I now have a nice community of readers and commenters on this blog. For the most part, they are friends and family. Old friends who I am now in touch with because of the blog (Jon Slotkin, Jeff Few and others). And new friends (Andy Swan, Howard, Frederic Guarino and others) who stop by every now and then and join the discussions. And everyone knows that I am on the fence with this election. I'll support the dem nominee but don't feel strongly for either.
This week was a strange week. Our governor fell hard. Bear Stears almost imploded. The CNN Center in Atlanta was hit by a tornado. And Barack had been barraged with questions about his former pastor and spiritual adviser (Jeremiah Wright).
I'm not going to recap everything here. But in a nutshell, footage of Pastor Wright surfaced showing him bashing Hillary because of her race, comparing Barack to Jesus and blaming America for the 9/11 attacks. The footage was anti-American, anti-Jew and basically all around offensive.
Now I'm not saying Jeremiah Wright represents fully Barack's views. But there's no denying the two are and were close. So close, in fact, that Barack named Jeremiah to his official campaign adviser list (a large list, at that, but still on the list nonetheless).
Listen, tons of people hate America and don't particularly care for Jews. We've been pretty successful and success often brings jealosy, animosity and loathing. So the issue here isn't Jeremiah's views.
The issue for me is what do we know about Barack? He's been a master at dodging issue-related questions. And he has successfully kept the press out of his personal business. He is pro hope and change. But isn't every non-incumbent pro change? Hope for what? Change for what?
What do we really know about Barack? Are we ready for an unknown to be president? A first-time senator with some experience on the state level? Is the risk of the unknown better than the risk of the known (Hillary)? I like that the democratic primaries are dragging on. Maybe the process will help shed some light and keep us out of any issues in the fall.
