Posted on 11/08/2008 12:53:35 AM PST by giotto
WASHINGTON: It popped out casually, a throwaway line as Barack Obama talked to reporters about finding the right puppy for his young daughters.
But with just three offhand words in his first news conference as president-elect, Obama reminded everyone how thoroughly different his administration — and inevitably, the United States — will be.
"Mutts like me."
In American English, a mutt is a mixed breed dog.
By now, almost every American knows that Obama's mother was white and his father black, which will make him the U.S.'s first African-American president. Still, there was something startling, and telling, about hearing his self-description — particularly in how offhandedly he did it.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Obama’s been hanging with Joe, “Gaff a Day” Biden too much...
Obama is an empty suit. He is obsessed with race. the people who cast their votes for this empty head did so because of his race.
He is demonstating that he is not a unifier but a divider.
Well arguably, Obama is the first, so you have to run as “the other white mutt”
We are all mutt's. With all the various migrations, military expeditions and wars, international commerce, etc, that has taken place over the past several millenia it's difficult to envision any racially pure populations left on the planet - except perhaps some small tribe in some very remote area.
Not gaffes, actually, as much as a glimpse of the real Obama -- the cynical manipulator.
This is a good example of why he didn't hold any press conferences in the last months of the campaign and why he needed a teleprompter -- to prevent lapses into the normal patois of his everyday associates. No unscripted moments.
We saw the mask slip in the "guns and religion" comments in San Fran, and we saw it in his response to Joe the Plumber. The hapless McCain, the collegial DC hack, backed by the hapless party of beltway hacks, couldn't capitalize because he has swum in the same sea of clever political cynicism for too many years, and has lost the ability (if he ever had it) to interpret the potential impact/significance of those gaffes.
I do hope Obama holds many pressers, followed by many unscripted comments. It will be most instructive for those able to interpret.
Good word. Never saw it before this day.
How sweet...
Even if it’s not a derogatory term, even if Obama didn’t mean it to be self-deprecating, to me it indicates that Obama felt ill at ease in the situation. Will he, like Clinton, forever be afraid of being found out for the empty suit he is?
i did not mean it makes him petty, but some of us when we make a big deal out of it. i agree it is fascinating to see!
Ditto.
A mare, a bitch or a human mother of an ignorant President-elect or America's first lesbian, transvestite President-elect.
He may be a “mutt” in reality, but it’s obvious that he has chosen to accentuate his blackness, not his whiteness, and he makes it perfectly clear that he believes those two sides are different from each other.
I believe the words No Mercy are applicable, eh.
Pay Attention!
This is naught to do with cross breeding.
Bone up on reading comprehension and critical thinking, and then try again.
I agree that this remark is very telling psychologically. NObama once said that he, like Malcolm X, would like to be able to kill off his white half!
The comment also sounds elitist. Only purebreds are good enough for his family! No mutts allowed.
The media will spin everything he says to sound wonderful, or profound, or whatever superlative you want to insert.
Coupled with his Nancy Reagan remark, I’d say Barry is off to a poor start.
If the press were fair, they’d rake him over the coals like they did Sarah Palin...
I don’t agree that this was appropriate way to “discuss” one’s racial background.
Obama is the master of not having a clue about the connotations of basic phrases.
Moreover, in today’s world, race is not biology, it is simply a social construct. As Obama puts it, he “chose” to be a black man. Meaning he took on whatever it was he thought the society considered characterized a “black man.”
IOW, his own life and worldview belies that “race” in day’s America, to the extent it is meaningful at all, is a catchword for a bunch of voluntary cultural behaviors and views.
Many people today are of various mixed races in biological terms. It is getting quite ridiculous to try to describe the “race” of a person, say, whose mother was Japanese and Caucasian and whose father was Black and Hispanic.
When an individual can, as Obama did and all people (whether known to be of mixed race or not) can, choose a “racial identity”, we are not talking about “race” as biology, but in terms of a social construct.
As the basis for identifying groups in American society, it would be much more accurate to use socioeconomic stratifications than the superficial and increasing artificial concept of “race.”
He constantly talks about trying to find out who he is and choosing his identity.
I think you are very right.
I am sorry the Office of President of the United States is being used as some sort of therapy. But, whatever’s in it for him, for his sake as well as ours, Obama should strive to be less flip and more circumspect in pursuing his personal demons in public.
There is nothing wrong or damaging or hateful about being a particular race or mix of races. Obama’s personal problems stem from being abandoned as a child. That is a hard thing to endure and overcome.
His tendency toward being flip, bitter and sarcastic is already painful for all of us.
We just choose to love them!
:)
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