Your Conscience bothering You, Barack?

Happy Dyngus Day everyone. With Indiana mattering very much in the Democratic presidential primary, you may be seeing more and more posts on what’s going on at the national level between Barack and Hillary.

Apparently one of Barack Obama’s key supporters made a ridiculous statement just as the campaign was trying to survive the fall-out from it’s friend the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The target of the charge was not America in general (as was the case with Mr. Wright) but former President William Jefferson Clinton, otherwise known as Monica Lewinski’s Ex-Boy Friend. Speaking in North Carolina last Friday, the ex-President stated:

“I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country. And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.”

(Read more after the leap)

The context of this statement was Clinton saying that his wife was the best candidate to run against John McCain and that both Hillary and Sen. McCain are patriotic individuals and the campaign could focus on issues and not unsubstantive things. In general, I agree with the idea that campaigns shouldn’t be about personal attacks on your opponent but substantive discussions about the issues. However, sometimes it is quite alright to attack your opponent for his or her failure to exercise good judgement (as in the case of Obama and Wright or Obama and Rezko).

But at any rate, Pres. Clinton’s remarks were not about Obama; they were about a Clinton vs. McCain race. Nevertheless former Air Force Chief of Staff Tony McPeak felt that Clinton’s comments were distinctly anti-Obama. Speaking of the comments McPeak declared:

“It sounds more like McCarthy. I grew up, I was going to college when Joe McCarthy was accusing good Americans of being traitors, so I’ve had enough of it.”

Yes, sir, General, an awful lot like Joe McCarthy (I’ve got my suspicions about the traditional telling of McCarthy’s story, see here).

If Barack Obama and his campaign are feeling skittish about issues of patriotism, could it simply be the pangs of conscience? After all, Barack Obama has refused to wear an American Flag lapel pin, failed to put his hand over his heart during the national anthem, and his wife has declared that only now is she proud to be an American.

On a slightly different note, while Barack has been trying to position himself as the “post-racism” candidate, recent events have shown that he has a long way to go before he can really lay claim to that title. Mark Steyn explains why in this piece on the “Race in America” speech and the ties to Rev. Wright.