Wednesday, June 18, 2008
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Huckabee: Don't Denigrate Obama
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Posted by:
Carol Platt Liebau at
12:10 PM
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I'm not sure what Mike Huckabee means by his commandment to Republicans not to "demoni[ze] Barack Obama," and his instruction that they should "celebrate what [he] think[s] is a landmark achievement" -- that is, the winning of a major party nomination by an African American.
And of course that's great. What's more, it confirms what many of us already believe about America being the land of opportunity for all its people -- sentiments, unfortunately, that Michelle Obama seems to share only episodically.
But Governor Huckabee needs to offer us further guidance. It doesn't seem as though we need him to explain that untrue, unfair and bigoted critiques should be off-limits. That's obvious -- and true whether the Democrat candidate is an African American or not.
What's not clear is whether that self-evident point is all he means. Does he think that criticizing Barack's policy positions is somehow "demonizing" him?
Huckabee talks about the country's ability "to get to a point where we did not see his color . . .." Well, that's where most of those who oppose Obama are. Surely Barack neither need -- or hopefully would even want -- critics of his ideas and policies to censor themselves when discussing the issues lest they be seen as inadequately celebrating the nomination of a man of color.
Instead, perhaps we should pay Barack the compliment of believing that he would want to be tested, treated and critiqued the same as a presidential candidate of any gender or color -- white, black, purple or orange -- would be.
Does Mike Huckabee realize when he offers those "goo goo" sentiments that are either meaningless or deeply insulting to the character of Obama's critics that he only provides cover and ammunition to those on the left and in the MSM who would like to attribute all opposition to their favored candidate as nothing more than latent racism?
Please don't make this about race, Governor. There are plenty of people on the other side who are ready and willing to do that already.
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