More Supporters Barack Obama Needs To Denounce and Reject

In the most recent debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, moderator Tim Russert asked Obama repeatedly to reject the endorsement of anti-Semitic Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan, who has himself been praised by the minister of Obama's church. Russert, who has such a deep and intimate knowledge of the thoughts and feelings of Jews that he is practically an honorary Jew himself, also asked Obama, "What do you do to assure Jewish Americans ... you are consistent with issues regarding Israel and not in any way suggesting that Farrakhan epitomizes greatness." Obama said that he had often denounced Farrakhan's statements, but it was only when he was backed into a corner by Clinton and Russert that he also rejected Farrakhan. But what of some of the other controversial endorsements Obama has gotten? Does he both denounce and reject those as well?

Of course, many conservatives are worried about the endorsement Obama got from the Kennedys, but what about the enthusiastic support he has gotten from Oprah Winfrey? Winfrey is single-handedly responsible for turning the execrable Dr. Phil McGraw into a celebrity. Dr. Phil is one of the most annoying, self-righteous people on television if not the most. What has Obama done to assure those of us who despise Dr. Phil that we will not see even more of him during an Obama Administration? Does he endorse Dr. Phil's crass Britney Spears hospital room intervention? Does he subscribe to Dr. Phil's smarmy, simple-minded psychobabble? Has Obama ever denied unequivocally that he will appoint Dr. Phil surgeon general? By accepting Oprah's endorsement, Obama has left himself vulnerable to the charge that he agrees with her that Dr. Phil has anything even remotely worthwhile to say.

But that is just one of many endorsements that Obama has refused to distance himself from. Some bloggers have pointed out that one of the actors in the viral pro-Obama video "Yes We Can" by Will.I.Am of the Black-Eyed Peas is Eric Balfour, who played a featured character on the patriotic television show 24, but also "has appeared in several extremely explicit films. A quick imdb.com search shows up one particular NC17 movie Lie With Me, one of the only modern films to contain unstimulated sexual material," according to PWConservative. "Unstimulated" sex is one of the worst kinds of sex a person can have and shame on the filmmakers for showing it. Does Obama reject and denounce Balfour's support or does he think our children should be exposed to unstimulated sex? "Now while I understand that Sen. Obama cannot account for all endorsements, I would appreciate if his campaign would apologize for this ad, given it's disrespect for Christian Values," says PWConservative quite reasonably. But Obama has yet to denounce the video, which his campaign did not produce, for letting this actor appear in it, or the show 24, for that matter.

Incidentally, the "Yes We Can" video is directed by Jesse Dylan, whose father Bob Dylan wrote "Subterranean Homesick Blues," which included the lyric "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows," which is where the violent, radical, left-wing group the Weather Underground got its name. And this is not Obama's only association with the 1960s terrorist organization. Obama once went to a party at the home of Bill Ayers, who was once a member of the Weather Underground and is now a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Does Obama endorse the Weather Underground's plot to foment a violent overthrow of the U.S. government? And how does Obama feel about Dylan's betraying thousands of very sincere fans of folk music by going electric? Why didn't Tim Russert ask him about that?

Obama has also been endorsed by actor Kal Penn, who starred in the film Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and its upcoming sequel Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, which mocks the War on Terror and "seems to be banking on young people's belief America's a racist country and too hard on the terrorists," says Libertas' Jason Apuzzo. According to Wikipedia Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo after being mistaken for terrorists and "then begin a series of strange encounters, including an inbred mutant, Neil Patrick Harris, a nude woman, a KKK rally (where they are mistaken for 'Mexicans'), and George W. Bush's ranch house." Frankly, the fact that Neil Patrick Harris is in the film should be reason enough to condemn it, but according to the film's co-writer and director Hayden Schlossberg, "Our vision for Guantánamo was a place that doesn't even feel like America." Do we really want to elect a man who accepts the endorsement of an actor who appears in a film that claims that Guantanamo is un-American? Why hasn't Obama denounced this film and rejected the support of one its stars? Perhaps Obama thinks that the War on Terror is just a joke.

Robert De Niro's endorsement of Obama would not be problematic if he had only made films like The Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. But how does Obama explain Meet the Fockers? Or Showtime? Or The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle? Has Obama distanced himself from those terrible films? By accepting De Niro's endorsement does he in turn endorse the practice of aging actors' mugging for the camera and becoming little more than parodies of their former selves? Is he also soliciting the endorsement of Al Pacino?

Will.I.Am is not the only second-rate pop musician that has endorsed Obama. The GooGoo Dolls and the Dave Matthews Band have also endorsed him. Does Obama actually like this watered alternative music for people who think they are hip because they always vote for the contestant on American Idol who has a little bit of an edge? Does he think America needs more bad pop music that is not nearly as cool as it thinks it is?

Does Obama think comedian Chris Rock, who has also endorsed him, is funny? Rock has a reputation for making jokes that make white people uncomfortable and Obama needs to reassure white people that Rock's endorsement does not mean that Obama supports the practice of making white people laugh nervously. Did Obama laugh when Chris Rock joked, "If we have a black vice president right now, I couldn't wait to KILL the president," which was apparently a veiled threat to assassinate Dick Cheney, except for the black part. Obama seems to be so desperate to get endorsements that he couldn't wait and secure the endorsement of Jude Law, who is one of our finest actors, and settled for Rock's instead.

I don't think America can afford to take the risk of electing a man who does so little vetting of the people who support him. John McCain, for example, recently disavowed talk radio host Bill Cunningham for making nasty jokes about Obama's middle name at a McCain rally. If Obama hopes to keep up with McCain in the polls, he needs to start denouncing more of his supporters, too. Many pundits are urging Obama to stage a Sister Souljah moment and attack someone black to show that he is not beholden to black people. Perhaps, he could invite Chris Rock to one of his campaign events and then stand up and say, "That's not funny!" Or he could ask another supporter of his, Usher, to sing and then afterwards remark that Usher's tepid pop is a pale imitation of the great soul music of the past. And while he's at it, he could be proactive and start apologizing for the music of MC Hammer, Halle Berry's performance in Catwoman, Eddie Murphy's film Norbit and Rodney Allen Rippy to head off any potential endorsements from them. It may take from now until November to repudiate every supporter or potential supporter who has said or done something regrettable but it will be time well spent.

Share This Post



Technorati Tags: Jon Swift, Barack Obama, 2008 Election, Republicans, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Tim Russert, Politics