Well shucks, I thought Barry was a new type of politician; post-racial, full of hopechangery and ponies. Turns out, not so much. Here is what he said last night in Jacksonville:
“It is going to be very difficult for Republicans to run on their stewardship of the economy or their outstanding foreign policy. We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?”
It’s ironic that the thing that he is accusing the GOP of doing is the exact thing he himself is doing, namely using fear as a campaign tactic. Does he offer any proof that McCain plans on using race in the campaign at all? Of course not. McCain has gone out of his way by distancing himself from even the slightest mention of race (e.g. Bill Cunningham and the NC GOP ads). This is just the same old ploy used by Democrats in every election cycle, you can expect the “Republicans are going to take away your Social Security” ads soon.
Don’t the Democrats have any new pages in their play-book? This ranks up there with the ads in St. Louis in 2000 stating that if Bush is elected more black churches would burn. This myth that Republicans are more racist then Democrats is foolish. After all it was Bill Clinton (the first black president) who started this all by blaming Hillary’s loss in South Carolina on the black vote. It was Hillary who deliberately sought after the white vote in her interview with the AP. Republicans are no more or less racists then Democrats are. Are there racists people in the GOP, I guess so. But if memory serves, there are more former KKK members in the Senate who are Democrats then Republicans. If you want to scare people into voting for you I guess that is your prerogative, just remember who has been in charge of all these failing inner-cities for 50 years, and the answer is not Republicans.
9.22.2008 UPDATE: A lot of people are talking about Obama’s revelations that he has a funny name and is black. People feel he should have made there revelations sooner in his campaign! But nooooo …. he waits till he’s nominated and NOW he tells us!!
Cassandra lost a night’s sleep over it. So she made him the race card that I included at the top of this post. Juliette says its just pathetic. Sister Toldjah says he’s right, that old stuff he’s pulling does divide people. Nice Deb is being nice and saying that he’s just trying to prepare us for whatever might come out about him later in the campaign. Fausta says its the REPUBLICANS that keep bringing this up, fer sure. And the Right Pundits’ very own Zoey gets all high and mighty and declares – you are a dangerous man obama. you are the scary one. you are the race baiter. you would divide us not unite us.
June 21st, 2008 at 10:50 am
The only people I’ve heard raise this issue in this election is democrats. They are the ones pulling that card out to use.
June 21st, 2008 at 11:11 am
So if the Dems are the ones who always play the race card, and the GOP does not, then why are you so defensive about it? The truth is there is a lot of this sort of thing on both sides, and you are going to see more and more of it as the election nears.
June 21st, 2008 at 11:45 am
Ed, that is a falacious argument. Just because I’m defensive about something doesn’t make it untrue. I’m defensive because I’m tired of being called something I’m not. Race is irrelevant to nearly everything in life. Yet I’m made to look like some member of the KKK just because I’m a conservative. Bah humbug.
June 21st, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Yup.
I’ve been seeing this for decades.
It starts by them preaching to the minorities about how opressed they are and soon to follow are the entitlements that the Dems will give them if elected.
If anyone questions those entitlements they are automatically labeled rac*st when all they’re trying to do is spend a buck wisely.
The CHIP bill that is supposed to be for kids has 28 year old adults on it that qualify.
We speak out against it.
Whammo ! We are automatically children haters.
The examples like this are a dime a dozen all over the place.
June 21st, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Okay, this post is just so that my first one will pop up behind it when I submit it. Its worked before.
June 21st, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Yup, works everytime
June 21st, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Bryan, I did not call you anything. I do not even know you. I’m just saying, no one has a monopoly on rac*sm. The flavor of the above is, it is them Dems and not us. That is why it seems defensive to me. The Left calls the Right rac*st; the Right calls the Left rac*st? Where will it end?
I do not like what Obama said, either. But it is what you do with it. Both sides are going to use race in the upcoming election, unfortunately.
Race is not irrelevant. Racial differences exist. But in the spirit of diversity, we embrace those differences, rather than hating each other for them.
June 21st, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Micky etal, I just revised our comment policy to give you stronger clues about what words gets moderated and why. I know its a pain, but I hope it helps you guys understand. Comment Policy is a link in the right sidebar.
June 21st, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Ed, we all know damn well that Bryan was speaking in general and not saying that you called him anything.
McCain.
Gotcha.
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:06 am
In 2000, not 1950, but 2000 Bush
backers claimed McCain had an illegitimate
BLACK child.
Why?
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:09 am
Mr Unite us.
Because there are idiots everywhere.
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:49 am
For the record, it seems rather silly to make the word “rac*st” a spam word. It’ll be difficult to discuss this POTUS election without using it at some point since race apparently is a major factor in many people’s decisions. By the way – when you were replacing i’s with asterisks in my previous comment, you missed one.
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:43 pm
So its okay to use age and gender but not race? We seen both John McCain and Hillary Clinton make reference to their age or sex. From confused to glass ceilings its all been said.
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Its the sponsors guys.
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Race, and the fact that his daddy (and maybe little Barry too) was once a Muslim, matters a lot to some people. They may be idiots, but idiots can and do vote. I suspect the idiot vote is small, goes both ways, and will not be affected much by what the candidates say or don’t say in any event, because the idiots are idiots.
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Tom.
It does matter to me if Obama was Muslim at one time and wont admit it.
That does not make me an idiot. That gives me a better idea of where a candidate is coming from based on his past experiences in life.
But the real foundation of all this is not whether he was muslim at one time so as it is whether he is willing to be open and forthcoming about it.
If Obama feels that disclosure of a Muslim past would hurt his chances for the presidency he’s on to something, and he knows it.
Its no more valid a concern tha some who worried that Romney being Mormon might influence his decision making.
Or even the brand of christianity that Obama has been practicing for the last twenty years.
That is of deep concern to me and many others also.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:58 am
Micky2,
I agree not being candid about one’s background is relevant in assessing credibility. Perhaps I should have said that these things are to me far less important than the candidates’ positions on Iraq and War on Terror, FISA, the economy, immigration, etc.
I believe it matters much more that we elect someone who ALREADY has the right position on our significant pending problems, rather than vote based on the “hope” that the new president will successfully apply his superior “judgment and experience” and then adopt the correct approach to solving these problems.
I believe focusing on the major issues instead of the little stuff is a lot more productive.
Take energy for example. The gas tax holiday was a pander, and offshore drilling does nothing to solve the near term problem. Nor does environmentally risky drilling offer any significant long term relief in light of world markets and world demand.
Blaming or punishing Exxon for wanting to make money and (gasp) honor its fiduciary duties to shareholders makes even less sense, as does expecting private companies to squander their incomes on speculative alternative energy sources which directly compete with their inventory (oil reserves). Why would they spend vast amounts of money on the mere chance of coming up with some effectively nonpatentable process, that other companies or governments quite possibly could piggyback on for free?
It seems to me that we should be focusing on shale. We have enough here in the US (1+Trillion barrels extractable) to supply all our domestic needs for 75 to 100 years, in US government hands. I would like to see a moonshot effort on that, instead of relying on small, nonhurried private sector efforts.
Iraq is another example. IMO, we should be focusing our efforts on western Pakistan, and should have done so long ago, to get OBL and Mullah Omar’s heads on sticks to drive home the point that this is what we do to those who target us and their enablers. I think this is a valid question to raise, but it seems the discussion has degenerated to fingerpointing and namecalling rather than focusing on where and how we should apply military force for maximum effect given the resources we have (see Lt. Col. Yingling’s article “A Failure in Generalship” in the Armed Forces Journal, criticizing our approach in Iraq).
Immigration is a fun issue too. A right wing friend got me to do a 180 on that one. Putting such issues up for detailed discussion makes a difference, maybe a critical one when both candidates are wrong.
Sorry for the long post. I have been following this site for a while, and really enjoy the civil, lighthearted, non PC tone. My concerns with this post was only as to emphasis of what I see is a dirt clod issue in a race where oth sides have plenty of those to throw.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Heres a comment from a couple days ago.
I’m a lazy typist.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
I see it this way.
What oil we do come up with should suffice within the time it takes to get all other alternative sources of energy on line.
Nuke, hydrogen, hybrid applications solar, thermal,tidal generation, whatever, etc should be covering a large enough portion of our needs in 10-20 years to the point where our need for oil would be minimal.
Minimal enough to release from dependency on middle eastern oil.
And only give us half the reasons we are in the middle east
Bio fuels have already proven to be a completely stupid move.
If it becomes a matter of national security which is already the buzz word on the hill we just might see fed laws become the rule.
No offense,I’m tired of repeating myself over Iraq.
We went in for security reasons.
And all of Saddams atrocities and violations gave us that pass.
Had we not gone there would of been far more deaths no doubt looking at the Saddams history.
We need a strong presence in the middle east for a number of reasons that have little to do with spreading democracy.
The initial approach to iraq was botched, but I see things going fairly well now.
Of course it would be suicide for Obama to admit that things have improved greatly.
I agree on Pakistan,I think we should slap Pakistan upside the head and tell them to get busy or all the aid we’re given them will stop. And the freindship thing will become more ambiguous.
Obamas positions on Iraq and foreign affairs are pretty much well known.
The patriot act(fisa) is fine with me. Obama is just pandering to those who have this imaginary belief that they have lost some freedoms or rights over it.
I wont vote for him even if Manson was running against him. But if hes over sympathetic to muslims in future negotiations because of his family ties I would like to know about it , or think at least others should know.
During the campaign Obama is warming up to illegals because of the latino vote which is always stronger for the Dems.
Of course Bush was no better when discussing the border he said that money trumps security.
I sh*t my heart out my a$$ when he said that.
I’m rushing, I’m doing ten things right now.
Stick around, most of the leftys around here have been fairly irritating lately.
Glad to meet you Tom.
March 2nd, 2009 at 6:14 am
Does anyone know where I can find more information about this?