This article from Monday's Honolulu Star Bulletin is a keeper in that it reports Obama's commitment to reparations in the course of a general display of a leftist's understanding of history:
"There's no doubt that when it comes to our treatment of Native Americans as well as other persons of color in this country, we've got some very sad and difficult things to account for," Obama told hundreds of attendees of UNITY '08, a convention of four minority journalism associations....
"I personally would want to see our tragic history, or the tragic elements of our history, acknowledged," the Democratic presidential hopeful said.
"I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it's Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds."
The other noteworthy aspect of the report is its candid coverage of MSM's embrace of the Dalibama:
When Obama walked on stage at the McCormick Center, many journalists in the audience leapt to their feet and applauded enthusiastically after being told not to do so. During a two-minute break halfway through the event, which was broadcast live on CNN, journalists ran to the stage to snap photos of Obama.
Bravo to the honest journalists willing to display their Obama-love openly. "Being told not to do so" is the great give-away. The grey beards know they aren't supposed to be cheering the hardest left major party presidential candidate in history, but, hey, reporters and editors have been waiting a long time for someone as far left as they are to run for the presidency.
Obama's understanding of American history --his need to deplore trumps any instinct to elevate and celebrate every time-- frames the choice between McCain and Obama.
A McCain presidency would be grounded on the firm conviction of American greatness and exceptionalism, as well as the uniqueness of the American mission in the world.
Obama's would be built on the "mature" understanding of America's many past sins, its enormous greed and grasping, its unfair use of vast quantities of resources and its need to respect world opinion and world institutions even when those opinions and institutions are at cross-purposes with American national interests.
Is American greatness the engine of the world, or American guilt an explanation for it?
Obama is rightly getting hammered for skipping a meeting with wounded American warriors in German --the WaPo tries to give Obama some cover, but the only fact that matters is that Obama committed to going and then he didn't go-- but the real story of the past ten days is his full unveiling as Europe's candidate for the presidency, with an attitude and a platform indistinguishable from the standard critique America has been receiving for fifty years from the people it rescued sixty years ago.
The rapidly spreading understanding of Obama as an arrogant elitist with an enormous sense of entitlement combined with an awesome contempt for America as it has been in the post World War II era accounts for the air escaping from the Obama boomlet. Tromping through Europe to the wild applause of the anti-America left is a big flare for most voters. "Who is this guy, and why isn't he lecturing Europe on its gratitude gap?"
The risky nature of a vote for Obama became more palpable last week, and Monday's pda for him from the MSM, minority journalists division, reminds us that we haven't been given the whole story on Obama, that the Manhattan-Beltway media elite is blocking for him in extraordinary ways.
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