Uncle Toad
1/10/2010 11:27:00 PM
"tdny" <tdny@live.com> wrote in message
news:sfKdnSdKIOffodfWnZ2dnUVZ_tqdnZ2d@earthlink.com...
>
>
> "Uncle Toad" <uncle .t@toad.net> wrote in message
> news:hidanm$cqi$1@tornado.tornevall.net...
>
>
>>>>> Harry Reid apologises for 'light-skinned' Obama remarks
>>>>> Barack Obama and Harry Reid (file)
>>>>>
>>>>> Mr Obama said Mr Reid had apologised for his "unfortunate" comments
>>>>>
>>>>> The US Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, has apologised for private
>>>>> comments he made about Barack Obama before
>>>>> the 2008 presidential election.
>>>>>
>>>>> He is quoted in a new book as saying Mr Obama could win since he was a
>>>>> "light-skinned" African-American "with no Negro dialect",
>>>>> unless he wanted one.
>>>>>
>>>>> The Democrat said he now regretted
>>>>> "using such a poor choice of words" and apologised to any Americans
>>>>> offended.
>>>>>
>>>>> President Obama quickly accepted the apology and said "the book is
>>>>> closed".
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I think it was all because of a slow news day. Senator Reid, most
>>>> likely being schooled in more racially charged times, was most probably
>>>> trying to convey the idea (or fact) that blacks (like Obama) no longer
>>>> bore the hangover-scars from former (slavery) days as they once did -
>>>> such as speaking in Ebonics or common gutter-based slavery-derived bad
>>>> American English.
>>>>
>>>> Maybe he should have said exactly that.
>>>>
>>>> Instead, he seemed to be trying to turn a racially charged thought into
>>>> a broader political commentary. But of course he failed miserably. I
>>>> think it was all overblown, because the newspaper editors had nothing
>>>> else to make hay with, on that particular day.
>>>>
>>>> The politics of this has become way too severe and far too sensitive.
>>>>
>>>> Black "leaders" should tone it down a bit, and let it rest a while.
>>>> It's starting to become a PC comedy of errors.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Harry Reid has certainly done some pretty heavy lifting for Obama,
>>> during the Health care wars.
>>>
>>> I think he should be given a break.
>>>
>>> I always felt that Obama was very unlike the typical African American
>>> and that was one reason why so many whites voted for him.
>>>
>>> If Obama had come off like for example an Al Sharpton or a Jesse
>>> Jackson,
>>> he would have met their fate, everytime they ran for national office.
>>>
>>> Obama's background is completely alien to the African American
>>> experience.
>>>
>>
>> Good reply... I'd say you are right on all counts.
>>
>> As far as Obama's lack of Afro-American experience, yes very much the
>> case, and (but) as such he should bow-out of these little semantic brush
>> wars, which is what he seems to do, most of the time. I think he can well
>> afford to go one-step-further by telling the people involved to back off
>> a bit. This is easy for him being the president, one level removed, and a
>> presumed "target." Also, because Obama still -- nonetheless -- represents
>> the Afro-American point of view, real or just perceived, he can readily
>> diffuse such racially charged matters, when it could do some good.
>>
>> On the same or similar level, the brew ha, ha.. over Harvard's Prof.
>> Gates and that white police officer who answered a legitimate compliant
>> call late at night, Obama went a bit too far in citing the police as
>> "acting stupidly."
>>
>> It's common practice and standard operating procedure to ask for proof of
>> residency in a disputed B&E attempt or an evident act. It has happed to
>> me nearly exactly the same way, after someone broke into my home, while I
>> was away on business. I was asked for ID by the responding cop to prove
>> my claim of belonging there. I really wouldn't have it any other way, and
>> I would have worried if the cop had never asked for my ID.
>>
>> It was so non-racial to me, I can't even remember whether the cop, in my
>> case, was white or black. Gates' complaint was bogus and the request made
>> of him had nothing to do with race whatsoever, in my view.
>>
>> The responding cop in the Gates case was doing what any cop would do
>> under the circumstances (black, white, brown or other). The cop
>> eventually took it outside, into the public area, where he knew he could
>> make a legal arrest if Gates persisted in his verbal abuse to his
>> authority. He actually gave Gates the benefit of the doubt about it being
>> his Home, but the cop proceeded in a way that would insure that this man,
>> in question, was not indeed a burglar. Gates' verbal abuse of the cop got
>> him locked up, nothing else.
>>
>> In such instances Obama must and should stay out of it altogether. Obama
>> "acted stupidly" by giving a news commentary in favor of the black man
>> over an authorized (white) police authority figure. I think that's why he
>> tends to say nothing over these things now -- as they come up.
>>
>>
>> On another note which you bring up, I could never envision a rhyming
>> Ebonics rapping president, like Jackson, or an obvious headline whore,
>> like "Rev." Sharpton, as our president. God forbid!
>
>
> I was usually mortified every time Bush II opened his mouth in public,
> when he had a press conference, because he was such a poor speaker.
>
> I like the way Obama expresses himself in public, he is articulate,
> talks in complete sentences, can make an argument and follow it threw.
> I don't find myself hiding my face in shame, when Obama speaks at a press
> conference,
> or on the world stage, when he makes trips abroad.
>
> I envied the people of Britain, because their leader, at the time, Tony
> Blair,
> had such a flair with words.
>
> He left Bush II in the dust everytime, they showed up together.
>
> No, I do not believe that Obama was right in the Gates incident.
> I do believe and said so, at the time, that Obama should have stayed out
> of
> a local police incident.
>
> The Police behaved in a proper manner, in my opinion, in that case.
> They received a call, they responded to the job and they had every right
> to
> demand Identification from the individual in that case.
> Gates over reacted and thus the unfortunate results.
>
> Obama was raised in a white household, had little if any contact from his
> biological Dad,
> no influence from his biological's fathers family.
> He didn't know them, in his formative years.
>
> He then went to a foreign country, Indonesia, where he spent his formative
> years.
> He did not have a typical African American or even American upbringing.
> Few Americans can count on Indonesia classroom photos of their elementary
> school years.
> The influences, via mainstream media, with the tv sitcoms of the day, or
> the music of the day,
> were not part of his world.
>
> Anywhere he went, he was the different one.
> Check out his school photos from Hawaii, very few minorties, very few
> blacks.
>
> When he entered the Senate the AA's their met him with disdain and
> rejected him.
> I wonder how they are feeling about that now.
>
> Both of his parents were college graduates, that is unusual for most
> minority youths.
>
> He doesn't fit in with them, he really doesn't belong with the whites.
> Harry Reid's comments certainly brings that in focus.
>
> It must be difficult to be Obama.
> Outside his immediate family, where does he fit in.
>
> But I like hearing him speak, I like his speeches.
> I think he is a brillant man, a cut above.
>
> I'm just not sure that someone like him should be president of a country
> like America,
> that is under threat right now.
>
> Because, in my personal opinion, Obama is conflicted, he is torn between
> two worlds.
>
> That isn't his fault, it is due to circumstances beyond his control.
>
>
> But his family is Muslim, at least his family in Indonesia and Kenya are.
>
> Right now, we seem to be the targets of Muslims countries.
> We had no business invading Iraq and killing all those people,
> we should hold Israel accountable for what they do to the Palestinians in
> Israel,
> but we don't.
> We need the oil in the Arab countries, are country depends on that.
> It's unlucky, that a natural resource that we need so much, is found in
> the countries,
> that hate us to death.
>
> Israel is our ally, after all is said and done, not only in the Middle
> East,
> but in the United Nations, and we face other nations, sometimes Israel is
> the only
> country on our side.
>
>
>
I agree, he and Bush Jr. are like night and day. Obama has a tough job,
maybe impossible.
Although I don't agree with him in every case, I think he is doing as well
as anyone can, given the times, circumstances, and the hand was dealt.
Everyone in that job comes away looking like hell afterward, or worse, they
get killed in office. I find is pretty short sighted to criticize Obama, at
this point, all things considered.
As for Israel as U.S.'s undying ally, I disagree. Israel does what's good
for Israel, in every situation. That may mean in most cases siding with
American policy particularly n the UN. But in other cases Israel has done
some shady things regarding its relationship with the U.S. Israel does
what's good for Israel.