Questioning the timing

[BT]

Reid apologizes for referring to Obama as ?light skinned? and ?with no Negro dialect? and

Clinton:

[A]s Hillary bungled Caroline, Bill?s handling of Ted was even worse. The day after Iowa, he phoned Kennedy and pressed for an endorsement, making the case for his wife. But Bill then went on, belittling Obama in a manner that deeply offended Kennedy. Recounting the conversation later to a friend, Teddy fumed that Clinton had said, A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee.

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/01/09/bill-clinton-2008-on-obama-a-few-years-ago-this-guy-would-have-been-getting-us-coffee/

Are folks being thrown under the bus in an effort to rouse sympathy for Obama's plunge in the polls?

[Michael Tee]

How is that going to generate sympathy for Obama?  It just generates anger at some of the people around him. 

It weakens him by chipping away at the members of his team.  Makes him look like a dope or a helpless schmuck for surrounding himself with people who despise him.  He either knows they despise him but needs them because he can't find competent people who don't despise him, or he was too dumb to realize what they were when he picked them, but either way he is looking bad.

[Michael Tee]

You know, I'll add on to that last thought.  Obama is too fucking conciliatory.  And it got him nowhere.  Deservedly so.  He dumped the people who supported him whole-heartedly and picked instead people he thought were going to be less objectionable to his worst enemies.  Well, the essence of leadership is LEADING.  HE was the guy elected President and he should have picked the people HE wanted around him, Jeremiah Wright instead of that bitch Hillary, Van Jones, Bill fucking Ayers for christ sake.  If they couldn't pass Senate confirmation, then he should take a leaf from the Bush playbook and build a parallel "advisory" structure with them, completely by-passing whatever weasels the Senate would approve.  Also he and his team should target any Democratic legislators who don't support their President, take the case directly to the people of their state or constituency and make the people understand that a vote for the legislator is a vote for the oligarchy that oppresses their lives, then run progressive, left-wing Democrats against them at the first opportunity.

Obama's a classic Democratic sell-out, another Hubert Humphrey, pitch to the left and run for the middle.  Totally fails to realize that there is NOTHING the guy can do, apart from self-immolation, that will appease the right.

[BT]

How is that going to generate sympathy for Obama?

Are targets of racism not worthy of our sympathy?

[Xavier_Onassis]

That is not a racist comment. It is simply true: Obama is rather light-skinned. He does not speak with the accent that Black people tend to use. This made him more acceptable to White folks, just as Halle Berry is more accepted than, say, Alfre Woodard.

Just as Biden himself observed that bald guys do not get nominated for prsident, and do not win in the rare instances when they do (ie Hubert Humphrey) so he got hair transplants.(Eisenhower was a war hero, and TV was not the major force in 1952 ans 56 that it is today, either).

Short candidates lose. Observe Olebush's comment that he was TALLER than Reagan.

But height and hair are not associated with race.

It was, at most, and indelicate comment. It was also said in confidence. But it was not racist. Observe how Jesse Jackson, who is darker and has a pronounced Afro=american accent, was unsuccessful as a candidate.

This may be unfortunate, but it is undeniably true.

 

[BT]

This made him more acceptable to White folks, just as Halle Berry is more accepted than, say, Alfre Woodard.

Why is he more acceptable to whites than a dark skinned negro?

[Xavier_Onassis]

Because he is more like them in their minds, of course.

There is the old saying:"If you are White, you're alright;if you're yellow, you're mellow, if you're brown, stick around; but if you are Black, stay back."

All American culture is pervaded with an obsession about color.

At Howard University in DC, a mostly Black university, there was a sorority that would only admit women who were the color of a brown paper bag or "brighter".

See that Spike Lee film, "School Daze", especially the dance number with the Jigaboos and the Wannabees. Men and women who want a light skinned mate are called "color struck".

[BT]

Because he is more like them in their minds, of course.

And is that not racist?

[Rich]

>>All American culture is pervaded with an obsession about color.<<

This would be correct if he had said, "All American LIBERAL culture is pervaded with an obsession about color."

[Michael Tee]

<<Are targets of racism not worthy of our sympathy? >>

Not if they're the President of the U.S.A.  Unless he's a total schmuck, he shouldn't have to put up with it.  If anything, he's worthy of anger and contempt for suffering these racist fools in his administration.

[BT]

Unless he's a total schmuck, he shouldn't have to put up with it.  If anything, he's worthy of anger and contempt for suffering these racist fools in his administration.

What could he possibly do to them? Can't Trent Lott Reid, he needs every vote in the Senate he can muster. and he can't touch Bill Clinton.

[Michael Tee]

I'd fire them and try to manoeuvre around without them, Trent Lott be damned, or I'd quit.  It's an affront to the man's dignity to have to put up with that kind of shit in silence and the real question is how badly does this guy want to be President and how much shit will he eat in order to hang on to it?

And if I were going to soldier on with an anti-racist administration, I'd take my case directly to the people and I'd use the power of the office to go after any and all Democrats who DON'T support vigorous anti-racist action.  No more apologies and kow-towing to the GOP.  If he goes down, he comes back again, this time fighting both the racist opposition in his own party  AND the GOP and letting the people know what HE has in store for them as well as what his enemies - - the GOP and the centre-right Democrats - - have in store for them.

If he can't win on that platform, then he doesn't deserve to win.  If the people are presented a clear choice and elect a  GOP government, then God-damn it, that's what they want and that's what they should have.

I can see with 20-20 hindsight now that one of the major problems with the 2008 elections was a lack of clarity.  We knew what McCain and Palin stood for, but it seems nobody really knew - - until now - - what Obama and the Democrats stood for.  They stood for winning the election.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Because he is more like them in their minds, of course.

And is that not racist?
=============================================
Duh! that was the point Reid was making: that for a Black man to win the presidency, he must not appear to the White voters as a member of the lower classes, or a Jesse Jackson Al Sharpton type that is likely to favor Black people than Whites.

The rightwing will not vote for ANY Black man, period, and the Democrats will not vote for any Black man, just one they can identify with.

Reid was simply speculating on how Obama was a viable candidate that could be elected. And he was proved right, even though types like our resident haters Kramer and Rich would not vote for him.

[BT]

For Reid to say he must think it, else he would have clarified his statement.

I think the man has a racism problem.

And Mikey:

Obama can not fire Reid. neither he nor Bill Clinton work for him.

He could have denounced them, but he blew that chance.

[Michael Tee]

<<And Mikey:

<<Obama can not fire Reid. neither he nor Bill Clinton work for him.

<<He could have denounced them, but he blew that chance.>>

I thought Bubba went on some kind of half-assed mission for him, but maybe I'm wrong.  Reid and Bubba should have been denounced immediately.  If Bubba ever did go on a mission for Obama, or was being considered for one, Obama could announce that that was the last mission Bubba will ever get on HIS watch. 

The guy is just eating way to much shit for the kind of results he's getting.  He needs to salvage his dignity, gain some respect.