You know…I was wondering what to write about…and then I realized that earlier today I responded to some email correspondence making some misleading claims about Obama. You might enjoy reading both what was sent to me, as well as my response.
The beautiful and talented Rhonda had emailed her friend (we’ll call her Betty) along with other friends and family. Rhonda had encouraged Betty and the others to stay informed regarding the candidates and to consult a number of different news and information outlets…she pleaded for them to ignore the noise and the propaganda and instead search out the truth behind all dubious assertions…you have to applaud her for this. I do.
Betty responded to Rhonda as follows:
“Hi Rhonda, you had sent me some links several weeks back on Obama and encouraged me to do research beyond what the mainstream media was providing. My sister is the research guru and has even sent letters, phone calls, and emails to both campaigns in the effort to get things “from the horses mouth” as it were. Below is her research along w/ an MP3 attachment that she found of Obama himself speaking regarding his stance on abortion and failed abortions, but if the abortion issue doesn’t matter to you then it may not be worth the download.”
Here is what Betty’s sister contributed:
“I was seriously considering voting for Obama back in January, so I made it my business to thoroughly educate myself scouring Illinois Congressional transcripts, reading the candidates books, watching TONS of speeches, attending town halls and rallies, even studying Al-Jazeera and Kenyan direct sources. The media did more digging on Sarah Palin in 2 weeks then they did over Obama’s 2 year presidential campaign. Too many McCain voters have only gotten their information from overly dramatized, partial truth emails. Too many Obama voters have summarily dismissed information as fear mongering and lies. Not nearly enough truth finding has been done by much of anyone.
I would be happy to keep these little known facts to myself, but in light some of the recent specific topics on the email, I feel I must put them out there and implore you to look at them to get REAL quotes and facts without anyone’s spin or spooky music by which to summarily dismiss them (as I would, too). Most people are not aware of these or at least have only gotten their info from ridiculously propagandized emails. NONE of these quotes or sources have come from emails, but from my own research. Just TRULY be informed, not told what to think. Anyone that knows me knows that I appreciate intelligent, informed discourse whether I agree with you or not.
Oh, and yes, of course God’s will for mankind will not be thwarted, but that does not mean that we don’t have a responsibility to try and stay in the path of truth. God’s will has not always been pleasant and if a nation is not for Him, that nation is against Him. We must be prayerful and sure of our decisions to preserve this gift of America. It’s future is far from assured. I pray for Obama and McCain constantly, that God would prepare their hearts and have mercy on us all in this Godless nation where we deserve none.
Obama on abortion: Obama voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, even after language included was altered to exactly copy existing abortion protection laws. This act said that if an infant was born alive as a result of a failed abortion, that a doctor was required to administer reasonable life saving attempts. Babies were currently being placed in another room until dead, and then issued both a birth and a death certificate. His audio response on the floor of the Illinois house is attached here (the file wasn’t attached). He felt it would put undue pressure on the original decision of the mother. When asked by Rick Warren, when does life begin, Obama said it was “above his paygrade”. What he has repeatedly said is not that his wish would be to reduce the number of abortions, but “to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.” This has been repeated so many times, that it’s not an unintentional distinction. He also said in a speech to Planned Parenthood, that he “would never want his children punished with a baby”.
Obama on Economy: Famous quote to “Joe the Plumber” when confronted on his tax plan, we need to “Spread the wealth around”. Some have called this Socialist and Marxist. Most people don’t know what that really means and summarily dismiss those terms as extreme. Here’s a definition from Webster’s that covers both: “a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done”. Meaning goods and pay are not distributed proportional to actual work done. People working more would make less and people working less would make more.
Obama on Religion & Politics: Very little known Obama speech. Please at least watch the highlight reel.: Obama’s Call to Renewal Speech: Faith & Politics: (speech highlights edited down to 5 minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Kh-xzerjE
Obama’s Call to Renewal Speech: Faith & Politics: (speech in it’s entirety broken down into 5 sections. Total run time approx. 40 minutes)
part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tdoQr3BQ1g&feature=related/
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYzDIhbgDtg&feature=related
part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTFUsckSDe8&feature=related
part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVt59yd2W0U&feature=related
part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x29oqiXwg34&feature=related
Obama and McCain Worldviews: If you are a Christian, you simply must see the only REAL exposure of these men’s worldview at the Saddleback Forum with Rick Warren:
http://trevinwax.com/2008/08/17/obama-mccain-with-rick-warren-at-saddleback-forum-video/
Obama on Foreign Policy: “Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us.” Fact: Russia has been supplying nuclear materials and weapons to Iran, has formed an agreement with Hugo Chavez to make Venezuela a nuclear country, and has vowed to reassert their presence in Cuba.
Obama’s Theology: Obama’s pastor for 20 years, Rev. Wright, has adamantly stated back in the spring of 2007, that their church’s belief is rooted in Black Liberation Theology. This is the man credited for Obama’s conversion and the baptism of his girls. That was over a year before Obama was forced to distance himself from Wright under public pressure. Rev. Wright has insisted that if you desire an honest dialogue and understanding of what they believe, you must first read the writings of James Cones, one of the father’s of Black Liberation Theology. Here’s a quote from Cones: “Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community … Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.”
If you made it to the end, thanks for taking the time. This is just a small sampling of topics and quotes, but if they don’t matter, nothing else will, either. I have and will always respect informed disagreement. Love you all!!!!!!!”
Rhonda responded very respectfully, made mention of her views on abortion, and stated that she did not wish to become embroiled in a debate with Betty’s sister…which is why she copied me.
Here is my response:
“Hi sweetheart!
I’ll send you this…whether or not you want to forward it on to Betty (and by extension her sister) is entirely up to you. You are the one who has the relationship with her…so the choice should be yours…
As always, you give me too much credit. Your response also manages to summarize my views quite nicely:
1) I am Catholic and strongly oppose abortion…but I also oppose ANY categorical governmental prohibition of abortion for a number of reasons that are personal, scientific, and pragmatic.
2) I am not a single-issue voter…a candidate’s abortion stance is only one of many factors that I consider.
3) While Christian, I am a strong believer in the FULL separation of Church and State and do not require that a candidate meet a “Christian Dogma Litmus Test” to merit my vote.
With all due respect to Betty and her sister, I had to take issue with much of the attached correspondence:
Despite assertions of “research,” fairness, and a search for “truth”…I find the statements in the forwarded email contain no links to actual “research“…only clips from Obama’s Call to Renewal speech and a clip from the Saddleback Forum.
Obama on abortion: a thorough misrepresentation of the facts, based on the contents of a McCain attack ad that was discredited a long time ago…here are links to the factcheck.org pages that discuss the legislation in question:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obama_and_infanticide.html
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_alive_baloney.html
Obama on the economy: Clear example of oversimplification…neither Socialism, nor Marxism, nor Capitalism can be explained in one sentence from Webster’s dictionary. We “socialize” a number of things in this country…police, fire, roads, schools, libraries…this does not make us socialist, nor marxist. Nor does taxing the wealthy more than the middle and lower classes. As stated in an article on Truthout.org:
“Favoring higher tax rates for the wealthy than for the less fortunate isn’t socialism, and if it is, then the U.S. has been a socialist country for nearly a century, under both Democrats and Republicans. ‘The answer is clearly no, Senator Obama is not a socialist,’ said Paul Beck, a professor of political science at The Ohio State University. ‘We’ve had a progressive tax system for some time, and both Republicans and Democrats have bought into it.‘ Socialism involves state ownership of the means of economic production and state-directed sharing of the wealth. America’s democratic capitalist system is neither socialist nor pure free market; rather, it mixes the two, and it has at least since the progressive income tax was introduced 95 years ago. Under it, the wealthy pay higher income tax rates than those who are less fortunate do.”
Obama On Religion & Politics: I’m concerned at the inclusion of these clips…it seems born out of a desire to stir up Christian pathos, with no other discernable purpose. I have seen numerous chain emails containing excerpts of this speech taken out of context. Regardless, here is a full transcript of the speech posted right on the Obama Senate website: http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/
I can find nothing objectionable in it, when read in its entirety.
Obama and McCain Worldviews: The author begins “If you are a Christian, you simply must see
the only REAL exposure of these men’s worldview.” Why would it be necessary to preface this statement with “If you are a Christian?“ Again…this phrase alludes to the author’s thinly-veiled bias. Also, the notion that this is the only “real” exposure to the candidates’ worldviews is simply false. A simple Google search brings back countless speeches given by both men. For example, here is the transcript of Obama’s speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fpccga/
Obama on Foreign Policy: Once again, this criticism comes straight from a McCain attack ad. The quote in context reads as follows: “Strong countries and strong Presidents talk to their adversaries. That’s what Kennedy did with Khrushchev. That’s what Reagan did with Gorbachev. That’s what Nixon did with Mao. I mean, think about it: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela — these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time…” Obama was clearly saying that even under the daily threat of massive nuclear attack, our leaders talked with Russian leaders, and no…neither Iran, Cuba, nor Venezuela pose the same military, economic, or political threat to us today that Russia did during the Cold War.
Obama on Theology: I find no credible facts in this section…and again I question the focus on matters of faith. The entire paragraph attempts to paint Obama as fully agreeing with Wright’s ideology, which the author cannot substantiate. There is nothing to suggest that Obama is a proponent of “Black Liberation Theology”…yet the author seeks to insinuate this through a series of weak associations:
A) Obama went to Wright’s church
B) Wright said the church was founded on Black Liberation Ideology
C) A founder of Black Liberation Ideology once said “X”
D) Obama believes “X”
On a personal note: I found this writing disturbing. That a person would claim to be basing points on facts and research…and then make manipulative plays on readers’ religious and racial bigotry is highly objectionable. The prevalence of language that is identical to language found in McCain advertising and negative emails reveals the author’s true ambition: to further deceive the public with innuendo, insinuation, and at times outright lies.
You know that I started my blog as a centrist. My desire was to fact-check information coming from both sides. I became an Obama supporter when I saw that what consistently came out of the Obama campaign consisted of, at its worst, spin and exaggeration…what came out of the McCain campaign was consistently false, and at times, reprehensible.
I’m sorry…but I have to say that writing such as this is, in my opinion, part of the problem…not part of the solution.
Todd”