Oybama: No sooner (rather splendidly) said... than undone

It was a good thing I held on to a modicum of scepticism here, since it appears that Obama has already recanted his burst of Zionist zeal in his address to AIPAC and is now busy clarifying:

...today, Obama’s camp is out there “clarifying” things. Interviewed by the Jerusalem Post, Obama’s spokesman insisted that this did not mean ruling out Palestinian sovereignty over parts of Jerusalem, or that Jerusalem would also be the capital of a Palestinian state. “Jerusalem is a final status issue, which means it has to be negotiated between the two parties” as part of “an agreement that they both can live with,” he said.

... Zionist organizations are troubled by his “troubling” change of heart. But the real question is whether Obama himself is aware of the weight of his own words, whether this is a deliberate tightrope walk between truth and falsehood, in which he risks his credibility in order to maximize his popularity among the different camps regarding Israel — or whether it is simply a[nother?] blunder, which his team now has to clean up.


In a comment thread in Bob's place I said the following:

I don't think so.Obama ia blacker when he is with Blacks and whiter when he is with Whites. He has a certain "Zelig"ian* property which is why he can be different things to different people, people who are sometimes standing at opposing positions. Which is why my initial lack of confidence in his leadership remains intact, even though I like him very much and respect his cool and eloquent intellect. He makes clear cut decisions only when faced with public pressure to do so. That hardly inspires confidence in his judgment.

In my opinion, Obama has only discovered the entitlements of blackness in America when he joined his church, that is, when he married a bona-fide African-American woman, (one with the proper provenance). But since his run up for the White House, he re-discovered his older and more familiar "white" self. So now he is no longer at ease with either blacks or whites.

I suspect that many of his black supporters project unto him their revenge fantasies, a la Reverend Wright. And many of his white supporters project unto him their own fantasy of their favourite black president: a white liberal with darker skin, who passes for black, but is not, really.

*Zelig:

Leonard Zelig, a nondescript man who has the ability to transform his appearance to that of the people who surround him. He is observed at a party by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who notices that while mingling with the guests, Zelig sings the praises of the affluent classes in a refined, snobbish accent, but while in the kitchen with the servants, he seethes with rage at the fat cats in a thick proletarian voice. He soon gains international fame as a "human chameleon".