Obama Disses Boomers Who Opposed Vietnam War
Posted on Mon May 12, 2008 at 02:24:00 PM EST
Tags: Barack Obama, 2008 (all tags)
Barack Obama the unity candidate? Please. Via Politico, here's Barack Obama stumping in West Virginia today:
One of the saddest episodes in our history was the degree to which returning vets from Vietnam were shunned, demonized and neglected by some because they served in an unpopular war. Too many of those who opposed the war in Vietnam chose to blame not only the leaders who ordered the mission, but the young men who simply answered their country’s call. Four decades later, the sting of that injustice is a wound that has never fully healed, and one that should never be repeated.
Politico says:
Not only is Obama underlining his generational distance from the boomers, but he's also reaching out to swing voters with a back of the hand at the cultural left.
In other words, Obama intends to battle the war-hero McCain by throwing us under the bus. [More...]
So Obama is trying to separate the war-figher from the civilian leadership. It's not an easy task, but a smart, if not essential, one that he'll need to drive over and over in running against a war hero.
Here's Jackson Browne, For A Dancer:
Just do the steps that you've been shown
By everyone you've ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours
Another's steps have grown
In the end there is one dance you'll do alone
Everybody else will be lying under the bus, which sounds like it may be the size of a 747 before we're through with this election.
Update: Obama uses the phrase "the degree to which" as if the "shunning and demonizing" were prevalent and widespread. If he's referring to spitting on returning veterans, which is what comes to most people's minds, see the comments below, others say the prevalence was another urban myth. Regardless, whether some protesters were abusive, and I think everyone can agree some were, they do not justify Obama's remarks today.
Update: This really gets me too:
"The young men who simply answered their country’s call."
They were drafted, they had no choice. Many fought tooth and nail not to go, including those I knew. The saddest part of the history of the Vietnam war is that our young men died in it. Another war that never should have been fought. Like Iraq. And what does Obama do? Rather than drawing that connection, he calls out the poor actions of a minority of war protesters 40 years ago in his effort to score political points as a patriot with W. Va. voters, much like John McCain.
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