Imagine a grown man who believes he has what it takes to do the toughest job in the world, whining about the "unfairness" of having to endure the ordeal of answering a few potentially embarrassing questions from media types generally supportive of Democrats!

Who is Sen. Barack Hussein Obama? After months of fawning coverage by biased liberal media, a few tough questions about his racist pastor and an unrepentant American terrorist have caused a monkey wrench to be thrown into the smoothly running campaign engine of the senator no one knows.

Repeating ad infinitum his mantra of change, Obama has heretofore managed to evade or avoid any difficult or embarrassing questions. This virtually unknown Illinois senator and his messiah-like message had screaming fans fainting in a scenario reminiscent of the bobby-soxers who screamed their adoration for Frank Sinatra at New York's Paramount Theater.

And what was the message of this paragon? Higher taxes, talking nicely with our nation's enemies so they would no longer want to kill us, socialized medicine for all, including illegal aliens, pulling out of Iraq and unending promises of change.

Although the liberal media excoriated her, former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro was correct when she said that if Obama had been white, the nation would never have heard of him, just as she admitted that she would not have been picked for the VP slot had she not been a woman. In our politically correct world, the truth no longer provides any protection from charges of racism.

Just what were those awful questions posed by the daring ABC duo of George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson? They asked him why he had remained a faithful member of Pastor Jeremiah Wright's Trinity Church in which the pastor had repeatedly heaped scorn and hate on the white devils who controlled America -- a nation this minister of God asked God to damn, an America he likened to the KKK, an America which had deliberately introduced AIDS into Africa.

His liberal media defenders ignored Wright's trip with Jewish-hating racist Louis Farrakhan to Tripoli and on whom he bestowed his church's highest award. His supporters claimed Wright's quotations had been cherry-picked, ignoring the fact that it was Pastor Wright himself who chose the quotations for inclusion in the DVD sold by his church.

Wright had married Obama and his wife, baptized his children, but the senator claimed although he had been a faithful congregant for 20 years, he had never heard any of his pastor's hate-America sermons. And yet Obama was familiar enough with the race-baiting remarks that he decided he had to "disinvite" his pastor from the press conference announcing his presidential campaign.

Does any rational person really believe that Obama knew nothing about the America-hating racist views of his spiritual mentor? Obama was pleased to have the backing of Wright, Ayers, Dohrn, and others of their ilk. Because our media gave him a free ride for a year instead of treating him the way any aspiring presidential candidate should be treated, most Americans knew very little about Obama, his policies, his friends and associates.

Now, because Hannity, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Boortz and other talk radio hosts did the work that should have been performed by truly objective and honest media, Americans are finally getting some information about the man who believes his two years of experience as a U.S. senator qualifies him to be president.

Before my critics cry "guilt by association," let's be clear that who a man associates with, is friendly with, works with, is indeed relevant. It is a question of Obama's honesty and judgment.

Americans have a right to know that Obama's wife has never been proud of the United States before now. They have a right to know why a man who will probably carry the Democratic Party banner in the presidential campaign refuses to wear an American flag pin in his lapel. Yes, persons can be patriotic and not wear the flag pin, but when a candidate makes an issue out of not wearing it, Americans must wonder.

Americans need to know that one of Obama's friends and business associates is an unrepentant terrorist who believes he should have carried out more terrorist bombings of innocent Americans. Imagine a conservative Republican candidate was friendly with racist David Duke, attended a church where for a fifth of a century his minister advocated segregation or outright discrimination. Ask yourself honestly how the mainstream media would treat such a Republican.

But, as all readers of The Pilot know, the mainstream media are completely fair, balanced and objective. Right.

Dr. Walter T. Schoen may be reached at wtsbbs11@pinehurst.net.