Obama’s Zimmerman Problem

God save me from my friends; I can take care of my enemies.

That thought must be coursing through the mind of President Obama right now as his White House rigs for silent running in the murder trial of George Zimmerman.

Obama foolishly inserted himself into this volatile case weeks ago, and injected the issue of race. Expressing empathy with the family of Trayvon Martin, Obama flashed a signal of racial solidarity:

“If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.”

Obama also implied that he shares the liberal perspective that America is a country where black kids must walk in daily fear of white racist vigilantes.

“All of us have to do some soul-searching to figure out how does something like this happen. And that means that we examine the laws and the context for what happened, as well as the specifics of the incident.”

Translation: The death of Trayvon tells us something is wrong with America.

To most Americans, this is a slander against their country, refuted by the statistics on interracial crime. Obama, however, buys into it.

Angela Corey, the special prosecutor, says that the charge against Zimmerman of second-degree murder was based on evidence and not influenced by the weeks of demonstrations, demands and threats from black leaders.

Perhaps. But from what the public knows, a charge of second-degree murder, which carries a sentence of 25 years to life, does not seem to stand up.

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A cop at the scene said Zimmerman had a bloody nose and a gash on the back of his head. Zimmerman’s family says Trayvon banged George’s head on the sidewalk. Film of Zimmerman entering the police station that night shows bruising on the back of his head.

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Zimmerman’s family says Trayvon started the fight with a fist to the nose, and George went down. Trayvon is not here to tell his story. But a natural question arises:

Why would Zimmerman, with a holstered gun to protect himself, close in and start a fistfight with a teenager half a head taller? A grown man with a gun his adversary does not know he has — would he not more likely stand some distance away, to pull it out if needed?

The prosecutors must have discovered new evidence to indict for murder. For all of the testimony from Zimmerman’s side and the eyewitnesses seems to create more than a reasonable doubt that he committed a murder.

Where is Obama’s political problem?

With the election on, the case has begun to divide the nation along racial lines. And Obama’s allies are doing it. It is Jesse Jackson and the Black Caucus crying that Trayvon was “hunted down like a rabid dog in the street,” that he was “murdered and martyred,” that it was a “hate crime.”

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Trayvon is the victim here, but George Zimmerman is beginning to look like a victim — of lynch law and mob rule.

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Is this how justice is advanced in Obama’s America?

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Given their huge emotional investment in this case, how will black leaders and black America react if Zimmerman walks?

And how will the rest of America react to that reaction?

And if Zimmerman, Trayvon, race, guns and stand-your-ground become voting issues this fall, how good is that for Barack Obama?