Hardly Qualifies Anyone

Remember this? "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man." –Joe Biden, referring to Barack Obama at the beginning of the 2008 Democratic primary campaign, Jan. 31, 2007

Here’s a list of Obama's qualifications, according to our now-Vice President:

African-American

Articulate

Bright

Clean

Nice-looking

For those who would jump all over this and call me—one more time—racist, keep in mind from whose mouth the above quote spewed. All I’m doing is looking at the qualifications.

African-American. First of all, he’s not African-American, but nobody remembers that. He decided to run as an African-American, a brilliant move on the part of his string-pullers, and it resonated with everybody from Blacks to guilt-ridden whites. So it was a good choice. Actually, I’d rather see a real African-American run for president. With the first qualification we hear the first lie.

Articulate: clear, coherent, lucid. In other words, he doesn’t sound like a pair of sneakers in a dryer when he speaks with the aid of a teleprompter. Extemporaneously? Not so much. Which is why most of his speeches are staged. But here’s the really interesting thing. I have spent the past two years, give or take, being force-fed myriad appearances and listening to him ad nauseum and I’ve never been able to pin down just what it is about his speeches that drives me to distraction. An email from a dear friend the other day solved it for me. I’m posting part of it here in hopes that she will forgive me and won’t sue for copyright infringement.

“. . . how is it that speaking in phrases gets him lauded as a great speaker? I find it painful to listen to him and not just because everything he says is a lie. I want to prod him on to the next whole sentence. The libs used to criticize Bush for his speaking; I always found him easy to listen to.”

The truth is he's not the great orator he's cracked up to be, thrill-down-the-leg notwithstanding. But he managed to fool some of the people all of the time, and that's all it took to catapult him into the White House.

Bright. I’m pretty sure Biden meant intelligent, clever, smart, sharp, etc. when he described Obama, although he may have meant vivid, intense, dazzling. I’m not so sure about optimistic, upbeat, or positive. Remember the doom and gloom about the economy resulting in the most expensive stimulus bill ever passed? The one that introduced us to a new word: trillion?

But back to intelligent, clever, smart, sharp. Have we seen any transcripts from any school he ever attended? Maybe “trainable” is a better word; his string-pullers knew a good foil when they saw it.

Clean. Um, I’m not sure where to go with this. I’m not familiar with his bathing habits, I’ve never gotten close enough to smell him, and I think I’d better leave it alone; it’s been drug through the mud enough. But is that a qualification for the presidency? I suppose if you want to keep the White House clean it would be good. But if you want a clean White House, better you take out the pond scum and putrid Chicago garbage he brought along with him, which has been stinking up the place for the past fourteen months, six days and approximately five hours.

Nice-looking. I suppose that goes along with clean. The last time I saw him he didn’t look, sound, or act so nice. He was trying to weasel his administration’s way around the biggest “man-made” disaster in American history. But, like George W. Bush, who also met his Waterloo on the Gulf Coast, there’s no getting away from it. Obama's stunning qualifications didn’t stand up to this event. I’m not sure whose would, but perhaps someone with less arrogance and more humility, less aloofness and more connection with the American people might stand a tad better chance.

If you haven’t already done so, read Peggy Noonan’s editorial, which is far more articulate than this post. Seems she's finally seeing the light, after the sappy, sickening, pro-Obama drivel we were forced to endure from her before the election. So take it with a grain of salt. The editorial is two days old, but I just got to it because I worked all weekend. Remember, I'm a working-class granny, clinging to my guns and my religion.

Love

Granny