Jacque
17 Feb 2007, 07:46 PM
Too Sense: Wall Street Journal Claims Obama is "Unelectable" Because of Name, Race (http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/obamawatch/2007/01/too_sense_wall_.html)
"Mr. Obama exudes the charisma, authenticity and optimism that many Democrats find lacking in Mrs. Clinton. Yet while he was raised in Hawaii by his white mother and grandparents from Kansas, his public identity is defined by the African skin and Muslim name inherited from his late father, Barack Hussein Obama, of Kenya. Inevitably Democrats ask: Would Americans elect an African-American, and one whose name rhymes with the terrorist they most revile?"
The Obama Illusion
Presidential ambitions from the start (http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Feb2007/street0207.html)
"If the Democrats? candidate in 2008 is Obama, we can be sure that the right-wing Republican noise machine will denounce the nation?s potential first non-white male president as a dangerous ?leftist.? The charge will be absurd, something that will hardly stop numerous people on the portside of the narrow U.S. political spectrum from claiming Obama as a fellow ?progressive.? Certain to be encouraged by Obama and his handlers, this confusion will reflect the desperation and myopia that shaky thinking and the limited choices of the U.S. electoral system regularly instill in liberals and some squishy near leftists."
The right attacks Obama's identity (race and name), though not his pro-business positions. The left attacks his ideaology. People I've talked to said that they would vote for him if they thought America was "ready" for a black president. So here we have the institutional racism of the Wall Street Journal (Business/Media), the dissonant racism of the American people, and the you're-a-traitor-to-your-skin racism of the Progressive left wing. With friends like these, who needs racists.
I must state, however, that I'm still skeptical of Obama the person, but impressed with the idea of Obama as the first black presidential contender. That would create opportunities and set precedents for presidential candidates of color. I'm not pleased with what America currently has to offer in terms of leadership, but I'm extremely hopeful in what America might offer in future when the our options as voters expand with a diversified playing field. Though much more could be said on our decrepit election system.
"Mr. Obama exudes the charisma, authenticity and optimism that many Democrats find lacking in Mrs. Clinton. Yet while he was raised in Hawaii by his white mother and grandparents from Kansas, his public identity is defined by the African skin and Muslim name inherited from his late father, Barack Hussein Obama, of Kenya. Inevitably Democrats ask: Would Americans elect an African-American, and one whose name rhymes with the terrorist they most revile?"
The Obama Illusion
Presidential ambitions from the start (http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Feb2007/street0207.html)
"If the Democrats? candidate in 2008 is Obama, we can be sure that the right-wing Republican noise machine will denounce the nation?s potential first non-white male president as a dangerous ?leftist.? The charge will be absurd, something that will hardly stop numerous people on the portside of the narrow U.S. political spectrum from claiming Obama as a fellow ?progressive.? Certain to be encouraged by Obama and his handlers, this confusion will reflect the desperation and myopia that shaky thinking and the limited choices of the U.S. electoral system regularly instill in liberals and some squishy near leftists."
The right attacks Obama's identity (race and name), though not his pro-business positions. The left attacks his ideaology. People I've talked to said that they would vote for him if they thought America was "ready" for a black president. So here we have the institutional racism of the Wall Street Journal (Business/Media), the dissonant racism of the American people, and the you're-a-traitor-to-your-skin racism of the Progressive left wing. With friends like these, who needs racists.
I must state, however, that I'm still skeptical of Obama the person, but impressed with the idea of Obama as the first black presidential contender. That would create opportunities and set precedents for presidential candidates of color. I'm not pleased with what America currently has to offer in terms of leadership, but I'm extremely hopeful in what America might offer in future when the our options as voters expand with a diversified playing field. Though much more could be said on our decrepit election system.