Obama not ready for prime time?

By Richard Baehr

Barack Obama apparently believes that the mass murder of 32 students and professors at Virginia Tech is on a par with the violence represented by outsourcing of American jobs. I kid you not. He actually made this comparison in his latest attempt at instant profundity on the meaning of it all. I don't think even Lou Dobbs would sink this low on the "tragedy" of outsourcing.

To begin, Senator Obama seems utterly unaware that while some American jobs might be lost to outsourcing, many more are being created. The unemployment rate is 4.4% at the moment. For college grads, the jobless rate is 1.8%. Jobs are lost and jobs are gained. A record number of Americans are working. But 32 dead people in Blacksburg will not find a new life. Even under a President Obama.

The Senator also thinks that there is a kind of violence for the children in "ignored communities" whose voices are not heard (define for me ignored communities, Senator), and there is verbal violence in Don Imus's "nappy haired hos" comment. I suspect that the families of the 32 dead would have welcomed such verbal violence instead of the real violence that their loved ones were hit with. Insults or murder -- is that a choice of evils the Senator thinks are really comparable?

Senator Obama is demonstrating that he may not be ready for prime time. If you have nothing helpful or intelligent to say, sometimes it is better not to say anything. These were truly ridiculous and foolish comparisons. If Senator Obama wants to make a campaign pitch on why we must address the needs of the poor or the jobless on a day when most other candidates suspended their campaign events out of common decency, that is his choice. He may not be able to help himself on this count, having been in full campaign mode, stoked by mega-ambition for many years. He may also feel the need to compete with John Edwards' fake populism from the left (the candidate of $400 haircuts, and 28,000 square foot houses, though carbon neutral for sure).

The Senator owes the families of the dead and wounded an apology. Give them a break. They do not need any cheap comparisons of their current plight with the "violence or verbal violence" afflicting the laid off, or the Rutgers women's basketball team.