Janet Jackson sang a pop tune back in the 1980s that contained some good advice that's relevant to the presidential election this year: "Let's wait awhile before it's too late. Let's wait awhile, before we go too far." I suggest this catchy number be on every American's iPod, cell phone -- wherever they'll listen. Everyone remotely susceptible or already intoxicated needs to take a breath and get some distance from the political rapture of Obamamania.
More than a week before Election Day, the Barack Obama camp has moved from campaigning to moving into the White House. It's already setting up a victory-night celebration in Grant Park in Chicago. And the rhetoric, as always, flows copiously. To a crowd of 35,000 in northern Virginia, Obama recently announced, "I feel like we got a righteous wind at our backs here."
Across the globe, in a very unrighteous regime, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Ali Larijani, seemed to agree. He seconded former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell by endorsing Obama, saying that Iran is leaning toward the Democratic candidate "because he is more flexible and rational."
The Persian praise came just days after Obama's running mate, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, warned that an international crisis is guaranteed if Obama becomes president. (With friends like these, Barack ... ). Acknowledging what is blindingly obvious -- the Illinois senator is untested, unscarred, previously unknown -- Biden warned of a coming disaster under an Obama regime. He said, "Mark my words ... It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant, 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America ... Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."
While the comment didn't make as much news as, say, Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin's shoes, it was a bombshell. It shined a spotlight on Obama's sketchy record of accomplishment -- one that includes his refusal to condemn MoveOn.org's notorious attack last spring against the former commander of our troops in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus. The comment is even more disturbing than it appears on its surface because it reflects poorly on Biden, as well. Obama supposedly tapped the senator for his vice president because he adds foreign-policy heft to the ticket. But on issue after issue, Biden, a lawmaker for three decades and counting, has been wrong. He helped seal the deal on defeat in Vietnam. He opposed Ronald Reagan as the Great Communicator drove a stake through the heart of the Soviet empire, and he ran toward surrender in Iraq after supporting the deployment of American troops in the first place.
These things, along with Obama's radical associations -- most notably, his friendships with William Ayers, an unrepentant terrorist, and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of "God da** America" fame -- should have given Americans pause long before today. But if, in these final days before we head to the polling booths, we take that pause, it's not too late. We haven't gone too far. Yet.
Between taking fittings for the coronation, pundits warn that the polls may be inaccurate. Mostly they blame the so-called Bradley effect -- named after an unsuccessful black candidate for governor in California. The worry is that non-black voters are uncomfortable with the idea of a black politician but won't tell pollsters that for fear of being cast as racists. But if Obama doesn't win on Election Day, it doesn't mean we're a nation of closet bigots. It may just mean that Americans took a deep breath and realized that this country can't gamble on an inexperienced president during a time of war and economic uncertainty.
As Karl Rove recently wrote, "Sen. Obama hasn't closed the sale." Given the disturbing open questions about his judgment and readiness, if America takes a moment to sober up from the high of the historic moment, they may not buy on Nov. 4 the bill of spoiled (socialist, recklessly irresponsible, anti-life) goods the Obama-Biden ticket is selling. With Biden's words in mind, voters may choose to avoid heading into an "international crisis" with an untested leader. And they will have made that choice while there was still time.
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