The indispensable blog Sadly, No! spots a new attack line emerging from the extended version of Barack Obama's 2001 Chicago radio interview, promulgated yesterday, in which he spoke positively about "redistributive change": it turns out that he also said there was "an enormous blind spot" and a "fundamental flaw" in the US constitution. Is he an America-hating traitor? The conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham has been drawing attention to the quote, while Rush Limbaugh used it to argue that Obama has "rejected the constitution." One conservative blog wonders archly: "What exactly is this so-called fundamental flaw of the United States that is reflected by the constitution?"
Which is an excellent question, so long as you don't actually listen to the interview, whereupon it becomes abundantly clear that Obama is discussing the original Constitution's accommodation of slavery and its definition of Africans in America as less than fully human -- notably in Article One, Section Two, Clause Three:
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.
Controversially enough, Obama, it turns out, opposes slavery. Yes, it's true, the polls have been consistently in his favour over recent days. But this? This could be a game-changer.
