“Obama started the year selling ‘hope,’ now he’s selling ‘audacity’
Brit Hume, Fox News Washington Bureau

July 24, 2008 – In an “Oreo” performance at the site of the Victory Memorial on the Grosser Stern in Berlin, Obama proclaimed, “People of the World!! This is our time!!” His speech was preceded by a performance by the popular Reggae artist Patrice, and followed by a performance by the popular German rock band Reamonn. They were the cookies, the warm-up and the closer… who, together, attracted the crowd of 200,000… while Obama was the “special treat” in between. Since the rockers had gathered such a large crowd, Obama couldn’t pass up the opportunity to say a few words, could he?

But, I wonder! Did Kennedy and Reagan hire rock bands to attract crowds before they delivered their famous speeches at the Brandenberg Gate? Did Reagan manage to sneak Lawrence Welk into town without our noticing? Und a einse, und a Zwei…

July 29, 2008 – In a closed door meeting with his Democratic congressional colleagues in Washington, Barack said, “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to its best traditions.”

And yes, Barack, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote, “Those who the Gods would destroy, they first make mad.” He must have had you in mind. So if you hear footsteps you might want to take a quick glance over your shoulder. The Gods may be gaining on you and they don’t like phonies who claim to be one of them.

July 30, 2008 – In campaign stops in Springfield, Lebanon, and Union, Missouri, Obama shamelessly played the race card, saying, “So what (the Republicans) are going to try to do is 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.”

“They're going to say I’m a risky guy,” Obama said. “What they’re going to argue is I’m too risky. The real risk is that we miss the moment, that we do not do what’s needed because we’re afraid.”

In his Springfield, Missouri appearance, Obama displayed much of his knowledge of energy conservation. He said, “There are things that you can do individually, though, to save energy. Making sure your tires are properly inflated. Simple things. But we could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling if everybody was just inflating their tires… and getting regular tune-ups. You could actually save just as much.”

Of course, birds of a feather do flock together. On the Fox Sunday Morning financial news program, Bulls & Bears, one of Obama’s leading supporters, Temple University Professor Marc Lamont Hill, who is described as a “leading hip-hop intellectual,” said, “If Wal-Mart raised the price of a pair of socks by one cent… a single penny… it could increase the salaries of Wal-Mart employees by $1,800.”

Wal-Mart has 2.1 million employees. Giving each of them an $1800 raise would cost $3.8 billion. That’s a lot of socks. But maybe he was talking about those 2.1 million employees splitting $1,800 between them.

Obama earned his undergraduate degree from Columbia and a law degree from Harvard, while Hill earned a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. These men are living proof that a $10,000 education at a local community college may be even more valuable than a $100,000 education from one of the Ivies.

July 30, 2008 – The Obama campaign found it necessary to repudiate the “rap” lyrics of one of his most ardent supporters, the gansta rapper Ludacris. The Obama campaign said the Ludacris lyrics are “outrageously offensive” to Senator Hillary Clinton, to Senator John McCain and to President Bush. The “song” uses an expletive to describe Senator Clinton, calls the president “mentally handicapped,” and says John McCain doesn’t belong in “any chair unless he's paralyzed.”

Campaign spokesman Bill Burton said, “As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too often perpetuate misogyny, materialism, and degrading images that he doesn’t want his daughters or any children exposed to. This song is not only outrageously offensive to Sen. Clinton, Rev. Jackson, Sen. McCain and President Bush, it is offensive to all of us who are trying to raise our children with the values we hold dear. While Ludacris is a talented individual he should be ashamed of these lyrics.”

But is Obama, himself, ashamed of such lyrics. In the past he has made light of the fact that his three-year-old daughter was allowed to listen to rap “music.” He thought it was amusing that she misunderstood the title of Snoop Dogg’s lyric “Drop it like it’s hot.” He laughed when he told his audience that she thought the lyric was titled “Drop it like a sock.”

The point is, can we afford to have a president, even a United States senator, who would allow his three-year-old daughter to listen to “rap” lyrics that refer to women as “hos” and that repeatedly used the “n-word” and the “f-word?”

Obama claims a number of the top rappers as his friends. Before all is said and done, they may prove to be just as damaging to his presidential prospects as the anti-American rants of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the racist characterizations of his wife, Michelle.