Biggest turnoff

[boston bean]

The biggest turn off regarding that whole speech is Obama's willingness to cast his own grandmother who raised him and gave him every opportunity she could, as a bigot. Sure what she said was bigoted and I am sure harmful to him. Even though he said he couldn't disown her for it, he just said it made him cringe. With no context of the woman and the times she lived through, but afforded every context of justification for Jeremiah Wright.

It just made me sick and gave me great insight into how I believe he feels about white people.

[rodeodance]

1. they just played clips on abc evening news. It was unbelievable.

[maddiejoan]

2. How does he feel about Whites?

I imagine more or less the way he feels about Gays.

He preaches Unity --but always seems to cast them as "other".

[boston bean]

3. true maddie.

[DemCam]

4. He needs Whites desperately.

Whites are the key for him.....and oddly white support is key for the AA support as well.
How he actually feels about whites will never be revealed.

In fact, Wright gave Whites a glimpse
behind the curtain but the curtain has been drawn again by the supposed confessional speech.
All of us are relieved. Now we can go back to our comfortable routine. Obamites get to declare brilliance and go back to bashing Hillary as a liar and thief. The media is so relieved that they
can swoon again and get out of the hot seat and actually deal with something that has some
substance.

I suppose one could call me a cynic since I have no faith in THE ONE. In fact, it causes great fear
because it requires blindness and I like to see where I'm going and with whom.

[zabet]

5. Read this article...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120579535818243439.html

The novelty of Barack Obama is more his cross-racial appeal than his talent. Jesse Jackson displayed considerable political talent in his presidential runs back in the 1980s. But there was a distinct limit to his white support. Mr. Obama's broad appeal to whites makes him the first plausible black presidential candidate in American history. And it was Mr. Obama's genius to understand this. Though he likes to claim that his race was a liability to be overcome, he also surely knew that his race could give him just the edge he needed -- an edge that would never be available to a white, not even a white woman.

How to turn one's blackness to advantage?

The answer is that one "bargains." Bargaining is a mask that blacks can wear in the American mainstream, one that enables them to put whites at their ease. This mask diffuses the anxiety that goes along with being white in a multiracial society. Bargainers make the subliminal promise to whites not to shame them with America's history of racism, on the condition that they will not hold the bargainer's race against him. And whites love this bargain -- and feel affection for the bargainer -- because it gives them racial innocence in a society where whites live under constant threat of being stigmatized as racist. So the bargainer presents himself as an opportunity for whites to experience racial innocence.

This is how Mr. Obama has turned his blackness into his great political advantage, and also into a kind of personal charisma. Bargainers are conduits of white innocence, and they are as popular as the need for white innocence is strong. Mr. Obama's extraordinary dash to the forefront of American politics is less a measure of the man than of the hunger in white America for racial innocence.
_________________
More at link
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Not all think Obama's speech was that great
or that it quelled the Wright backlash.

[Tellurian]

7. Obama's speech was an in-depth look at a man with a self-serving agenda

When he mentioned he couldn't renounce Wright the man, I felt he revealed himself for the TRUE Racist he and his wife are. He is not a man concerned about our country, he's a man determined to advance AAs agenda through the seat of power, the presidency.

My feelings are if Obama cannot rise above his personal idiosyncrasies and agendas of Wright and his relatives and realize his personal beliefs are a conflict of interest with governing a country comprised of mixed ethnicities; then he should withdraw from the race and find other avenues where he can accomplish his goals rather than use the office of the presidency for that which it was never intended.

[DURHAM D]

13. I agree that he is racist but I am not sure about the AA agenda.

I think he just wants to be President to be the President. He wants the crown but I am not certain that he has an agenda - good or bad.

I have felt from day one that he has Mommie and Daddy issues - anger issues. I think the Grandmother under the bus illustrates deep resentment about his dysfunctional family. He has always reminded me of George Bush - arrogant and angry with a chip on his shoulder. The "I didn't get enough love as a child" peevish and and petulant attitude.

[Tellurian]

15. In my own naivete, I took him at face value in Feb of 07'

and continued to just listen to his speeches. The turning point for me was when he made his first speech to the Auto Workers in Detroit. Of course, he made a strategic blunder during that speech, misstating fuel economy statistic, mixing things up with Union Labor Rights. Anyway, he came off as not knowing what he's talking about. That was my turn off and a firmer commitment to Sen Clinton. That was until this racism thing started to surface after the SC Primary.. There were accusations of racist comments made by Bill Clinton which we know to be spiked by the Obama Campaign. David Axelrod played a cover up for them saying Clinton's remark was racist, which I knew to be a LIE.. This point in time, instigated by the Obama Camp was the beginning of the full onslaught of accusing the Clintons of being racist.

I think their efforts were in vain and no one really believed it to be true. Obama continued.

Little things leaking out, like his wife's thesis "The Racial Divide" denoting deep seated resentment of whites (which I read a summary of)..

I posted this just the other night as a repost from an earlier time. Combine all we now know as Obama's authentic beliefs and his now public positions of his own agenda.

There is more of a problem brewing than just a politician's ignorance of facts, more than a heated back and forth between campaigns flinging accusations of racism.

Now that the Wright debacle has brought Obama's positions full circle a clear picture of where and what Obama's agenda is begins to emerge and what his priorities are should he gain the presidency.

Here is the link of something I posted the other night. Add it to what I've already written for my conclusion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=334x8100#8128

[libbygurl]

14. Shelby Steele appeared on Bill Moyers' PBS show about a month ago and addressed...

...the group that he calls 'bargainers' among blacks, as he describes here. People who don't want to upset whites, make them feel free of guilt - like Oprah Winfrey and BO. It's a complex issue, but BO knew exactly how to play the race card to seem innocent to whites while playing up his black ethnicity as well to grab the black vote.

Speech had many good things that needed to be said, but I doubt it'll completely erase the image of the fire-and-brimstone rage of his mentor. He even dared to compare G Ferraro with J Wright in their respective comments. Of course, he addressed only the race issue, but what about the rest of Wright's inflammatory rhetoric? The vulgar assaults on the Clintons?

He did tell one truth, though, that perfectly described his own campaign:

'At times, that {black} anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.'

In my view, Ferraro was exactly right in saying that were it not for BO's blackness, he wouldn't be a viable candidate. His meagre record of accomplishments is that of a mediocre candidate, but no one in the MSM wants to say this for fear of being called racist!

[zabet]

17. I promise you...

if I posted this article in GDP,
I would be called a racist in at
least forty-eleven different ways.

Obama has exploited his race in this
campaign and regardless of what he said
in his speech and regardless of what he
says from this point on, the seed of
doubt has been planted. Everything he
says will be viewed with a skeptical eye
by many, especially if race is an issue.

[libbygurl]

18. Well, interesting results in that CBS online poll someone else posted here tonight -

- which showed a clear majority - about 60%, last time I checked - saying the Wright issue wasn't going to go away despite BO's speech today. Odd, considering how the O peeps always manage to skew those online polls their way!

Those hate-filled Wright sermons are not easily dismissed, and FOX and the right-wing are going to keep hammering away at this. (Not MSNBC and their ilk, though, who think it one of the greatest speeches of history!)

[LadyVT]

6. Yes, Lou Dobbs mentioned that on CNN tonight.

[Andromeda]

11. I saw that too.

[durrrty libby]

8. The speech was a bunch of mumbo jumbo. People were pissed

about Wright saying "God Damn America" and other hate America stuff but BO

made the speech all about race. He missed the boat by a mile

[calico1]

9. That's something isn't it?

He will not renounce the his racist minister but he will throw his own grandma under the bus.

[DemBones DemBones]

10. he denounced his grandmother as a bigot???

tell me what he said, i'm not listening to his lies firsthand!

never mind, i found the wsj article. . .

how ungrateful can you get?

his african father bailed on him and his mom but he gets a pass while the white grandma who cared for him gets smeared -- who's the bigot here?

[Andromeda]

12. I had the same reaction,

when I heard him say it. That son-of-a-turd @*&^!@#$!!!

[polmaven]

16. Well sure, because

his grandmother being afraid of "black men" on the street, and who used inappropriate words occasionally, in front of her family is roughly the same as a highly educated ordained minister preaching hate before a mega church of thousands.

[bellasgrams]

19. People in the age group of his grandmother, were brought up

thinking that way. I remember taking my 93yr old aunt out for dinner she was legally blind and she made some comments that really embarrassed me. I loved her so much and miss her but I didn't hear BO say anything about loving his grandmother only that he knows she loves him.

[jillan]

21. You're right - he never did say he loved her.

[jillan]

20. What got me was how for the first time he brought up his white mother.

All this time I have been asking why he never talks about her.

He finally did, because politically it was the correct time to do so.

[judaspriestess]

22. the biggest turn off to me

He considers himself a black man and thats fine and dandy but he needs to come back to the real world and accept the fact that he is also white and not shun it. If it wasn't for his white mother he wouldn't even be here.

Why is he so ashamed? And throwing his poor grandma under the bus is just friggin awful. He's an asshole for doing that.

[Hatchling]

23. I had two different reactions to that.

First, my grandmother and my father were both racist. But I didn't "cringe" when I heard them say those things, I railed back at them. I stood up to them and told them they were wrong. I basically got disowned by them, for my views. Why didn't Obama stand up to his grandmother and his pastor, explain their errors, and put himself on the line? I have quit churches and groups, where I enjoyed the people in the community but could not stand by the message being promoted. Not buying it.

My second reaction is this: Obama is subtly letting everyone know that older white women are racists. That means Hillary's base. Very clever.

[judaspriestess]

25. good point!! and all goes back to

the meta-message. What he was really saying is older white women are racist.

just like his meta-message has been about hate and division if you really listen to what he is saying. He just got busted because of wright.

[bluemom]

24. Echoes from the Past-armchair psychoanalysis

When I look at Obama's story- I see him as a product of a not-unknown scenario that played out in that day and age. A white woman repudiates her white middle class upbringing- she leaves home, marries a black man,produces a child-to produce shock value, to be a revolutionary. At that time it was a STATEMENT, much less accepted than today.

So then white mother and biracial son are abandoned, white grandparents step in to help,mother does not return to average American lifestyle,son, well you know what he does.

Part of Obama's dislike against "Boomer issues" is IMO being a small child at the whim of his mother's revolutionary leanings and the instability that must have been there.
Probably alot of kids from the communes and other alternative situations have similar issues.

Part of Obama's repudiation of his white side might be the often irrational attachment kids have to the ABSENT PARENT- even better if he is a black man with his revolutionary cachet. Obama has been reported to have been surprised with the info his real father was a drunk and a womanizer.

Add in to this the prejudice against a biracial kid in America, sparking the repudiation of his white side, because really he can't pass as white.
Then add in a white grandmother who may have made racist comments-but she loved him and cared for him.

Wow, what a mess..........

[vireo]

26. Yes, he appears to be carrying a lot of psychological baggage

And what we don't need is another four years of psychodrama posing as political leadership.

[SeaLyons]

27. I agree...

I felt very sorry for his grandmother, whom I believe is still living.