Why is Obama getting a pass? Because he is black. Ferraro said it, and it's true. Americans want to see a black president so badly it will ignore anything of substance from this guy.

Ken Blackwell is a black Republican and has been elected twice as Ohio Secretary of State. The fact that I have to say that is a shame. Like white people can't criticize a person's politics because they don't share the same skin color? Isn't the president supposed to represent ALL people? |

Ken Blackwell also writes a column for the New York Sun. This particular column was written February 14, 2008.
Ken Blackwell - Columnist for the New York Sun

It's an amazing time to be alive in America. We're in a year of firsts in this presidential election: the first viable woman candidate; the first viable African-American candidate; and, a candidate who is the first front running freedom fighter over 70. The next president of America will be a first.

We won't truly be in an election of firsts, however, until we judge every candidate by where they stand. We won't arrive where we should be until we no longer talk about skin color or gender.

Now that Barack Obama steps to the front of the Democratic field, we need to stop talking about his race, and start talking about his policies and his politics.
The reality is this: Though the Democrats will not have a nominee until August, unless Hillary Clinton drops out, Mr. Obama is now the frontrunner, and its time America takes a closer and deeper look at him.

Some pundits are calling him the next John F. Kennedy. He's not. He's the next George McGovern. And it's time people learned the facts.

Because the truth is that Mr. Obama is the single most liberal senator in the entire U.S. Senate. He is more liberal than Ted Kennedy, Bernie Sanders, or Mrs. Clinton.

Never in my life have I seen a presidential frontrunner whose rhetoric is so far removed from his record. Walter Mondale promised to raise our taxes, and he lost. George McGovern promised military weakness, and he lost. Michael Dukakis promised a liberal domestic agenda, and he lost.

Yet Mr. Obama is promising all those things, and he's not behind in the polls. Why? Because the press has dealt with him as if he were in a beauty pageant.

Mr. Obama talks about getting past party, getting past red and blue, to lead the United States of America. But let's look at the more defined strokes of who he is underneath this superficial "beauty."

Start with national security, since the president's most important duties are as commander-in-chief. Over the summer, Mr. Obama talked about invading Pakistan, a nation armed with nuclear weapons; meeting without preconditions with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who vows to destroy Israel and create another Holocaust; and Kim Jong II, who is murdering and starving his people, but emphasized that the nuclear option was off the table against terrorists - something no president has ever taken off the table since we created nuclear weapons in the 1940s. Even Democrats who have worked in national security condemned all of those remarks. Mr. Obama is a foreign-policy novice who would put our national security at risk.

Next, consider economic policy. For all its faults, our health care system is the strongest in the world. And free trade agreements, created by Bill Clinton as well as President Bush, have made more goods more affordable so that even people of modest means can live a life that no one imagined a generation ago. Yet Mr. Obama promises to raise taxes on "the rich." How to fix Social Security? Raise taxes. How to fix Medicare? Raise taxes. Prescription drugs? Raise taxes. Free college? Raise taxes. Socialize medicine? Raise taxes. His solution to everything is to have government take it over. Big Brother on steroids, funded by your paycheck.

Finally, look at the social issues. Mr. Obama had the audacity to open a stadium rally by saying, "All praise and glory to God!" but says that Christian leaders speaking for life and marriage have "hijacked" - hijacked - Christianity. He is pro-partial birth abortion, and promises to appoint Supreme Court justices who will rule any restriction on it unconstitutional. He espouses the abortion views of Margaret Sanger, one of the early advocates of racial cleansing. His spiritual leaders endorse homosexual marriage, and he is moving in that direction. In Illinois, he refused to vote against a statewide ban - ban - on all handguns in the state. These are radical left, Hollywood, and San Francisco values, not Middle America values.

The real Mr. Obama is an easy target for the general election. Mrs. Clinton is a far tougher opponent. But Mr. Obama could win if people don't start looking behind his veneer and flowery speeches. His vision of "bringing America together" means saying that those who disagree with his agenda for America are hijackers or warmongers. Uniting the country means adopting his liberal agenda and abandoning any conflicting beliefs.

But right now everyone is talking about how eloquent a speaker he is and - yes - they're talking about his race. Those should never be the factors on which we base our choice for president. Mr. Obama's radical agenda sets him far outside the American mainstream, to the left of Mrs. Clinton.

It's time to talk about the real Barack Obama. In an election of firsts, let's first make sure we elect the person who is qualified to be our president in a nuclear age during a global civilizational war.

More information on Ken Blackwell can be found here: http://www.kenblackwell.com/

1. He's going to end lobbyists... So that means if you band together to support a common cause, your voice will not be heard. Does that mean teachers unions no longer will have a say about education? We'll see about that.
   
2. Shine the light on spending... Most people have not been paying attention to how our government wastes money otherwise they would not vote for liberals over and over again. But if you elect him that's going to change, and everyone will become involved. As Dr. Evil would say, "Righttttt....."
   
3. Reform the political appointee process... does he realize that Demcrats have caused the president to make decision on appointees thanks to Senate oversight rules? But he's going to change that all by himself? Again, we'll see.
   
4. Universal health care coverage... This one scares me the most. And all politicians are guilty of buying into the premise that we need MORE government to fix the health care industry. It's the government regulations that have gotten us to where we are (with the help of outrageous lawsuits) and driven up costs. Can you imagine some bureaucrat, who has absolutely no experience in running a business, managing the nation's health care system? Picture the same people who are running security at the airport. Then realize that they are going to be the same ones running the health care system.
   
   And it's all going to be FREE???? Services will suffer and wait times to see doctors will increase as every hypocondriac in the country takes your appointment so that you have to wait a year to be treated for a cold. Simplified paperwork. We can't do it for the IRS and our tax forms, but the health care will be different! You're dreaming, Mr. Obama! Washington LOVES paperwork! 

I can't go on. Read it for yourself. It is so broad-stroked and vapid that this column would go on forever... Kind of like this election cycle. But rest assured... Hillary or Obama, it's socialism-lite. They will get away with as much as they can... incrementally if necessary. Look at where we started with the Boston Tea Party and where we are now with taxes. Incremental-ism.

I hold the media responsible for not telling the truth. Instead they push these different problems as something government should fix. We should fix the media... Solution? Castration!