Opinion: Barack Obama suddenly doing some tough urban talk

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Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight, the old saying goes, but Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has suddenly escalated his rhetoric this weekend.

Sounds like he’s anticipating some tough political struggling with the Republicans in these next few months, or trying to create that impression anyway. Or he just watched a 21-year-old movie (see video below).

‘If they bring a knife to the fight,’ Obama told a crowd in Philadelphia last night about his Republican opponents, ‘we bring a gun.’

Say what? This is only June! For pete’s sake.

Is this the new kind of politician full of hope who wants to change Washington’s ways? He anticipates some kind of close-in fighting with his 71-year-old opponent, John McCain, and his gang of GOP suits with their own secret signs?

Obama was responding to a man in the Pennsylvania crowd who, as the freshman Illinois senator was describing the no-doubt nefarious tactics he expects from GOP opponents this fall, shouted out, ‘Don’t give in!’

‘From what I understand, folks in Philly like a good brawl,’ Obama went on, according to the pooled press report. ‘I’ve seen Eagles fans.’

Set aside for a moment the dissonant sound of an urban lawmaker speaking lightly about guns.

Or how about the fact that he stole that line from Sean Connery in ‘The Untouchables,’ which is from Chicago too, come to think of it. See video below. For a little more on this story, go here.

--Andrew Malcolm

Photo Credit: AP