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Daring to Touch the Third Rail

Barack Obama avoids talking about the 'race issue,' but his wife doesn't. How Michelle is becoming the point person for African-American votes.

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  • Posted By: fan_chor-cheung @ 05/11/2008 10:28:19 AM

    Obama and Black supportors reminisced wrestlers whose matches are pre-arranged and play by hitting under the belt theatric causing economic downturn just to win. So, stop watching American games. Obama's white supportors are insulting their own race as incompetent and incapable to manage their own country . Whether Obama will be elected his "super delegates", who endorsed at other's expense, must be sentenced to live in Black neighborhoods for more than four years to find out what they are really like. The democratic governor of Oklahoma who had just endorsed Obama must be executed for causing their tornadoes. The communication media of the U. S. are circus clowns not worth commenting on because they have not given honest election comments. Hillary Clinton, best candidate in history, can be identified as a unspoiling mother who has wasted her own $10 mllion just to warn her stubborn and ignorance daughter not to date strangers in the street. American voters in general are "blind" to good judgement. Call your mother! or grandmother! Happy Mother Day!

  • Posted By: concerned about immediate future @ 02/14/2008 7:38:40 PM

    I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT MICHELLE OBAMMA HAS BEEN COMPARED TO THE LATE MRS ONASIS, WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO. THAT IS AN INSULT TO MRS. ONASIS, MRS ONASIS HAD MUCH MORE GRACE , POISE AND INTELLECT , NO COMPARISOM WHAT SO EVER, I AM SHOCKED.MRS OBAMA HAS NO GRACE POISE OR FOR THAT MATTER HER INTELLECT IS NOT EQUAL TO THE LATE MRS. ONASIS, NOT TO MENTION IT SHOWS THE LACK OF HER OWN INDIVIDUALITY THAT SHE WOULD PRACTICALLY " PLAGERIZE" THE FORMER FIRST LADY!! THANK YOU THE UNSILENT MAJORITY

  • Posted By: Change is a verb not a platform @ 01/27/2008 9:57:31 PM

    Did you know it is much more difficult for a white to get into an IVY league school then a minority. Seems both Obama and his wife benefited from this fact. Not only the acceptance rate but the amount of available grants and scholarships is higher for minorities. When will tat be equalized? They aren't crying racism when it helps!

  • Posted By: Change is a verb not a platform @ 01/27/2008 8:43:19 PM

    Comment: Analysis: Racial divide could hurt Obama

    Do you really think so? Why is there a racial divide? Is it money? Education? Religion? Opportunity?What is it? What exactly do blacks want and what do whites want? I mean if a drug using black male of a single white mother is the next possible President, don't you think the playing field has leveled? Obama won S.C (not because he was black) and his supporters are still angry....Please someone explain why there is so much anger about being black. Thank you.

  • Posted By: jameswest @ 01/26/2008 4:38:31 PM

    Comment: Since you seem to know it all, and Barak is so right on this race card issue. How would you like it if the Clintons were to say all the White people have to vote for Hillary? Everyone needs to get over the race thing and get on with progress. Michelle Obama must remember, Barak came in as a supposed mender, bring everyone together. But he has now proven himself to be the single most divisive force in recent democrat history. Now, with that understood, how can the Democrat party beat the Republican enemy when Barak is intentionally breaking us up? And he has the audacity to run as the agent of bringing everyone together? The truth is he is weakening the party and the Republicans are loving every minute of it. He needs to grow up and quit the whining and using the race card issue. Hillary has worked successfully with dems, repubs and Independents, Blacks, Hispanics, rich, poor, corporations, small business, and everyone else. Knowing how he has broken up the bond of our Democratic party, we can only expect him to fail in working with any others. How will he unite any others when he has spent all of his energies dividing us? How many times has Michelle told the Black American that he is no good, oppressed, and not good enough? She is the very one trying to teach hate. She is trying to put some beliefs in the black American that can only harm. The truth is, Black people have come a long way. Many of them are very successful, just look around you. Why are you allowing her to bring your spirits down with a false since of OPPRESSION? The truth is I am Black man myself, and very comfortable in my skin. Very proud of my history and am very offended when my own people try to plant false fears in my mind. The truth is, Michelle is using race as a fear tool, but I am not afraid, I am proud of my Black heritage. I am proud when I see all of these Black reporters, lawyers, commercial actors etc., etc., etc., Please stop spreading fear in the Black Americans' lives. Lift us up. Stop trying to make us feel inadequate. Those of us that are proud of our people don't want to hear anyone saying we are less. Especially one of our own. I have never heard the Clintons tear us down like that; they have only tried to lift us up and empower our minds. Not try to make us think we are any less than any other man, or woman for that matter.

  • Posted By: Colonel Ray @ 01/25/2008 3:48:55 PM

    Comment:
    In Obama's own words yesterday he said he is not sure if the people who support him now would support Hillary if he (Obama) is not the Democratic Party candidate in November. Obviously he will not. He also said three days ago he would have to check and see how well Bill Clinton could "dance" before he would consider him to be a "brother". Some of my very best lifelong friends are Black, Hispanic, and Muslim. I am very, very concerned that Barrack Obama is a closet racist that will destroy the race relations in this country.

    So I humbly ask that you and all those you know to do your own investigation and report this if true and put an end to this divisive primary campaign before too much damage is done.

    God Bless You.

    Former Host, The All Things Military Show and The Daily Briefing Radio Show, with Colonel Ray,
    heard in Southern California.

    Please read below:
    "We were always playing on the white man's court -- by the white man's rules. If the principal, or the coach, or a teacher wanted to spit in your face, he could, because he had the power and you didn't. The only thing you could choose was withdrawal into a smaller and smaller coil of rage."

    Obama once described the white race as ???that ghostly figure that haunted black dreams.???

    ???That hate hadn't gone away,??? he wrote, blaming ???white people -- some cruel, some ignorant, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives.???

    During college, Obama disapproved of what he called other "half-breeds" who gravitated toward whites instead of blacks. And yet after college, he once fell in love with a white woman, only to push her away when he concluded he would have to assimilate into her world, not the other way around. He later married a black woman.

    Obama???s book is primarily about his rejection of his supportive white maternal extended family in favor of his unknown black paternal extended family.

    At age 33, he wrote in "Dreams from My Father, that " he found solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against his mother???s race.

    Obama vowed that he would "never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father???s image, the black man, son of Africa, that I???d packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela."

    In his memoir, "Dreams of My Father," Obama writes of a story in Life magazine that influenced him -- about a black man trying to bleach his skin white. No such article could be found in Life or Ebony.

  • Posted By: Julia55 @ 01/24/2008 8:21:00 PM

    ABSOLUTELY agree with roncrow's post. Michelle Obama isn't going to convince me of anything because she's Black. As an African American female over 35, I've listened to her and she speaks highly of her husband and she says the things that hit all of the buzz words for those who aren't really listening. I've been listening. And still, race aside, sex aside, arguing during the debates aside, I'm still voting for Hillary Clinton.

  • Posted By: roncraw @ 01/24/2008 4:02:32 PM

    i beleive the Clintons are as "black" as Obama.ask any vet. civilrights leader and they can attest to the Clintons decades of work toward civilrights for all people.Obama was raised by a white mother and white granarents in a mostly white state.He spent hisearly years overseas where he didn't encounter racial discrimationas other children his age did. His participation in the civilrights movement was minimal at best.

  • Posted By: yellowdogtarheel @ 01/23/2008 3:42:59 PM

    Why does Barack not speak out directly on the issue of the "black experience" in America? Why has he not used his wonderful rhetorical skills to create hope for upward mobility for the african-american underclass? I - like most lifetime democrats - believe that the issue of structural poverty among african-americans is a legitimate topic. It cries out to be addressed as levels of inner city unemployment and multi-generational family breakdown are at epidemic levels. If Barack Obama shared the experience of black america then it would seem natural for him to speak about this issue. The awkward truth is that Barack Obama's background does not reflect the black american experience. Abandoned by his african father at an early age, his upbringing was left primarily to his caucasian feminist iconoclast mother. Then as he approached adolescence his mother sent him to live and be raised by his caucasian grandparents in Hawaii where he attended an elite private school... then to Columbia ... then Harvard Law. So where does Barack get off passing as a "Black American", using black dialect in the neighborhood, suggesting that he shares the experience of average folks - either black, brown or white? Perhaps we democrats are about to get short changed in this deal. Could we be about to elect as our first "black" President someone who has not a clue about how to reach down to the underclass for a hand up?

    • Posted By: Dems2008 @ 01/23/2008 5:55:08 PM

      Yellowdog, I think you raise some very good questions here. Barack has not lived the typical life of an African-American. I think that is part of the reason he chose work as a community organizer in Chicago - to see firsthand how typical African-Americans live, and the situations they expericne in every day life. Michelle actually did experience it as a child, so she certainly can talk about it, and I'm glad she does. I think Barack's campaign recognizes that he needs to run a fairly race-neutral campaign if he is to win and put himself in a position to really address the very issues you raise, such as structural poverty. I think this is why the Clinton campaign has tried to inject race as an issue; not that it is not important, but I think they want to force Barack into discussions of it in the hopes that he loses white and Latino support in the process.

  • Posted By: opinionsqueen252 @ 01/23/2008 4:44:10 PM

    First of all if that is true .09 more that caucasians make over African Americans is 3.60/week; 14.40/month; and 187.20/year based on a 40 hour work week. Mind you it really is not a lot of money and is barely enough to cover even one of my bills alone BUT why?? Why do white women make .09 more than black women??? What is the point?
    Secondly, Barack shouldn't touch base on his race. I am black and I am proud to be black. I was raised pretty well but I have lived on the worst side of things as well and I love the fact that Barack is out there setting an example of a smart strong African American man that could break through these hardships and be a man running for president. I love the approach he is taking toward hardship as a black man in America. Why the hell should he play on that in any way. Barack Obama is a man who is trying to run for president, leave it at that. Bush didn't have to talk about whatever hardships he may have had and neither does anyone else who runs for president. Sometimes as African Americans we cause ourselves more racism than is always neccessary. Lay off let the man be who he is ***!! He's balck, okay!!! What are his views on abortion and the war on Iraq? If you are African American let it be a plus that he is also but don't expect the man to have to be different and explain hardships as a black man. Being considered different is fuel for racism.
    Drop it!!! It is hard it is extremely hard the difference is you have people who dwell in that and are stagnant in overcoming these issues or you have people who try and push and break through and become president.



  • Posted By: pbr90 @ 01/23/2008 3:07:14 PM

    9 cents more is what white women make over black women.

    What looks good may not always be good in the direction of the country, and it's possible that the disparity in wages between men and women mean that all women should be for Hillary, not Barak Obama.

    9 cents difference cannot be enough upon which to base an election deeply rooted in economic equity on gender or race.

  • Posted By: surfish12 @ 01/23/2008 2:39:26 PM

    Did you mention who is getting the Trumpeter Award? I beleive it is Lewis Fahrakon. This should tell you alot about, not only the award but the media as well. When will the media begin to report the news instead of trying to create it?

  • Posted By: nowhutimsane @ 01/23/2008 2:09:21 PM

    I have a sincere question, this is not racist or a smart-ass. If it is against the law to discriminate in housing, education and employment. Affirmative Action gives minorites favored treatment in some employment and education opportunites. What and where is the discrimination that prevents African Americans from succeeding?

  • Posted By: wilk0243 @ 01/23/2008 1:23:11 PM

    http://www.newsweek.com/id/91424
    I hope that people are intelligent enough to take two minutes to do some real research before letting spam messages from sources like nvs9940 affect their opinions.

    I have no strong feelings against Hillary Clinton. I believe that she has the capability to succeed as president. And if she ends up with the democratic nomination, then I will gladly support her. However, I truly believe that Obama is the best person to lead our country out of its current mess. And as a white woman, I can honestly say that neither race nor gender had any play in my opinion.

    I can't help but respect anyone from a middle class background that works hard enough to get into Harvard Law School based solely on his own merits and not his or her last name. But then to also graduate at the top of his class and run the Harvard Law Review? He is an inspiration and a true reflection of what this country is all about. I am so very ready for someone that knows what being an average American is all about, not one that was born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

    And while some people choose to be afraid of Obama's foreign family and youth abroad, I think it makes him an even stronger candidate. He has a better idea of foreign cultures and opinions because of it. And at this point in time, where the US is viewed negatively by almost every other country, we are in desperate need of a president with foreign sensitivity. The US is a very small portion of the world and our status as world super power is slipping every day. The more we do to work harmoniously with other countries, the better off we will be.

    And those that say that he doesn't have any substance behind is talk of change and hope, are obviously too lazy to do a little digging before forming opinions. But besides that ... since when is having hope that peace is something to work towards a bad thing?

  • Posted By: williamsl @ 01/23/2008 1:05:20 PM

    nvs9940, this article is about Mrs. Obama and the help she gives to her husband. The post u did on "who is Barack Obama" has been on email which was written by either a black person (who thinks they have arrived) or a racist white person. Does he have control over what his church does? Is he running the church? If that's true. You should have been scared for your future 20 years ago, but if you want 24 years of bushes and clintons then cast your vote. If the choice is hillary then i will cross party lines. I think it's time for a total change.

  • Posted By: williamsl @ 01/23/2008 12:56:32 PM

    Americans have the same BS with them as in the 1400's till now. Blacks have been brained washed and think they have arrived and are accepted by white folks, for the most part that is not true. So to the black woman below nvs994, you need to wake up. Obama's church and who they named as man of the year doesn't have anything to do with him. The thing u posted "who is Barack Obama" is being sent around on email, started and sent by a black (that doesn't know he's black) or a racist white. If u want 24 years of bushes and clintons then vote of hillary. To tell the truth you should have been worried about your future 20 years ago, but you voted for who u thought your savior was.......

  • Posted By: jsu4193k @ 01/23/2008 6:59:22 AM

    nvs9940 ......You are just another paid dumb@ss and the Karma chasing this slime you are spreading about Obama is upon you now trust me. OBAMA IS A CHRISTIAN and all muslims aren't evil.

  • Posted By: FactCheck @ 01/22/2008 10:10:58 PM

    Xenophobia is an ugly thing. Especially for any citizen of a country that is only about 200 years old and built on the back of immigrants. Being isolationist does nothing for this country - check out the loss of our competitive edge in the world, our loss of connection with the trends of global transformation, the course of the global economy... Americans should be proud of the day they can stand tall again in the world because really, we're just a small part of this globe. And a quick correction to jameswest regarding white people pulling the racecard - White people has held the race card in this country since before its establishment as a sovereign nation. So no need to pull the race card, you know?

  • Posted By: Lady Yashica @ 01/21/2008 4:32:49 PM

    This isn't about race at all...it's about what Obama stands for, which no one seems to be able to figure out.
    Change, change, cjange, change, change....
    Change what?

    He's says the word all th time but doesn't seem to have any substance. come back in a few years when your are grown up and experienced and then we will se what you are made of.
    Wait

    • Posted By: jameswest @ 01/22/2008 7:03:01 PM

      Oh yes change change change. I do not want to see what kind of change he has for me, no thank you i will stay the same.

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