Friday, March 30, 2007

Obama Gets A Pass

During the 2000 and 2004 election cycles, there were persistent rumors skirting the fringes of the mainstream media about George Bush's past alcohol and drug use. The press tried to resurrect these stories and give them some traction.

Recall how prior to the 2000 election the story about Bush's drunk driving arrest surfaced. These stories surfaced just scant few weeks before the election. I, for one, believe that the release of this story was timed to deliver a death blow to Bush's chances for election. This was yet another "October Surprise" much like the well-timed Iran-Contra indictments from Lawrence Walsh in 1992 as George H.W. Bush was making a comeback in the polls against Bill Clinton.

Everyone recalls the pass the media gave Clinton with that lame story about how he had tried marijuana while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, but he "didn't inhale". Now we have yet another candidate for the Democratic nomination with allegations on drug use in his past. Only these times the allegations are true. In his memoir, "Dreams of My Father", Barack Obama admits to smoking marijuana in high school and to "maybe a little blow...[n]ot smack though."

Okay, so he never shot up. That's reassuring. I guess "not smack though" is the 2004 equivalent of "I didn't inhale".

To this day rumors persist about Bush's drug use - being in rehab, having surgery for a deviated septum - yet you don't hear a peep about Obama's admitted drug use.

But there's no liberal bias in the media, is there?

4 comments:

Jonathan B. said...

Maybe Obama was smart enough to take your previous advice to Bush in using the "Clear and Present Danger" strategy. Seriously, where is the press going to go with a black guy from the inner city who confesses to using drugs while dealing with his father issues before pulling himself together and going to Harvard Law school? In addition to correct use of the CPD stategy, it's also a far cry from a rich white boy born into a powerful family doing coke at frat parties while coasting through his legacy stint at Yale. And yet Bush probably would've been fine had he written a book about it with the nice kind of narrative arc Obama puts together. Obama may be all vision and no substance, but he's twice as smart as Bush is lucky. Sadly for him, that's only half good enough to be president.

Alain DeWitt said...

Elwood thanks for your comment.

You make some good points. Perhaps Bush could have done more to make his alleged drug use a non-issue.

However, I am still inclined to believe that Bush wouldn't have gotten a pass from the media in the same way as Obama not matter what he did.

Alain DeWitt said...

By the way, your name, Jonathan Birge, is Joann your mother? Are you David's brother? My Dad is Seymour DeWitt. I think we are distant cousins.

Jonathan B. said...

Yup, we are cousins, and not all that distant as I understand it. I found your blog through your dad, in fact, who is nice enough to pass along interesting e-mails on occasion.