Obama for Prez - 2008

Meat - Biden said, "... the first African-American candidate who is articulate, bright and clean ..." etc., etc., etc.

Leave it to the liberal media, I guess, to inject race into that race-neutral sentence, though.

 

P.S. At this point, it's clear that he's a tremendous orator. The A-Bomb bothers me less because of its racial implications than it is just damning by faint praise. As in, "What do you think of Obama?" "Oh, he's very articulate." i.e. "lacking substance."

Now, if someone said, "He articulates his positions well ..." that's another meaning entirely.

 

Was there intended to be a comma after "candidate"? Because that would be far less troubling, if not correct.

Or maybe he was thinking "the first African-American candidate who isn't Jesse Jackson" (did Doug Wilder run for president, or did I just dream it?)

But this isn't the first time someone trying to pay a compliment to Obama is instead accused of damning a race of people. There's another thread on this board about it, but I can't remember what it is.

 

It's a complex thing, the politics of race and language, and I think a lot of us on here think we're going to get to the essential truth of it. Some would say it's a cop-out or fence-sitting, but I think context and intent are always factors.

I know on an earlier thread about this stuff, someone would say something like, "Well, no, it's not always a bad word to use." And someone like Yawn or Hondo would hop in and say, "Aha! See! Gotcha!!! You said it was wrong to use the word 'articulate'!!! And now you're trying to back down from it! Gotcha!!!"

 

As much as I like Obama, does a black man have a legitimate chance to be elected President, even in this "enlightened" day and age?

 

I certainly hope so. But I also have the feeling what Corker did to Ford in Tennessee would just be the tip of the iceberg.

 

Oh, yeah.

Things are about to really heat up on the 'discredit Obama' front as well. If the guy can't take a joke about his ears, he's going to melt in the media glare. Stay tuned.

 

Unlike McCain, right, who's always so jovial and up for a good barb at his expense?

Anyway ... they said today on C-Span or CNN that a black man has a better chance of being elected than ever before. The reveal is that they can better predict a black candidate's success in an election than ever before. In the past, people would tell pollsters they were voting for the black candidate because they thought it sounded like the right thing to say. Then they'd get behind the curtain and vote how they really felt.

Apparently that gap has really narrowed lately.

 

Pringle, I hope this is true. I fear it's not. See: Ford, Harold.

 

Hey, the pope a Catholic was elected in 1960. It can be done.

 

Absolutely

 

Saw a poll yesterday that showed he has more ground to make up with black voters than white voters. It had Hillary doing better with black voters than Obama.