Thought experiment

Did you see the movie "A Time to Kill"? Allow me to briefly explain the plot. The movie is set in Clanton, Mississippi. A young black girl is brutally raped by two white racists. She thankfully survives and the two rapists are arrested. The girl's father, mindful that a similar case the prior year saw four white men who raped a young black girl go free, plots his revenge. The rapists are being escorted through the courthouse and the girl's father emerges from a closet armed with an assault rifle. The rapists got what was coming to them, but unfortunately the deputy escorting them was hurt and ended up having his leg amputated.

The girl's father is arrested and charged with capital murder. A local young, white lawyer agrees to represent the man and the racial tensions continue to reach new heights, culminating in the National Guard being called in to keep the peace.

The time for closing arguments arrives and it's the defense's turn. The young white lawyer starts off slow, pleading with the jury to not hold his inexperience against his client. He then asks the jury to close their eyes as he tells the very graphic story of what happened when the racists raped the young black girl. He finishes with one stunning sentence, "Now imagine she's white." The jury finds the girl's father not guilty.

The point is obvious and it's one that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself made:
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

There's a reason I bring all of this seemingly pointless stuff up. Watch the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc2FCJ7zWEQ&feature=related

20 years, folks. Officiated his wedding. Baptized his kids. Inspired Obama to become a Christian with his "Audacity of Hope" sermon which included such lines as "white man's greed ruins a world in need."

The Sunday after 3000 Americans were murdered in the 9-11 attacks, he said it was just our "chickens....... coming home...... TO ROOST!"

He said what "we are doing is the same thing that al Qaeda is doing, just under a different flag."

Called the U.S.A. an "arrogant and racist military superpower."

Would you take your young kids to a church like that? Would you let them marinate in the racial hatred anti-American black separatist crap that regularly spewed from that guy's mouth? Would you want your kids reading the church bulletin? You know, the one that occasionally ran sympathetic articles supporting the terrorist organization Hamas? Think it would have been healthy for your young and impressionable children to wake up early, put on their Sunday best clothes and go listen to ol' Jeremiah preach about how the U.S. government created the AIDS virus and supplied the inner cities with crack?

But it's ok because Obama claims he never heard ANY of this? A two decade long relationship with a rabidly racist anti-American anti-semetic conspiracy theorist isn't a big deal?

Now imagine he's white.

The Magic Number

So as the Democratic nomination winds its way to the riot, er, convention in Denver, I'm wondering... what's the Magic Number? Barack Obama has attracted legions of followers in large part to his smooth stump speeches and "post-racial" appeals for Hope and Change. The more the media (finally) digs into Sen. Obama's background, however, more and more troubling information is coming to the forefront. Specifically I'm referring to the ever-growing list of, ahem, "troubling" advisers and associates the Senator has cultivated over the years. Obama has really piled up the anti-semitic/racist/america-hating friends since his early days as a young pol in Chicago. Let's list a few here:

1. Jeremiah Wright - The Senator's "spiritual adviser" has made plenty of news the past few months. With each new flash of honesty from the Senator and his wife, it becomes more and more clear that Obama actually was paying attention all those 20 years. I'm going with anti-semitic, racist and america-hating on this one.

2. James Meeks - Yet another Obama spiritual adviser saying some not-so-spiritual things. I'll just go with racist, with a bit of anti-gay thrown in for extra credit.

3. Michelle Obama - In theory this is the Senator's closest adviser. Is there really any argument she's an America-hater? How else would you describe someone who thinks America is "just downright mean" and was never "really proud" of the USA in her adult life until Barack ran for president?

4. Bill Ayers - Admittedly, not much is known about Obama's relationship with Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn. Ayers and Dohrn were members of the Weatherman, a terrorist group that formally declared war on the U.S. government in 1970. As Andrew McCarthy points out, the Obamas first met Ayers and Dohrn in 1995 when Barack's political career was just beginning. They haven't exactly distanced themselves from the former Weathermen since.

5. Rashid Khalidi - Bill Ayers and Obama, through their work on the board of the Woods Fund voted to give $75,000 to the Arab American Action Network, which Mr. Khalidi co-founded. In 2000, Mr. Khalidi hosted a fundraiser for Obama's unsuccessful House race. From 1976 to 1982, Mr. Khalidi is rumored to have run the press office for Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization, although he denies this charge. Khalidi has referred to Israel as a racist state with an apartheid system and has supported Palestinian attacks on Israelis. It's safe to assume this guy's anti-semitic.

These are just a few of the examples. Others include Samantha Power, Robert Malley, Michael Pfleger and Tony McPeak. At what point is it right to assume Barack Obama holds the same beliefs as his friends and advisers? Why else would he keep surrounding himself with these kinds of people? If he hits 15 anti-semitic/racist/america-hating associates, does that mean he believes these things? Again, I ask, what is the Magic Number?