Michelle Obama: Barack is the only man who can “heal” this nation and “fix our souls”

I just got done listening to the most disturbing speech of this campaign season, and it wasn’t given by any of the candidates, but by the wife of the Dem frontrunner for the nomination: Barack Obama’s wife Michelle. It was given two weeks ago at UCLA. Captain Ed provides a partial transcript:

In 2008, we are still a nation that is too divided. We live in isolation, and because of that isolation, we fear one another. We don’t know our neighbors, we don’t talk, we believe our pain is our own. We don’t realize that the struggles and challenges of all of us are the same. We are too isolated. And we are still a nation that is still too cynical. We look at it as “them” and “they” as opposed to “us”. We don’t engage because we are still too cynical. …

Americans are not in debt because they live frivolously but because someone got sick. Even with insurance, the deductibles and the premiums are so high that people are still putting medications and treatments on credit cards. And they can’t get out from under. I could go on and on, but this is how we’re living, people, in 2008.

And things have gotten progressively worse throughout my lifetime, through Democratic and Republican administrations, it hasn’t gotten better for regular folks. ….

We have lost the understanding that in a democracy, we have a mutual obligation to one another — that we cannot measure the greatness of our society by the strongest and richest of us, but we have to measure our greatness by the least of these. That we have to compromise and sacrifice for one another in order to get things done. That is why I am here, because Barack Obama is the only person in this who understands that. That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation.

She also asserts in the speech that Barack Obama will “heal” this nation.

The Captain debunks many of Mrs. Obama’s arguments, but his best point is this one:

But it’s the notion that only Barack Obama can save our souls that is the most offensive part of the speech, by far. Government doesn’t exist to save souls; it exists to ensure domestic tranquility and provide for the common defense. If I feel my soul needs saving, the very last place I’d look (in the US) for a savior would be Washington DC or Capitol Hill. I’ll trust God and Jesus Christ with my soul, and I’m not going to mistake Barack Obama for either one.

This, though, is the religion of statism distilled to its essence. Only a government can rescue people from the consequences of their own decisions. Only government programs can provide for your every need, and only government can use your money wisely enough to ensure that your needs get covered. Individuals cannot possibly manage to help their neighbors through their churches or community organizations, let alone encourage people to do for themselves.

And all you need to enter the statist Utopia is to sell your soul. So that it can be fixed.

No, thank you.

This is, in a nutshell, the radicalized, stripped-bare-of-the-platitudes version of any speech you’ll hear her husband make. America sucks, we’re not “sacrificing” enough for each other, our souls need be “healed,” and the only man who can do it is … Barack Obama. He is the “only man” in the race who has dealt with the toughness of the “streets” as a “community organizer.” Go here to listen to the speech, and Hugh Hewitt’s commentary in between clips, where he takes her to task for everything she asserts. The whole segment is about ten minutes long, but please, please, listen to it – and send it on to your friends, family, anyone who is even remotely interested in this election.

YouTube has clips from her UCLA speech – it’s the one where she spoke alongside Oprah and California First Lady Maria Shriver.

For anyone on the fence about whether or not to support Barack Obama, this speech should throw up red flags and have the alarm bells ringing. But, some might say, this is his wife speaking, not him. Bzzt: With all due respect, get a clue – as I noted earlier she’s saying the same thing Barack Obama does when he speaks, only he does it in platitudes and pretty words, all the while also promising to “heal this nation.” This is something our eventual nominee, John McCain, understands:

I do not seek the presidency on the presumption that I am blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save my country in its hour of need. I seek the presidency with the humility of a man who cannot forget that my country saved me.

What an absolutely startling contrast to how Barack Obama and his wife view his own candidacy.

I used to think that the GWOT was the primary reason the Republican nominee should be trusted over a Barack candidacy, but now I’ve just added another big reason: because the Republican nominee doesn’t believe he’s God.

Related reading: McCain’s cleverly hammering Barack Obama on his prior pledges to use public financing for the general election, a brilliant strategy, as explained by James Joyner:

It’s incredibly clever of McCain to take this stance. If Obama accepts, it would seemingly level the fundraising playing field, taking away what would appear to be a huge advantage. If he doesn’t, McCain can hammer the Democrats for hypocrisy and being beholden to special interests β€” while simultaneously claiming that he’s being “forced” to do the same in order to compete.

The Nutrootians are upset over this, and predictably want Obama to break his campaign pledge. After all, no one but “beltway insiders” care about this sort of thing anyway – at least according to them. Translation: No one will notice, Senator Obama, if you decide to go back on your word.

Advantage: The Mc.

Update 1: Read how the Obama campaign is trying to finesse their way out of Obama’s campaign pledge. Too funny.

Update 2: Tigerhawk has a good write-up on how McCain is playing the punditocracy like a fiddle on this issue.

Comments are closed.