Excitable Andy is very excited to see video of Pennsylvania Gov. (and Hillary Clinton backer) Ed Rendell heaping praise on the Nation of Islam, proclaiming it evidence of a racial double-standard.
Aside from the fact that Obama is not going to raise this, lest everyone be reminded that his church’s newsletter gave Farrakhan a lifetime achievement award, Michael Goldfarb responds:
First off, let me just say that I condemn unequivocally Rendell’s shameless pandering to the Nation of Islam. But let it also be noted that Rendell has always been a shameless panderer, as is the candidate he has endorsed in the Democratic primary. And this is why Sullivan’s wrong. Race is not what drives the concerns about Obama’s connection to Rev. Wright, Farrakhan, or William Ayers. It’s convenient to blame it on that and be done with it, but Sullivan should know better than anyone that Obama is to be held to a higher standard because unlike Hillary, Obama is not a shameless panderer.
Or so Obama would like everyone to believe.  Sullivan — who has spent years complaining more about US interrogation techniques than al-Qaeda’s routine head-hacking — should recognize that the price of having high standards is that people may hold you to them.
Meanwhile, the New York Observer reports:
Barack Obama’s final push through Pennsylvania has shown the combative, angry side of a candidate and campaign that had once been defined by its good cheer and condemnation of negative tactics. Despite the trappings of cheerinessâ€â€old-timey whistle-stop train tour, frequent professions of “love†for supportersâ€â€Obama’s closing argument was a distinctly negative one, designed to give the state’s significant percentage of undecided voters an uneasy feeling about Clinton, who is the Tuesday primary’s favorite, and to start laying the groundwork for his criticism of Republican nominee John McCain.
What happened to the hopeyness?
(h/t Memeorandum.)
Rendell is running for DNC Chairman, when Dean gets booted. He wants to pander to EVERYBODY.
On the flip side, he makes Specter look almost like a right winger.
“What happened to the hopeyness?”
– Same thing that happened to Earth shoes. They looked really great until you actually tried them on.
(
So Jeff comments here, but not on the wrestling post?
Changey Hopitude falls victim to the figure-four-reality-lock.
What’s next Mumia Abu Jamal; aka Wesley
Cook, will be endorsing now. No chance of that, Obama’s too moderate. Which reminds me, why does it take 26!!years to execute this guy. This is the difference a hard charging prosecutor from Democratic roots can come to endorse strong defense and strong economic policies; The Democratic version; cosies up to a militant, black supremacist outfit; formerly one of Kadaffi’s top charities
It’s more like four out of five Democrats agree Nation of Islam is neat-o mosquito. I don’t really see why Andy wants to get that message out. So they all loves them some Farrakhan. That gay marriage ain’t getting any fresher at this rate, tell you what, and you never know but that Jewish people may actually be paying attention.
If you think this has got Miss Andi excited, you ought to look up his post from this weekend in which he responds at interminable length to the senior editor at his old employer, The New Republic; Leon Wieseltier wrote in the magazine that he thought Sullivan was a “Jew-baiter” for a post of his that attacked Bill Kristol. Andi accuses Leon of everything in the book, from implied homophobia to outright racism. I doubt that he will be returning to TNR anytime soon.
What happened to the hopeyness?
Change got it.
Tom Maguire reports that the Rendell – Farrakhan video is from 1997, when Rendell was Mayor of Philadelphia, which, after all, is the city of brotherly love and hopeyness.
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2008/04/he-who-sups-wit.html