What does a broken clock and Barack Obama have in common?

I have been intently watching as much of the Democratic National Convention as I can manage, and, for the most part, the proceedings can be boiled down to these three ideas: 1.) The service (read imprisonment, torture) of John McCain is all well and good BUT he is weak on the economy 2.) John McCain and Bush the younger are one in the same, and finally, 3.) The Republicans are the party of the few for the few, while the Democrats hold exclusive license as far as caring for the masses is concerned, (the irony of millionaires accusing other millionaires of being out of touch with people like you and me need not be further explored).

Today, the DNC has been giving Obama credit for his year-long pledge to withdraw "combat" troops from Iraq within the first 16 months of his presidency. A year ago Obama stated far and wide that the upcoming surge was a mistake, and that we needed to get out of Iraq, and the quicker, the better. Now, the Democrats have the astounding gall to claim that Obama was ahead of the curve on current events, even as the Dems are attempting to take credit for the results of a troop increase that they roundly and publicly criticized.

All of this brings us to the question that is the title of this blog. At this moment in time, Obama, just like a broken clock, has found himself in the condition of being "correct", in spite of himself.

Not so fast, Mr. Robinson...

A couple of days ago in the Valley & State section of the Arizona Republic was a column by Washington Post writer Eugene Robinson. If you missed it, you can find it here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/31/AR2008073102820.html . Robinson accuses the McCain campaign of playing the "race card". A serious allegation considering Barack Obama is indeed half Kenyan.

The source of Robinson's consternation was Obama's comments at a recent campaign stop. Obama warned that those opposed to him would "...make you scared of me. You know, 'He's not patriotic enough, he's got a funny name, you know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.' In response to these interesting, pre-emptive charges, McCain Campaign Manager Rick Davis accused Obama of playing the dum, dum, duuuuum, race card. Which of course the Illinois Senator did.

Robinson, employing a not so subtle intellectual/journalistic slight of hand, has deemed that Obama was merely reminding (as if people have to be) that he is the first black politician with a viable chance to be president. If this was the idea that Obama, a master practitioner of words, wanted to convey, it just didn't come out right. I suspect that Mr. Obama meant exactly what he said.

This whole episode, though, is emblematic of the Obama campaign's attitude towards criticism of it's candidate. Oppose Obama, then witness race mentioned as a possible motivation for such criticism at times by the Obama campaign.

In the end, Robinson would like us to believe that Rick Davis' accusation of calling out Obama's comment as "race card" material was wrong. Robinson feebly asserts that Obama was innocently pointing out a rather obvious truth. People are much smarter than Obama and Robinson would like to believe. The unfortunate, narrow-minded and grossly over simplistic attitude that inspired Obama's words cannot be simply explained away, especially with an attempt as inane as Robinson's. And by the way, John McCain doesn't look like any of those other guys on "the dollar bills" either. Any resemblance would be strictly skin deep.