Game Change and the future of Harry Reid

[evkl]

Let me get this straight: A white cop arrests a black man with reason and Obama immediately jumps in without knowing the facts, calling it racism, but when Harry Reid makes direct racist comments about him, he has little to say except "It's okay"?

Minor caveat: both of your facts are wrong here. Other than that, exactly!

 

[Eredar Warlock]

It's not as directly racist as you seem to imply, Pheonicks. However, it is enough to cause him to swallow his toes.

 

[Nando]

It's not as directly racist as you seem to imply, Pheonicks. However, it is enough to cause him to swallow his toes.

That really seems like the exact sum of this all in the end.

 

[Phoenicks]

Minor caveat: both of your facts are wrong here. Other than that, exactly!

Obama said that the Cambridge cops 'acted stupidly'. He later said that he was hasty in calling them that. If we ignore the racial undertones of that incident, then we can say that Obama's acceptance of Reid's apology 'without question' was consistant.

It's not as directly racist as you seem to imply, Pheonicks. However, it is enough to cause him to swallow his toes.

I don't see Obama getting annoyed over this remark, do you? That's all I'm pointing out: herding the president's health care bill gives you more racial immunities than arresting his friend.

 

[evkl]

Let me get this straight: A white cop arrests a black man with reason and Obama immediately jumps in without knowing the facts, calling it racism, but when Harry Reid makes direct racist comments about him, he has little to say except "It's okay"?

Well, re-evaluating your statement, it's still...very wrong. A white cop arrested a black guy without cause. And Obama said the police "acted stupidly." Which I think the facts pretty much bore out. The guy was arrested for being in his own home. Do you really think a white guy would get the same treatment?

Harry Reid's statement wasn't racist. As I already mentioned.

 

[Big Lutz]

Well, re-evaluating your statement, it's still...very wrong. A white cop arrested a black guy without cause. And Obama said the police "acted stupidly." Which I think the facts pretty much bore out. The guy was arrested for being in his own home. Do you really think a white guy would get the same treatment?

Yes I do, because the man was screaming his head off at a cop and going crazy at him, in his own house or in the middle of a mall you do not do that to a cop. The cop by the way was some one who had been teaching racial profiling classes for years but you know, pesky facts.

Harry Reid's statement wasn't racist. As I already mentioned.

Alright, then alot of people owe Rush Limbaugh a apology for saying he was a racist after airing the song "Barack the Magic Negro" because the left sure did believe Negro was a racial word before Harry Reid uttered it.

Edit: Wow look what a little searching can find, apparently Negro was also considered a racist word over here too a year ago by more than a few people as well.

'Magic Negro' Satire, RNC Candidate Says

 

[Satoshi-chan]

"Barack the Magic Negro" was mocking, the comment in question in this thread was more of praise.

That would be the difference between saying to a gay man "you're so gay," and "you know, you don't act like a stereotypical gay man, you'll do better in politics."

 

[Eredar Warlock]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/01/12/coalition-supporting-reid-negro-remark-starts-crack/

The coalition of Democrats and civil rights leaders supporting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the wake of his controversial remark about President Obama cracked a bit Tuesday, as one Senate Democrat said he wasn't sure Reid should keep his leadership post and the niece of Martin Luther King Jr. blasted the Nevada Democrat.

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., told a local television station late Monday that he's still mulling whether Reid should stay or step down after Reid was quoted in a book saying Obama in 2008 could benefit from being light-skinned and not having a "Negro dialect" unless he wants one.

"I'm thinking about that and we're going to be getting together as a caucus next week, and that topic will come up. I have not decided whether these comments merit that or not," Feingold told ABC affiliate WISN. "They're very unfortunate. They should have never been said. So I need to think about it."

Other leading Democrats, including President Obama, have accepted Reid's apology, while conceding that he used inappropriate language. Critics have said it's not Obama who needs an apology but Americans who Reid presumed would hesitate to vote for a black man.

Reid said Monday that he "could have used a better choice of words," and he signaled that he's moving on.

"We have a lot to do," Reid said. "I feel good about people reaching out to me. I've apologized to the president. ... I'm not going to dwell on this anymore."

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton and the NAACP expressed support for Reid. But Alveda King, the niece of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, released a statement on Tuesday calling Reid's comment "sadly outrageous."

"If Michael Steele or any other conservative had said anything like it, the remarks would be labeled racist and plastered over every available news outlet," King said. "What would my uncle and my father think, to hear such things from one of the most powerful leaders in the country? Their 'beloved community' is sorely threatened when racism rears its ugly head once again."

Steele, the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee, is among those Republicans calling for Reid to step down. He and others say Democrats are operating by a double-standard, since they were insistent that former Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott step down in 2002 after he praised the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, a former segregationist, at his 100th birthday party.

Feingold said Lott's remarks were more insensitive than Reid's.

Obama, in an interview with TV One, called Reid a "stalwart champion ... of civil rights" and a "good man" who meant no offense.

"For him to have used some inartful language in trying to praise me, and for people to try to make hay out of that makes absolutely no sense," Obama said. "He apologized, recognizing that he didn't use appropriate language, but there was nothing mean-spirited in what he had to say and he's always been on the right side of the issues."

Nevada's other senator, John Ensign, a Republican, said Monday that lawmakers should accept Reid's apology. Republican Sens. John McCain and Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, said a determination on Reid's fate should be made among Nevada voters and the Democratic caucus, respectively.

So King Jr.'s niece is mad at Reid, and now some Democrats are questioning their stance on it.

EDIT: Niece, not daughter. >.>

 

[Phoenicks]

Well, re-evaluating your statement, it's still...very wrong. A white cop arrested a black guy without cause. And Obama said the police "acted stupidly." Which I think the facts pretty much bore out. The guy was arrested for being in his own home. Do you really think a white guy would get the same treatment?

Do you really know anything about the case? His arrest had nothing to do with his skin and everything to do with his behavior.

To your question, I don't know, as I can't predict what may have been. Can you?

Harry Reid's statement wasn't racist. As I already mentioned.

Because he's an old man and grew up in that era? Sure, but by that logic, Lott's comment wasn't racist either. I definently remember that Lott lost his speakership in that incident...

 

[Nando]

Color me thoroughly shocked that this is actually the biggest story coming out of this book.

 

[Big Lutz]

Color me thoroughly shocked that this is actually the biggest story coming out of this book.

Well it could be because it is a sitting politican, there are other stories that are coming out. Palin's inexperience in history, Bill Clinton's disgustingly rude remark about Obama, Hillary Clinton cheering about a event that she was publically against, the implication Bill Clinton had a second affair in 2006, the rivalries and anger that took place in the Republican campaign in 2007 and early 2008, and of course the self destruction of John Edwards who apparently was a egomaniac and pretty much a monster.

The problem is that most of these were told by aids, which means the story may or may not be true, and could be a bit spiced up to make the aid look better for a failed campaign, or if they hold a grudge against a person. With Harry Reid we have gotten a acknowledgment that this actually happened.

"Barack the Magic Negro" was mocking, the comment in question in this thread was more of praise.

That would be the difference between saying to a gay man "you're so gay," and "you know, you don't act like a stereotypical gay man, you'll do better in politics."

That is a poor comparison as Gay is more of a descriptive term for a minority these days and has little of the hatred and racism attached to it that Negro does. A better comparison would be

"You're such a fag" and "You know, you don't act like other fags, you'll do better in politics" both are horrible insults, and the second is more of a backhanded slap at the gay community which this was as well.

 

[Nando]

Honestly, I figured that the alarming lack of historical awareness on the part of a very viable candidate for President in 2012 would be the bigger story, but whatever.

That or the John Edwards thing, which is obviously the most salacious of the lot.

 

[Big Lutz]

Honestly, I figured that the alarming lack of historical awareness on the part of a very viable candidate for President in 2012 would be the bigger story, but whatever.

That or the John Edwards thing, which is obviously the most salacious of the lot.

Part of the problem comes from the source, with the Harry Reid comment, Harry Reid verified it with the author. With the Sarah Palin stuff you have it coming from Steve Schmidt, who has been feuding with Sarah Palin since the end of the campaign, and has said a few lies about her, so the authenticity of it can be called into question because of the source. And really to be fair Steve Schmidt's job is on the line, he was a big part of the McCain campaign, and he has everything on the line to make it look like he wasn't the one that caused the campaign to fail, which is pretty much what started this feud which has been on and off again all year, and ramped up when Palin shot back at him in her book.

 

[Satoshi-chan]

That is a poor comparison as Gay is more of a descriptive term for a minority these days and has little of the hatred and racism attached to it that Negro does. A better comparison would be

"You're such a fag" and "You know, you don't act like other fags, you'll do better in politics" both are horrible insults, and the second is more of a backhanded slap at the gay community which this was as well.

Consider that Negro was once a term that was not used to speak against a citizen of African lineage, and was somewhat politically correct... whereas "fag" when used toward a homosexual has never been used for anything but to harm... the term gay on the other hand is closer to negro, a term that is not always used to verbally abuse another person, but unfortunately is.

I had reasons for choosing the word I chose.

 

[Big Lutz]

Figured I would do a delete and repost because, apparently what was said in Game Change about Bill Clinton having a second affair turned out to be true, from the Huffington Post via Gateway Pundit

In February, 2008, while I was covering the Texas Democratic primary for HuffPost’s OffTheBus, I voluntarily passed on an opportunity to write about former president Bill Clinton’s longtime mistress. With considerable amusement, therefore, I anticipate reading Game Change, Mark Halperin’s and John Heilemann’s salacious new book about the 2008 presidential race, which will be released tomorrow, because they apparently rush in where I feared to tread. “After some discreet fact-finding, the [Hillary campaign staff] concluded that [the rumors] were true: that Bill was indeed having an affair,” H & H write. “For months, thereafter, the war room within a war room braced for the explosion, which her aides knew could come at any moment.” That moment could have occurred during the Texas primary.

Here is an excerpt from my book Notes from a Clueless Journalist: Media, Bias and the Great Election of 2008, where I discuss my decision not to write the story. In part, Clueless is an account of the painful and arduous method of learning journalism by doing it. As a neophyte, I had presumed to think I could cover the presidential election with no bias or partisan agenda. But Texas taught me that any reporter, like the snail carrying her house, always brings to storytelling a certain amount of personal baggage. As an unpaid citizen journalist, on the other hand, I could make choices about which other reporters could only dream. In Texas, I discovered that this enormous power was a Faustian gift.

Sometimes I thought that years of travel had taught me only one thing: to distinguish between observation and conclusion. I know what I’m looking at, but what am I really seeing? Driving back to Houston from Victoria that evening, I knew I had witnessed something significant–but did not know what. Not until the week before the Pennsylvania primary, at a midnight rally with Bill Clinton in Puerto Rican Philadelphia, did I realize that what I had seen two months before in Texas had been the specific problem Bill posed, not Hillary’s campaign itself. Managing former President Clinton must have been like trying to herd a rogue elephant. Huma Abedin, Hillary’s long-suffering and loyal aide, looked frazzled as she walked through downtown Victoria. The day when Bill Clinton had been a stellar asset to his wife’s campaign had come and gone. The autumn book-and-fundraising tour might as well have been years and not just a season ago…

At the time I covered the rally in Victoria, I had decided not to follow up on another story about Bill Clinton that had come my way–one involving his longtime mistress. I mention the nature of the Clinton story with some specificity now only because months later, after the Democratic primaries, the National Enquirer wrote about the relationship. In Texas, staring this story in the face, immediately I turned aside. If I know all about this woman, then surely every national reporter does and is as wary of the story as I am. Nevertheless, I was careful never to mention anything to anybody at OffTheBus.

I don't really know what to say, I will say I feel sorry for Hillary, and do have respect for her, they could have let this leak when the polls started to favor Obama, control the story and work the sympathy angle, but she didn't.

Consider that Negro was once a term that was not used to speak against a citizen of African lineage, and was somewhat politically correct... whereas "fag" when used toward a homosexual has never been used for anything but to harm... the term gay on the other hand is closer to negro, a term that is not always used to verbally abuse another person, but unfortunately is.

I had reasons for choosing the word I chose.

Except as I have already said, Negro became a racist and derogatory term toward Blacks at the end of the 60s. Gay by and large is as much of a derogatory term as blacks as the word Black.

 

[TTEchidna]

That's totally gay.

Stop acting black.

Personally, I'd never vote for someone who couldn't articulate themselves in proper English, black or white, to the Presidency.

And of course, hey, I think this is one more reason why we need to start getting our generation into office. We won't make stupid comments for another fifty years!