IT'S AN OBAMA-NATION!

Many years ago, Dennis Prager said something to the effect (and I paraphrase here) "You don't vote for the candidate so much as you vote for his Rolodex." This truism is still valid today.

It is almost inevitable that Barak Hussein Obama will become the Democratic nominee for the presidency of the United States. His record is thin, at best, and his rhetoric is strong on charisma, but short on substance. We've already explored some of his ideas and their extreme Leftist philosophical underpinnings.

But what of Obama's Rolodex? Who are the folks who've most influenced him? Who would he be likely to call on for advice? Let us explore just three of his primary influences.

Frank Marshall Davis:

In his book, Dreams From My Father, Barak Obama describes a man, identified only as "Frank" who became something of a mentor to the young Obama growing up in Hawaii. Now, Obama has admitted to attending "socialist conferences", even having contact with Marxist Literature. But he poo-poohed any suggestion that he was a hardcore Marxist, as had been suggested by Alan Keyes in his Illinois senate race.

"Frank" was an old man the youth had befriended who wrote poetry and gave career advice. So just who was this "Frank"?

Cliff Kincaid, in an essay on Accuracy In Media, identifies "Frank" as one Frank Marshall Davis. For the most part, Mr. Davis was famous for his poetry and for his journalism. He'd written many books of poetry and had been an editor and reporter for many publications around the country. However, in 1951, he was identified as a member of the Communist Party USA, which was nothing but a front group for Stalin and the Soviet Union. This was from a report from the Commission on Subversive Activities to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii, so let's not bring in McCarthy here.

Obama writes glowingly of "Frank", who brought "hard earned knowledge" and advice. He also claimed to be a contemporary of other noted Communists, Richard Wright and Lanston Hughes.

Admittedly, "Frank" has been dead for twenty years. But is this the kind of influence we want in a President? Does America really need someone who belonged to a group funded and influenced by the Kremlin under Stalin?

Just asking, is all!

The Reverend Jerimiah Wright:

There have been attempts to stick Obama with being a Muslim. Both his natural and his step fathers were Muslims and he spent his early childhood in Indonesia. Indeed, his older brother, Abongo "Roy" Obama, is an Islamic Marxist in Kenya. However, it is apparent that Obama is a Christian. Although, precisely what kind of Christian we must explore.

Barak Obama belongs to the Trinity United Church of Christ, a Chicago church headed by Rev. Jerimiah Wright. If that were the whole story, there would be no essay here. However, that is far from the whole truth.

A visit to the Trinity United Church's web site offers a rather disturbing glimpse into the radical "liberation" theology that has plagued the Americas for the last half a century. Rather than focus of Christ's teachings, they use those teachings to foster a black separatist message, laced with Marxist tendencies toward wealth redistribution and "economic justice".

Once again, we have an unabashedly Marxist mentor to the would-be President of the United States. Worse, he is a separatist as well, pitting Americans against one another on the basis of skin color. And he tries to conceal this harmful worldview under the rubric of Christianity.

Tell me what's so Christian about statements such as these, all by the Rev. Wright:

• The Israelis have illegally occupied Palestinian territories for almost 40 years now. It took a divestment campaign to wake the business community up concerning the South Africa issue. Divestment has now hit the table again as a strategy to wake the business community up and to wake Americans up concerning the injustice and the racism under which the Palestinians have lived because of Zionism.



• "In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01," "White America and the western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just `disappeared' as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns."



• "Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run!...We [in the U.S.] believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God."
  

So, it should come as no surprise that the Trinity United Church, through its Trumpet Newsmagazine, gave noted racist and antisemite Louis Farrakhan an award. The Rev. Wright had this to say about Farrakhan:

"He is one of the 20th and. 21st century giants of the African American religious experience. When Minister Farrakhan speaks, black America listens. His depth on analysis when it comes to the racial ills of this nation is astounding and eye-opening. He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest. His love for Africa and African-American people has made him an unforgettable force, a catalyst for change, and a religious leader who is sincere about his faith and his purpose."

It should also come as no surprise that the Rev. Wright and Louis Farrakhan made a pilgrimage, of sorts, to Libya for a visit with Col. Muammar al-Gaddafi. Upon their return, Col. Gaddafi make a video presentation to the Nation of Islam's Saviour's Day Convention in which he pledged to provide weapons for a black army to destroy white America.

Quite the Christians, aren't they?

Obama has rebuked Farrakhan for his antisemitic rhetoric. He has also tried to distance himself from the Rev. Wright, according to whom Obama said: "'You can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we've decided is that it's best for you not to be out there in public.'"

Yet, Obama is still a member of his church for more than twenty years. And he has had the Rev. Wright in his circle, behind the scenes, at least.

Oh, and lest we forget, the title of Obama's book, The Audacity of Hope, was lifted right out of one of the good reverend's sermons.

Are we concerned yet?

William Ayers:

William Ayers was a violent revolutionary, a member of the Weather Underground. He has never recanted his violent militism. Nor has he paid any sort of debt to society. All charges against him were dropped, thanks to the ineptitude of the federal authorities who were searching for him throughout the 1970's.

In National Review, Jonah Goldberg notes that this quote: "Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon.” appeared in the New York Times as they published a paeon to the counter cultural guerrilla. What made that even more poignant was that this was on the morning of Sept. 11th, 2001. The New York Times also quoted Mr. Ayers about his days as a mad bomber: "''I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough.''

Today, Mr. Ayers is, beyond all reasonable expectations, a distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This, presumably, might explain many of the problems in American schools today.

It turns out that both Ayers and Obama served on the board of the Woods Fund, a charitable organization that purports to help the disadvantaged, where they served together for a number of years.

Look back to 1995. Ben Smith, of the Politico, reported that Illinois State Senator Alice Palmer had a sort of "coming out"party for her chosen successor to her seat in the state legislature. That successor was a young Barak Obama. The party was held at the home of one William C. Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn, also a member of the Weather Underground.

A question for all those concerned with America's security: Doesn't a clear association with an unrepentant terrorist raise any flags of warning? Is this the sort of person we want to have access to the President of the United States?

I still believe that, at this moment anyway, Barak Obama will beat John McCain in November. However, before we elect this unreconstructed socialist and radical, we ought examine his Rolodex. So far, we've found a liberation theology pastor, an avowed Communist mentor, a Marxist Islamist brother, and a violent terrorist.

These are not the sort of folks we need running around the White House or influencing the President.

Copyright Feb. 29th, 2008