A Measure of Racism: 15?

by Roger Simon

was talking the other day to a prominent Republican who asked me what I thought John McCain's strongest issues would be in the general election.

Lower taxes and the argument he will be better able to protect America from its enemies, I said.

Republicans have a pretty good track record with those two.

The Republican shook his head. "You're missing the most important one," he said. "Race. McCain runs against Barack Obama and the race vote is worth maybe 15 percent to McCain."

The man I was talking to is not a racist; he was just stating what he believes to be a fact: There is a percentage of the American electorate who will simply not vote for a black person no matter what his qualities or qualifications.

How big is that percentage? An AP-Yahoo poll conducted April 2-14 found that "about 8 percent of whites would be uncomfortable voting for a black for president."

I don't know if 8 percent sounds high or low to you, but I was amazed that 8 percent of respondents were willing to admit this to a pollster. And I figure that the true figure is much higher.

The same poll, by the way, found that 15 percent of voters think Obama is a Muslim. He is, in fact, a Christian. But thinking a person is a Muslim probably does not encourage you to vote for him in America today.

And consider this little nugget from Monday's Washington Post, in a story by Kevin Merida and Jose Antonio Vargas datelined Scranton, Pa.:

(contd)

The face of desperation.

"Barack Obama's campaign opened a downtown office here on March 15, just in time for the annual St. Patrick's Day parade. It was not a glorious day for Team Obama. Some of the green signs the campaign had trucked in by the thousands were burned during the parade, and campaign volunteers -- white volunteers -- were greeted with racial slurs."

Signs burned? Racial slurs shouted out loud? In this day and age? Maybe that 15 percent estimate is low.

I am not suggesting for a second that McCain would exploit race in a campaign against Obama. He would not. But the real question is whether the racial issue has to be "exploited" at all. It is pretty powerful just sitting there on its own.

Ronald Reagan began his presidential campaign in 1980 by giving a speech at a county fair in Philadelphia, Miss., where three civil rights workers -- James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman -- had been murdered in 1964.

Reagan made no mention of the murders or civil rights in that speech but did say, "I believe in states' rights." "States' rights" was common code in those days for letting states discriminate against black people.

A few months ago, David Brooks, a conservative columnist for The New York Times, defended Reagan, claiming it is a "distortion" to say Reagan opened his campaign "with an appeal to racism."

But Brooks also wrote: "Reagan could have done something wonderful if he'd mentioned civil rights at the fair. He didn't. And it's obviously true that race played a role in the GOP's ascent."
(cont'd)

Interviewed by an MSNBC reporter, Bill Clinton denies saying what he was not only heard but recorded saying.

The audacity of the lying by this pair is simply breathtaking.

Just read that on MSNBC, he denies he said it. What a load of crock that guy is. Wait, I guess that all depends on what your definition of "is" is.

Of course, Obama's campaign is centered on playing the race card, garnering votes because black voters choose Obama because of race. It's obvious. But it has been taboo to note it. Why? Because the racism displayed by blacks might motivate whites to similarly cluster their votes based on the race of the candidate?

Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Why are dems so obcessed with race?

Why are dems so obcessed with race?

Furthermore, how can race be a factor when Obama is half white? Why do people call him a black man? I simply do not understand America's obsession with putting labels on people -- especially labels that are not fully accurate.

I just like how people are continually shocked that Bill is a pathological liar. Must be short memories.

I love Bill Clinton... the guy is really helping us out.

When Obama takes the nomination, can anyone take seriously Bill's endorsement of his campaign...

When Obama takes the nomination, can anyone take seriously Bill's endorsement of his campaign...


The good little sheeple will be told that Bubba is again on the good list and to absorb his every word. All will be well in leftyland once again.

"I love Bill Clinton... the guy is really helping us out.

Posted by Rob_The_A_Hole at 2008-04-22 05:45 PM"

I disagree. He's helping Obama, and you and yours would have a much better chance with Hillary than Obama.

I disagree. He's helping Obama, and you and yours would have a much better chance with Hillary than Obama.

Posted by mOntecOre

Hillary does better against McCain in Ohio and Florida (actually she's beating him in recent Florida Polls)...

But those states aren't all that important important...

And Bill Clinton still is very much liked by Democrats... further McCain is viewed by many as a Moderate/Independent Republican... maybe Clinton's obvious dislike of Obama and his team along with all the former Clinton staffers who are "betraying" his wife, will push some of Clinton's support to McCain...

"And Bill Clinton still is very much liked by Democrats... "

Of course, you're the voice of the party.

Why are dems so obcessed with race?

Posted by fwthom

They thrive on having the US busted into a whole bunch of little groups.

Of course, you're the voice of the party.

Posted by Dumb_as_Rocks

Whoops you're right... Democrats despise Bill Clinton... my mistake...

fucking dumbass...

Recognizing you have a problem shows you are on the road to recovery. Or not.

Bill plays the reverse racism card AND the victim card?

Wow, Hillary musta lent him one of her extra decks!

Next time try crying, BillzaBubba!

Worked fer Hilldawg once.

Be Well.

especially labels that are not fully accurate.

Posted by goatman at 2008-04-22 05:33 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag: (Choose)
FunnyNewsworthyOffensiveAbusiv
e


I just like how people are continually shocked that Bill is a pathological liar. Must be short memories.

Posted by Spanky at 2008-04-22 05:42 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag: (Choose)
FunnyNewsworthyOffensiveAbusiv
e



interesting that you say this...goat.....I have heard him more and more described as biracial....
on purpose, perhaps.


and spanky..you are so correct and just LOOK AT THE HYPOCRACY.

people who curse and insult me for bringing up the night that blowjobbilly looked me in the eye and lied about sex with that woman are now clearly on the anyone named clinton is a liar bandwagon......and thats kind of interesting too.

"and spanky..you are so correct and just LOOK AT THE HYPOCRACY."

How many times do illiterates like you have to hear that the correct spelling is "hypocrisy"?

I laughed when I saw this story this morning.

Only a Clinton would try to dismiss Obama's victory in SC by invoking Jesse Jackson and then cry about Obama playing the race card. Gotta give him credit for having some set of balls though.

HIllary Clinton has a much better chance against MCBush than Obama. The stupid democrats just don;t get it. Its not about popular vote, its not about total delegates in the democratic primary, its about the primary election.

And in the primary election, guess freaking what? The states HIllary owns are the only damn ones that matter.

But the democrats don't get it, and are just stupid.

I hope Obama gets the nomination, so we can watch him get utterly destroyed in Florida.

Another Republican Win, thanks to dumbass democrat strategy.

You dems had this election FREE, so easy. After Bush, you could elect even Biden. Anyone really. But you guys just don't it.

Keep posting nonsensical nation polls of Obama VS McBush, and then reflect how damn stupid that is.

The entire election is only about a couple states, thats it. And florida is #1 on that list, you don't win florida, your in toruble.

You stupid democrats. LOL so funny.

Kuma

Kuma

You're right, Kuma, because we all know that the HIllary voters in those states will vote for McCain over Obama in the general election. Goof.

shut up der slick. god has a special place in hell for you, you lying sack of shit.

Fucking crazy-assed Florida.

I laughed when I saw this story this morning.

Only a Clinton would try to dismiss Obama's victory in SC by invoking Jesse Jackson and then cry about Obama playing the race card. Gotta give him credit for having some set of balls though.

Posted by Sully


That's not balls. Look at his eyes. It's something else altogether.

B.J. Bill proved himself to be lying white trash long before Obama or his own charming wife entered the picture.

She's proving it for herself in her own sweet way.

How can people continue to drink the garbage they both continually spew and not become violently ill...?

Even half a world away I get more than I can handle.

I just like how people are continually shocked that Bill is a pathological liar. Must be short memories.


A year or so ago, had you made any comment about Bill Clinton and his knack for not telling the truth, you'd be greeted by sneers and jeers and "so what? He got a blow job."

Now, those libs who would have defended him months ago are shocked. They're appalled. They can't believe that the "bestest president ever!" is a lying piece of shit. Even after he admitted to being a lying piece of shit on national television, they still can't believe it. Which makes me question their reasons for voting for Obama.


Why are dems so obcessed with race?


Sure the Republicans used race as a wedge issue. There's no denying that republicans have had some pretty dispicable people among its ranks, but to say that the democrats are the party of tolerance and acceptance is fucking hilarious.

My home town is full of people who consistently vote democrat in both local, state and national elections. They're also some of the most intollerant people I have ever met. The mentality is that it's 'us white folk' against 'them black folk', but they're all voting for the same person come election time.

The dems and repubs can't seem to get it into thier heads that it ain't about race, it's about social class and where you are on that ladder.

The people voting for Billary are lower class whites (normally it would have been lower class blacks too but...) and older whites. In other words the Entitlement class. The movers and the shakers in America are going with Obama because they have a working brain.

I have never met a these dispicable republican you talk about.

They must live in another country.
Perhaps France

"43% of Clinton voters in PA said they will either sit out or vote for McCain in November."

My guess is that they are lying. There is virtually no ideological difference between Hillary and Obama. That is why we rarely see them debate the issues - their stance on almost every issue is nearly identical. I find it extremely hard to believe that that many people would stay home or vote McCain over voting for an ideological clone of their favorite democrat.

Agreed that's way to high to be accurate, but what if its half? That may be enough to give PA to McCain...

My guess is that they did not like being called gun-toting, Bible-thumping, xenophobic bigots, and are telling the truth.

Chapter i - LOOMINGS
page 1
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs - commerce surrounds it with her surf. Right and left, the streets take you waterward. Its extreme down-town is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and cooled by breezes, which a few hours previous were out of sight of land. Look at the crowds of water-gazers there.

Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon. Go from Corlears Hook to Coenties Slip, and from thence, by Whitehall northward. What do you see? - Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries. Some leaning against the spiles; some seated upon the pier-heads; some looking over the bulwarks


------------------------------
------------------------------
--------------------

page 2
of ships from China; some high aloft in the rigging, as if striving to get a still better seaward peep. But these are all landsmen; of week days pent up in lath and plaster - tied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks. How then is this? Are the green fields gone? What do they here?

But look! here come more crowds, pacing straight for the water, and seemingly bound for a dive. Strange! Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land; loitering under the shady lee of yonder warehouses will not suffice. No. They must get just as nigh the water as they possibly can without falling in. And there they stand - miles of them - leagues. Inlanders all, they come from lanes and alleys, streets and avenues, - north, east, south, and west. Yet here they all unite. Tell me, does the magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses of all those ships attract them thither?

Once more. Say, you are in the country; in some high land of lakes. Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it. Let the most absent- minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries - stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region. Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor. Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever.

But here is an artist. He desires to paint you the dreamiest, shadiest, quietest, most enchanting bit of romantic landscape in all the valley of the Saco. What is the chief element he employs? There stand his trees, each with a hollow trunk, as if a hermit and a crucifix were within; and here sleeps his meadow, and there sleep his cattle; and up from yonder cottage goes a sleepy smoke. Deep into distant woodlands winds a mazy way, reaching to overlapping spurs of mountains bathed in their hill-side blue. But though the picture lies thus tranced, and though this pine-tree shakes down its sighs like leaves upon this shepherd's head, yet all were vain, unless the shepherd's eye were fixed upon the magic stream before him. Go visit the Prairies in June,


------------------------------
------------------------------
--------------------

page 3
when for scores on scores of miles you wade knee-deep among Tiger- lilies - what is the one charm wanting? - Water - there is not a drop of water there! Were Niagara but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to see it? Why did the poor poet of Tennessee, upon suddenly receiving two handfuls of silver, deliberate whether to buy him a coat, which he sadly needed, or invest his money in a pedestrian trip to Rockaway Beach? Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go to sea? Why upon your first voyage as a passenger, did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land? Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother of Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.

Now, when I say that I am in the habit of going to sea whenever I begin to grow hazy about the eyes, and begin to be over conscious of my lungs, I do not mean to have it inferred that I ever go to sea as a passenger. For to go as a passenger you must needs have a purse, and a purse is but a rag unless you have something in it. Besides, passengers get sea-sick - grow quarrelsome - don't sleep of nights - do not enjoy themselves much, as a general thing; - no, I never go as a passenger; nor, though I am something of a salt, do I ever go to sea as a Commodore, or a Captain, or a Cook. I abandon the glory and distinction of such offices to those who like them. For my part, I abominate all honorable respectable toils, trials, and tribulations of every kind whatsoever. It is quite as much as I can do to take care of myself, without taking care of ships, barques, brigs, schooners, and what not. And as for going as cook, - though I confess there is considerable glory in that, a cook being a sort of officer on ship-board - yet, somehow, I never fancied broiling fowls; - though once broiled, judiciously buttered, and judgmatically salted and peppered, there is no one who will

I know that any defense made against any charge against the Clinton campaign is seen as a lie or a deflection, but did anybody even read this article?

"We were talking about South Carolina political history and this was used out of context and twisted for political purposes by the Obama campaign to try to breed resentment elsewhere. And you know, do I regret saying it? No. Do I regret that it was used that way? I certainly do. But you really got to go some to try to portray me as a racist."

That's exactly the way it worked. Especially at blogs like this one. I don't know how anybody could claim otherwise.

Even Obama's denial was a purposeful misunderstanding of what Clinton's statement. That is incredibly Bushian.

if race plays apart in 2008 election it won't be the black vote that causes it -it's 90% dem any -i do think race will play apart in election- at present a higher percentage of dems say they will cross party lines and vote rep then vice versa
jasman