A backlash against the bandwaggon aiming vitriol at Obama will come like a tsunami, overwhelming Obama's lefty critics' kind of superficial take on him. I see it coming in the few tentative rejoinders. You don't see much now because it takes ten times longer to answer a baseless criticism than it does to launch one.
Below, I will launch a few of my arguments against the critics' arguments, but it's unlikey that the most ardent among them will be affected. Now that this demeaning meme--that he is in essence a liar--has snowballed and shows no signs of letting up, it will take a heavily referenced, eshaustive piece to counter it. But I strongly suspect that the counters will indeed be powerful and decisive. The critics are dead wrong. This guy is genuine.
Take for example the superficial criticism of his faith-based initiative. My Left friends say, "I just don't see any room for giving money to sectarian organizations." I argue, "But he's conditioning the money on the program being secular, one that doesn't proselytize or use religious symbols." He was stunned by this detail he hadn't read. We argued at length, and he finally agreed that there was nothing wrong in principle with the proposal, which is what leaders in the ACLU have said for the last 70 years about the plethora of uheralded faith-based programs we've had lo these many years. But, he finally argued, how can we sure they're being honest; aren't they going to try to sneak in some Jesus stuff when nobody's looking. Really. This opposition to faith based programs betrays a prejudice against religion, pure and simple.
For an enlightening, depth level look at these issues, google, "Faith, the Public Square and the ACLU."
Similarly, superficial takes on all other so-called "centrist" positions cloud reality. They mirror the knee-jerk reactions of the Right. The Left, as sociologists know, is more like the Right in it's tone and depth of inquiry as the Left. (Forgive the gross generalizations for the moment.)
Please try to examine Obama's positions more carefully. Here's another one. It's common knowledge that Obama dumped Clark. He didn't. He said that Clark had nothing to apologize for and no reason to retract his statements. He allowed that one sentence, the one McCain pounced on, was inartful, as Obama has said of some of his own misstatements.
Every single objection that is snowballing into a wholesale attack on Obama's character has the same quality. They're all superficial and patently false. We're so used to triangulating politicians that we can't recognize the difference between, say, Kerry's style, and Obama's carefully crafted, entirely progressive and pragmatic approach.