WaPo: Attack on Michelle Obama shows palin's ignorance of history

[spanone]

When I was 11, my father thought it was time to show my sister and me the nation's capital. I have only vague memories of that trip - the heat, the expanse of the White House's grounds, the Jefferson Memorial. I do remember we took Route 1 through Baltimore (no I-95 yet) and it was there that I saw my first sign with the word "colored" on it - a rooming house, I think. This was 1952, and the United States was an apartheid nation.

It is Sarah Palin who brings back these memories. In her new book, she reportedly takes Michelle Obama to task for her supposedly infamous remark from the 2008 campaign: "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback." Instantly, Republicans pounced. Among the first to do so was Cindy McCain, who said, "I have and always will be proud of my country." It was a cheap shot, but her husband's selection of Palin for the ticket and plenty of cheap shots from Palin ("death panels," etc.) were yet to come.

Michelle Obama quickly explained herself. She was proud of the turnout in the primaries - so many young people, etc. Evan Thomas, writing perceptively in Newsweek, thought - as I did - that she was saying something else. He dug into her senior thesis at Princeton - "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community" - to find a young woman who felt, or was made to feel, "more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before." This was not a statement of racism. This was a statement of fact.

It's appalling that Palin and too many others fail to understand that fact - indeed so many facts of American history. They don't offer the slightest hint that they can appreciate the history of the Obama family and that in Michelle's case, her ancestors were slaves - Jim Robinson of South Carolina, her paternal great-great grandfather, being one. Even after they were freed they were consigned to peonage, second-class citizens, forbidden to vote in much of the South, dissuaded from doing so in some of the North, relegated to separate schools, restaurants, churches, hotels, waiting rooms of train stations, the back of the bus, the other side of the tracks, the mortuary, the cemetery and, if whites could manage it, heaven itself.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/22/AR2010112204388_pf.html

[xultar]

1. Holy shit that is good!

[spanone]

3. she's a parrot. not a thought in her head.

[mopinko]

17. now why would you insult parrots that way?

mine has shown a couple of examples in her 10 years that showed true cognition.

[hlthe2b]

2. Good on Richard Cohen... I hope others start adding to this...

[HipChick]

4. Apparently also living in the days of the Founding Fathers were better too

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9608160

[Doctor_J]

5. It also shows her viciousness

She is mean, stupid, a liar, and a horrific parent - the perfect Repuke role model

[Jackpine Radical]

9. Precisely the values that make her a viable candidate.

She so perfectly reflects her base.

[Skittles]

6. even Laura Bush was gracious regarding Michelle's comment

Palin is just a hateful bitch

[tammywammy]

Recommended n/t

[liberalmuse]

7. Palin is an insult to all women.

My god, what a colassal embarrassment.

[DesertFlower]

8. i agree. nt

[gratuitous]

18. Now, now, let's not be quite so narrow

As a man, I'm pretty insulted by Sister Sarah and her dumbfuckery. She really cuts across gender lines.

[malaise]

10. Must Read

Rec

[DesertFlower]

11. she has nothing to say so she's

bringing up old crap from the election.

she'll do anything to keep herself in the spotlight.

[handmade34]

12. and people admiring that idiot

shows the ignorance of many within the citzenry of our country... makes me so sad and getting angry

[Canuckistanian]

13. K&R

[gateley]

14. I just came to see if this had been posted here -- WOW! What an exceptional

article! I am so impressed by this guy! A must read -- and thanks for sharing with our fellow DUers, spanone! :pals:

[spanone]

15. must read..

you're welcome gately....:hi: :thumbsup:

[Swamp Rat]

16. k&r

[madmax]

19. She is ignorant of so many things in life.

Which hurts her more, her ignorance of facts or her limited understanding of the world as a whole.

We've had a B Movie actor, a failed drunken 'bidnessman' with political connections, can a Beauty Queen be far behind. :shrug:

[Kalyke]

20. Sarah got raked over the coals, but she's probably too ignorant

to realize it.

I thought the right's meme regarding Michelle's quote was pretty stupid during the election - everyone with any sense knew what she was talking about.

But for Caribu Barbie to bring it up two years later is just hateful.

[myrna minx]

21. K&R n/t

[NoGOPZone]

22. If Sarah's so proud of her country why'd she marry a separatist? nt

[MadMaddie]

25. Uh that is a brilliant "Bumper Sticker"

Sarah needs to be knocked down off her pedastool of imaginary qualified leadership.

She is the worst kind of grifter she won't go away..

[HuckleB]

23. Recommend!!!

[me b zola]

24. K&R

[Mike Nelson]

26. Palin's sense of "history" obviously has...

...some gaps. Is it possible she's brain-damaged?