Bob Herbert's NYT Column

Bob Herbert's NYT column

"Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. Barack Obama is a United States senator, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his party’s candidate for president of the United States — and yet it was somehow presumptuous of him to meet with foreign leaders last week during his trip to the Middle East and Europe.

I’ll say this about Senator Obama. He sure raises people’s hackles. I’ve never seen anyone so roundly criticized for such grievous offenses as giving excellent speeches and urging people of different backgrounds to take a chance on working together. How dare he? And 200,000 people turned out to hear him in Berlin. Unforgivable.

The man has been taken to task for promoting hope, threatened with mutilation by Jesse Jackson for suggesting that a lot of black fathers could do better by their kids and had his patriotism called into question because he wants to wind down a war that most Americans would dearly love to be rid of.

John McCain can barely stop himself from sputtering at the mere mention of Senator Obama’s name. He actually ran an ad blaming Mr. Obama for high gasoline prices. Even Republicans had a good laugh at that one.

And yet Mr. Obama continues to treat Senator McCain respectfully. As far as personal character is concerned, Mr. Obama has scored very well, indeed...

So this is not your ordinary election. Senator Obama will have to turn people on big-time just to win by a little. And for all the tedious talk about timelines and what the surge in Iraq has or has not accomplished, the top three issues in this campaign are still the economy, the economy and the economy...."

Barack will have to work twice as hard, as he did against Hillary in the primaries, but, in the end, it will all be worth it. Winning the right way, bringing the American brand back to something you can respect, inspiring people and industry, leaving the sour politics of yore to Grampy McLame.

Our economy was driven into the ground by the people at the top, the Bush Administration, not by Americans working any more or less competitively. Running up massive debts has a consequence. Catering to a small demographic of wealthy people hurts the country as a whole.

If you want to continue this slide into the depths of cheap labor, high prices, and outsourced opportunity, let the "I'm free market yet I subsidize the banking industry" Republican hypocrites continue to sell you there tired broken story by the likes of John McSame.