To: Friends of FRC Action
From: Tony Perkins, President
July 25, 2008 - Friday

Obama: In the World and of It


Hearts are still thumping from Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) rock tour through Europe, but back home the trip has prompted more than a few uneasy Americans to wonder what, exactly, the Illinois Senator is running for. The man campaigning for President appears to be more consumed with becoming world sovereign than leader of the United States. These days, it's easy to become confused about Obama's agenda as nations trip over themselves to throw out a welcome mat for the unconventional nominee-to-be.

Using his uncanny ability to touch hearts without ever touching on policy, Obama has perfectly choreographed the trip through Europe's progressive hotspots, where his biggest selling point seems to be his ability to distance himself from the nation he's vying to lead. In his speech yesterday, the man whose campaign is already calling him president spent more time apologizing for America than he did representing it. With the crowd cheering and cameras flashing, Obama talked of "hope" and "change." He spoke of disarming America of nuclear weapons and addressing climate change. He dreamed of a nation "where every language is spoken," and every culture leaves "its imprint"--an America that puts global citizenship ahead of its moral identity.



As David Brooks said in today's New York Times, "When John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan went to Berlin, their rhetoric soared, but their optimism was grounded in the reality of politics, conflict, and hard choices... Reagan didn't call for a kumbaya moment... Obama has benefited from a week of good images. But substantively, optimism without reality isn't eloquence. It's just Disney." The problem, of course, is that a lot of Americans live in a Disney world.


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