Race In America
Posted at 9:32am on Jun. 6, 2008 Obama, Bill Clinton, and the Race Card
Was Bill Clinton right?
By Kevin Holtsberry
Now that the Democratic Primary is finally over and Hillary has admitted defeat - or at least agreed to a phased withdrawal or whatever - allow me to throw something out there that I have been thinking about lately.
Was Bill Clinton right when he claimed that the Obama campaign played the race card on him? The conventional wisdom has always been that the former president used race to try and diminish Obama in South Carolina and it backfired. Then when asked about it he ridiculously claimed that the infamous race card had been played against him. But I am coming around to Bill's side of things.
This new perspective comes from having read A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win by Shelby Steele. Steele's book is well worth your time for its insights into the issue of race in America and into the unique position of Barack Obama as a presidential candidate.
For an explanation of why Obama had to play the race card, read on.
Posted in 2008 | 2008 Democratic Primary | Barack Obama | Bill Clinton | Race In America — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 4:26pm on Mar. 20, 2008 The Speech that Keeps on Giving
By Mark I
Answering a question from a local radio host this morning. Sen. Barack Obama showed that he wasn't satisfied with just throwing his white grandmother under the bus, he wants the whole race under there as well.
610 WIP host Angelo Cataldi asked Obama about his Tuesday morning speech on race at the National Constitution Center in which he referenced his own white grandmother and her prejudice. Obama told Cataldi that "The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity, but that she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know (pause) there's a reaction in her that doesn't go away and it comes out in the wrong way."
Wow.
It ain't toast yet. But the bread is browning.
Posted at 1:04am on Mar. 20, 2008 A Speech Of Peaks And Valleys
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
The reaction to Barack Obama's address on race has been as close to universally positive as any post-speech reaction that I have seen in a long time. To be sure, the speech itself is well-written and the stagecraft that accompanied it was pitch-perfect. Additionally, I have no problem saying that there is a great deal about the speech that I liked and approved of. Obama did point out--quite properly--that Jeremiah Wright's incendiary comments sounded like they were stuck in the past and reproached his pastor for thinking that we have not come a long way as a country since the worst days of racism. He should be applauded for that.
Yet, in a number of ways, Obama's speech fell short, both rhetorically and substantively. There has been a surplus of praise and relatively few critiquesof the speech. Maybe Obama just did such a brilliant job that no critiques are possible. But speechmaking is a human enterprise and Barack Obama--popular opinion to the contrary notwithstanding--is human. It should come as no surprise that there were shortcomings in the speech and given that Obama is running for the Presidency, it behooves us to examine those shortcomings thoroughly.
Read on . . .
Posted in Barack Obama | Miscellanea | Race In America — Comments (12)/ Email this page » / Read More »
