Posted on 06/09/2010 7:49:46 AM PDT by Kaslin
My March 2008 column "Is Obama Ready for America?" started out: "Some pundits ask whether America is ready for Obama. The much more important question is whether Obama is ready for America and even more important is whether black people can afford Obama." Let's look at this.
In 1947, Jackie Robinson, in signing a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers, broke the color bar in Major League Baseball. In 1950, three blacks broke the color bar in the National Basketball Association (NBA): Earl Lloyd (Washington Capitals), Chuck Cooper (Boston Celtics) and Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton (New York Knicks). Their highly successful performances opened the way for other blacks to follow -- peaking at 27 percent in Major League Baseball and 80 percent in the NBA.
Without a question, the first blacks, relative to their white peers, in professional sports were exceptional. There's no sense of justice that should require that these players be as good as they were in order to get a job. But the fact of business, in order to deal with racial hostility and stereotypes of incompetence, they had to be first rate and possess character beyond question. It was not only important for their careers, it was important for their fellow blacks. At the time the sports color bar was being broken, black people could ill afford stumblebums. Today, black people can afford stumblebums in several sports. In fact, black people can afford for the Philadelphia Sixers to put Williams in their starting lineup. Any person watching me mess up royally would have to be a lunatic to say, "Those blacks can't play basketball." The bottom line is that whether we like it or not, whether for good reason or bad reason, whether it's fair or unfair, people make stereotypes, and stereotypes can have effects.
In that March 2008 column, I said, "For the nation and for black people, the first black president should be the caliber of a Jackie Robinson and Barack Obama is not. Barack Obama has charisma and charm but in terms of character, values and understanding, he is no Jackie Robinson." Obama's electoral success was truly remarkable. It's a testament to the essential goodness of the American people. A June 6-9, 2008 NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll reported "that 17 percent were enthusiastic about Obama being the first African American President, 70 percent were comfortable or indifferent, and 13 percent had reservations or were uncomfortable."
President Obama, with the assistance of devious House and Senate leadership, has gotten a health care law enacted that the majority of American voters are against. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 58 percent of voters support repeal of the health care law. Under the president's leadership, the 2010 budget deficit will reach more than $1.5 trillion, about 10 percent of gross domestic product, the largest deficit since the end of World War II. We're not that far behind the troubled nation of Greece, which has a current budget deficit of nearly 13 percent of GDP. Our national debt at $13 trillion is about 90 percent of GDP and budgeted to grow by $9 trillion over the next decade. On the diplomatic front, the Obama team is not doing much better, showing every sign of permitting a terrorist nation like Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.
Early indications suggest that the Barack Obama presidency might turn out to be similar to the failed presidency of Jimmy Carter. That's bad news for the nation but especially bad news for black Americans. No white presidential candidate had to live down the disgraced presidency of Carter but I'm all too fearful that a future black presidential candidate will find himself carrying the heavy baggage of a failed black president. That's not a problem for white liberals who voted for Obama who received their one-time guilt-relieving dose from voting for a black man to be president, but it is a problem for future generations of black Americans.
I love it when WEW is a guest host.
But he can’t do it more than once a month, maximum - he uses the same material too much.
Even so, he’s my favorite.
Same here
Bump
Putting a ball in a hoop is not like running a business or being president.
LOL - if I was a betting man, I’d also say Mark! If we’re lucky, it will be Steyn and not Davis.
Of course he wrote the article, I posted it, didn’t I? His article is about can black Americans afford Obama, not Rush, or his co hosts
I LUV Walter Williams.
Interesting take.
Walter Williams still refuses to go sky diving with black people.
“Our first black president should have been a Jackie Robinson.”
Should have been Walter Williams or someone of his caliber.
I'd have to go with a yes and a no (which sounds like a Democrat woman).
I do believe that Americans on the whole have "essential goodness", and more so than any other cultural group on Earth.
There are a lot of reasons for this but the condition is an emotional response, when engaged, Americans will tend to opt to try to "do good" as an immediate emotional reaction to a situation. They don't always think analytically or investigate the worth of the presentation.
On the opposite, Americans are probably the most spoiled and mis educated group on Earth, especially in blue states. Such a people are easily manipulated by appeal to envy and guilt, and will act like idiots when so manipulated.
the MSM/SCM failing to report
The MSM/SCM didn't FAIL, the succeeded grandly in exactly what they intended to do.
no kidding
Currently, unless a black candidate is exceptional, I will have a tough time supporting him/her.
My resentment for what blacks are currently doing may be with me for my lifetime. They may be causing generational damage.
The best thing for blacks to do right now is openly and publicly disavow Barack Hussein Obama. If their disapproval/approval percentage was similar to national levels, that would go a long way toward healing the current divisions that are festering across our nation.
You just pwn3d Walter.
no small feat.
Can anyone in America afford this clown? No
It’s not about black America.
It was probably me back when I posted under the TypeZoNegative moniker.
We tried that in 2000, but we ended up getting W winning the primaries.
Not surprisingly, the MSM electoral map color change in 1992 was deliberate and by direction of liberal leftists to try and disassociate public perception of the DemoRat party as the party of communist red.
The DemoRats had shifted so far left, that they now resembled the communists.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.