Christopher Hitchens's Monday column in Slate shreds Barack Obama's rhetorical puffery in his much-vaunted (at least from the point of view of Obama-as-messiah cultists) speech on race in America.
Contrary to Obama's claims that the "Reverend" Jeremiah Wright's outrageous condemnations were a recent revelation to the Great Transcender, Obama knew at least as early as April 2007 that should he advance in the Democratic primaries, he would have to publicly distance himself from Wright. In other words, Obama was perfectly content to garner political support in Chicago's black community by staying close to Wright until he built a wide enough base to support his national run. He has tried to be one person in the congregation of Trinity United Church of Christ supporting the hateful speech of his racist pastor, while presenting himself as some great racial healer to the American public.
From Hitchens's column:
"To have accepted Obama's smooth apologetics is to have lowered one's own pre-existing standards for what might constitute a post-racial or a post-racist future. It is to have put that quite sober and realistic hope, meanwhile, into untrustworthy and unscrupulous hands. And it is to have done this, furthermore, in the service of blind faith. Mark my words: This disappointment is only the first of many that are still to come."
His hypocrisy stuns and insults. Unfortunately, too many people still exclaim in wonder at the emperor's new clothes.
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