The Real Sign

In the 80s Franky Schaeffer, the son of one of the greatest Christian thinkers of the 2oth Century, Francis Schaeffer, wrote a book entitled Addicted To Mediocrity.

Addicted was written to evangelicals challenging them to break out of the box of narrow thinking with regard to reaching "the world," culturally and otherwise.

I want to borrow this idea and apply it to those, particularly blacks, who are looking at race in America today. I am specifically speaking to the thought put forward by many that America will be judged on how far it has come by whether we elect a black president or not. I beg to differ and offer a counter idea. Is it possible to judge how far we have come by how we react if we do not elect a black president.

If Barack Obama is elected President in November it will be a great milestone in our history, however, it will be too easy to say Hallelujah, we have arrived. That will last until the first time he runs into a rough patch with legislative battle with the Republicans in congress. The first reaction will be to say that "they are only opposed to him based upon his race." I assure you that this will be held up throughout his term in office.

I propose there is a greater test of how far we have come and a true test to verify that we are In a post racial America. That test is if Barack Obama can lose the race for President and black people and others not using race as an excuse. Will we be able say that he lost based upon his ideology, his inexperience, his positions, and/or his associations, just as we have done with past candidates.

Al Gore, John Kerry, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and others each lost and did not have the excuse of race to fall back upon. They lost because America disagreed with some aspect of their person, character, or position. When we can accept that a black, female, Latino, or other candidate could lose simply because they were the inferior candidate we will be saying that we have arrived at a new day. When Hillary Clinton lost the primaries to Barack Obama, while you heard a few murmur of sexism, it was by and large overshadowed by, the fact that he clearly ran a better campaign.

Can black Americans, and liberal Americans walk away on November 5th and say Barack Obama lost because America chose another candidate based upon no race based criteria, or will they be even more enraged than they were when America rejected Al Gore in 2000? Will they take the elitist and presumptuous posture and say, "it is impossible that America could have rejected their Superior candidate on merit?" I doubt it.

Eddie Huff

Obama vs. Palin- Whooda Thunk It

Super Barack vs. Mighty Sarah

So it has come to this.

If we were to rewind the clock by 2 weeks, the political landscape of America would look very different and actually very simple compared to where it is today. Just a mere two weeks ago we were deep into the Democratic National Convention, the Clintons were repairing the breach, we were awaiting the grand coronation of Barack Obama, and things were looking very good for the Democratic Party. But as an old friend of mine used to say, "what a difference a day can make." With one decision, one announcement, and one speech, John McCain turned the entire world, as we know it, upside down. With the out of the box, out of left field, and frankly maybe out of this world, choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate John McCain still has us reeling.

Barack Obama has been hopelessly diminished.

We now have John McCain essentially running unopposed, and Barack Obama running against Sarah Palin. VP candidate Joe what's his name has been vaporized. It is as if he does not even exist. I guess he is now running against Joe Lieberman who is not even running.

While all of this truly bodes well for the GOP, it is not time to get arrogant and cocky. There is still lots of work to be done.

Here are my thoughts.

1) OK, it was a great choice, and has reset the game, however, do not make more of it than you should. There are still just under 2 months, several debates, and thousands of dirt hunters scouring Alaska between now & November 4th to get that gotcha piece on Sarah Palin or Cindy McCain. It is still going to take some very hard work and grass roots support to win in November. If you think the Democrats were on a mission before the Palin pick, they are even morseso now.

2) Beware of Sarah fatigue. There is a real danger of Sarah fatigue, just as I believe America has suffered Obama fatigue. The McCain campaign needs t0 pull her back some and put the focus more on John McCain again. Have Sen. McCain do some events alone and keep Sarah back a week here and there.

2) Republicans need to focus on real issues now and not in anyway on Obama's name, family, or past habits. Forget Rev. Wright and Father Pfleger too.

Barack Obama's economic policy (socialist, tax the rich and anyone who thinks they want to become rich), international policy (weak and accommodationist), social policy (abort here, abort now, early and often; let any one marry or not, whomever they will, wherever they will), energy policy or lack of one (do not drill, do not build new refineries, do not mine more coal, no new nuclear plants) essentially are all talk but no plan at all.

Obama's plan calls for larger government, and more federal control over education, health care, energy, communication and almost every other area. His promises are based upon the same populist ideas that Lenin proposed in Russia and Hitler proposed in Germany. Neither ended well. I know I am going to hear about that one, but most people do not even know what the word Nazi means. It stand for the National Sozialist Partei, NAZI shortened, or the National Socialists in English. Hitler's message was the same populist one attacking rich the powerful and the existing government, promising to restore pride and hope, and to bring change. He brought that change and Germany has still not recovered from the shame. These are losing positions when clearly and fairly compared to the GOP positions on the same issues. Those behind Barack Obama think that Lenin, Stalin and Hitler just did not do it right. They are smarter and they will get it right.

The GOP message needs to be the following.

Freedom means nothing is you are not free. The Democrats and the Obama campaign promise a group or class freedom, but unless we are all free as individuals ( rich & poor alike), that class freedom means nothing. If the government decides who gets what, how and when that is not true freedom. Individual freedom also carries with it individual responsibility. That is what we need to seek. True individual freedom and true individual responsibility.

Let's get that message of true, personal and individual freedom and individual prosperity out in these next few months.