Even Paranoiacs

The old saying, "Even paranoiacs have enemies," and it's brother, "Only the paranoid survive," could not be more apt than tonight. Although with Obama's cool, it might be, "Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you."

Exhibit A: Who's been looking at Barack Obama's passport file?:

Two contract employees of the State Department were fired and a third person was disciplined for accessing passport records of Sen. Barack Obama “without a need to do so,” State Department officials confirmed to NBC News…

A monitoring system was tripped when an employee accessed the records of a high-profile individual,” a department official told NBC News. “When the monitoring system is tripped, we immediately seek an explanation for the records access. If the explanation is not satisfactory, the supervisor is notified.”

Turns out it was three (3) separate "contractors," making one wonder if they all worked for the same villain, and who that might be.

After all, the Bush I regime did the same thing before the 1992 election to Bill Clinton.

Easy guesses are some agent for the Republican National Committee or Barack's distant cousin himself (how Shakespearean that would turn out to be). Who knows, I wouldn't even put it past the Clintons. Would you?

I mean, the breaches all took place after key Democratic Primary moments for Obama. I mean, (Exhibit B) after all, it's her campaign having her play the angel while she won't deny them pushing the Reverend Wright story like devils behind the curtain:

However at a Thursday press availability in Terra Haute, Indiana after a report surfaced that the Clinton campaign was pushing the Wright story to superdelegates arguing that the relationship hurt Obama's electibility -– Clinton refused to deny that her campaign was pushing the story.

When asked, Clinton ignored the Wright portion of the question and said “well my campaign has been making the case that I am the most electable that I have said that for a year or more that I am the person best able to make the challenges that our country faces as commander in chief.”

When Clinton was then asked specifically if her campaign was pushing the Wright story –- she shrugged and took the next question, ignoring the reporter.

Funny thing about Reverend Wright -- another connection to Bill Clinton, perhaps an exonerating one:

A photograph of Wright and President Clinton, which it says was taken on September 11, 1998 -- the date of a White House gathering for religious leaders.

Hillary Clinton, according to her recently-released schedule for the day, was present at the gathering.

Oh, and Wright received a commendation letter for his aid to President Lyndon Baines Johnson during surgery.

The fact is, unless the endless drumbeat of rightwing talk shows and 24-hour news echo chambers manage to change public opinion, most people believe Obama's views differ from the Reverend's. Certainly I have views that differ from a Rabbi within my own family, but I love him nonetheless.

So if Obama now has reason to be paranoid (this is so late 1960's-early 1970's, see The Parallax View) about the current Cheney/Bush Administration now, and about the Clintons' campaign, there's the McCain campaign as well (Exhibit C). Sure, they identify someone spreading the new, most offensively edited rightwing Wright/Obama smear video, but they don't do a firing, they simply "suspend."

Oddly enough, the two people speaking truth on all the Wright stuff are Mike Huckabee and Geraldine Ferraro. Huckabee first:

As easy as it is for those of us who are white, to look back and say “That’s a terrible statement!”…I grew up in a very segregated south. And I think that you have to cut some slack — and I’m gonna be probably the only Conservative in America who’s gonna say something like this, but I’m just tellin’ you — we’ve gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told “you have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can’t sit out there with everyone else. There’s a separate waiting room in the doctor’s office. Here’s where you sit on the bus…” And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.

He may have some kooky political notions, but there's something I've always liked about that guy.

Ferraro's truth isn't what she's saying now, but her initial outburst, albeit a truth she didn't intend:

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position."

Amen, sister.