More Newt Gingrich Revelations About Barack Obama From David Frum

Newt Gingrich stirred up a big of a controversy Friday night just by commenting on an article in Forbes Magazine by Dinesh D'Souza. The premise of the article is many of Obama's positions were influenced by his dad. 

"What then is Obama's dream? We don't have to speculate because the President tells us himself in his autobiography, Dreams from My Father. According to Obama, his dream is his father's dream. Notice that his title is not Dreams of My Father but rather Dreams from My Father. Obama isn't writing about his father's dreams; he is writing about the dreams he received from his father."

Whether you agree with it or not this is not a terribly, outlandish position, many of us can say that we were influenced by our father's dreams. I certainly carried many of my father's dreams into the next generation. Gingrich felt the D'Souza article was incredibly insightful.

"Citing a recent Forbes article by Dinesh D'Souza, former House speaker Newt Gingrich tells National Review Online that President Obama may follow a "Kenyan, anti-colonial" worldview.
Gingrich says that D'Souza has made a "stunning insight" into Obama's behavior — the "most profound insight I have read in the last six years about Barack Obama."
"What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]?" Gingrich asks. "That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior."

According to David Frum, Newt Gingrich's comments were made to promote the "birther" nonsense that says Barack Obama was not born in the US, and D'Souza's article was written for "race-baiting" purposes:

"So it's his mission now to present himself as the most ferocious right-winger in the race. Confident (over-confident) that he can best Sarah Palin among business-minded and ideas-minded Republicans, he wants to deny her or some other Tea Party style challenger any footing to attack him as a compromise-minded moderate. Calling President Obama a Kenyan fits into that strategy.

As for the underlying D'Souza article that inspired Gingrich, what is there to be said? When last was there such a brazen outburst of race-baiting in the service of partisan politics at the national level? George Wallace took more care to sound race-neutral."

Huh? It Did? Wow, who'd have thought it? I thought the article related Obama's father's political background to his own. I went back to the Forbes article to look for the part where it says that Obama wasn't born in the US, or the part saying that Obama's race made him a better or worse president, but I couldn't find it. I printed out the Gingrich interview and the Forbes article and held them up to the light to see if it was some sort of subliminal message written in between the lines….nothing!
 

Cousin Ben, The Spy

I was at a loss to figure out how Frum got racism or "birtherism" from those articles. So like I always do in a case like this, I called my Cousin Ben, the spy (his mother wanted him to go to med school, but that is a story for a different day). Ben worked for military intelligence back in the 1980's. He is an expert in disguise a master in interpreting data, and the best part is, he is willing to work for free, as long as he gets first dibs on the white meat every Thanksgiving (note: white meat is a turkey term and has nothing to do with race).

Ben told me he would break into Frum's office and see what he could find. Within an hour the ring of the fax machine sounded, it was a fax from Ben. On the top of the paper was the headline,



"Things About Newt Gingrich and Other Bad Conservatives That Only David Frum Knows"

1. Anybody who disagrees with my position on anything is by nature hurting the Conservative movement.
   
2. Newt Gingrich was heard discussing the fact that Obama breathes air. Muslims breathe air that means Newt Gingrich believes that Barack Obama is a Muslim.
   
3. Sarah Palin was in the United States on 9/11/01. There were attacks on the US on 9/11/01 that means Sarah Palin believes that Barack Obama was behind the 9/11 attacks.
   
4. Newt Gingrich was on the Tonight Show when Conan was the host. Conan's Tonight show was canceled, that means Newt Gingrich believes that Barack Obama is a communist.
   
5. Rush Limbaugh went to high school with Terry Jones. Terry Jones wanted to burn a Koran which means Rush Limbaugh believes that Barack Obama is a Muslim.
   

There was a list of over one hundred items just like that.

After I finished reading the Items I phoned Cousin Ben, the spy. "Ben" I asked "Are you sure you got the right paper? Did you look at it? This list is totally ridiculous" "Jeff" Cousin Ben countered, "are they any more ridiculous than Frum's piece about Gingrich and the D'Souza article?" I thought about it for a second, and as usual, my Cousin Ben's analysis was spot on. It wasn't that I was missing something because, I didn't see racism or "Birtherism" in the Forbes article, it simply wasn't there. Either because he was looking to create a controversy or because he is "seeing things," David Frum labeled Gingrich as a "birther" and D'Souza a racist.

Ben really earned is white meat this Thanksgiving (remember I am talking about the lighter colored meat of a Turkey).