October 30, 2013
Obama and the Willful Blindness of the Conservative Beltway Intelligentsia
By Victor Volsky

Fox News is justifiably proud of its star commentator Charles Krauthammer, widely considered to be the most influential conservative journalist in the country. In an hour-long interview with Fox News 6 P.M anchor Brett Baier that fist ran last Friday, the usually reticent Krauthammer told the fascinating story of his life, relating how he coped with the crippling accident that left him forever wheelchair-bound and how he almost inadvertently traded the psychiatrist's couch for the journalist's keyboard. Listening to this remarkable man, one couldn't help admiring his spunk, his strength of character and, above all, his towering intellect. And then out of the blue came a sharply discordant note alertly picked up by Rush Limbaugh.

Krauthammer mentioned the well-known story of how in January 2009, a week before the inauguration, President-elect Barack Obama met a group of five or six leading conservative pundits at George Will's residence. Prior to the meeting, Krauthammer and Will shared their puzzlement at how little was known about Obama's philosophy and ideological leanings. "Was he a centrist Democrat who would occasionally throw a bone to the left, or a man of the left who would occasionally throw a bone to the center?" wondered Dr. Krauthammer. George Will concurred, likening the new President of the United Sates to a Rorschach inkblot test into which people read their own preferences.

In the course of the soiree that lasted three hours, Obama's interlocutors found him charming and engaging, but when it was over, they were nowhere near cracking the enigma: the President's inner persona remained as elusive as ever. And it was not until five weeks later that Dr. Krauthammer, listening to the President's maiden State of the Union address, realized with a shock that the new occupant of the White House was a dyed-in-the-wool socialist. But why did it take him so long? Was Obama really that inscrutable? Had Krauthammer, Will and other conservative pundits taken in by Obama's charm followed him on the campaign trail?

If they had, how could they have missed the numerous signs that Barack Obama was a far-left ideologue? They say that the past is prologue, and Obama's past offers more than enough clues as to his true identity. Was it possible to miss the significance of Obama's 20-year close association with the Rev. Jeremiah "God damn America" Wright, whom Obama called his friend and mentor, who married the Obamas and baptized their children. Could anyone believe that Obama, who for two decades had regularly attended the services at the Trinity United Church of Christ and listened to the Reverend Wright's fiery sermons pulsating with insane hatred and fury, never heard a disparaging word about America, as candidate Obama averred on the campaign trail?

Was it possible not to recognize the implicit threat in Obama's Philadelphia speech ostensibly designed to "explain" his relationship with that fervent proponent of the black liberation theology, but actually aimed at intimidating his opponents by warning that any further mention of the Reverend's name would be denounced as a racist provocation? For that matter, could anyone miss the delightful spectacle of a racist card played by Obama on the past masters of racial demagoguery, the Clintons, that left them sputtering in helpless fury? Did anybody believe Obama's pathetic lies about his long association with unrepentant Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers?

And if circumstantial evidence was not enough, why not rely on what was coming straight from the horse's mouth. Obama was so confident of his invincibility that from time to time he let the mask of a moderate slip to reveal his true identity. Remember how he promised to a group of Democratic donors in San Francisco he would kill the coal industry even at the price of skyrocketing electric power rates for the consumers? Remember how he lectured Joe the Plumber on the need "to spread the wealth around?" Remember how he informed the stunned Charlie Gibson of ABC World News that he planned to raise the capital gains tax from 15% to 28% because "social justice" trumped the adverse effect such a measure would inevitably have on the economy. Was there anything ambiguous in Obama's pledge to radically transform America?

In short, Obama was all but shouting from the rooftops that he was an Alinskyite socialist harboring revolutionary designs. Millions of Americans heard him loud and clear -- but not the intellectual class, including some of the most prominent conservatives, notably George Will and Charles Krauthammer. "Having eyes, see ye not? And having ears, hear ye not?" (Mark 8:18). But whoever shuts his eyes, won't see. Whoever plugs his ears, won't hear. And that's exactly what some of the leading lights of the American intelligentsia did: they chose not to know the truth. Why?

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http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/10/o...elligensia.html