Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.?

Buchanan to Obama

By Patrick J. Buchanan

Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.?

Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.

This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a
community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ླྀs on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community
into the mainstream.

Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants.

Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.

We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude??

Barack talks about new 'ladders of opportunity' for blacks.

Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for 'deserving' white kids.?

Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and inca rceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?

Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?

As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?

Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?

We have all heard adnauseam from the Rev. AL about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But abo UT the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.

Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.

• Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.? - Buchanan to Obama
  • I'm curious. Why did you put this post up here? - What do you think about what he said? nm
  • Buchanan to Obama - zoesnana
    • thanks for your comments, totally agree - sk
      • Buchanan - zoesnana
    • I know this will - bash me all you want
      • Buchanan - zoesnana
      • Some aspects of your post are true... - sam
    • Jews - USAGirl
      • Where is this coming from? sm - Please cite your source?
    • We should hang our heads in shame that - America has produced this kind of hate.
      • Obama/Buchanan - zoesnana
        • Hello...I was talking about Buchanan. sm - I'm with you 1000%...some whites get it.
          • Buchanan - zoesnana

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and it was about Affirmative Action. I remember it well because it was very long and civil exchange between the two of you back when I thought you could be reasoned with.  Nan said something about you have a different perspective and something like she could not challenge you from an African American point of view, I don't remember all the details, because you were African American at which point you said something like, what makes you think I am African American and she said, she thought you had said you were and you said I didn't say that because I am not.  Now this is not word for word but it is the gist of it.  Remember now?

things done without the parents' knowledge.

an event that took place during the Iraq war (not sure of the date, but I'm sure some of you will remember it).  There was an Iraqi child who was (as well as many others) caugt in a bombing raid.  It was all over the news about how the US military had given him provisional care and transported him from place to place, trying to get him to a place where he could be treated appropriately.  Unfortunately (like many other Iraqi civilians) he eventually died.  This in itself was not that remarkable, especially considering at the time the US was lobbing bombs into Iraq with the precision of a pumpkin-chunkin contest.  What was remarkable, however, was when the doctor who was caring for the child came out and told the news of his death to the world.  There were several questions entertained by the doctor from reporters, but the one that really struck home for me was one from a US reporter.  The question was, do you think the boy understood what we are trying to do here?  The boy that died was all of about 4 or 5 years old. 

Not long after, the US decided to not show casualties in the news.  The government unfortunately was right in assuming the out of sight, out of mind thing would work.  It's amazing just how naive Americans can be.

This is a perfect example of what you would call American pride, honor, etc.  Nevermind the people who die, just make sure we look good doing it.  Again, I am not negating the value of the American soldiers here, they are simply doing what they've been told to do. 

When you talk about soldiers helping the Iraqi people, exactly how are they helping them?  Are they bringing them food and medicine because we have destroyed their infrastructure?  Are they helping them find a place to stay because their house played catch with a US missle?  Or are we just taking care of their kids because we took mommy and daddy to a torture camp?  Believe me, we are doing much more harm than help.  Have you noticed that Iraqi civilian casualties far outnumber the casualties of American soldiers?  Where's the help for that?

And yes, I did have someone serving in Iraq. 

an event that took place during the Iraq war (not sure of the date, but I'm sure some of you will remember it).  There was an Iraqi child who was (as well as many others) caugt in a bombing raid.  It was all over the news about how the US military had given him provisional care and transported him from place to place, trying to get him to a place where he could be treated appropriately.  Unfortunately (like many other Iraqi civilians) he eventually died.  This in itself was not that remarkable, especially considering at the time the US was lobbing bombs into Iraq with the precision of a pumpkin-chunkin contest.  What was remarkable, however, was when the doctor who was caring for the child came out and told the news of his death to the world.  There were several questions entertained by the doctor from reporters, but the one that really struck home for me was one from a US reporter.  The question was, do you think the boy understood what we are trying to do here?  The boy that died was all of about 4 or 5 years old. 

Not long after, the US decided to not show casualties in the news.  The story above may have contributed to this, but the basic idea was that Americans didn't like to see Americans dead.  The government unfortunately was right in assuming the out of sight, out of mind thing would work.  It's amazing just how naive Americans can be.

This is a perfect example of what you would call American pride, honor, etc.  Nevermind the people who die, just make sure we look good doing it.  Again, I am not negating the value of the American soldiers: they are simply doing what they've been told to do. 

When you talk about soldiers helping the Iraqi people, exactly how are they helping them?  Are they bringing them food and medicine because we have destroyed their infrastructure?  Are they helping them find a place to stay because their house played catch with a US missle?  Or are we just taking care of their kids because we took mommy and daddy to a torture camp?  Believe me, we are doing much more harm than help.  Have you noticed that Iraqi civilian casualties far outnumber the casualties of American soldiers?  Where's the help for that?

And yes, I did have someone serving in Iraq. 

If you don't want to discuss it on the political board, quit discussing it. 

I read a very interesting article regarding Barak Obama’s name:

Barack is a Semetic word and it means “to bless” (verb), or “blessing” (noun).  The Hebrew form is Barak which is found throughout the Bible.

Hussein is a Semetic word meaning “good”.

To quote a couple highlights of an article written by Juan Cole who is President of the Global Americana Institute…..

”I want to say something about Barack Hussein Obama's name. It is a name to be proud of. It is an American name. It is a blessed name. It is a heroic name, as heroic and American in its own way as the name of General Omar Nelson Bradley or the name of Benjamin Franklin. And denigrating that name is a form of racial and religious bigotry of the most vile and debased sort. It is a prejudice against names deriving from Semitic languages!

Barack Obama's middle name is in honor of his grandfather, Hussein, a secular resident of Nairobi. Americans may think of Saddam Hussein when they hear the name, but that is like thinking of Stalin when you hear the name Joseph. There have been lots of Husseins in history, from the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, a hero who touched the historian Gibbon, to King Hussein of Jordan, one of America's most steadfast allies in the 20th century. The author of the beloved American novel, The Kite Runner, is Khaled Hosseini.

So, anyway, Obama's first two names mean "Blessing, the Good." If we are lucky enough to get him for president, we can only hope that his names are prophetic for us.”

It's not about what kind of job this guy can do, or how well he can lead the country.  No it most certainly has not been!  And I'm sick and tired of everyone making it out otherwise.  It's always been about race and that's all its ever been about!  I'm hopeful that anyone will be able to pull us out of this depression no matter what their color is or whether it be a man or woman.  It's not going to be an easy job.  But all through the campaign and to this day we kept hearing about how it's not about race.  That was the line that this man from Illinois was trying to sell to us.  He'd walk around and tell us he understands what we're going through, it's not about race.  Then he'd talk about his grandmother being afraid of black me (uh, hello..I thought you said it wasn't about race).  When he was elected my brother and his friends went out and celebrated in the streets because now we got a brother in there.  He said to me, "you should be happy because we finally got a brother in the white house who is one of us".  I asked him what does he mean "one of us", that's he's black like us so I should rejoicing and saying hallelulah thank you Jesus.

But this latest display of what he has planned for the innaugeration has got to be the most downright utter distasteful display of "flaunting" his race.  Now at the inaugeration it's going to be a huge "Gone With the Winds" type of theme with ladies in their plantation dresses.  I haven't read it yet, but I'm sure I'll be hearing about him dressing the blacks up like the what our ancestors were dressed when they were slaves.  He has taken racism to a whole new level.  This is disgusting and this is not what the men who founded this country had in mind.  It took us years and years to get through the slavery issues and now here comes Mr. Obama bringing all that sh!t back up again and dividing people.  I've got some friends who are white and nowhere in their history do they have any relatives who owned slaves, but now Mr. Obama is going to make all of them feel as though they are slave owners.  I don't know what it is but why does America seem to get stuck and not be able to move forward.  Instead of looking into the future he's dragging back up the plantation and slavery issues and making a big deal of them.  I am just sick to death of coming on and reading how it's not about race when that's all that it is about.  I voted for Mr. Obama because I like him.  I didn't think he was qualified and he doesn't have the experience, but I'm willing to give a new unknown person a chance.  Now he pulls this racial crap and it makes me ashamed to be black and more ashamed that I was conned into his lies and voted for him. (even the NAACP is criticizing this).  It's not about race??????  Tell me another one.

http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=9655036&nav=menu33_2

It's not about what kind of job this guy can do, or how well he can lead the country.  No it most certainly has not been!  And I'm sick and tired of everyone making it out otherwise.  It's always been about race and that's all its ever been about!  I'm hopeful that anyone will be able to pull us out of this depression no matter what their color is or whether it be a man or woman.  It's not going to be an easy job.  But all through the campaign and to this day we kept hearing about how it's not about race.  That was the line that this man from Illinois was trying to sell to us.  He'd walk around and tell us he understands what we're going through, it's not about race.  Then he'd talk about his grandmother being afraid of black me (uh, hello..I thought you said it wasn't about race).  When he was elected my brother and his friends went out and celebrated in the streets because now we got a brother in there.  He said to me, "you should be happy because we finally got a brother in the white house who is one of us".  I asked him what does he mean "one of us", that's he's black like us so I should rejoicing and saying hallelulah thank you Jesus.

But this latest display of what he has planned for the innaugeration has got to be the most downright utter distasteful display of "flaunting" his race.  Now at the inaugeration it's going to be a huge "Gone With the Winds" type of theme with ladies in their plantation dresses.  I haven't read it yet, but I'm sure I'll be hearing about him dressing the blacks up like the what our ancestors were dressed when they were slaves.  He has taken racism to a whole new level.  This is disgusting and this is not what the men who founded this country had in mind.  It took us years and years to get through the slavery issues and now here comes Mr. Obama bringing all that sh!t back up again and dividing people.  I've got some friends who are white and nowhere in their history do they have any relatives who owned slaves, but now Mr. Obama is going to make all of them feel as though they are slave owners.  I don't know what it is but why does America seem to get stuck and not be able to move forward.  Instead of looking into the future he's dragging back up the plantation and slavery issues and making a big deal of them.  I am just sick to death of coming on and reading how it's not about race when that's all that it is about.  I voted for Mr. Obama because I like him.  I didn't think he was qualified and he doesn't have the experience, but I'm willing to give a new unknown person a chance.  Now he pulls this racial crap and it makes me ashamed to be black and more ashamed that I was conned into his lies and voted for him. (even the NAACP is criticizing this).  It's not about race??????  Tell me another one.

http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=9655036&nav=menu33_2

It's not about what kind of job this guy can do, or how well he can lead the country.  No it most certainly has not been!  And I'm sick and tired of everyone making it out otherwise.  It's always been about race and that's all its ever been about!  I'm hopeful that anyone will be able to pull us out of this depression no matter what their color is or whether it be a man or woman.  It's not going to be an easy job.  But all through the campaign and to this day we kept hearing about how it's not about race.  That was the line that this man from Illinois was trying to sell to us.  He'd walk around and tell us he understands what we're going through, it's not about race.  Then he'd talk about his grandmother being afraid of black me (uh, hello..I thought you said it wasn't about race).  When he was elected my brother and his friends went out and celebrated in the streets because now we got a brother in there.  He said to me, "you should be happy because we finally got a brother in the white house who is one of us".  I asked him what does he mean "one of us", that's he's black like us so I should rejoicing and saying hallelulah thank you Jesus.

But this latest display of what he has planned for the innaugeration has got to be the most downright utter distasteful display of "flaunting" his race.  Now at the inaugeration it's going to be a huge "Gone With the Winds" type of theme with ladies in their plantation dresses.  I haven't read it yet, but I'm sure I'll be hearing about him dressing the blacks up like the what our ancestors were dressed when they were slaves.  He has taken racism to a whole new level.  This is disgusting and this is not what the men who founded this country had in mind.  It took us years and years to get through the slavery issues and now here comes Mr. Obama bringing all that sh!t back up again and dividing people.  I've got some friends who are white and nowhere in their history do they have any relatives who owned slaves, but now Mr. Obama is going to make all of them feel as though they are slave owners.  I don't know what it is but why does America seem to get stuck and not be able to move forward.  Instead of looking into the future he's dragging back up the plantation and slavery issues and making a big deal of them.  I am just sick to death of coming on and reading how it's not about race when that's all that it is about.  I voted for Mr. Obama because I like him.  I didn't think he was qualified and he doesn't have the experience, but I'm willing to give a new unknown person a chance.  Now he pulls this racial crap and it makes me ashamed to be black and more ashamed that I was conned into his lies and voted for him. (even the NAACP is criticizing this).  It's not about race??????  Tell me another one.

http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=9655036&nav=menu33_2

It's not about what kind of job this guy can do, or how well he can lead the country.  No it most certainly has not been!  And I'm sick and tired of everyone making it out otherwise.  It's always been about race and that's all its ever been about!  I'm hopeful that anyone will be able to pull us out of this depression no matter what their color is or whether it be a man or woman.  It's not going to be an easy job.  But all through the campaign and to this day we kept hearing about how it's not about race.  That was the line that this man from Illinois was trying to sell to us.  He'd walk around and tell us he understands what we're going through, it's not about race.  Then he'd talk about his grandmother being afraid of black me (uh, hello..I thought you said it wasn't about race).  When he was elected my brother and his friends went out and celebrated in the streets because now we got a brother in there.  He said to me, "you should be happy because we finally got a brother in the white house who is one of us".  I asked him what does he mean "one of us", that's he's black like us so I should rejoicing and saying hallelulah thank you Jesus.

But this latest display of what he has planned for the innaugeration has got to be the most downright utter distasteful display of "flaunting" his race.  Now at the inaugeration it's going to be a huge "Gone With the Winds" type of theme with ladies in their plantation dresses.  I haven't read it yet, but I'm sure I'll be hearing about him dressing the blacks up like the what our ancestors were dressed when they were slaves.  He has taken racism to a whole new level.  This is disgusting and this is not what the men who founded this country had in mind.  It took us years and years to get through the slavery issues and now here comes Mr. Obama bringing all that sh!t back up again and dividing people.  I've got some friends who are white and nowhere in their history do they have any relatives who owned slaves, but now Mr. Obama is going to make all of them feel as though they are slave owners.  I don't know what it is but why does America seem to get stuck and not be able to move forward.  Instead of looking into the future he's dragging back up the plantation and slavery issues and making a big deal of them.  I am just sick to death of coming on and reading how it's not about race when that's all that it is about.  I voted for Mr. Obama because I like him.  I didn't think he was qualified and he doesn't have the experience, but I'm willing to give a new unknown person a chance.  Now he pulls this racial crap and it makes me ashamed to be black and more ashamed that I was conned into his lies and voted for him. (even the NAACP is criticizing this).  It's not about race??????  Tell me another one.

http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=9655036&nav=menu33_2

Because of the following, which has been well known for hundreds of years now.  This form of racism was established in the American culture by white people, some of whom now deny its existence.

Subconscious mental connection between blacks, apes may reinforce subtle discrimination

March 5th, 2008 in Medicine & Health / Psychology

With Oprah and George Soros behind Obama, he is going to be a strong contender. He has ample time to prove his leadership ability in the months ahead. Better dig out my shades, the future looks bright.

and some of us love people of color but not voting for him for other reasons,

There are people voting for him strictly because he's part black, and some people voting for hillary because she is female -

these are BAD reasons.........to vote for anybody........

don't let that old guy tell you what you should do.  Another clumsy grand event from the McCain circus.  Hope Barack goes to the debate and just sits there patiently for 90 minutes waiting for McCain to show up.

Dr. Paul Kengor - Guest Columnist - 10/28/2008 7:45:00 AM

Let me begin with what I hope is a credibility enhancer: For daring to write a book on the faith of Hillary Clinton, I was questioned by fellow conservatives, especially for calling Mrs. Clinton a "lifelong, committed Christian." In the final chapter of that book, I included a brief section on the faith of Barack Obama, where, taking him at his word—based on a major June 2006 speech on his faith—I felt confident in reporting, "Obama is a Christian."

I'm not disputing that here. Since then, however, I've taken a careful look at Obama's faith, and there are quite a few things that stand out as historically extremely unusual, and in some cases unprecedented for a potential president. They are worth knowing, especially given the secular media's adoration of the man.

Indeed, journalists are so worshipful of Obama that they are unfazed by his two decades of membership in the church of a ranting, blasphemous preacher who mocked everything from Bill Clinton to America itself—and who married Obama, baptized his children, and whom Obama considers a mentor and the inspiration for the title of his best-selling book. That double standard has struck even the likes of atheist Christopher Hitchens. After eight years of wailing and gnashing of teeth over a Christian Republican president, secular liberals have undergone a Saul-like conversion.

On rare occasions, however, the press has offered constructive analysis of Obama's faith. The most revealing look remains a glowing profile in Newsweek a couple of months ago. The Newsweek offering was remarkably one-sided, even venturing into evangelical phraseology, the shared-language-of-believers style characteristic of Religious Right publications. I counted ten examples of phrases like, "He found Christ," "accept Christ," "Obama went to Jesus."

Nonetheless, even in this unusually un-critical article, much can be mined about Obama's faith. Most salient is this inescapable conclusion: More than any presidential nominee this close to the White House, Barack Obama's faith is a patchwork of divergent beliefs, philosophies, and influences, from what Newsweek called a "Christian-turned-secular mother"—her own views a product of "two lapsed Christian" parents and a Bill Moyers book—to a "Muslim-turned-atheist African father" to a stepfather with a "unique brand of Islam."

As for Obama's personal path, Newsweek noted how Obama, in his younger years, enjoyed, on one hand, Augustine, and then Nietzsche and Graham Greene. Obama hopped and groped his way through Islam, Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, asceticism, and eventually settled at the political church of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Most interesting is what Newsweek revealed about Obama and his current family: His wife, Michelle, "also didn't go to church regularly as a child." Neither really began regular attendance until they were married. And only then, their choice was Reverend Wright. On that, Newsweek reported approvingly: "The cross under which Obama went to Jesus was at the controversial Trinity United Church of Christ. It was a good fit."

The couple, writes Newsweek, attended "fairly often—two or three times a month." That changed, becoming less frequent, with the birth of their first child. Normally, the arrival of children is the blessed event that drags young couples to church—the Bushes, the Clintons. For the Obamas, however, the hassle of getting the baby out of the house for a packed service was an obstacle. "So," explained Barack, "that would cut back our involvement."

The Obama girls have never attended Sunday school—a definite contrast with most White House children. Even wayward president's kids like Ron Reagan, a proud atheist, was taken to church every Sunday. Obama explains of his daughters' religious education: "I'm a big believer in a faith that is not imposed but taps into what's already there, their curiosity of spirit."

Once Obama ran for the U.S. Senate, he skipped church for months at a time. Now that he publicly parted ways with Reverend Wright, reports Newsweek with a gentle wink, "Obama is a little spiritually rootless again." Newsweek neglected to mention that Obama often appeared in churches in 2007 for strictly political purposes—i.e., to campaign in houses of worship, a practice that launches liberals into fits of screaming rage when done by Republicans.

On the plus side, there are some discernible spiritual practices in Obama's life: family grace at mealtime, daily prayer, Obama "sometimes" reading the Bible in evenings, and inspirational emails zapped to the senator by his "religious outreach team." Yet, even with that nod to something of a religious routine, one senses that Obama is still trying to reconcile, as Newsweek described his early life, "his rational side with his yearning for transcendence."

After demonstrating at length that Obama's belief system is an amalgam, unorthodox, and undisciplined, Newsweek wrapped up with a shot at his detractors: "Some on the right say his particular brand of Christianity is a modern amalgam—unorthodox, undisciplined...."

No, Newsweek, that's what you say.

One can see here another reason the secular left embraces Obama: His entire religious life, including the spiritual development of his family, is relativistic—an ever-probing quest, a realization of no single truth. The left likes this Democrat more than, say, a lifelong Baptist like Bill Clinton, a lifelong Roman Catholic like John Kerry, a lifelong Methodist like Hillary Clinton, a "born-again" southerner like Jimmy Carter. Here's a believer secular liberals can accept: a relativist in the most expansive form.

A President Obama would bring to the office the most unconventional religious portfolio of any president in a long time, arguably the history of the American presidency.

But to get there, the freshman senator hopes to win just enough of those moral-religious "values voters" who twice made the difference for George W. Bush. Can Barack Obama do that?

Can Obama win the 'values voter'?
In 2000 and 2004, it was the churchgoing moral-religious "values voters" that made the difference for George W. Bush. Barack Obama hopes to peel off just enough of those voters. What are his chances? From my vantage, Obama faces five primary obstacles:

First, Reverend Jeremiah Wright remains an albatross, even given the media's best efforts to avoid him. The ranting, raving, blaspheming political sermons by an uncorked, unhinged Wright—with the congregation loving every minute—remains a cruise missile at Obama's bid for moderate to conservative churchgoers. Obama was way too close to Wright to politically extricate himself.

Second—brace yourselves, liberals—a sizable number of Americans suspect Obama is lying about Islamic roots. A Newsweek poll in June found that 12 percent of voters are convinced Obama is a Muslim, and one-in-four believe he was raised a Muslim. Such thinking has intensified with Jerome Corsi's bestselling book and with research by Islam observers like Daniel Pipes—who, though he accepts that Obama is today a Christian, says Obama is "lying" when he denies he was never a Muslim. Additional oddities continue to surface, such as a YouTube video in which Moammar Kaddafi is said to describe Obama as a fellow Muslim.

When I recently shared this factor with some liberals, their faces visibly contorted and they began yelling at me. Nonetheless, perceptions matter. This issue might become statistically important in a close election.

Third, conservative Christians are offended by how the secular left has greeted Obama as a messianic figure. The hosannas during Obama's Europe trip were so over-the-top that London Times columnist Gerard Baker ridiculed the senator's visit as akin to Christ's entrance into Jerusalem. The BBC interviewed a worshipful German who described Obama as his "redeemer." Fox found another who exalted his "new messiah." To the question, "Who do you say that I am?" some Europeans made their choice as Obama swept into their presence.

Given the agnostic left's search for salvation in politics, this is not a surprise, especially in post-modern, de-Christianized Europe.

This has only gotten worse. No less than a U.S. congressman, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), said on the House floor on September 10 that, "Barack Obama was a 'community organizer' like Jesus." (He then added, in reference to Governor Sarah Palin, that "Pontius Pilate was a governor.") And now there's YouTube video of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan calling Obama "the Messiah."

This is backfiring on Obama among the values voters he is seeking. To them, this reverence by the secular left is intolerably hypocritical. Liberals went bonkers when a presidential candidate named George W. Bush merely cited Christ as his favorite philosopher. And now they can compare Obama to Christ?

Fourth, "values voters" are skeptical of this appeal to faith by the Democratic nominee. There has been a well-orchestrated, openly admitted campaign, begun just days after the 2004 vote, especially by Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, to get Democrats talking faith as much as possible. Actual Democratic Party working groups and colloquia have been established, employing the Christian left's language of "social justice."

Obama himself picked this up early on. In a June 2006 address to the Call to Renewal convention, Obama appealed to religious voters. He recalled how in his 2004 Senate race, his support of abortion rankled his opponent. Obama protested, arguing there were policy issues that proved his Christianity—issues like supporting daycare subsidies and the estate tax.

Obama can protest all he wants, but values voters consider legislation mandating medical care for abortion survivors more important than legislation mandating estate taxes for the wealthy.

Speaking of which, and fifth, abortion is beyond doubt the overwhelming obstacle for Obama. He is the most extremist pro-choicer ever to get this close to the presidency. His stand-alone votes against bills protecting newborn babies who survive abortions were horrible. He calls abortion a "safety net" and vowed to Planned Parenthood in July 2007 that the "first thing" he would do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which would nationalize abortion policy and overturn all the perfectly reasonable state-level restrictions on abortion by bipartisan legislatures throughout America. Then there are Obama's revealing statements on the stump—such as how he would hate to see his daughters get pregnant out-of-wedlock and "punished with a baby."

Secular liberals cannot begin to imagine the opposition to Obama strictly on abortion. I've received an email several times, titled, "10 Reasons Christians Shouldn't Vote for Obama." Among the ten, seven are on abortion.

The unprecedented outcry from the religious community is further evidence. The reaction of the Catholic bishops is extraordinary. I've never witnessed them so exercised and committed to leading the flock, and doing so carefully and eloquently, especially among traditional Catholics who still think their party is run by Harry Truman and Jack Kennedy, and literally don't even know Obama is pro-choice.

A poll last week by Investor's Business Daily showed a swing of 20 points for John McCain among Catholics, from an 11-point deficit to a 9-point lead. If McCain wins Catholics, he wins the election.

It all adds up to the reality that Barack Obama will have difficulty picking up values voters. His hope that they are not energized by McCain has dissipated with the Sarah Palin pick and the steady emergence of information on his abortion fanaticism.

A summer Pew poll showed McCain leading Obama among evangelicals by 61 to 25 percent, comparable to the margin enjoyed by Bush over AL Gore in 2000. More recently, the respected scholar Dr. John Green released a study finding that evangelicals favor McCain 57.2 percent to 19.9 percent, very similar to Bush's 60.4 percent to 19.6 percent over John Kerry at the same point in 2004.

It remains to be seen where, exactly, this will finish next Tuesday. As in 2000 and 2004, however, the values voters could make the difference.

Please do not tell any of the following their lives are not DIRECTLY affected by the President:

1.  The teachers and students who spend most of their time preparing for NCLB  standardized testing while falling behind in basic life skills. This affects EVERY student and EVERY teacher in EVERY public school in the United States.

2.  The soldiers who have been to Iraq,as well as their survivors. Their mission was to destroy nonexistent WMDs.

3.  The millions of people who cannot afford health insurance or oil to heat their homes. Of course our president does believe  "profits" are a good thing; unfortunately they are for corporate America.

I am not advising who to vote for; obviously it is a personal choice. But anyone who says no one person can make a difference, good or bad, is naive.