In the last 72 hours we have learned that three Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, former President Bill Clinton and Rod Blagojevich, disgraced former Governor of Illinois, have all made comments about President Barack Obama that involved race.
Reid's comments are the least offensive of the three, however because he is the Senate majority leader and therefore the only one who has something to lose he is the one that the media and the GOP will focus on and put in the hot seat.
Clinton and Blagojevich have no power, no official standing so their comments cannot be leveraged/manufactured for political theater, even though what they said was much worse.
Reid used racially insensitive language as he PRAISED Obama, while both Clinton and Blagojevich made racist comments while attacking Obama.
Lets look at the three comments and tell me why Reid is the one getting the heat.
Reid on Obama as paraphased in the book Game Changers: "He [Reid] was wowed by Obama's oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama -- a 'light-skinned' African American 'with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,' "
Clinton on Obama to the Sen. Ted Kennedy: "a few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee."
Blagojevich on Obama: It's such a cynical business, and most of the people in the business are full of sh** and phonies, but I was real, man — and am real. This guy, he was catapulted in on hope and change, what we *hope* the guy is. What the f***? Everything he's saying's on the teleprompter. I'm blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived. I saw it all growing up.
Looking at Reid's comments you might actually view them as more of an indictment of the electorate, the majority of which is white, rather than a criticism or insult of President Obama.
The media and the GOP are not interested in any kind of productive discussions on race and racism, they care more about instigating political theater. If the media showed any kind of understanding of race and racism Harry Reid wouldn't be the one on the hot seat today.
Showing posts with label Rod Blagojevich. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rod Blagojevich. Show all posts
Monday, January 11, 2010
Friday, February 06, 2009
College buddy writing in Men's Journal tells of Blago's crank calls. . .
. . .dining and ditching, and early fascination with Nixon.
This is an interesting take on Blago by one of his buddies from Northwestern University.
Men's Journal: My Best Friend Blago
During college, Rod Blagojevich loved to make crank calls to radio stations, remained true to Elvis, worshipped Reagan, identified intensely with Nixon, and was already honing his craft.
By Bill Powell
I used to go yo-hoing with the most disgraced politician in America. After a night carousing in Chicago, when we were both undergrads at Northwestern University in the late 1970s, a group of us would occasionally end up at a 24-hour diner called the Gold Coin, where we’d have a very early breakfast. And once or twice, just for hoots, we would “yo-ho.” That was our term for running out before paying the bill, thus stiffing some poor waitress working the overnight shift out of a five- or 10- dollar tip. In our youthful, drunken stupor, we thought this was hilarious.
God, we could be such assholes. To this day, 30 years down the road, it makes me shudder just thinking about it.
He’s “Blago” to you by now, the heretofore little-known politician with the unpronounceable last name and the funny head of hair. His hair, we’ve been told for the last several months, is ridiculous. To me it’s the same hair he had in college. I didn’t think it was particularly weird then, and I don’t think it is now. But that’s the thing about this American freak show that I’ve watched unfold from afar: The plethora of Blago hair jokes is the least of my confusion.
Occasionally, someone we know well becomes famous. Sometimes it happens for good reasons. Friends of “Sully,” the US Airways pilot, were delighted to tell stories about the guy they know after he landed a plane in the Hudson River. Then there are cases like Rod’s.
-snip-
This is an interesting take on Blago by one of his buddies from Northwestern University.
Men's Journal: My Best Friend Blago
During college, Rod Blagojevich loved to make crank calls to radio stations, remained true to Elvis, worshipped Reagan, identified intensely with Nixon, and was already honing his craft.
By Bill Powell
I used to go yo-hoing with the most disgraced politician in America. After a night carousing in Chicago, when we were both undergrads at Northwestern University in the late 1970s, a group of us would occasionally end up at a 24-hour diner called the Gold Coin, where we’d have a very early breakfast. And once or twice, just for hoots, we would “yo-ho.” That was our term for running out before paying the bill, thus stiffing some poor waitress working the overnight shift out of a five- or 10- dollar tip. In our youthful, drunken stupor, we thought this was hilarious.
God, we could be such assholes. To this day, 30 years down the road, it makes me shudder just thinking about it.
He’s “Blago” to you by now, the heretofore little-known politician with the unpronounceable last name and the funny head of hair. His hair, we’ve been told for the last several months, is ridiculous. To me it’s the same hair he had in college. I didn’t think it was particularly weird then, and I don’t think it is now. But that’s the thing about this American freak show that I’ve watched unfold from afar: The plethora of Blago hair jokes is the least of my confusion.
Occasionally, someone we know well becomes famous. Sometimes it happens for good reasons. Friends of “Sully,” the US Airways pilot, were delighted to tell stories about the guy they know after he landed a plane in the Hudson River. Then there are cases like Rod’s.
-snip-
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Blago's NYC Media Tour 2.0
Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has decided to return to NYC to run back into the limelight. He started his day with a visit to the TODAY SHOW and will continue throughout the day and ending on the Late Show with David Letterman Show. Here is appearance from the the TODAY SHOW:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Countdown with Keith Olbermann: The Blatherings of Blago
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Rolling Stone on the Blago debacle
Rolling Stone: Blago's Revenge
On the eve of Obama's historic inauguration, the Democrats allowed themselves to be outfoxed by a craven scum eater
MATT TAIBBI Posted Feb 05, 2009 9:02 AM
God knows if any of thisis the president's fault, but in their handling of the preposterous scandal surrounding Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, the Democratic Party leaders under Barack Obama have brought us all hurtling back to the
nightmarish prevarication of the Clinton years — those horrifying days when the party's enduring inability to act decisively allowed Barnum-esque con men like Ken Starr to hold all of America hostage.
For almost two decades now, the Democrats have blazed up every joint in sight, only to freeze at the crucial moment of inhalation. Clinton kicked off two excruciating terms of Solomon-esque waffling by splitting gays in the military right down the middle and ended by only half-admitting to being swallowed whole by an intern named Monica Lewinsky. Then came history's first three-base balk in Florida (with James Baker waving Bush around to score), followed by a senseless war in Iraq that Democrats thought to oppose only once it became inexpedient to support.
All this bullshit, we hoped, might end with Barack Obama. But then came Blagojevich, a sleazeball whose massively publicized success in scheming a way to drop turd in the new president's inaugural punch bowl is a gate-crashing leap above station on the order of Paris Hilton screwing her way into a speaking role in Gandhi or Amadeus. It's a political disaster that happened only after Democrats once again froze in the headlights at the crucial moment, trying to flee in two different directions at once while a third-rate bookie in a tracksuit seized control of the U.S. Senate.
The irony is, before the curtain on his act got pulled back by the FBI, Blagojevich somehow got himself elected as an Obama-style reformer, railing against corruption and entrenched power. In fact, Obama himself helped craft Blagojevich's first campaign in 2002 against the "business as usual" administration of his Republican predecessor, George Ryan, serving as a key adviser along with current Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
-snip-
On the eve of Obama's historic inauguration, the Democrats allowed themselves to be outfoxed by a craven scum eater
MATT TAIBBI Posted Feb 05, 2009 9:02 AM
God knows if any of thisis the president's fault, but in their handling of the preposterous scandal surrounding Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, the Democratic Party leaders under Barack Obama have brought us all hurtling back to the
nightmarish prevarication of the Clinton years — those horrifying days when the party's enduring inability to act decisively allowed Barnum-esque con men like Ken Starr to hold all of America hostage.For almost two decades now, the Democrats have blazed up every joint in sight, only to freeze at the crucial moment of inhalation. Clinton kicked off two excruciating terms of Solomon-esque waffling by splitting gays in the military right down the middle and ended by only half-admitting to being swallowed whole by an intern named Monica Lewinsky. Then came history's first three-base balk in Florida (with James Baker waving Bush around to score), followed by a senseless war in Iraq that Democrats thought to oppose only once it became inexpedient to support.
All this bullshit, we hoped, might end with Barack Obama. But then came Blagojevich, a sleazeball whose massively publicized success in scheming a way to drop turd in the new president's inaugural punch bowl is a gate-crashing leap above station on the order of Paris Hilton screwing her way into a speaking role in Gandhi or Amadeus. It's a political disaster that happened only after Democrats once again froze in the headlights at the crucial moment, trying to flee in two different directions at once while a third-rate bookie in a tracksuit seized control of the U.S. Senate.
The irony is, before the curtain on his act got pulled back by the FBI, Blagojevich somehow got himself elected as an Obama-style reformer, railing against corruption and entrenched power. In fact, Obama himself helped craft Blagojevich's first campaign in 2002 against the "business as usual" administration of his Republican predecessor, George Ryan, serving as a key adviser along with current Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
-snip-
Monday, January 26, 2009
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