Shelby Steele - Ferarro was right.

[iman]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120579535818243439.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

Fascinating piece. (Yes I know, I spelled Ferraro wrong.)

Excerpts:

And it is undeniable that something extremely powerful in the body politic, a force quite apart from the man himself, has pulled Obama forward. This force is about race and nothing else.
__________________


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.
_____________________

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.

______________________________


And yet, in the end, Barack Obama's candidacy is not qualitatively different from Al Sharpton's or Jesse Jackson's. Like these more irascible of his forbearers, Mr. Obama's run at the presidency is based more on the manipulation of white guilt than on substance.

______________________

But now the floodlight of a presidential campaign has trained on this usually hidden corner of contemporary black life: a mindless indulgence in a rhetorical anti-Americanism as a way of bonding and of asserting one's blackness. Yet Jeremiah Wright, splashed across America's television screens, has shown us that there is no real difference between rhetorical hatred and real hatred.
No matter his ultimate political fate, there is already enough pathos in Barack Obama to make him a cautionary tale. His public persona thrives on a manipulation of whites (bargaining), and his private sense of racial identity demands both self-betrayal and duplicity. His is the story of a man who flew so high, yet neglected to become himself.

 

[naked gent]

Mr. Obama's extraordinary dash to ...idacy never would have gotten off the ground.

 

[JackFTwist]

someone with a track record of hating on Obama quotes something from the Wall Street Journal by someone with a track record of dismissing Obama - we are hardly in the news category here -

we do have the false statement that white persons could not feel comfortable - not so, as Trinity while being predominately black has always had white members and has had white visitors there weekly for years being a prominent UCC congregation and every comment that I have ever seen is that they felt more welcome there than they did in their home congregations

My favorite part of the column is the let's make up bullshit part

What could he have been thinking? Of course he wasn't thinking. He was driven by insecurity, by a need to "be black" despite his biracial background.

And the author knows what is in Sen. Obama's heart and soul just how, exactly? The author knows the inner secrets of Obama's being?

Hardly. Just more make shit up as you go along. Make assumptions about Trinity UCC from a few youtube clips. Pretend that you can accurately speak of someone's innermost self - just like when Sen Frist diagnosed Terry Shaivo based on a videotape he saw on tv.

This is what passes for commentary in America? It is Entertainment Tonight psychobabble at its worst given by people with deep bias against Obama.

 

[White Eagle]

Let's see. Shelby Steele. A black conservative. Article written for the WSJ. WSJ owned by Murdock. That ought to be enough said. Just some more Rethuglican spin.
Nothing to see here.
Go on about your business.

 

[JackFTwist]

another opinion - the Independent from the UK
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinio...ouldnt-clinton-do-to-secure-power-794923.html

Johann Hari: What wouldn't Clinton do to secure power?


Thursday, 13 March 2008

Haven't we seen this movie before? Barack Obama has just proved his chasm-wide appeal again by conquering another Republican-red state – Mississippi – yet the battle for the Democratic nomination is set to stretch out on to the far horizon. As the comedian Bill Maher says, in a reference to John McCain's age, "It's a bad sign when the Democratic campaign is set to last longer than the Republican nominee." But the looming ending to this story feels flatly familiar – like a slo-mo remake of Florida in the year 2000.

It is clear the Clintons are determined to get this nomination, any way, any how. If they have to do it by falsely claiming to have won states like Florida and Michigan – where Obama's name wasn't even on the ballot, because there was an agreement by all the candidates to punish the states for holding early primaries – then they will. If they have to do it by overturning the will of the Democratic electorate by appealing to the unelected super-delegates – a group of party functionaries who seem likely to hold the balance – then they will. If they have to do it by pandering to racist sentiments – dismissing Obama as akin to the black firebrand Jesse Jackson, or by leaking images of Obama in African tribal dress – then they will do it.

[Moderator Note: Link provided above to full text of article.]

 

[iman]

I don't agree with Shelby Steele on many public policy questions, but I think his unique perspective gives him insight into American race relations.

Ad hominem attacks are hardly worth the time it takes you to post them. I can't imagine that Obama's posture as a race neutral candidate that promises to assuage American racial guilt is even arguable. How else to explain the mindless devotion of Obama people.

I also think that is readily apparent that Obama has spent much of his adult life trying to connect with his black heritage, whether for political or psychological reasons, after living a non racial middle class life. Unfortunately, that effort to identify with the black community cuts against his pretense of being a post racial candidate.

 

[JackFTwist]

I also think that is readily apparent that Obama has spent much of his adult life trying to connect with his black heritage, whether for political or psychological reasons, after living a non racial middle class life. Unfortunately, that effort to identify with the black community cuts against his pretense of being a post racial candidate.

Thank you Sigmund Freud!

That's mighty impressive, your ability to psycho analyze people you have never met!

You just discern that over the tv broadcasting waves or is it the vibe you get from the National Enquirer?

You ought to take that show on the road!

Strangers in the audience could stand up and you could psycho analyze them! I bet at $20 a ticket you could make a lot of money! What a show that would be!

 

[White Eagle]

I think Barack handled the race question very well in his speech this am.

I am very impressed with your ability to get right in there and figure out how Obama spent much of his adult life. It's just like you were there all along. I guess you have spent a lot of time with the black community to be able to identify with all of this.

 

[White Eagle]

Thanks Jack for that article of Hari's. I found it a great read.
and I find myself on the same page with you although you express yourself much better than I.

 

[MystikWizard]

Let's see. Shelby Steele. A black conservative. Article written for the WSJ. WSJ owned by Murdock. That ought to be enough said. Just some more Rethuglican spin.
Nothing to see here.
Go on about your business.

Neocon Media Mogul, Rupert Murdock absolutely wants Hillary in this thing, and that is no secret. But the Dem Feminists, despite them blasting Rupert for his Neocon Agenda, will overlook that and give her association with him yet another Free Pass.

 

[iman]

Thank you Sigmund Freud!

That's mighty impressive, your ability to psycho analyze people you have never met!

You just discern that over the tv broadcasting waves or is it the vibe you get from the National Enquirer?

You ought to take that show on the road!

Strangers in the audience could stand up and you could psycho analyze them! I bet at $20 a ticket you could make a lot of money! What a show that would be!

I certainly see no other reason for Obama to join that particular church. I do see the political advantage of joining a large church that is Afrocentric and also has a large white national base.

 

[JackFTwist]

I certainly see no other reason for Obama to join that particular church. I do see the political advantage of joining a large church that is Afrocentric and also has a large white national base.

:thewave:

truly your ability to know the inner thoughts of people you don't even know is worthy of all praise!

I don't dare proclaim what I think are the inner thoughts of people I do know but as if you were God Indeed you can tell us what are the reasons that a total stranger has done things!

 

[Kulindahr]

Ferraro was right in one respect: Obama's blackness has been an asset. It indeed gives him an edge no one else can have, before he even opens his mouth or makes policy statements, because just him walking up and stepping into the race for president and being black doing it is a statement, a statement that white supporters of Martin Luther King have been longing for, a statement that blacks in this country have yearned for. It's a statement that he put into words, without needing to, because the slogan is one that his mere presence as a candidate invokes: "Yes, we can." Just standing where he is and being black, Obama isn't bringing change, he is change; he isn't bringing hope, he is hope. Win or lose, now, Obama has, without having had to do anything except be in the running, lifted many barges and floated many boats, given strength to people who thought this would never happen, inspired people who thought all the was, was cynicism.

Of course he knew all this before he started. He's no idiot, to think the color of his skin wasn't going to be a statement all by itself. But on the other hand, neither did he have a choice: to run at all was to make that huge statement about race in America; that was inescapable. Of course he put the race card in play -- he couldn't help it! To those who have been slighted due to their skin color since their birth, every time a white person ran for president, that was putting the race card into play; it said, "Hi, but none of you are running this year... again." It's just that this time, the race card is played the other way: one of 'them' is running this year -- and that means it's not just a dream any more, not just a distant hope to comfort one's self with; no, it's real, a black-colored man is there, not in some future "maybe, hope so", but now, for real. They don't have to, any longer, vote for someone white who will bring the day a little closer, but can now vote for someone who is one of them.

So when others say, "Obama put the race card in play!", the answer is, "Well... duh. What was he supposed to do, bleach his skin?"

But is that the measure of the situation? Hardly. He did, after all, not fall from heaven, plop! there's a candidate, and since he's black we'll vote for him. He had to get this far, first, he had to reach a point where he could even make the step onto the presidential-candidacy stage. And to get that far, being black was automatically such an issue, because where he came, others have come before. They didn't just get plunked down, from nothing to national status, by some magic wish or wave of a phoenix-feathered wand -- and neither did he: he earned his way that far.

Once he took that step... yes, he rose on a wave of people's hunger to "see it happen", and to make it happen. But that would have happened anyway, whenever and whoever took the step as the first black person to credibly run for the presidency in America. It's mere bitterness and immaturity to gripe that he's riding that swell; even more, it's stupidity, because he didn't whip up that swell; it's been there all along, waiting. Barack Obama could not have not ridden it; to condemn him for the inevitable makes about as much sense as condemning your umbrella for having water on the outside right after you've come in from using it a storm -- such a complaint is a statement about the complainer, not about Senator Obama.

 

[Kulindahr]

I certainly see no other reason for Obama to join that particular church. I do see the political advantage of joining a large church that is Afrocentric and also has a large white national base.

Um, iman?
Been ignoring the facts presented on the board?
When the Obamas joined the church/congregation, it was small. They joined it because it was near them and friendly. It got bigger, and they stayed, which was proper, since there was never sufficient cause for them to change.



...unless you think that every aspect of B. Obama's life should be subservient to political considerations.

 

[iman]

...unless you think that every aspect of B. Obama's life should be subservient to political considerations.
__________________
From what we know of Obama, that may well be the case. He went to Chicago to seek a career in politics. He applied with the Washington administration, did not hear back, and went there anyway. Maybe he is religious, but it is odd that a bright guy with an LLD from Harvard would be attracted to this church. Perhaps the religious scales can tip further to one side than the Scales of Justice?

 

[gomer]

This man also agrees with Ferraro. He even linked his quote on his own website.

If he were white ... he would simply be one of nine Freshmen senators, almost certainly without a multimillion-dollar book deal and a shred of celebrity. Or would he have been elected at all?

Senator Barrack Obama 06/26/2005
http://obama.senate.gov/news/050626-when_it_comes_to_race_obama_ma/

All this fake outrage from the Obama camp over what Ferraro said. Maybe the media needs to stop fawning over this guy and ask him why it's ok for him to say basically the same thing Ferraro said and not be called out for it.

 

[JackFTwist]

Maybe he is religious, but it is odd that a bright guy with an LLD from Harvard would be attracted to this church. Perhaps the religious scales can tip further to one side than the Scales of Justice?[/QUOTE]

As far as I know, Obama has a JD from Harvard.

Why would it be odd that a Harvard grad would go to Trinity UCC?

I seldom use wikipedia as a source but it was a fast way of getting Dr Wright's credentials:

In 1959, Wright entered Virginia Union University, a historically black university, but became disenchanted and left in 1961.[3] He then joined the United States Marine Corps and later transferred to the United States Navy where he worked as a cardiopulmonary technician. Wright then enrolled at Howard University, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1968 and a Master’s degree in English in 1969. In 1975, he earned an additional Master’s degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary in 1990 where he studied under Samuel DeWitt Proctor. He also has eight honorary doctorate degrees and has taught courses at many seminaries and universities in the nation.

The man is a scholar and published author.

Oprah is a member of the same congregation.

 

[gomer]

Faulty hypotheticals mean little when you take in consideration that his father is an African. If you claim that "if he were right" a whole lot more than just changing who his father is would be necessary. These attempts at discrediting him through his race are pathetic and disgusting and every bit racist.

those are Obama's words. He is agreeing with Ferraro. Read the article and the quote.

 

[gomer]

And he was rather dismissive of the argument against her in his speech recently, but my take on this still stands---it's nothing more than a faulty hypothetical, regardless of who your source is, even from Obama. However, it's valid for one to question their own self-identity; it isn't valid for someone else to do it superficially, for something as vapid as political gain.

you called his words "pathetic and disgusting and every bit racist."
Now you say it depends on who says them. He agreed that his race helps him in his previous race and it does in this race. Joining blacks with upscale liberals is a powerful combination. It is something that Edwards, Hart, etc couldn't do successfully. Jeez.
Still, I think the Obama camp feign outrage when their candidate basically said the same thing.

 

[iman]

^The Obama campaign has used every opportunity to bring up race and use it against political opponents. That is sad, it would have been refreshing to have Obama run as the post-race, race neutral candidate that he claims, but the lethal weapon of race was just too tempting.