He was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama — a “light-skinned” African American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,” as he said privately.
So at what point does Reid step aside and let someone with a chance run for his seat?
Joseph Nobles
Isn’t it cool that this happened almost two years ago and we’re just now hearing about it? Heckuva job, Reidie.
Seriously, this looks so much like the Lott ankling that the Bush Administration did to get Frist into the Majority Leader post, it’s not even funny. “The book is closed.” And the bus is rolling.
Pixie
Considering the average age of the members of the house and senate is 150, I’m not surprised by this kind of talk as stupid as it is.
Max
Barack’s statement shows what a class act our Pres is.
O-bot.
asiangrrlMN
@Pixie: Agreed. And, as I noted below, at least Reid apologized for his comments–unlike certain batshitcrazywingernuts I could name. And, even though his choice of wording is poor, Reid was correct in that Obama was palatable to many white people precisely because he wasn’t “too black”–whatever the fuck that means.
@Max: Classy, gracious, and able to see the bigger picture.
General Winfield Stuck
Reid is toast. Too many tea bag types in NV, too many years of old school pay to play politics, too high on liberals shit list. He won’t step aside though, and I’m not sure it would help. The wingnuts are fired up, and unless, the economy starts making jobs and helps inspire dem stronghold Las Vegas, ring this one up for the goopers. And with Reid running, it would likely not matter whatever,.
Midnight Marauder
Get your
popcornvapors ready. This book from Heilemann and Halperin is going to get the Village in quite the tizzy.thisdav
Seriously, now. Everyone who thinks Reid was commenting on the U.S. electorate, instead of his own racial views, raise your hands. Good — you get to move up to junior high next year.
Harry’s been a weak leader for our team until the past couple of months. But I doubt he’s a racist. There are plenty of things over which to find fault with him, but a frank opinion about an African-American man’s chances of becoming President isn’t one of them.
General Winfield Stuck
@Midnight Marauder:
Yea, I read some excerpts about the Edwards (Munsters) family drama. Ugly all the way around.
mb
What Reid said was dumb but true. Obama is a light-skinned black man who does not speak with the typical American black patois. Had Obama been darker or more ‘urban’ or had a rural black accent, I doubt this country would have elected him. I really think Reid’s comments were not meant to express his preference but were an accurate commentary on the state of racism in America.
They were, nonetheless, unfortunate in spite of the fact that it is at least as unfortunate that we do not have a vocabulary that allows us to speak frankly about race but not as unfortunate as the truth they expressed.
Tax Analyst
Crappy choice of words, but I don’t see any racism or nastiness in the remark…or any dishonesty, for that matter. Would Obama have been able to win even the nomination, much less the general election if he didn’t speak as well as he does? My sense of it is that it was an off-the-record pragmatic statement.
You can find plenty of good reasons to pillory or dump Harry Reid, but I don’t think this is one of them.
cleek
screw Reid. let’s hope he gets the boot, and the Dems elect a Senate leader who will lead, and be seen leading.
jeffreyw
Dammit, 2 posts all day and now I gotta chase through 3 just to get dinner on the table?
Brachiator
@mb:
It was also lucky that Obama was born in Kenya, instead of somewhere in America. Also, too.
The “what if” speculation is quite nuts. What is “typical American black patois?” Is that what Oprah or Denzel Washington speaks? Obama’s rise originally appeared impossible to a lot of folks, but here it is. My guess is that his qualities would have led him to victory no matter what.
Joseph Nobles
@Tax Analyst: “You can find plenty of good reasons to pillory or dump Harry Reid, but I don’t think this is one of them.”
Nevertheless, this is the signal that Reid is done for. The other reasons are why he’s out. This was the dinner bell.
Rhoda
This is being blown so far out of proportion.
(1) Reid SUPPORTED Obama: He told him to run and he thought America was ready for a black president. That’s head and shoulders beyond where some black leaders were at the time: I’m looking at you Andrew Young & Co.
(2) Reid didn’t say anything that wasn’t written in major papers, blogs, and talked about around the watercooler. Okay, so folks don’t say Negro. Reid is 70, he was born in ’36, his generation Negro was the respectful way to speak of AAs.
(3) “Negro dialect” is ebonics and is the same thing papers would aloud to when talking about Obama’s “preacher cadences” which was Reid meant when he said Obama does it “when he wants to.”
(4) Reid has a history of supporting civil rights and African Americans and has a history of supporting Obama.
This reminds me of Bidens’ “he’s clean and articulate” gaffe. A lot of people where thinking the same damn thing, speaking around the issue, and weren’t as blunt. But, damn it, folks wanted to cruxificy Biden who had been on the front lines of the fight for civil rights.
This is far from what Lott did (defending and promoting the nostalgia for segregation) and Allen’s Macca moment IMO (which happened in an angry moment and was a clear attempt for Allen to put that Indian kid in his place).
Also: Not a soul in the MSM jumped on Newt Gingrich admitting that the opposition to Steele was largely race based in the RNC. That was huge and yet totally ignored. But Reid’s two year old comments make the national media.
fraught
Did Andrew call for his resignation yet?
General Winfield Stuck
@Rhoda:
Yea, but perception is 8.3 tenths of politics. Goose/gander. We hammer wingnuts for these foopahs, doesn’t matter what the underlying intent is. Big boy rules, or something like that.
John Cole
I don’t think Reid is racist in the least.
I do think this was the nail in the coffin for him, though.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Rhoda:
__
Here in the South the respectful term would have been “person of color” who was “a credit to his race.” Except that since Obama was the product of the “shameful mixing of races”, he would have been considered a pariah by both races.
Sanka
The awesomeness of the Democrats is neverending.
Like, totally:
See, what Reid and Clinton really meant to say, was that Obama is truly a clean and articulate negro. Not like the rest of them thar negros. Got that, boy?
Stay classy, Dems..
Robin G.
Reid said (poorly) what most people were wondering — that is, would Obama manage to not be TOO black for this country? Regardless, Reid is hosed. Since this is his last year in office, though, maybe he’ll want to go out with a bang and get a bunch of shit through the Senate.
Mnemosyne
This may sound strange but, as I said throughout the primaries and election, the reason Obama does as well with white voters as he does is because he has an immigration story. Pretty much every white (and probably Latino/a and Asian/Pacific Islander) person can relate to a story that starts with, “My father/grandfather/great-grandfather came here in nineteen-hundred and X.” It’s something we can talk about. I think non-white people greatly underestimate how often white people talk about their ancestry. (I should check What White People Like and see if that’s listed.) We love to talk about our great-grandfather from Ireland or how our Italian great-grandmother suspected that her husband was having a little too much fun without her in America, so she packed up the kids and arrived on his doorstep without warning.
Not to mention that it puts him outside of our original sin of slavery, which is the elephant in the room that still can’t be discussed thirty years after “Roots” was a TV phenomenon. White people can be comfortable with him because at least we know he doesn’t have too much to blame us for. (Well, as long as you ignore the entire history of Kenya, but anyway …) There’s not that uncomfortable moment when you turn to someone to say, “And where was your family from?” and realize their answer is going to be, “I don’t know, because your ancestors enslaved them, idiot.”
Another African-American man who has an immigration story: Colin Powell, whose parents immigrated from Jamaica.
General Winfield Stuck
@Sanka:
So now you gonna troll with your fat wingnut yapper wrapped snugly around Halperin’s tiny pecker. Pretty low shit, since Teddy isn’t around to respond.
asiangrrlMN
@Mnemosyne: I didn’t think of that. That may be part of the reason, but I would bet the ‘he’s not TOO black’ thing is another big reason many whites were able to vote for Obama.
fraught
But, then, Reid was right. No one of any race with a street dialect would be elected. His use of the word Negro shows his age. People were taught in school that that word was the respectful way of talking about “Colored people” even in integrated schools with considerable numbers of black students. For Reid it was a senior slip of the tongue.
But that doesn’t mean that crowds of old white guys who use the other N word won’t call for his resignation, just because they can and he might. But I think that Reid has room for a few more nails in his coffin.
Sanka
Yeah. Because he wouldn’t hide the truth about these things being St. Teddy and all…
Call me when you grow an ounce of respect for St. Ronnie. Maybe I’ll listen.
General Winfield Stuck
@Sanka:
He wasn’t as bad as George W. Bush. That’s the best I can do.
eemom
@Midnight Marauder:
I posted a linkie on the last thread. Good voyeurating to be had in that article.
Mnemosyne
Wow, what a news flash from Sanka: Bill Clinton said some assholish things while he was trying to help his wife get nominated as the Democratic candidate for president!
Next up, Sanka will blast us with the unexpected news that water is wet and the Pope lives in Rome. Stay tuned!
Sanka
@General Winfield Stuck:
Exactly. And as for Teddy “Makers Mark” Kennedy, well…yeah. Whatever.
asiangrrlMN
@Mnemosyne: Yes, this. Weak, weak, weak shit. Seriously. A blog of this caliber should have much better trolls.
Tsulagi
I bet Reid was also wowed Obama didn’t put fluorescent lighted spinning chrome rims on the presidential limos and Air Force 1 too. Unless he wanted to have them.
Yutsano
@Sanka: So let’s follow your dots. (Keep up with me here I’m not going to repeat myself.)
Ben Smith puts out in an alleged advanced copy of a book by Halperin quoting an unnamed “friend” of Teddy Kennedy saying that Ted was furious with Bill Clinton because of an out-of-context quote about coffee. Following me so far? But since neither Halperin nor Smith can ask either Kennedy or the friend the context (well Halperin could ask but is choosing not to) we end up with an unsourced quote that for all we know Halperin could be making up out of whole cloth or trying to pretend Clinton was opposing Obama because of race. I dare you to try that with a judge, you’ll get laughed out of court.
New Yorker
C’mon, we have more important things to talk about, like how Kirsten Gillibrand was TEH AWFUL as a Congresswoman in a conservative district.
Primary Gillibrand, but let Reid be senate majority leader even after he dies, North Korea-style.
ruemara
Having been damned with the faint praise of clean and articulate, I’m glad to see the President do what I’ve done these past 40 years. Dust the bigoted acculturation off of it and take it as a positive that is mildly irksome. I’ve seen worse in RNC emails. Reid will just remain derisive for his spinelessness for me.
Malron
As a light-skinned black with a reasonably articulate vernacular I can honestly say that having those qualities does result in being seen as less threatening to non-blacks. I don’t see any intent to demean in Reid’s comments. I do see an attempt to create animosity and hostility toward Reid by releasing these excepts in the middle of the health care debate when Reid will be instrumental in reconciling the House and Senate bills.
On some level I think Halperin is trying to get his digs in after being made a laughingstock with the “this is good news for John McCain” comments. He seems to be throwing as much mud as he can by leaking all this stuff to the press.
Keith G
A classic response.
I just may have to buy this book. Maybe we can do a chapt by chapt readers club here.
Rhoda
@General Winifred Suck
I wouldn’t hammer any Republican who had a history of supporting civil rights for busting out with “clean and articulate” or “Negro dialect” because I’d know they were speaking poorly and not racist. The history of their actions makes that plain.
Then you have things like Clinton who has a history of supporting civil rights and then busts out with a “he’d be getting us coffee” line that pissed off Kennedy which IMO opens the door to a real conversation about white privilege in this country and country club racism.
So, no I am taking this Reid thing hard because the entire context of the conversation was a picture of the man entirely supportive of the president, confident in the nation, and yet recognizing the underlying racism that permeates us still IMO. He’s was being real and whoever handed that story to Halperin and that Ny Mag dude didn’t even think of the shit storm IMO. It’s too bad.
I also think it’s interesting that Clinton’s comments, which are genuinely appalling and should be a conversation this country has isn’t being played as Politico.
Tsulagi
@Malron:
Neither do I, but I think you can put a checkmark in the Clueless White Guy box next to Reid’s name.
@Sanka:
No problem. Anytime someone could own up to having second billing to a chimp in a movie like Bedtime for Bonzo gets an ounce of respect.
Malron
@Rhoda: Cosign. As I said to a friend while discussing this, I’m more concerned with ideology than I am with terminology. Reid has been trying to do the right thing so getting caught using the wrong words don’t bother me as much.
Rhoda
@Keith G:
I’m getting the book too, lol. That New Yorker excerpt was a doozy. I can’t believe the staff hated Elizabeth that much, she was savaged in this. She comes across as like a 90s MSM Hillary Rodham Clinton caricature; only apparently HRC is really warm and personable and charming in person and thoughtful in private apparently while Elizabeth is not.
kommrade reproductive vigor
It was a stupid-assed thing to say. “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one”. Er, what? Frankly, this sort of crap is tiresome and never gets less tiresome.
But since the president isn’t pissed (at least publicly), far be it for me to call Reid a dipshit. I will instead enjoy the spectacle of Reichtard heads exploding a bit before they settle down to claim all Democrats are racist.
Yutsano
@kommrade reproductive vigor: Okay I’ll risk the flaming here, mostly because I’m sure I’m not alone. During some of the best of his speeches I swear Obama gets this edge of MLK coming through in his voice. It’s one of the many reasons I love listening to this man. Though to be absolutely fair I don’t think MLK would have swatted that fly.
General Winfield Stuck
@Rhoda:
I agree with everything you say. Just pointing out the shallow nature of politics and the unfortunate power of perceptions within our body politic. Always been that way. And Reid knows this full well, as does every seasoned politician.
m3872
The story in Nevada is lose-lose for Dems.
Reid appears poised to lose his seat. No matter WHO decides to run against him from the Repubs. Even someone who is just the son of a popular basketball coach, for goodness sake.
Me and everyone I know who pays attention to politics and favors left-leaning policies has disliked Reid, his approach, his feebleness and lack of heart & spine for years now.
But if he drops out, it’s gonna just be another in a long line of Dems in disarray disaster stories from the MSM.
I say, let him stay in the race & lose. The same thing happened to Daschle when he was briefly majority leader in 2004 and the Dems came back to kick butt in 2006.
General Winfield Stuck
@Yutsano:
O-Bot!!
Rhoda
@General Winfield Suck: First, I’m sorry for the Winifred, lol. Second, ITA about the perceptions thing but that’s drived by the MSM to a large degree. It’s like the Skip Gates thing; folks will forget quickly but the MSM will harp long enough to wound the politician. It’s the when and why they decide to go certain routes that kills me.
@kommrade reproductive vigor: Reid was talking about Obama’s preacher voice IMO. When he’s on a riff he starts doing a preacher cadence and that’s been remarked upon. Clinton does the same thing to a lesser effect IMO and Clinton also does this gold old boy thing too that’s similar to Obama throwing in some Malcom X references or brushing the dirt off his shoulders.
gnomedad
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
Well, Sanka @20 took care of that for you. Kind of a relief, actually, to have the other shoe drop in the same thread. One-stop shopping.
FlipYrWhig
The “getting us coffee” remark seems more like an inexperience crack than a racial one. Don’t think “waiter,” think “intern” (um, the regular non-Lewinsky meaning of the term). IMHO Bill Clinton was saying that Obama was more the eager go-getter than the seasoned pol.
fraught
@Yutsano: what he/she said.
“O-bot” is like hearing my name called by a choir from an atheist heaven.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Yes. He does have the passion and the cadence and the flavor of a MLK, doesn’t he?
And, damn it, I am no O-bot!
Yutsano
@FlipYrWhig: That’s how I took the comment. It’s also why this whole bullshit of trying to put something there that may or may not be supported just gets on my fucking nerves. If Halperin isn’t gonna name his source for this I call bullshit on the whole damn thing. Which is what I explained to Failtroll Decaf up above.
mai naem
You people are kidding right? I mean,hell, I thought this way even though I wouldn’t have phrased it in Reid’s lingo. Obama does look almost white. If you were told he was white and the picture and video was done right, you would think he was just a somewhat dark skinned white person and ,yes, it does matter. Do you think Naomi Campbell, Iman, Tyra Banks and practically any other black model would have been successful if their skin tone was very dark? Sidney Poitier,Denzel Washington,Halle Berry etc. are all light skinned. And, yes Obama’s speech patterns do matter. Heck, Reid’s being more realistic than anything else.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: I have come to the conclusion O-bot = doesn’t think he’s a durn furriner commieislamofascistpinkohomosexual. In other words voting for him is enough to be labeled as such.
Nellcote
And who would that be?
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Aw, crap. I guess I am an O-bot after all.
Glocksman
@Sanka:
Low blow.
Teddy was proud of his Irish heritage and probably drank Bushmills or John Jameson, not Kentucky bourbon. :)
That said, EMK was human and as such had his faults.
Neither he nor Reagan were saints.
Keith G
@Yutsano: But if he were a
I call that win/win.
Yutsano
@Keith G: That just makes you a DFH. Schweet.
General Winfield Stuck
@Rhoda:
yes, but
Is there a T Vanna. :-)
Rhoda
General Winfield Stuck: My very Freudian apologies!
General Winfield Stuck
@Rhoda: LOL no problem. Just kiddin ya! :)
Darkrose
@mai naem:
Halle Berry, I’ll grant, but Denzel, Sidney, Naomi, and Barack wouldn’t even pass the paper bag test. Not to mention that Obama’s hair is downright nappy.
Sly
On a completely separate topic, I’ve been harboring the idea that, as a jobs program, the government should pay young black men and women to work as consultants for older white men and women, counseling them on how to avoid sounding racist.
There’s enough demand out there that unemployment among young African-Americans would drop to half the national average in under a month.
MelodyMaker
@Yutsano:
You bastard! Ok, pretty weak flame.
I heard about this today and laughed out loud; like 6 or 7 Ha!’s Probly because I heard it on NPR. It’s that funny.
Unfortunately, POTUS can’t issue a statement that just says “HAHAHAHAHAHA!”
MelodyMaker
and I’m an o-bot simply because I like the guy.
who can forget the marvelous cadences and deep meaning of the Pie Speech?
A winger rellie of mine tried to tell me he’s not really black. That was fun.
joe from Lowell
Oh, Christ, Harry.
You can smell the old man smell coming off that guy through the computer screen.
FWIW, I’ll take 56 Dems + Lieberman led by Majority Leader Durbin over 59+ Lieberman led by Harry Reid, and ask for seconds.
Yutsano
@MelodyMaker: Your flame-fu is weak, young Padawan. Much to learn you still have.
mandarama
@Rhoda:
Wow, I just got done reading that excerpt. I am stricken at the idea of Eliz. Edwards being a nutball and mean…because like most of America, I have always liked her. I read her recent book and thought it was a really interesting exploration, if still plagued by denial…which I’m willing to forgive since she’s terminally ill. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Edwards himself deserves her yelling and bitching…but not the staff. Ugh, I feel naive and dumb.
On the other hand, this tome has “Mark Halperin” written on it. That usually raises my bullshit alert.
Gah.
HRA
Compared to what I have read and heard over the recent years, Reid’s comments were bland.
A few points here that I find curious and I apologize for not citing the writers.
People connected to Obama due to his immigrant heritage? On his maternal side they came in the 17th or 18th centuries. His father was here only on a student visa and never was a citizen.
I am a white person who voted for Obama as a once Republican. I did not vote for him because he was not too dark or half white. I study the candidates’ speeches, platforms, etc. closely before I cast my votes. I am a naturalized citizen of the United States. Voting is an important part of being an American to me.
MelodyMaker
@Yutsano: And you’re a big fat umm… yeah. You were asking for it.
Yutsano
@MelodyMaker: I’m a tough ol’ bitch I can take it.
Chad N Freude
@mai naem: Just got here, and probably nobody is reading this thread any more, but you really should consider Grace Jones, who was the anti-Halle Berry, sort of. She was like good coffee, hot, sweet, and … without milk.
CalD
I don’t suppose it matters to anyone that the president is in fact a light-skinned African-American who does speak with no trace of any sort of ethnic dialect.
Mnemosyne
@HRA:
On my maternal side, they came in on the Mayflower. One of my distant ancestors was William Bradford, the first governor of Virginia. So that means I have no immigrant heritage on that side?
That’s the kind of conversation that’s pretty common between white people, but you will very rarely have it between a white person and a black person because of that awkwardness that comes up when the black person points out that most of their history has been stolen or hidden from them so, no, they don’t know what their great-grandfather did for a living. (Mine had a small store in rural Illinois after he arrived from Italy. One of his brothers moved to Scotland and sold ice cream.)
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne: Which of course leads to the fact that large swaths of Americans arrived after 1865 (most in the immigration wave of the late 19th and early 20th Century) and therefore do not feel responsible for the history that happened before their families arrive. The fact that they were more than willing to absorb those benefits themselves somehow glances off of them. You get assimilated into the white power structure you gotta take the lumps along with the benefits.
RobW
Having lived in Nevada for 11 years, I’m thinking it’s hella early to be writing Reid’s political obituary.
There is no chance of a primary challenge, as even the few progressives (who are almost all in Las Vegas and Reno) know better than to even try it. Challenge Reid and you might as well find a new party, because you’ll be dead to Nevada Democrats even if you managed to beat him. And there isn’t anyone who could beat him. Certainly not from the left, because there is no real left.
There are no strong GOP challengers. Nevada GOP is still reeling in disarray due to scandals, bitterly divided between relatively sane business-as-usual Repugs and the teabagger minority who’ll likely vote Libertarian anyway.
He’s vulnerable, sure. If the economy remains poor, if there isn’t some rebound in real estate and employment, and if Nevada voters hold Democrats responsible for this, he could lose to… somebody other than the current crop of GOP losers. Seriously, there isn’t a one who isn’t a disgrace or a clown or a nobody.
Ian
@Rhoda:
Math Fail
Ian
@Sanka:
Point out something “St. Ronnie” did that helped our country (other than people who work for the ketchup industry) and I’ll listen too.
Ian
@Rhoda:
And now this? Jesus, what is your deal
Glocksman
@Ian:
Well, he was good for morale in the Dr. Goebbels sense.
That and he didn’t stand in Paul Voelker’s (sp?) way when the Fed cranked up interest rates in order to wring stagflation out.
Now if he’d only backed Voelker up with something other than the ‘free trade’ bullshit that led us to where we are today, I suspect a lot more people other than the crazies would see him as ‘St. Ronnie’.
Nancy Irving
While “no Negro dialect” is a rather hilariously archaic and un-PC way of putting it, are you really denying that Obama’s “standard English,” lacking black inflections or diction unless he consciously puts it on (as Bush did his Texas accent when he wanted to), plus his racially ambiguous skin-tone and features, combined to produce an image less-threatening to white voters, an image that was relevant to–perhaps crucial to–his election?
I don’t have a TV or radio, and though I voted for him myself, I never understood how the guy got elected until I finally heard him speak, after the election. That was a Eureka moment.
Colin Powell is a similar case. He could have been elected too, and the same factors would have applied.
Face reality, even when (or especially when) it is less flattering to us.
Glocksman
@mandarama:
What she needed was someone to ‘unload’ on in private.
As a union steward, I run into this kind of thing more than you’d think.
Principally because I am the one person in my area that a pissed off worker can bitch to without any fear of retaliation or retribution, though I also like to think it’s because (unlike some of my colleagues) I don’t betray confidences.
I’d say I spend 70% of my time just listening to complaints that have little to do with work while offering helpful advice when appropriate.
I’ve even had people come up later and apologize for unloading on me, but I tell them that listening is just part of the job and don’t worry about it.
I’d like to think that is why I had no opposition the last time I ran, though in reality it’s probably because being steward is a thankless job few would want. :)
Glocksman
@Nancy Irving:
True, though given GWB’s performance *I* would have voted for Puff Daddy over McVain in 2008.
That said I also have little doubt that Obama would have lost some of the more ‘purple’ states such as my own Indiana if he didn’t speak the way he did because the less ‘enlightened’ among us perceive ‘ebonics speak’ as threatening.
Though I would also add that there are plenty of ‘hellfire and brimstone’ white preachers that use the same rolling cadences that both Obama and a lot of black preachers use when speaking.
At least here in southwestern Indiana, that is.
kid bitzer
personally, i’m just glad we got to have a fine senate leader who had so few mormon mannerisms, and no racist attitude, unless he wanted to have one.
Brandon
The most dysfunctional campaign of 2008 was the McCain campaign by a mile. Facinating that Halperin does not write/say anything to embarrass him or other R’s for that matter. Fascinating.
Ella in NM
Isn’t there ANYONE in Nevada who can run for Reid’s seat as a Democrat and be popular enough to win? No Al Franken or Jesse Ventura types who could sneak attack from out of the blue? Jeeez, isn’t their biggest city called LAS VEGAS—there’s got to be a colorful resident of that town available.
Seriously, If I were the Dems up there, I’d nominate Art Bell of Coast to Coast AM fame at this point.
Political Pragmatist
Living in LV, I marvel at Reid. He’s going to survive no matter, like a cockroach or Keith Richard. Nobody else could have gotten HCR this far. Nobody is going to vote for him and somehow he will get re-elected.
What no one seems to have a problem with is this was said in a private conversation? Given the context and what he obv was saying, there is no news here, yet the MSM is blowing it so out of proportion it becomes news. There is no question the Fourth Estate has lost its hold on reality. More and more one gets the feeling of falling down the rabbit hole.
Harry is one of those people who is never going to get any respect, but he’ll get my vote.
Brachiator
Wow. You must have been really surprised to find that you had voted for a (gasp) black man.
I guess it’s interesting to see that some Obama supporters are as consumed by their racial anxieties as wingnut Obama opponents.
So, let’s see. The darker a black person becomes, the more threatening he becomes, by definition. You know. Kinda like the terrorist threat color system. And while black people apparently have inflections and dictions, white people, like Dubya, have only accents.
By the way, there doesn’t seem to be the same kind of skin tone intensifier that applies to Asians or Latinos, although some supposed liberals seem to happily lump all non-black nonwhites into the category of disposable brown people.
Oh, and yes, there is also the other bit of insanity reflected here, that a darker, non-standard English speaking black is somehow more “authentic” than other blacks. By this measure, Malcolm X, light skinned (why the hell do you think he was known as Detroit Red) and articulate in the way that white devils were, was a Phony Negro. But he scared white people nonetheless. Go figure.
All I know is this. The guy who owns the food truck that comes by my job is originally from Armenia, and has been here for years. One day, knowing nothing about my politics, he put down a newspaper in disgust and jumped all over conservative pundits who were carping about a recent Obama speech.
“What’s wrong with these people? They’re always criticizing Obama. You know what. I am so happy that he is my president. I love this guy.”
That’s good enough for me.
Phoebe
@Sanka:
What Clinton said is way worse than what Reid said. In that what Reid said was, for reasons others have stated, perfectly totally fine to say in private, and what Clinton said was just foul, and probably made Teddy think, “Who ARE you? And more importantly, who do you think I AM?”
And that’s assuming it’s all true.
maus
@Political Pragmatist: “Nobody else could have gotten HCR this far. ”
Or screwed it up this much.
maus
When expectations are as incredibly low as yours, it’s not hard to be starstruck.
Da Bomb
@Darkrose: And even Halle Berry looks black. Even more so before the nose job.
I have cousins walking around that are her skin complexion. And I agree Obama looks black as well.
Da Bomb
@Brachiator: I also think it hilarious that people see Obama as racially ambiguous. He’s not. Most blacks saw him as black. Not racially ambiguous in the physical sense.
The only time his “blackness” was questioned, was when his background was discussed, like that he grew up in Hawaii and not in the “ghetto” or something. Which yet again, should be addressed.
This just goes to prove that we are not as “post-racial” as we believe.