JonMSM, January 15 at 7:13 am #

Obama got elected, not because his color, but because he’s the opposite of Bush

Obama got elected because he spent seven hundred million mostly corporate dollars convincing the electorate that he was a progressive and a man dedicated to peace. He governs as a George Bush clone.

Obama got elected, not because his color, but because he’s the opposite of Bush
aka. he’s smarter than a ten year old.  For Reid to equate Obama’s election with
his skin color and nothing else is a pretty stupid thing to do.  It’d be more
accurate to say that Obama would have gotten more votes if he weren’t half black,
but what’s the point anyway unless you’re just trying to start a controversy.  I
actually like Reid more now.  He’s making use of the first amendment like a good
American.  At least that’s one thing our country has going for it, and I think Harry
Reid is on the right side, but maybe he needs to just shut up for a while.  It’s only unfortunate that hate filled and ignorant voices
like Limbaugh are the ones that get the most hype.

Unfortunately for Reid, he didn’t have the correct
racial characteristics to be allowed to remark upon
well-known and widely discussed truisms. Alas, such is
the ugly face of racism and race obsession. Not a full
pardon from the president, nor a more than full pardon
from the civil rights organizations by whom he is so
deservedly beloved, could ever have made up for the
crime of his race. Republicans and Democrats never
cease to amaze me. They are completely insane.

That’s a great translation gerard.  And you’re right I am a wishful thinker. 
Hopefully all this senseless and archaic debate about skin color will just fade away
into the 1960’s where it came from and the sooner the better.  Besides if skin
color had anything to do with it then why did Obama get elected in the first place?

How to do a Harry Reid double-whammy:
  “Reid is an naive jackass!” (personal insult+name-calling)
  “Can he possibly be so naive that he thinks it’s okay to say stupid shit like that?”  (Personal insult + “dirty” language which many people think is “not okay”)
“Senator Reid along with the other whacko, Pat Robinson,...” (name-calling + incorrect spelling)
  “are surely living in an alternate universe.  Apparently it’s before the 1960’s!  Stupid old dinosaurs.” (name-calling) (age prejudice) “When
will they ever go extinct?”) (wishful thinking)

  Translated into “Shakespearean English”
  “Alas, that your scrum Sir Reid has the misfortune to have been born as that most humble form of human transport which bore our humble Jesus along the road to Golgotha!  How is it that his manner of speech is so corrupt?  Has he no reins to control the errant flapping of his tongue? He and that divine pisspot Sir Robertson are surely residing on the dark side of the moon during the Pelloponnesian Wars when the Oracles of old issued edicts more given to false prophesy than to wisdom. Bring on your ale cups, Falstaff.  We’ll drink them both to hell!”

Reid is an naive jackass!  Can he possibly be so naive that he thinks it’s okay to
say stupid shit like that?  Senator Reid along with the other whacko, Pat Robinson,
are surely living in an alternate universe.  Apparently it’s before the 1960’s!!! 
Stupid old dinosaurs.  When will they ever go extinct?

RE Conason: “What did Reid say that outraged these racially sensitive Republicans?”

Yes, it’s not like Republicans are interested in being good role models for America’s youth – just listen to their public air wave hero Limbaugh:

“If homosexuality being inborn is what makes it acceptable, why does racism being inborn not make racism acceptable?” the talk show host asked. “I’m sorry — I mean, this is the way my mind works. “

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/09/17/limbaugh-we-need-segregated-buses/

I don’t agree about racism.  As the word is usually defined, it requires that one believe that races exist physically, that race can be determined rationally, that race determines behavior, and that something political should be done about those facts—usually, by putting the supposedly superior race in charge of the other races.  I strongly doubt that Reid believes in any of that.  In fact his remarks suggest a perception that color-consciousness in the U.S. has become more Latin American, where lightness of color is preferred not as an indicator of ancestry, but aesthetically, or as a matter of class (the upper classes are usually lighter-complected because they have more European ancestry, and because they select lighter-complected mates even when going outside their class).  Had some ordinary academic or other observer of American culture said what Reid did, nobody would have cared.

However, Reid is in an extremely sensitive position to be throwing around race-related speculations as he did.  Race is one of the third rails of American politics.  Reid’s chosen job is not to speculate about the effect of pigment on social status but to manage the Senate Democrats and thus the Senate, since the Democrats are the majority.  Stumbling around on the third rail is not the way to do it.

Which makes me wonder, yet again, why Reid is the majority leader.  Maybe dumbness is thought to be a desirable quality?

I think Reid does have a dumb gene floating around in there someplace.

If the characteristics of race, whether skin tone or dialect, are used as a basis for political judgements as to electability, then the person making the judgement is a racist, pure and simple.  Racism, even when benevolent, is still racism.

By making these comments, Reid has shown himself to be racist in his inner thinking.  Benevolent, or not, it is unacceptable.  Though, I would not expect him to resign over it.  Otherwise the whole senate and house would have to resign.

I have to say that I find it odd that Reid made such remarks where anybody could hear him.  Maybe he’s dumb?

Re Conason: “Segregation Forever” & “the Magic Negro.”

It’s fairly obvious that if there were no politicians like Strom Thurmond using slogans like “Segregation Forever” to promote racist policies, and if there were no news celebrities like Rush Limbaugh trying to stir up trouble and polluting our air waves with racist jingles like “the magic negro,” other politicans like Reid would not even be discussing dialects and the color on a candidates skin.

I agree Joe Conason, it is insane for the Republicans, who have been the source of so much overt racism (and the spur for so much of the racism that has enveloped so much of our media) to dare then try to oust Reid for his mis-statement. They are total hypocrites.

Re: ardee

Your comment: “Let us not forget that both parties are filled with really dumb people”

Tut…tut…and tut!  Hey, speak for yourself… don’t speak for the other side, they have their own voice and OBVIOUSLY have done fine without you.

Let us not forget that both parties are filled with really dumb people, most of whom enrich themselves dramatically while selling out this nation.

Reid’s clumsy remarks do indeed carry a germ of truth but the brouhaha surrounding them is just another in a seemingly endless panoply of negativity from the GOP seeking to restore itself to power and a helplessness and stuttering and staggeringly stupid response or lack thereof from the Democrats.

To expect Republicans to “play fair” is not only naive, it is idiotic. 

Hypocrisy is irrelevant to them. Facts are irrelevant to them.

Only regaining power matters to the GOP, and BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!