Considering Frankie's most recent blog concerning the rise of rhetoric over dialectic brings me to address something that has been bothering me since Barack Obama was inaugurated. It concerns a particular Op-Ed columnist, Charles Krauthammer. I read Mr. Krauthammer's editorials in our hometown paper, the Times-Picayune, on a regular basis, probasbly twice a week on average. Mr. Krauthammer clearly owns the talent of a first-rate writer. However, virtually every article by him since the inauguration has been an ad hominem attack on our president.
Now, to his credit, Mr. Krauthammer acknowledges Mr. Obama as an excellent public speaker. But if you know anything about black people at all, saying that one speaks well is tantamount to a veiled insult. And that has been the extent of Mr. Krauthammer's praise for a man that I consider capable of becoming one of the greatest presidents this country has ever had. Am I that wrong about Mr. Obama's character? Is he that poorly fitted to be the most powerful man in the world? The columnist considers the president's message of hope and reconciliation to be nothing more than flim-flammery. He considers the president to be a moron in matters of foreign relations. He calls our president a hypocrite and a deceiver.
Is this all because our president has made overtures of peace to Muslim countries? Is it because our president strives to provide an example of the power of forgiveness that Mr. Krauthammer calls him naive? Is it because Mr. Obama is trying to force much needed change in the insurance and banking industries?
I can understand, and even agree with, some of the criticisms of President Obama. But a constant drone of personal attacks? Mr. Krauthammer clearly has an agenda, one that coincides with the interests of banks, insurance companies and the Republican party. I have a strong hunch that he is being bankrolled by at least one of those groups. I believe that he is prostituting his talent in favor of the biggest spenders.
Because President Obama employs the nice guy approach, certainly does not mean that he is weak. Other countries (and big corporations) cannot walk all over us unless we let them do it. Offering the olive branch of peace is not a sign of surrender, but a valid indication of a willingness to work together toward more desirable outcomes than the ones we currently face. The Republican zealots, with all of their Christian rhetoric, really should acknowledge that the man of peace is truly blessed. And if President Obama has fooled everyone except the Republicans, and he turns out to be evil in the final judgment of history, he is certainly using the methodology of a good Christian.