This column isn’t about Barack Obama. Plenty has already
been written about him. Certainly, thousands of columnists nationwide have had
ample opportunity to discuss his candidacy, and there may be no other topic so
thoroughly covered by Badger Herald opinion columnists as that of Barack
Obama’s candidacy. His spate of February and March victories has propelled him
to frontrunner status, and his fundraising campaign has raised the equivalent
of a small Latin American nation’s yearly gross domestic product. But this
isn’t another column about the Illinois senator, but rather his rival for the
Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton.

This column isn’t about how Barack Obama refuses to pledge
allegiance to the flag correctly, sing the national anthem louder than the guy
next to him or wear a flag lapel. That sort of talk is a distraction in the
dialogue that needs to be taking place in this nomination battle. I’m certainly
not going to mention that Barack Obama may or may not be an Ivy League-
educated elitist liberal who hates America. I heard some Republicans saying it,
but it certainly isn’t worth repeating here.

This column isn’t about how Barack Obama’s race has become a
liability. Detailing every contest from Iowa to Pennsylvania, McClatchy
newspapers revealed that he has on average won roughly 39 percent of the white
vote in any given primary or caucus. In Pennsylvania, he ran just below his
average, with 38 percent of the white vote.

But that doesn’t matter, because Ms. Clinton’s candidacy is
built on issues, jobs for Americans and respect abroad. It’s certainly not
built on pointing out that the Rev. Jesse Jackson, another black would-be
president, won a lot of states because of support among blacks, too. And I’d
really like to focus on the issues and not talk about how you can go on YouTube
and see clips of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s most incendiary comments. Just
think: That man was Barack Obama’s pastor!? ?

I won’t play those games — this column is for Ms. Clinton!
Why would I waste time bringing up a non-issue like Nation of Islam leader
Louis Farrakhan’s unsought endorsement of Barack Obama? That would be silly and
distracting. Let’s try to keep to the issues, for Ms. Clinton believes they
should be at the forefront. As an aside, did you know that Louis Farrakhan
sounds an awful lot like fellow angry black man Jeremiah Wright? But that’s
neither here nor there.

Americans are losing their jobs, families are losing homes,
and the dollar is about as useful as John McCain is electable. So you’ll
understand then that, with such pressing issues at hand, I’d rather not talk
about Barack Obama’s last bowling score — it was a 37 — or that he went to a
school in a country with a lot of Muslims — Indonesia — or that there are a
lot of e-mails going around that say he might be a secret Muslim. The American
people deserve better than that in our politics. So don’t bother googling
“Barack Obama in Muslim garb” and being slightly worried that he may
look a bit too comfortable in what is obviously a turban and other
Muslim-looking stuff. Let’s not dwell on his first name sounding an awful lot
like the name of the most-wanted man in the world — Osama — let’s instead
focus on the issues.

No, this column isn’t about Barack Obama. It’s about Hillary
Clinton and her manifold accomplishments that make her the best shot at
bringing jobs, economic prosperity and foreign respect and economic investment
back to America. It’s not about how Barack Obama thinks people who don’t vote
for him cling to guns, God or immigration policies as a way to define their
political involvement. No, it’s the issues I’d care to talk about. The fact
that Barack Obama labeled the entire white, working class population of
Pennsylvania as bitter should hardly be a part of the conversation.

I certainly wouldn’t want to muddle this all too important
discourse by discussing something as innocuous as Barack Obama’s middle name.
Which is Hussein. Which I think is Arabic. Which is what the Quran is written
in. Speaking of which, did you know that Barack Obama’s father and stepfather
were both Muslims? Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Or that it’s
important. The issues are.

So this column isn’t about Barack Hussein Obama, a black
liberal from elitist Hyde Park who may or may not be a secret Muslim who can’t
get white people to vote for him and insults everything our nation stands for.
It’s not about how Barack Obama lost against a former president, a popular
governor, a state’s entire Democratic political establishment and a former
first lady in a state he was never supposed to win.

It’s about Hillary Clinton, and how, in an attempt to win
the nomination, she is destroying Democrats’ chances at winning the election.

?

Gerald Cox ([email protected]) is a senior
majoring in economics.