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In reply to the discussion: Ilhan Omar Backtracks After Calling Obama a "Pretty Face" Who "Got Away with Murder" [View all]DallasNE
(7,418 posts)But Omar did not measure her words well here and now that she has the spotlight on her she needs to better frame her points because the coverage skips her message to focus on phrases like the unflattering "pretty face" statement. She says she wants to talk about policy but she will never get there with her hot, off script rhetoric. Limit your comments to policy. She also jumps to conclusions on the Obama policy versus the Trump policy on our southern border. There is really no comparison in scope between how Obama detained older, unaccompanied children and Trump separating young children from their parents and not having a system in place to reunite families. Indeed, that is offensive. The political upheaval in Central America currently triggers our most pressing immigration problem. What policy would Omar propose to remedy that problem? Again, she went off-script so where is the message discipline?
Her sense of history is not the traditional American framing of history. She calls out the policy of continuation from administration to administration because the policy has to change for meaningful progress to happen and she further points out the illogical division of the Middle East into unnatural countries. An example is how the Kurds have been split up into several countries to diminish their power. She has a valid point but offers no solution - only criticism of the policy of several administrations that got us where we are today. She is also correct on the history of the holocaust where it was Christians that were responsible and not Muslims. But it was other Christians that paid a heavy price to rid the world of Hitler so her portrayal leaves a lot out. Indeed, the threat to Jews and anti-Semitism in America today comes from white nationalist Christians and not Muslims and that needs to be acknowledged.
I have not heard her speak in depth on where she stands on Israel and a two State solution. Her historical view aligns with the Palestinians because of her background. One hopes that she thinks this one through because it could be her Waterloo if she gets it wrong.
I am willing to give her a chance to get her messaging shored up to where she walks the walk when it comes to having a policy debate. Unless she quickly builds discipline into her message, sticks to policy and an accurate description of history she will lose me too. I would say that today she has wavering support. The ball is in her court.