Yesterday, Eleanor Clift, writing in Newsweek magazine, penned the latest installment of the “Blame Bush” chronicles. In the piece, she compares President Obama with Nelson Mandela.
The kind of change that Mandela brought to South Africa and that Obama’s election promised to millions of Americans takes time to bring about.
Clift: Obama perfect, Bush worst ever. Yawn!
I’m not entirely sure what Ms. Clift means, but here is a short glimpse of what South Africa was like before Nelson Mandela took power:
The penalties imposed on political protest, even non-violent protest, were severe. During the states of emergency which continued intermittently until 1989, anyone could be detained without a hearing by a low-level police official for up to six months. Thousands of individuals died in custody, frequently after gruesome acts of torture. Those who were tried were sentenced to death, banished, or imprisoned for life, like Nelson Mandela.
Mr. Mandela spent 27 years in prison for being a political protester and “terrorist.” South Africa, as a nation, was 80% black in 1989 while whites owned 87% of the land and earned 75% of the national income.
Is Ms. Clift seriously comparing the United States of today with South Africa of 1989? If so, what changes does she foresee Mr. Obama making to make us more like modern South Africa?
The bottom-line here is that Mr. Obama is not winning over the hearts and minds of the American people. He is pursuing socialized medicine and a vastly expanded central government while Americans just want (non-government) jobs and a non-repeat of 9/11. It is not rocket science. In addition, the American people do not like terrorists being accorded special legal rights because they happened to have committed war crimes on American soil.
It is Mr. Obama’s agenda failing, not the American people or “Bush”, Ms. Clift.
My hope is Ms. Clift will be called to task over her remarks. I for one would like to hear her clearly elaborate how the privileged, meteoric rise of Obama compares to Mandela’s multi-decade suffering on behalf of a vastly oppressed population.
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John Romano is the publisher and editor of Yes, But However!, a musician, a former political correspondent for BBC Radio London, and a serial web entrepreneur. Follow him on twitter: twitter.com/yesbuthowever or John Romano on Google+John Romano article archive.
