Ghost of a flea: Christopher Hitchens endorses Barack Obama for President

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October 13, 2008

Christopher Hitchens endorses Barack Obama for President

I used to call myself a single-issue voter on the essential question of defending civilization against its terrorist enemies and their totalitarian protectors, and on that "issue" I hope I can continue to expose and oppose any ambiguity.

The only operative part of that sentence is the phrase "used to".

* Via Will. And another tip of the hat to Ace for his skull. I should probably get my own animated siren going on. The idea is to attract attention.

How about this?

Update: It is not as if the Hitch is never wrong. He is wrong about Israel, wrong about the Elgin Marbles and has a bee in his bonnet (to which I am often sympathetic) when it comes to religious crazies (a category into which I understand I might arguably fall). I assume it is this last which has him concerned about Sarah Palin.

I further assume he has decided Obama is lying in his repeated claims to be Christian; on this last point we agree. But -- and this is the but to end all buts -- neither McCain nor Palin have assumed a quasi-Messianic mantle to make their case for the offices to which they aspire. And they neither have belonged to a racial separatist "church". So, while I share Hitchens' concern in principle I think he is dead wrong in practice. This is the wrong call.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at October 13, 2008 01:07 PM

Comments

Did I really just see what I just saw?

Posted by: agent bedhead at October 13, 2008 05:43 PM

You are not imagining things. It is subtle, yes, but somehow I knew you would be the first to spot it.

Posted by: Ghost of a flea at October 13, 2008 05:49 PM

Amazing how someone who does not believe in God believes in the Antichrist.

Humph.

Posted by: Lickmuffin at October 13, 2008 06:12 PM

I have seen the Orbs of Heaven and Hitch more than a little drunk.

Actually, within Hitchens world Obama makes a certain weird sense. A sort of American Trot mother, long, clandestine involvement with socialist and, indeed, terrorist, sponsors and then a rapid rise to the mainstream. Practically the story of the Hitches' life.

It is disappointing but not surprising; rather like Sully deciding that invitations to servant's day at Hyannis Port was worth a Mass.

Posted by: Jay Currie at October 14, 2008 03:00 AM

A more cynical reading would note that having been the first anti-Clinton Democrat - and provided Obama throws his anti-war supporters under the bus - this may be Hitchens' chance to regain acceptance by the Establishment left. Though I suspect he does not worry about that sort of thing.

I also suspect it is a terrible miscalculation of Obama's intent. If the man is merely a self-serving politician then we may survive his presidency and Hitchens once again be on the good invitation lists. But if Obama is the Manchurian Candidate (or worse) I believe him to be, there is no excusing Hitchens' anti-Palin brain spasm. We may be facing an error of world historical proportions. Historians of some future Rome will look back and wonder how civilization could have chosen the traitor over the war hero in their greatest hour of need.

Posted by: Ghost of a flea at October 14, 2008 07:04 AM

The Hitch is so earnest in his wrongness. It's part of his charm.

Posted by: Brett_McS at October 14, 2008 07:14 AM