It was only a matter of time before we had to be subjected to the irrational, unsupported diatribe of Rick Wagner as he turned his ridiculous rhetoric toward the ascendancy of an American political phenomenon, Sen. Barack Obama. Unsurprisingly, Wagner, as per usual, chooses to ignore empirical evidence and readily available data as he seeks to make alarmist attacks upon the Obama movement and the senator himself.

First, Sen. Obama has provided highly detailed policy papers on his Web site (and to the media) concerning issues from the economy to homeland security. One would be hard pressed, then, to agree in any way with Wagner’s claim that Obama “has emerged as a surprisingly electable and articulate spokesman for something no one’s quite sure what.” A simple, cursory exploration of the senator’s Web site would reveal precisely what Obama stands for. Next, Wagner engages in a bit of clumsy sophistry when he awkwardly tries to connect the dots between Obama, William Jennings Bryant and, unbelievably, Karl Marx. No one’s falling for that trick.

Finally, Wagner’s assertion that Sen. Obama has not “actually done anything to assist the nation” is unfounded. One has merely to check the records of the Illinois State Senate during Obama’s tenure to discover his effectiveness in matters such as health care, safety, and education. Additionally, Obama has encouraged a diverse electorate to believe that we can restore the vision of a nation left stronger in the hands of our children than it was when we inherited it. If Mr. Wagner cannot acknowledge at least that much as a profound achievement of the Obama campaign, he unfortunately only demonstrates again his willingness to sacrifice any semblance of journalistic integrity for the sake of what he so piously calls his “war on wrong.” Who’s wrong, Mr. Wagner?

RICHARD COWDEN
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 14th, 2008 at 2:38 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.