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Black folk are used to hard times. So, having another Republican will be more water off our backs.
But,
I.WILL.NEVER.VOTE.FOR.HER.
I won't vote for her under any circumstances. If I have to throw up in the voting booth and vote for Romney I will. He once supported universal health care. And if you're going to have a politician that thinks racist code is OK, you might as well have the real thing, a Republican like Romney.
I could see Hillary losing in a landslide if she gets the nomination. It doesn't help that Bill just said the first thing she'd do is have Bush the First work on restoring our standing in the world. Yeah, that's going to make the anti-war crowd vote for you. At this point, the honorable thing would be for her to drop out after she loses Iowa. The question is: does she have the courage to walk away from power in the name of the republic? To this point, it appears that the answer is no.
From Marc Ambinder:
Any time people of color actually speak truth to power those in power will deploy the politics of personal destruction. They were okay with Obama as long he was just a flirtation of the media, but once he became possible at the JJ dinner simply based on his vision of America; and then Oprah joined him and they brought the people and things looked within reach-nothing was sacred. Bill Clinton practically imploded on Charlie Rose, Bob Kerry, Sheehan.
And, from DailyKos:
bell hooks, in one of her many brilliant writings, said "Beware the liberal walking beside you." I understood the meaning of the words clearly enough when I studied hooks a decade ago, but I was living in Canada then, and didn't understand the raw guts of the thing.
Now I do.
The academic term for what Hillary, Kerrey et al (including the media) are doing is reinscription - the reinscribing of racial stereotypes. That's what the "just saying what other people are going to say!" thing is called. Think of it as drumming racism into our heads so it stays there. Here's another one - "I'm just describing reality, the way things really are." Bob Kerrey's "I meant it in a good way" comment is classic. It's like "Jews are good with money." (Kerrey actually lied tonight, by the way, in saying that Obama attended a secular madrassa. There is no such thing, as he well knows. But he wanted the word madrassa in there.)
They're trying to make us fear Obama on a subconscious level, so we hesitate, so we "feel" that there is something that just doesn’t "feel" right....
And they're trying to make Democrats fear the big, bad xenophobic Republicans.
But Conservatives have no monopoly on xenophobia.
hooks warned against liberals for good reason. There is power in feeling oneself to be "one of the good guys." We like that. We like to think that those other guys are racist, but we're not. We’re the heroes! We like black people! We want black people to get ahead!
Alas, we don't want them to get ahead of us. Subconsciously, we "feel" that Obama should know his place. We'll march beside, him but heaven forbid he leads! We’re being nice to him, he should respect that and know his place. These are feelings, not thoughts.
It's all about how many degrees of difference there are between us and the "other" that we perceive. White males still rule this country, much more than we know. It's all about the mind. White females are one step removed from the white male subject, and Hillary has her own difficulties on that score. But black men are further away, because race is even more different than gender, and blackness creates even more fear in white men than femaleness.
It's all about power and fear. We fear what is different, and we can’t grant power to that which we fear. The Clintons, more ruthless than Karl Rove in his own wet dreams, are capitalizing on that fear.
Sometimes, you read posts to get nuggets like this.
This African-American got the gist of the Bob Kerrey reverse version of Paul Revere's "The Niggers Are Coming!" spew.
I've worked in Civil Rights and EEO for 20 years, and whenever someone prefaces their remarks with "I have respect for" or, "I'm not a racist, but..." 99.99% of the time whatever's coming out of their mouths after that is going to be nothing but bigotry. Book it.
Like you, I had mad respect for the Clintons, especially Bill, most recently when he went on Fox News last year and bitch-slapped Chris Wallace for trying to set him up.
But what you're seeing now is the same reaction when Black Rappers gave Justin Timberlake an Honorary Negro Card - in like Flint when things go well, and bail like Shell when one of the brethren or sisteren get into trouble (Janet's wardrobe malfunction, remember?).
When threatened with banning from the Grammy's Timberlake redeemed his White Boy card and tossed Janet under the bus. Janet told the grammys to kiss her arse that year, and I was proud of old girl for that.
If you thought The Borg Queen would be above getting down in slime to get the White House, I've a couple of bridges here in DC to sell you. What she's thinking is that she can have her own version of Karl Rove pull a move like he did against John McCain back in 2000 - then ask his forgiveness and all is well in the party.
She forgets that Black people do not forget when we HAVE BEEN DOGGED. I trust Obama to be enough brotha to tell her to bug off if she succeeds in getting the nomination; like Rikyrah and you have both said - she will need Black people at the polls to win.
I'm remembering when Bill dissed Jesse for VP and went with Al Gore. Blacks were pissed at the Big Dog, until he persuaded Jesse to come tell Black people to get behind him instead of Bush, SR. I'm like Rikyrah - screw scaring me with another threat of GOP getting the White House - at this point, it wouldn't make much difference, considering how Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi continue to give away the store.
If Chris Dodd gets to force Reid out as Majority Leader, I'd consider the threat of another ReThug in the Oval Office. But, for now, the Borg Queen has lost me permanently, with this shyt.
Spare me your fake outrage. Spare me bogus attacks on Bob Kerry.
Obama has talked up his heritage and his time overseas. He says it is a strength that qualifies him to be President. Kerry COMPLIMENTS him here, not slanders him.
In fact Kerry spoke on the record about a number of issues back in October, long before he endorsed Clinton, and said basically the same thing back then (to the 'Economist'), that he thinks Obama's background is a positive thing.
More from Ben Smith at 'The Politico':
"I wouldn't jump to conclusions about the motives of the former Nebraska Senator, who isn't exactly known for being devious -- or for carrying the Clintons' water. Indeed, an eagle-eyed reader points out, he said the exact same thing to the Economist on October 30, so if this is some sort of plot, it's quite a slow roll-out.
*(An Arabic-speaking colleague says you can have a secular madrassa, which is neither here nor there but seemed worth correcting.)"
The Economist link:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracy inamerica/2007/10/bob_kerrey_discusses_l eadershi.cfm
Obama and his supporters are trying to twist this around and make it appear as some sort of dirty trick. That isn't very different. It is a longstanding Republican tactic. Republicans have twisted Al Gore's words, John Kerry's, Dick Durbin's and now Obama's campaign is twisting Bob Kerry's.
That is lower than low and Bob Kerry deserves better.
Obama doesn't talk about attending a madrassa. And, there was no need for Kerrey to use that word; it is not a word used in English to describe a school. If he didn't intend it to speak to prejudices, he is really naive.
How many supporters of candidate X spend so much time complimenting candidate Y?
The blinders are off. That was disgusting what Bill Clinton did on Charlie Rose, and this just left a very bad taste in my mouth even if Bob Kerrey has been saying it for months. Digging up a man's kindergarten and third grade papers -- these people will stop at NOTHING to attain power, and then toss everyone under the bus after attaining it. Hillary warned us that this was going to be about winning, and not about what was best for the nation. Well, they're proving it. They'll destroy fellow Democrats as long as they think they'll remain on top. What I fear, is that it will work.
I fear that what people believe in their heads is a lot different than what they will say out in the open, or to a pollster.
Bill Clinton could have praised his wife and her accomplishments without dissing Obama with LIES, but he didn't do that. He revealed himself as old school Massa: as long as blacks keep to their place then everything is alright, he'd enjoy sitting down with the slaves while they eat and enjoying their entertainment and screwing their women and sitting in on their worship, but he never really respected blacks. Everyone and everything in its place. It's a damn shame when the Bushes I and II have put more blacks in prominent positions, than 'black president' Clinton.
By the way, have you all read what's going on at Daily Kos in regards to this? wow. There are a lot of mini Clintons in the party, that's all I have to say on that one.
And I am TIRED of FEAR.
Kerrey did not innoculate himself (on Oct. 30) with the pre-emptive comments. You don't endorse Hillary on Sunday and start emphasizing that Obama went to a "madrassa" on Monday without marching orders from those hypocritical bastards.
In '92, I canvassed for Bill Clinton. I started losing respect for him after the '94 congressional losses and totally lost it after the Monica Lewinsky Scandal.
Why? Marital infidelity was a personal matter that the Republicans had no business investigating. But when you're the President and you know that you are guilty, Yet, you still let your wife go on National TV and defend you. You have your administration, literally 100s-1000s of people defending you, proclaiming your innocence and you just sit back and let them make themselves liars too...that's a major, MASSIVE CHARACTER FLAW.
He is shameless. I hold him responsible for losing the Congress to the Republicans in '94 (First time in 40 years). If HRC were to win, I promise you that the Republicans would grab the Congress back in 2010.
Barack Obama = Leader
Bill Clinton = Liar
...David Brooks (a pretty Conservative Op-Ed writer for the NYTimes) has written an excellent piece for all of the "EXPERIENCE-Needed" peeps on this blog...
Check it out:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/opinion/18brooks.html
Can we have an argument based on the issues and where a candidate stands, rather than one that's based on assumptions and interpretations?
And as bad as it sounds, it's an issue that Hillary may well be indirectly or benignly involved.
Remember boys and girls, this is the same man who took time out from the campaign to put a black brain damaged inmate to death to show that he was "tough on crime."
Enough of "Plantation Politics." The Clintons don't owe us anything. They just want your vote.
Key word being "assumed," right?
I don't care who's involved, and what their end goal is. What I care about is how the words of others can be twisted to prove whatever point that needs to be made. Personally, I think equating "underperforming black youth" with "niggers" is a lot extreme, and has a hint of elitism to it (i.e., making the assumption that those who "underperform" are automatically "niggers").
For all that, I have a high regard for Obama...does that make me racist?
Personally, I don't disagree that Obama's having spent time around Muslims (now that the background has been cleared up a bit) is a good thing. He's got some insight into their thought process, so may or may not be useful. I have no problem, however, with equating Obama's election to failure in the War on Terror.
That's fair; "niggers" may be a bit too strong. At the same time, it's proper to conclude that there's something implicit in Kerrey's statements. And those implications are age-old and very real.
Ask yourself why White-dominated media, pundits, etc. aren't opining about and analyzing John Edwards' or Hillary Clinton's "whiteness". Yet they can't help reminding the country that Barack is "African American"--even when they purport to be doing so in a good way.
It's these constant reminders of "Blackness" that has heightened my (and many others') concerns.
That's why Jill's use of the word here is so appropriate: Kerrey is attempting to manipulate you into fearing something that doesn't really exist.
And it'll work, because it's worked before.
Given all the love our people have for the "first black President", why it that Bush appointed more blacks to senior position in his administration?
The strategy Billary is using againt Obama is backfiring. People I know who were on the fence are now going to vote against her. Please.
I know conventional wisdom says these tactics will backfire, but I can't help but think it's dirty but quite effective in two of the 'whitest' states in the country whose citizens' "familiarity" with Black folks is limited media images of exagerrated Black male criminality. Polls released today show her bouncing back. What accounts for this sudden change? The White "liberal" media will attribute it to concerns of "electability" or some other bull shit like she's proving her "likeability". These 'pat themselves on the back' White liberals will never broach the subject of racism within the Democratic party. As far as they are concerned, it's non-existant. Hell, Pat Buchanan was allowed to say twice in the last week on MSNBC that the allegations of drug dealing must be true; otherwise, Shaheen would not have brought them up, and not one of the other ALL WHITE panelists objected. Chris Matthews was unsuccessful at getting anyone on his ALL WHITE panel to say it was dirty. Chris Cillizza of WaPo shrugged it off as politics as usual. Forgive me if I thought the era of the Dixicrats was over and that such racist attacks were no longer politics as usual.
You know the old joke, "What do you call a Black man with a PhD? A Nigger." In this case, "What do you call a Black Harvard Law grad, US Senator and devoted husband and father? a drug dealing muslim."
Unfortunately, the joke is on all of us.
Tavis Smiley said last week that if Huckabee is the nominee, Democrats are in for a rude awakening. He reminded/informed that Huckabee consistantly got half of the Black vote in AR. You yourself said that you found him inexplicably appealing after the first Republican debate. And you were not alone. I can not tell you the number of Black folks who said the same thing.
What that whole Donnie McClurkin dust up proved is how out-of-touch White "liberals" are with Black folks. They don't understand the religious and socially conservative nature of Black folks, but they soon might find out if Huckabee is the nominee. He could peel off enough Black Christian votes in FL and OH to win. If he does become the nominee, I bet they'll have second thoughts on having "gay bashing" gospel singers under the Democratic tent. :-)
One reason you're right, is because we won't see such tactics in the South Carolina primary. But unfortunately, in Iowa and New Hampshire it's still quite believeable that NO Black person can be that good. Even Obama.
Tavis Smiley said last week that if Huckabee is the nominee, Democrats are in for a rude awakening. He reminded/informed that Huckabee consistantly got half of the Black vote in AR. You yourself said that you found him inexplicably appealing after the first Republican debate. And you were not alone. I can not tell you the number of Black folks who said the same thing.
NMP,
Get.out.of.my.head.
I think that too many 'Progressives' just easily dismiss Huckabee. Truth is, and the MSM GOP doesn't want to admit it, but...
He's their best chance of keeping the White House.
Period.
I saw the latest polls in OHIO and PENNSYLVANIA - Hillary wins NEITHER
TODAY.
NEITHER.
I keep on going back to this...
George Bush ' won' in 2004 because of Ohio.
He 'won' Ohio because he got 16% of the Black vote.
The ONLY GOP candidate that could go back into those churchs and get that 16% is HUCKABEE.
And, don't let Huckabee get truly smart, and understand that the GOP is probably going to write off the Hispanic Vote this time.
Follow me, NMP.
SHE wins the nomination.
SHE does NOT pick Barack as her running mate.
Because it is HER, the GOP is unified...but, being unified is not enough...they need an 'ace' (pun intended) in the hole.
Take a selection from the shallow Black GOP Bench as VP choice. Whatever their 'natural inclinations', they despise HER, so it won't keep them home, and they will say to themselves that they'll get Huckabee to throw the Black VP over in four years.
I truly shudder to think about it.
But in Iowa, that just isn't going to fly. People go to vote with 100 of their neighbors. If they said they were for Obama in the parking lot, but vote for Clinton inside, then the entire town will know they flip flopped and it'd be tantamount to going to the City Council meeting and outing yourself on an embarrassing personal prejudice that you have. In short, it isn't going to happen in a caucus. It's an open, not a secret, ballot that is done by a show of hands.
Once Obama wins one state, the freight train will take off. It'll prove that he can win, get white votes, etc. It'll erase doubts about him...It's why the Clintons are fighting so hard at the moment.
Love the logic here...but if thru sum freak-of-nature, she gets the nom, she's goin with Wesley Clark for VP. More power to them...IF THEY GET IT, which I DO NOT think they will.
If she offered VP to *O*, i sincerely hope that he would decline it...he need only look at John Edwards and appreciate that Democrats don't like "also-rans."
Barack would be damaged goods by tying his boat to the Clintons...I'd rather that he maintain his chaste, political purity than be sullied by Bill Clinton's semen-stained blue dresses...like Al Gore was sullied...thus (supposedly) forcing Gore to choose Joe Lieberman as his running mate to renounce Clinton's actions.
...speaking of Lieberman...I no longer know who is the greater political punk: Joe Lieberman or Larry Craig???
Maybe I'm old-school, but loyalty still matters to me.
...I have to concur with the other posts/comments on Huckabee...I genuinely like that dude.
Tho we may disagree on Evolution and a woman's-right-to-choose, i'd feel infinitely more comfortable with someone like Huckabee in the White House...compared to Bush...or...another Clinton.
The Clinton administration happened, people. It was not your immagination. There really was a continuous string of scandals, wronged women, corrupt officials, bribery, associates on trial, people lying to investigators, people fleeing the country, and finally a disgusting list of pardons of low level crooks (a bunch of Arkansas used car dealers who were convicted of resetting odometers) and rich campaign contributors.
Nothing Hillary could and will do to win power should be a surprise.
I hope Obama's skin is flame-proof as well as black because that whole evil machine is going to be pointed at him soon. The lies, the private eyes, the synophants using code words. All of it is going to be used to try to bring him down.
I consider myself a conservative but see little reason to vote for another Republican after the disgusting behaviour of Bush and the Republican Congress on so many issues.
I pray for Obama every night because he looks like the only real hope to achieve some level of basic goodness and sanity in our politics.
If the Dems are foolish enough to nominate Hillary I will certainly vote for whoever the R's nominate. Evil can not be allowed to win, and Hillary is evil.
Look for Barack to suddenly be a former drug-dealin' / closet Moozlum / Disciple gangsta very soon. Cuz since that's all they've got, they're damn well going to use it.
I sent Ben Smith of the Politico an email yesterday criticizing the lack of coverage and critical commentary from White journalists on the recent racist and bigoted attacks on Senator Obama by Clinton Surrogates. I mentioned that Jack and Jill and other Black blogs were frequently cited when waxing about "is he Black enough?," but on this subject it's been a virtual 'black out'. He responded to my email, and I see today he gives a shout out to Jack and Jill...
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/
Michael Steele! Michael Steele! Michael Steele!
I've been saying for months that Michael Steele will get the VP slot for whomever is the Republican nominee.
Democrats can sleep on Huckabee all they want, but they are about to get a hell of a wake up call if he gets the nomination. Of course, he's not going to peel off enough Black votes to have any significant impact in traditional "blue" states, but he can peel off enough Jesus LOVIN' Black folks in OH and FL to win soundly. They are soon going to find out Bill Clinton does not have a lock-hold on charming Black folks. What the hell is Hillary going to do...stay at home and let Bill be the surrogate nominee?
The elitist and "progressive" arm of the Democratic Party still doesn't seem to understand the importance of likeability. Hillary Clinton can do as many Madonna like "reinvention" tours she likes, but she's NEVER going to be liked outside of the Democratic Party. Huckabee and Obama (and Edwards too to a certain degree) are liked by friend and foe alike.
You have to read: http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=314e8...>
My comments:
1. What about that Black/Brown alliance?
Uh huh.
2. They aren't citizens. And don't vote.
But, I understand what you mean.
3. You're right about Steele, but personally, I'd want JC Watts, if only for him to be able to just have the air of ' kiss my Black ass' to those who dogged him in the House and did him wrong.
Plus, I just like JC better.
But better either of them than Mr. Voter Suppression from Ohio.
Co-sign. The House ReThugs treated JC like he had a tail. I wouldn't blame him if he wanted nothing to do with any of 'em. That said, I'd love to see him on a Huckabee ticket.
Wouldn't all those enlightened GOP "big tent'ers" just love that.
NMP,
the thing is, Huckabee doesn't have to win HUGE swaths of Black voters. Only swaths of voters in certain states.
If Hillary is the nominee..
and, she doesn't choose Barack..
And, The Huckster finds his way to the top....
And, he chooses someone solid like Watts or Steele.....
There will be lot of ' Uppity Negroes', whose seething process began with the Sheehan ' Was he a drug dealer?' bullshit. That's a long ass time to be nursing the simmering fury.
And, the truth of the matter is..Not only is The Huckster likeable...but, all his people have to do is get out the word:
As a Southern Republican, he won nearly FIFTY PERCENT of the Black vote
Now, Black folk won't really even need to know what his policy positions are. They really won't care.
Nearly FIFTY PERCENT?
We'll go ' hmmmmmmm', and give him another look. Plus, add in his likeability factor, and he seems like he doesn't hate us...after the disrespecting and Southern Strategizing of The Borg Queen, and Black folk will be ' well, why NOT Huckabee?'
Romney is attacking Huckabee on immigration and commuting 1,038 sentences while governor of AR.
Essentially, Romney is attacking Huckabee for being "merciful," for being a "True Christian" in contrast to everyone else in the Republican field.
I don't how many of you read the article by Lawrence O'Donnell entitled "Romney & Me" on HuffPo...apparently Mormons do believe that Jesus Christ and Satan are brothers. Romney has not denied it.