to publish a different link here . I don't know how much longer it will be viable. Had to scroll down to April; hopefully there is a calendar at that website where you can plug in a date and get there at any time in the future. To hear the speech full-length, click on "menu" and the rest is easy. Tomorrow I expect to post a blog with the working title of "A Break From Politics." Some of you, I'm sure, will look forward to that. [Later] Ah, nuts. I can't get find a way to hear past the first 9 minutes or so. [Sunday edit] Ah, success. TRY THIS LINK. Read the speech, or scroll down to where you can hear it. Now I think I'll go looking for Michelle's speech that she gave in Wisconsin the night before the primary there. The one where she said, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country." You know what? I just accidentally found a link to her remarks that contained only an excerpt, and in that excerpt the word "really" was deliberately excised from the audio. But you can clearly read her lips, and she said what I heard her say at the time. Is there nothing that the right-wing media will not stoop to? Or was it a Hillary supporter? John Keitel is the name of the author of the fake piece. Anybody know who he is? | 
