Breitbart’s Big Government has the promised video from Obama’s law school past. In it, Obama introduces—with approval—Harvard law professor Derrick Bell, and gives him a hug. In addition, another black professor at Harvard, Charles Ogletree, alludes to the fact that this tape was purposely kept quiet during the 2008 campaign.
The release of the video is meant to show a couple of things. The first is that Obama not only was “palling around” with radicals, but supporting their views. The second is that certain facts about Obama were suppressed during the 2008 campaign. And the third is that the media selectively edits things (they left out the hug, for example) to make them seem more favorable to Obama.
Taking all that into account, so far the video only pretty much tells us what we already knew. Now, Breitbart was famous for letting out only a little information at a time and saving the biggest guns for last, so perhaps there’s more. But if not, this seems pretty much a dud in terms of public perception.
There’s no question that Professor Bell was very radical and saw almost everything through the prism of racism and resultant grievance. But he was also a trailblazing guy, the first black law professor at Harvard. Obama was a trailblazer, too—the first black president of the Law Review, and as such he almost had to say a few nice words about Bell.
I’m not saying Obama’s words weren’t sincere—I think they were. But this sort of thing hasn’t exactly been a secret, nor does it have a whole lot of meaning that changes anything now. For example, Obama’s closer (and more recent) relationship to Reverend Wright is much more important, and it didn’t stop Obama from being elected. Nor is it news that the left and the press has tried to suppress and minimize Obama’s radical connections.
Plus, the video is twenty years old. Even if Obama’s views haven’t really changed, he could always say they have, in his defense. We all know that, in general, people tend to become less radical than in their student days (although Obama was a slightly older student than most), and Obama could plead that’s what happened in his case.
The only videos that would mean something at this point would be if Obama were caught saying very racist things about whites (and I’m not even sure that would matter), or saying something like, “My plan is to pretend to be a moderate, run for president, and then pull the country into the socialist far-leftist camp. Ha ha, suckers!” Short of that, I think it will most likely all be a big yawn. We already knew about Ayers, Wright, the socialist connections, Alinsky, and now we also know about Bell. Although it does all add up to a leftist, racially directed young manhood, at this point it’s pretty much “so what?” If people didn’t respond before, why would they now?
[NOTE: However, Wiki has now corrected the “dubious” designation on this excerpt (which was still standing last night at around 10:26 PM):
Students held vigils and protests in solidarity with Bell with the support of some faculty. One of these students was future U.S. president Barack Obama, who spoke at a protest at Harvard Law School on behalf of Bell.[dubious ”“ discuss] Critics, including some faculty members, called Bell’s methods counterproductive, and Harvard administration officials insisted they had already made enormous advances in hiring. The story of his protest is detailed in his book Confronting Authority.]
