Roseanne Barr on Obama - I think she's on to him!

[Michael Tee]

Excerpt of Roseanne from today's hufpo:

<<barak obama is an empty suit selling "hope" in lieu of Truth. Oprah Winfrey helped to elect Arnold Swartzenegger. I have no doubt that she voted her purse by doing this, as she is a large land owner in California, and that ilk fears Dems because they do not want to pay their "fair share" of Cali tax. Oprah has given us Swartzenegger and Dr. Phil. If that was not offensive enough to decent thinking people, now she brings us Obama. He has no ideas, no plan and nothing to add other than the cynical pacification of the masses with bedtime stories about hope, while calling Unions "special interest groups" that need to be done away with.  [Is this last thing true? MT]

<<Obama votes with Bush constantly funding this terrible endless war.

<<Oprah, you play the race card and the gender card too.

<<You are a closeted republican and chose Barak Obama because you do not like other women who actually stand for something to working American Women besides glamour, angels, hollywood and dieting!


<<When Americans find out that Obama backs right wing corporate racist anti worker bullshit, they will not vote for him, and the victory will go to the most racist right wing republican ever.... Mccain, who is a fascist!>>

She nailed McCain too!!!

[Universe Prince]

while calling Unions "special interest groups" that need to be done away with.  [Is this last thing true? MT]

Not so far I can tell.

<<Oprah, you play the race card and the gender card too.

<<You are a closeted republican and chose Barak Obama because you do not like other women who actually stand for something to working American Women besides glamour, angels, hollywood and dieting!

I see. Rosanne is pissed because Oprah is not supporting Hillary Clinton. She reminds me of Al Sharpton saying essentially Obama was not black enough to deserve the black vote. Rosanne is trying to pull the same kind of crap on Oprah that we normally see some folks try to pull on non-liberal-Democrat African-Americans. Rosanne is trying to say Oprah is some sort of traitor to women for not supporting Hillary Clinton. Which is, needless to say, a rank load of excrement.

Mind you, I'm not at all a fan of Oprah, and I'm not an Obama supporter by any means, but Rosanne Barr is being both unfair and quite wrong, and I have no qualms about pointing that out. I would recommend that she not be looked to as a knowledgeable or even reasonable commentator on political matters.

[Michael Tee]

<< . . . Rosanne Barr is being both unfair and quite wrong, and I have no qualms about pointing that out. I would recommend that she not be looked to as a knowledgeable or even reasonable commentator on political matters.>>

Well, she made a lot of sense to me.  I don't watch Oprah, but my wife sometimes buys "O" magazine when we're in New York, and I've looked through it and have to say that what I've seen there is pretty accurately  described by Roseanne.  A more superficial and shallow mag would be hard to imagine.  And I have watched Dr. Phil.  The man is an abomination.  The problem with somebody like Oprah is that she's a distraction - - millions of women look up to her and she channels them away from meaningful political action into the kind of empty platitudes favoured by Obama.  They're a natural match.  As opposed to, say, Phil Donoghue, who had a similar kind of audience but actually raised their consciousness in practical and effective ways. 

[Xavier_Onassis]

Oprah's main message is "sisters, we all can be middle brow, middle class and mediocre, and what's more, we can make it look stylish."

She is a good interviewer and very clever with lots of empathy for others, but not as knowledgeable as she should be.

I don't think McCain is a racist, but he is a warmongering militarist, but with a better attitude against torture than Juniorbush. The oligarchs of the GOP do not like him. I don;t think they really like any of the candidates. They probably COULD like Fred Thompson, if he could deliver the script, but he apparently won't rehearse and can't do it.

The fact that the oligarchy is not entirely happu=y with any of the candidates is a good thing, but they can go ape and hire assassins, so they need to be watched.


When I told a class that it was not strictly true that one could get anything one wanted if one tried enough, a student challenged me for an example, and I said "I am sure that I there is no way I will ever get my face of the cover of O Magazine".

It made my point rather effectively, they agreed.

[Universe Prince]

Well, she made a lot of sense to me.

Well, she seemed more narrow-minded than sensical to me. As I said, I'm no fan of Oprah. Her name attached to something is generally enough to make me want to avoid it altogether. But from where I sit, Rosanne's rhetoric is, as I said, trying to say Oprah is some sort of traitor to women for not supporting Hillary Clinton. That sort of rhetoric may be called a number of things, but sense is not one I would use.

The problem with somebody like Oprah is that she's a distraction - - millions of women look up to her and she channels them away from meaningful political action into the kind of empty platitudes favoured by Obama.

I think you're being unfair to Obama. I'm not a fan of him either, but his campaign rhetoric is certainly not less than Hillary Clinton's. If his platitudes are empty, Clinton's are just as vacant if not more so. Quite frankly, Obama is the best candidate the Democrats have.

Rosanne seems bitter about something. But then, she usually does.

[Michael Tee]

<<Quite frankly, Obama is the best candidate the Democrats have.>>

You probably mean the best viable candidate.  Kucinich is ten times the man Obama is.

Yes I could agree with your assessment of the situation.  Doesn't say a hell of a lot for the Democrats, though.  (And the Republicans are even worse!)