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Divides Obama Doesn't Bridge

Texan

Well-known member
Divides Obama Doesn't Bridge
By Froma Harrop

In distancing himself from the heated remarks of his pastor, Barack Obama did as well as anyone could do in his position. The problem is his position, which is having sat in the reverend's pews for 20 years without thinking to pick up and leave.

The discussion of race in the Democratic contest -- as in American life -- runs along different tracks. Certain people can say certain things. When the wrong person crosses to a track he or she doesn't have a license to be on, all hell breaks loose. Such was the consequence of Geraldine Ferraro's remark that Obama wouldn't be where he is today in the presidential contest were he not black.

Obama is a gifted and brilliant politician -- and would be so if both parents were white. But serious political analysts do consider how race has helped this otherwise inexperienced candidate. Because Ferraro is white and expressed her opinion in an insensitive manner, she had to leave the Clinton campaign.

Obama's classy response to the former vice-presidential candidate's comments demonstrated his legendary political skill. He dismissed them as "wrong-headed" but not racist -- enhancing his reputation as a builder of bridges over the color divide.

But the Obama campaign hasn't always been as lofty in the game of who-may-say-what-about-race as its candidate.

The first contest in which race played an important role was the South Carolina primary. Obama used his race in appealing to black voters -- about half the Democratic electorate -- and who could blame him? Hillary uses gender when it suits her.

But while candidate Obama floated above the fray with his soothing style, his underlings trumped up charges against Clinton of hidden racism. The most ludicrous was the claim that she had said disrespectful things about Martin Luther King Jr.

The Obama camp had one credible rap against the Clintons. It was Bill's likening the Obama candidacy to that of the irritating Jessie Jackson. The comparison was offensive and grossly unfair, but use of the race gambit has hardly been limited to one side.

Obama's smooth flight over racial turbulence ended with the airing of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's tapes. By now, the public has heard the "God damn America" a dozen times. That, plus Michelle Obama's hard-edged remark about how her husband's campaign has made her proud of being American for the first time, has cut into the Obama race-transcending mystique. Hence the speech in Philadelphia.

Holding a tough hand of cards, Obama responded to Wright's outbursts with admirable finesse. He downplayed their outrageous, sometimes demented, nature by labeling them "divisive," a moderate word. He refused to disown his pastor. He couldn't. Doing so would have seemed craven after their long history together.

Given the calamity of slavery and Jim Crow, one must give slack to black anger. But there are limits, especially for an avowedly post-racial candidate.

We've had a situation where it's politically unacceptable to attribute Obama's success to race, but a minister may say that the government created AIDS to kill people of color and remain a candidate's spiritual adviser. Suppose Clinton's minister had awarded a lifetime achievement award to David Duke, as Wright had to Louis Farrakhan.

But for Obama, the most lasting damage of this affair may not be tied to race or religion but to class. Working stiffs will struggle to square Obama's close bond to a purveyor of racial grievance with his own golden existence. With four Ivy League degrees between them, half a million in income and children in private schools, the Obamas seem to be doing more than OK.

The clashing images of resentment and privilege are a divide that is hard to bridge.


ttp://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/divides_obama_doesnt_bridge_1.html
 

Texan

Well-known member
In retrospect, I sure hope nobody considers me a racist for posting an article about Obama. It seems that we have a few posters here that think any criticism of him is only because of his color. He's a sorry socialist sackashit hypocrite - no matter what color he is.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Texan said:
But for Obama, the most lasting damage of this affair may not be tied to race or religion but to class. Working stiffs will struggle to square Obama's close bond to a purveyor of racial grievance with his own golden existence. With four Ivy League degrees between them, half a million in income and children in private schools, the Obamas seem to be doing more than OK.

The clashing images of resentment and privilege are a divide that is hard to bridge.[/i]

I don't think none of them can put out a "selling apples on the streetcorner" image... :shock: :wink: :lol:

John McCain
Net Worth $40.4 million
2006 Income $3.9 Million


Hillary Clinton
Net Worth $34.9 million
2006 Income$12.1 miliion

Barack Obama
Net Worth $1.3 Million
2006 Income $991,000


http://zacjohnson.com/presidential-candidates-net-worth/
 

Mrs.Greg

Well-known member
Texan said:
In retrospect, I sure hope nobody considers me a racist for posting an article about Obama. It seems that we have a few posters here that think any criticism of him is only because of his color. He's a sorry socialist sackashit hypocrite - no matter what color he is.
Of course nobody considers you a racist,you voted for that sorry socialist sackashit hypocrite Al Sharpton :dunce: :pretty:
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
Mrs.Greg said:
Texan said:
In retrospect, I sure hope nobody considers me a racist for posting an article about Obama. It seems that we have a few posters here that think any criticism of him is only because of his color. He's a sorry socialist sackashit hypocrite - no matter what color he is.
Of course nobody considers you a racist,you voted for that sorry socialist sackashit hypocrite Al Sharpton :dunce: :pretty:

Crap you beat me to that one! :mad: :lol:

I will add that he also voted for the wife of the first black President of the U.S. (Hillary Clinton) :lol:

There is no way Texan is a racist, if anyone calls him a name it would be a socialist sackashit hypocrite since he votes for them so many times. :wink: :lol:
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
Thing about Obama is that I felt early on he did a good job keeping Race out of his campaign. He truly looked like he was staying above such things unlike say Jackson and Sharpton when they ran.

And maybe he got dragged into all of the race issue. But when faced with it he did not rise above it. He did not respond like Presidential figure. He responded like a black man, He let race play a part in how he dealt with Wright. Like Kolan said it is hard for a black person to separate or turn on the black church.

Obama pandered to his Race and in doing so made racist remarks against white people when calling his grandmother a TYPICAL white person. No white Presidential candidate could EVER get away with saying a typical black person, Not once ever. And he should be held to the same standard! He should be and will be toast because us typical white voters are many more than them Black Wright sympathizer voters.

PS.
(hope I summarized Kolan correctly if not I am sure I will hear about it) :lol:
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
A-minus.....I still don't think I got my point across like I wanted. So here goes another ' translation'.

You & " your buddies" here on Ranchers are Republicans...so let's call it the Church of the Republicans for right now.

The preacher of this church is your leader....your's happens to be Dubya Bush at the moment.


He's an idiot and has done MANY stupid & deadly things, but he's soon to retire ( as Rev Wright has) and move on.

But regardless of the faults of Bush, you've remained a loyal Republican...you didn't get up one day and leave the party. You've held to the fold of the Rep party as a whole.

There in lies the situation with Obama right now. Maybe that makes a better point.

If anyone makes race the ONLY factor they consider in this Presidential race....then they have the brain case of a pizz ant then cause it's bigger than color issues for us all....WAY bigger!!
 

Mrs.Greg

Well-known member
Whewww,Honeychil'I'm SO happy your back from basking in the Sun looking at pool boy types. Its a VERY hard job keeping those boys in line,you can have that job back....Oh and about Egypt,NOOOOOOOOO,unless you take me along :wink:
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
The truth is that your pastor is a leader in your life. Unlike the military, your get to choose this leader and you don't choose leaders you don't agree with - pretty simple.

Also, if you think Rev. Wright just started his whacky sermons as a sort of pre-retirement parting shot, Obama has some cheap real estate in Chicago to sell you.....
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
A-minus.....I still don't think I got my point across like I wanted. So here goes another ' translation'.

You & " your buddies" here on Ranchers are Republicans...so let's call it the Church of the Republicans for right now.

The preacher of this church is your leader....your's happens to be Dubya Bush at the moment.


He's an idiot and has done MANY stupid & deadly things, but he's soon to retire ( as Rev Wright has) and move on.

But regardless of the faults of Bush, you've remained a loyal Republican...you didn't get up one day and leave the party. You've held to the fold of the Rep party as a whole.

There in lies the situation with Obama right now. Maybe that makes a better point.

If anyone makes race the ONLY factor they consider in this Presidential race....then they have the brain case of a pizz ant then cause it's bigger than color issues for us all....WAY bigger!!

That is a little different from Religion. People do not necessarily leave the Republican party because of one bad President. In Politics you can make a change with the next one in 4 years. Also you have local and state politics in play. Even though the president is the highest achievement he is not necessarily the leader of the party.

A preacher is the leader of the congregation, and when someone like Wright says what he says you have two options either approach elders or board to have him removed or you move to another church because in 4 years you do not get to elect a new pastor.

Obama had three choices, campaign within church to have an idiot like Wright removed, leave the church, or be guilty by association for staying.
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
If anyone makes race the ONLY factor they consider in this Presidential race....then they have the brain case of a pizz ant then cause it's bigger than color issues for us all....WAY bigger!!

I do agree here, race is the farthest reason on why Obama should not be considered as president!

But I do think Wright has leveled the playing field on the race issue, for every vote Obama would have gotten because he is black, wright has cost him a vote or more because of all his crap.
 

Texan

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
The truth is that your pastor is a leader in your life. Unlike the military, your get to choose this leader and you don't choose leaders you don't agree with - pretty simple.

Also, if you think Rev. Wright just started his whacky sermons as a sort of pre-retirement parting shot, Obama has some cheap real estate in Chicago to sell you.....
You're exactly right about that, Sandhusker. It's not just Preacher Wright, either - the new one that preached Sunday is a goofy SOB, too. He kept making remarks about "the lynching" that no white person could have made without it being considered hate speech.

It wasn't just Preacher Wright - there is a problem with that entire church. That should be pretty clear to anyone who has seen the tapes. The church is full of black separatists and black supremacists. Maybe not all of them, but there are sure plenty of them.

If Obama doesn't want to be considered one of those separatists - if he is really interested in doing something about race relations for the entire country and not just his own race - it's time for him to leave that church and condemn that type of 'religious' practice.

I'm sure he would be quick to condemn that type of behavior at a white church. Will he have the balls to do it with his own?
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
It's too late. He's already shown what he's made of. I don't want a guy that acts because it is the popular or politically correct thing to do, I want a guy that acts because it's the right thing to do. The right thing to do was go someplace else - 20 years ago.
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
I know if I was in a church and the pastor started saying things about black Americans I would leave and never come back. I also think most white Americans would do so. Only extremist like KKK members or skin heads would tolerate such things. And only black extremist would tolerate such things from Rev Wright.
 

Steve

Well-known member
Aplusmtn
And only black extremist would tolerate such things from Rev Wright.

after hearing the news for the last few weeks.. it sounds as if more (not white) people feel that Wright was not the exception in the larger churches..or the cities.. and while a few are publicly denouncing him... even his church has stood up and defended him and denounced whites..

I think the thoughts wright spoke about are more accepted then most could comprehend..

the last riots shows how ugly any crowd can get... and (not whites) have had a history of rioting for almost any reason..

As we get closer to the democratic convention, we will hear talk of a Million man march to force their will on the party.. and you can expect every racist black leader to be calling for it.. and will threaten to turn into a riot.. if they don't..

Can you see Hillary getting her crowd of old ladies to riot?
 
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