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Title: If Obama Loses Racism is the only reason McCain might beat him.
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URL Source: http://www.slate.com/id/2198397/
Published: Aug 30, 2008
Author: Jacob Weisberg
Post Date: 2008-08-30 05:40:09 by Disgusted
Keywords: None
Views: 143
Comments: 12
What with the Bush legacy of reckless war and economic mismanagement, 2008 is a year that favors the generic Democratic candidate over the generic Republican one. Yet Barack Obama, with every natural and structural advantage in the presidential race, is running only neck-and-neck against John McCain, a sub-par Republican nominee with a list of liabilities longer than a Joe Biden monologue. Obama has built a crack political operation, raised record sums, and inspired millions with his eloquence and vision. McCain has struggled with a fractious campaign team, lacks clarity and discipline, and remains a stranger to charisma. Yet at the moment, the two of them appear to be tied. What gives? If it makes you feel better, you can rationalize Obama's missing 10-point lead on the basis of Clintonite sulkiness, his slowness in responding to attacks, or the concern that Obama may be too handsome, brilliant, and cool to be elected. But let's be honest: If you break the numbers down, the reason Obama isn't ahead right now is that he trails badly among one group, older white voters. He does so for a simple reason: the color of his skin. Much evidence points to racial prejudice as a factor that could be large enough to cost Obama the election. That warning is written all over last month's CBS/New York Times poll, which is worth examining in detail if you want a quick grasp of white America's curious sense of racial grievance. In the poll, 26 percent of whites say they have been victims of discrimination. Twenty-seven percent say too much has been made of the problems facing black people. Twenty-four percent say the country isn't ready to elect a black president. Five percent of white voters acknowledge that they, personally, would not vote for a black candidate. Five percent surely understates the reality. In the Pennsylvania primary, one in six white voters told exit pollsters race was a factor in his or her decision. Seventy-five percent of those people voted for Clinton. You can do the math: 12 percent of the Pennsylvania primary electorate acknowledged that it didn't vote for Barack Obama in part because he is African-American. And that's what Democrats in a Northeastern(ish) state admit openly. The responses in Ohio and even New Jersey were dispiritingly similar. Such prejudice usually comes coded in distortions about Obama and his background. To the willfully ignorant, he is a secret Muslim married to a black-power radical. Or—thank you, Geraldine Ferraro—he only got where he is because of the special treatment accorded those lucky enough to be born with African blood. Some Jews assume Obama is insufficiently supportive of Israel in the way they assume other black politicians to be. To some white voters (14 percent in the CBS/New York Times poll), Obama is someone who, as president, would favor blacks over whites. Or he is an "elitist" who cannot understand ordinary (read: white) people because he isn't one of them. Or he is charged with playing the race card, or of accusing his opponents of racism, when he has strenuously avoided doing anything of the sort. We're just not comfortable with, you know, a Hawaiian. Then there's the overt stuff. In May, Pat Buchanan, who writes books about the European-Americans losing control of their country, ranted on MSNBC in defense of white West Virginians voting on the basis of racial solidarity. The No. 1 best-seller in America, Obama Nation by Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D., leeringly notes that Obama's white mother always preferred that her "mate" be "a man of color." John McCain has yet to get around to denouncing this vile book. Many have discoursed on what an Obama victory could mean for America. We would finally be able to see our legacy of slavery, segregation, and racism in the rearview mirror. Our kids would grow up thinking of prejudice as a nonfactor in their lives. The rest of the world would embrace a less fearful and more open post-post-9/11 America. But does it not follow that an Obama defeat would signify the opposite? If Obama loses, our children will grow up thinking of equal opportunity as a myth. His defeat would say that when handed a perfect opportunity to put the worst part of our history behind us, we chose not to. In this event, the world's judgment will be severe and inescapable: The United States had its day but, in the end, couldn't put its own self-interest ahead of its crazy irrationality over race. Choosing John McCain, in particular, would herald the construction of a bridge to the 20th century—and not necessarily the last part of it, either. McCain represents a Cold War style of nationalism that doesn't get the shift from geopolitics to geoeconomics, the centrality of soft power in a multipolar world, or the transformative nature of digital technology. This is a matter of attitude as much as age. A lot of 71-year-olds are still learning and evolving. But in 2008, being flummoxed by that newfangled doodad, the personal computer, seems like a deal-breaker. At this hinge moment in human history, McCain's approach to our gravest problems is hawkish denial. I like and respect the man, but the maverick has become an ostrich: He wants to deal with the global energy crisis by drilling and our debt crisis by cutting taxes, and he responds to security challenges from Georgia to Iran with Bush-like belligerence and pique. You may or may not agree with Obama's policy prescriptions, but they are, by and large, serious attempts to deal with the biggest issues we face: a failing health care system, oil dependency, income stagnation, and climate change. To the rest of the world, a rejection of the promise he represents wouldn't just be an odd choice by the United States. It would be taken for what it would be: sign and symptom of a nation's historical decline.
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#1. To: Disgusted (#0)
Lets not forget the non racist factor of 101 per cent of black voters, voting Obama because he will end this horrible war?????????????????????
All evidence indicates this gay mulatto will expand the war on terror to both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Perhaps beyond. Previously we've been treated to Boob Bait for the Bubba's, and now we have our Black racist for White Liberals.
The United States of America is doomed on so many different levels it is impossible to state them all in one sitting. McInsane WILL be elected and civilization as we know it on most of the planet (there's not a whole lot here in the former United States to begin with) will end sometime during his term. He has nothing left but nukes, and odds are he'll use them before their expiration dates. It's either they expire or he does — a race against time.
“I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.” - Sam Houston
This is true propaganda. 1st, the entire world is in decline as it falls into the Globalist abyss. What the rest of the world thinks is irrelevant especially when the same could be said of every country on the planet. Under normal conditions Obama wouldn't be considered at all. We've been "promised" all sorts of things by politicians and seldom are they obtained. Promises mean nothing. Race has kept Obama's hope alive as Americans fearing the bigot charge have allowed a sub-standard individual with no experience get nominated by a party filled with socialists, communists, minorities and queers. Proof that demobocracy doesn't work. We have been dumbed down so much that we can't rule ourselves, opting to elect some charlatan that disingenously promises the world that someone else must pay for while there is never an honest attempt to deliver it in the first place. Oprah cried her eyelashes off ... what bullshit. All of the accolades for Obama are based upon nothing of substance, yet 85,000 morons show up to worship this political "pimp". The ignorance openly demonstrated by the masses is embarrassing. Worse than this is the fact that the completely plastic politicians know how stupid people are and play the same stupid tricks on them every election cycle ... unfreakin real !!! Both leading candidates represent the same putrid shit we have had shoved down our throats for 100 years. Expecting a change is insanity.
"Every effort has been made by the Federal Reserve Board to conceal its power but the truth is the Federal Reserve Board has usurped the Government of the United States." "Mr. Chairman, the people of the United States did not perceive that a world system was being set up here that the United States was to be lowered to the position of a coolie country. . and was to supply financial power to an international superstate -- a superstate controlled by international bankers and international industrialists acting together to enslave the World for their own pleasure."
Racism is a white only disease, thus the total black vote for Obummer is merely a confirmation of his superior qualities. (ahem)
I would not bet the farm on that Sam. What you envision is a likely scenario, but not now, not during a McKooK fiasco.
America's death is in progress and it's coming from cultural suicide and economic surrender. There is no need to worry about the destruction of our infrastructure when it is being bought and owned, piecemeal, by our enemies.
"Eloquence and vision"? Obama? BWAHAHAHAHA, the writer of this drivel must be one of Obama's customers.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. Mediocre display of Jewish propaganda in this story. I'm not even impressed with the effort. Weisberg must be a simpleton to expect anyone but morons to believe his garbage.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition "Corporation: An entity created for the legal protection of its human parasites, whose sole purpose is profit and self-perpetuation." © IndieTx What a bunch of bullsh*t and hogwash. "If you can't stand him you have to vote for him otherwise someone will think poorly of us" -- is THAT the crap this guy thinks is an argument anyone will buy? Who CARES what someone else thinks? Isn't that what being a "free and independent nation" is all about? May as well ask Putin if he cares what anyone thinks of him or Russia. Anyone care to place a wager on the answer to THAT question?
"A leader, for a change." - Jimmy Carter, 1976 campaign slogan. Sound familiar? Here it comes again!
I'll bet the author lives in New York City, one of the most worthless cities that has ever existed. It reminds me of what I've written before, that one of those insulated Greenwich Village psuedo-intellectuals sputtered that she could not believe Nixon beat McGovern, because she didn't know anyone voting for Nixon. To those on the East and West Coasts, everyone in Flyover Land doesn't really exist. They don't realized without Flyover Land, the East and West Coasts are a couple of insignificant strips of land, populated by nancy-boys.
Freeper: I read, but do not understand, write, but make no sense, think, but nothing happens.
The meme of Obama losing is now well and truly instilled. Premptive justification and rationalizing for McCain's win, dare I say blowout, not along the lines of McGovern, but a Mondale/Dukakis type loss, or even a 2004 repeat, but dead cats only bounce once and Obie's had his, and despite all, McCain is holding his own in the polls. Blame the voters, not the party, (assuming Obie loses). Bah!
If you break the numbers down, the reason Obama isn't ahead right now is that he trails badly among one group, older white voters. He does so for a simple reason: the color of his skin.
#2. To: Cynicom (#1)
#3. To: Disgusted (#0)
#4. To: Disgusted (#0)
To the rest of the world, a rejection of the promise he represents wouldn't just be an odd choice by the United States. It would be taken for what it would be: sign and symptom of a nation's historical decline.
#5. To: Disgusted (#2)
#6. To: Sam Houston (#3)
McInsane WILL be elected and civilization as we know it on most of the planet (there's not a whole lot here in the former United States to begin with) will end sometime during his term. He has nothing left but nukes, and odds are he'll use them before their expiration dates.
#7. To: Sam Houston, Noone222, Cynicom (#3)
#8. To: Disgusted (#0)
Obama has built a crack
political operation, raised record sums, and inspired millions with his eloquence and vision.
Lord Acton
#9. To: Disgusted (#0)
"There is no 'legitimate' Corporation by virtue of it's very legal definition and purpose."
-- IndieTx
#10. To: Disgusted (#0)
You may or may not agree with Obama's policy prescriptions, but they are, by and large, serious attempts to deal with the biggest issues we face: a failing health care system, oil dependency, income stagnation, and climate change. To the rest of the world, a rejection of the promise he represents wouldn't just be an odd choice by the United States. It would be taken for what it would be: sign and symptom of a nation's historical decline.
#11. To: Disgusted (#0)
#12. To: Disgusted (#0)
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