Posted on 01/12/2010 10:21:15 AM PST by Chi-townChief
GOP turning Reid's opinion into political haymaker
If it were not so pathetic, the political fallout over remarks made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would be hilarious.
Reid is under attack for saying privately in 2008 that then-Sen. Barack Obama would be a successful black presidential candidate because of his "light-skinned" appearance and because he doesn't speak with a "Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one."
Frankly, a lot of African Americans must have yawned.
Reid only confirmed what a lot of black voters thought -- which is why Obama wrestled with questions about "his blackness" throughout his campaign.
Indeed, the people who publicly raised concerns about Obama's "color" most often were not white. They were black.
For instance, during the heated primary between Obama and Hillary Clinton, former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young said that former President Bill Clinton was "every bit as black as Obama."
The racially charged message was intended to warn African-American voters against embracing Obama out of black pride because he looked like one of them.
Reid also isn't the first white senator to give Obama a backhanded racial compliment.
Vice President Joe Biden's formal announcement that he was running for president was marred by comments he made about having to compete against Obama.
"You got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean that's a storybook, man," Biden told a reporter with the New York Observer.
GOP smells blood Reid has personally apologized to Obama about his comments, but his kowtowing isn't likely to be enough.
We are in a political environment where Republicans are desperately searching for a hammer they can use to smack down the Democratic agenda.
When used to describe Obama's attractiveness, the terms "light-skinned," "Negroes," and "dialect" are words loaded with negative energy.
GOP chairman Michael Steele is leading the charge for Reid's resignation.
The GOP's first African-American chairman claims there is a "double standard" when it comes to how Democrats and Republicans are treated in a similar situation.
"When Democrats get caught saying racist things, you know, an apology is enough," Steele said on NBC.
If a Republican senator had made the same remark, Steele said the Democratic Party "would be screaming for his head very much as they were with Trent Lott."
As you may recall, Lott was forced out of his leadership role in 2002 after saying the nation would be better off if Strom Thurmond, once a segregationist candidate, had been elected president.
Steele obviously knows there's a world of difference between what Lott said and Reid's comments.
What Reid said about Obama was politically incorrect.
What Lott said about Thurmond displayed a hankering for an era in U.S. history when blacks were treated like second-class citizens.
Also, some studies have shown that whites perceive light-skinned African Americans as being less threatening than dark-skinned blacks.
And it is understood that the black people who use proper English are going to have an easier time landing a good job.
In assessing Obama's chances to win the White House, Reid told the truth as many of us know it.
Had Reid said that Obama could not win the White House because of his race, or because white voters would not support an African American, I would understand why his words would be construed as racist.
Reid's conversation about Obama was not racist.
It was racial.
Too often we confuse the two. When we do, we make it even more difficult for reasonable people to have a civil conversation about race.
A racial comment is about race. A racist comment is a negative comment about race.
Political motives are hidden to the point that it is difficult for the average person to know when they are being duped.
This is not the case.
Reid is in a tight race to hold on to his Senate seat, not to mention his leadership position.
So when Steele and other Republican officials are calling for Reid's head, it is not because they are empathizing with African Americans.
What Steele is trying to do is exploit black resentments.
But the fact that President Obama is an African American should not mean that these sensitive racial issues can be manipulated to score points for either Democrats or Republicans.
When they are, we all lose.
mailto:marym@suntimes.com
Ask Dick Morris what these slimes have to say about Jews behind closed doors. Hitlery is famous for her comments.
The racist Mary Mitchell is now lecturing us on what is considered racist?
That’s just rich...
So, profiling with respect to appearance, behavior and race is not racist or wrong according to the Democractic Party?
I think the lines at the airport should get shorter!
It’s abdo-lutely reidiculous!
A racist comment is a negative comment about race
So, then, Dirty Harry wasn’t really saying, in a back-handed way, that Dark Skinned African-Americans are Bad?
Hey Whitey: why don’t you take your cracker ass and shove it! :D
They sure raise a stink eye when you call Barack Obama a MARXIST.
I remember when Barack Obama told liberal elites in SF at a private fundraiser that Christians in flyover country “cling to their religion”.
They appear to be saving that up for Ol’ Slick with his “coffee” quip.
“There are white folks, and then there are ignorant motherf***ers like you.” - Barack Obama, caught on tape in his own book, in his OWN “dialect”. He won a Grammy for that performance.
Every time one of these incidents happens it simply points out that the charge of “racism” is a political club wielded by leftists to silence their opponents and nothing more. The right should stop giving weight to these charges and treat them for what they are: a political bludgeon used selectively to tar the left’s enemies.
And that includes you, Sean Hannity. Morris is the guy that toured Kenya with The Anointed One, campaigning for Sharia Law and Christian Massacres. Look it up.
He was paid for his efforts by Bill Clinton's foundations (read "Gerrge Soros") Morris' assignment right now is to make Obama look like Shiite, and to allow him to to do the marxist heavy lifting, so Hillary can slide into the chair in 2012. She's twice as smart as Obama (who as his report cards, SAT's and LSAT scores might well show, just ain't all that bright) and twice the Marxist.
2012, they are throwing the Kenyan under his own bus. Bet?
But former ku klux klan members are ok.
"So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don't tell me I’m not coming home to Selma, Alabama."
From Barack's Selma speech:
...something happened back here in Selma, Alabama. Something happened in Birmingham that sent out what Bobby Kennedy called, “Ripples of hope all around the world.” Something happened when a bunch of women decided they were going to walk instead of ride the bus after a long day of doing somebody else's laundry, looking after somebody else's children. When men who had PhD’s decided that's enough and we’re going to stand up for our dignity. That sent a shout across oceans so that my grandfather began to imagine something different for his son. His son, who grew up herding goats in a small village in Africa could suddenly set his sights a little higher and believe that maybe a black man in this world had a chance.- Barack Obama - March 2007What happened in Selma, Alabama and Birmingham also stirred the conscience of the nation. It worried folks in the White House who said, “You know, we're battling Communism. How are we going to win hearts and minds all across the world? If right here in our own country, John, we're not observing the ideals set fort in our Constitution, we might be accused of being hypocrites.” So the Kennedy’s decided we're going to do an air lift. We're going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is.
This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to this country. He met this woman whose great great-great-great-grandfather had owned slaves; but she had a good idea there was some craziness going on because they looked at each other and they decided that we know that the world as it has been it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child. There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don't tell me I’m not coming home to Selma, Alabama.
I’m here because somebody marched. I’m here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants. I thank the Moses generation; but we've got to remember, now, that Joshua still had a job to do. As great as Moses was, despite all that he did, leading a people out of bondage, he didn't cross over the river to see the Promised Land. God told him your job is done. You'll see it. You'll be at the mountain top and you can see what I’ve promised. What I’ve promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. You will see that I’ve fulfilled that promise but you won't go there.
Timeline:
1960 (President is Ike, VP Richard Nixon runs against Senator John Kennedy for the presidency)
Ann Dunham is 18. Her family moves to Honolulu, Hawaii. Ann begins classes at the University of Hawaii.
- She meets Barack Obama Sr. in a Russian-language class. Barack Obama Sr. is a foreign student from Kenya, who has a magnetic personality. Barack Obama Sr. is very opinionated, talkative and passionate. The two start dating.
- Ann tells her parents about her African boyfriend and they invite him for dinner.
January 20, 1961 JFK is sworn into the presidency.
February 2, 1961: Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. get married in Maui in a discreet ceremony. Nobody is invited. At the time of the wedding Ann is already three months pregnant with Barack Obama Jr.
August 4, 1961: Barack Obama Jr. is born. Ann is eighteen. She drops out of college after one semester in the University of Hawaii.
1964
Ann files for divorce from Barack Obama Sr. and he signs the papers.
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American Civil Rights Movement.
They were the culmination of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by Amelia Boynton and her husband. Boynton brought many prominent leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement to Selma, including James Bevel, who initiated and organized the march; Martin Luther King, Jr.; and Hosea Williams.
The first march took place on March 7, 1965 — "Bloody Sunday" — when 600 civil rights marchers were attacked by state and local police with billy clubs and tear gas. The second march took place on March 9. Only the third march, which began on March 21 and lasted five days, made it to Montgomery, 54 miles (87 km) away.
---- Mr. Obama, YOU LIE.
At least Hillary didn't claim that she marched and owed her entire world to the city.
That’s not an accurate account. Robert Byrd was a recruiter for the Klan, not just a member. He signed up over 100 other racists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_for_Radicals
In a separate chapter he suggests that the perennial question, “Does the end justify the means?” is meaningless as it stands: the real and only question regarding the ethics of means and ends is, and always has been, “Does this particular end justify this particular means?”
Alinsky continues by stating several rules of the ethics of means and ends:
- The judgment of the ethics of means is dependent upon the political position of those sitting in judgment.
- In war the end justifies almost any means.
- Judgment must be made in the context of the times in which the action occurred and not from any other chronological vantage point.
- Concern with ethics increases with the number of means available and vice versa.
- The less important the end to be desired, the more one can afford to engage in ethical evaluations of means.
- Generally, success or failure is a mighty determinant of ethics.
- The morality of a means depends upon whether the means is being employed at a time of imminent defeat or imminent victory.
- Any effective means is automatically judged by the opposition as being unethical.
- You do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments.
- Goals must be phrased in general terms like “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” “Of the Common Welfare,” “Pursuit of Happiness,” or “Bread and Peace.”These rules of the ethics of means and ends are only one chapter of his book, totally distinct from his “clear set of rules for community organizing.” For example, his rule 12 is “pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
You could say the same thing about Hillary Clinton.
The writer of this idiotorial is also shielding Harry because he made the comment “in private” after all.
Never mind what Harry said when he took Trent Lott to task.
Harry Lied. He’s a liberal so he gets a pass. Doesn’t matter that he’s a racist or one of those “scary” Mormons they warned us about in 2007.
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