Scurrilous Times
It’s true, we live in scurrilous times. I was shocked to learn last weekend of a report which emanated from the Times newspaper that Barak Obama’s aunt was leaving in America illegally.
The first thought that crossed my mind was “typical”, a conservative broadsheet pitching in on the smear campaign which has been aimed at America’s first black presidential hopeful.
Most of us understand that politics in the US is very different from that of the UK and in general UK voters are less entrenched in the practice of casting a ballot for the same party their parents did and their parent before them.
This made the Times’ intervention even more remarkable as in printing this piece of irrelevant and self damaging news, there seems to be implying that voters should be supporting the McCain Palin ticket.
Whether or not John McCain is another George Bush or someone completely different and wiser, the merely suggestion that the UK public would turn toward Palin is bizarre. The foreign policy comment saw to that.
In real life everyone is an individual and although closeness is the dream of most families, there may be members who commit acts for which we bear no director responsibility. With this mind, Obama’s aunt behaviour is irrelevant to his candidacy and attitude for the presidency.
The Times piece was printed to do nothing more than conjure up feelings and apprehension of the unknown and to foster racialism by created the “if we elect him, the country will be overwhelmed with new arrivals from Kenya”.
A nice country to visit for a safari, but not nice enough for the inhabitants to live with us.
In my view the Times should have skipped the article as most people saw it as more negative tactics from the Republican party and dismissed it out of hand.