2008 Paint the White House Black
posted by on March 17 at 9:28 AM
A minor premise of our Obama endorsement in February was that it would be powerful for the United States to elect a black President.
We don’t underestimate the symbolism—to the rest of the world—of electing a black man after eight years of John Wayne diplomacy)
Indeed, it’d be kind of giant “Fuck You” to al Qaeda, whose shallow (yet potent) rhetoric against the U.S. would totally have egg on its face.
Well, as we inch closer to really electing a black man, it’s starting to dawn on me that it’s a much bigger (and cooler) deal than we initially imagined. So much so, that it’s also going to be tougher to do than we initially imagined; witness the Rev. Wright smear. Since Obama isn’t exactly scaring whites (Minnesota, Idaho, Iowa, Virginia, Montana), Wright has been subbed in as a “real” black man—a scary black man, to show us what Obama’s “really” about; who he “really” represents.
Personally, I think it’s fine that Obama has a “Black!” minister who spouts off trite old-school rhetoric. Sheesh. Of course he does. Obama’s from the South Side of Chicago. It makes Obama normal. About time.
And it also makes the fact that Obama hasn’t emerged as a “race” politician himself, but as a spokesman for unity—all the more unique, interesting, and impressive.
But, sigh, as long as they keep hauling out 1975, it just might not be.
Don’t be surprised if Ali is in the White House
Reverend Ike Turner, Secretary of the Treasure
Richard Pryor, Minister of Education
Stevie Wonder, Secretary of FINE arts
And Miss Aretha Franklin, the First Lady
A chocolate city is no dream
God bless Chocolate City and its (gainin’ on ya!) vanilla suburbs
Can y’all get to that?
Like Minnesota will be hard to for the Dem's to ever take?
Also, props on refraining from using the N-word. I know you wanted to.
Fear mongering is the only way to win. Next we'll hear that Obama collects Black Panther memorabilia.
As usual, the MSM is missing the story here: faith-based political opportunism. Of course nobody seriously thinks our boyfriend, Obama holds the same beliefs as his crazy pastor.
But the question is why did he still attend the church, associate with the guy, etc.? My guess it's that he didn't want to alienate his black church base. He was always going to have trouble mobilizing them at the beginning, since he was running a new style of campaign (as in the un-Jesse Jackson). And keeping his membership in this church was just a way mitigate that.
In fact I'm cynical enough to have doubts about his whole conversion from atheism to Christianity, just as he started seeking higher offices...
After the Hagee and Wright scandals, I foresee future campaigns will consist of a candidate merely stopping in a given town, reciting the Nicene Creed to the gathered populace, and moving on to the next town to do it all again. And at each stop they'll have to rebuke everyone they've ever known, of course.
@3 - Obama joined the church well over a decade ago because his native Chicago wife already belonged there.
Someone wake me when the campaigns start dealing with real issues. You know, the economy, the war, global warming, bad schools etc.....
The bright side of this whole Wright thing is that it's getting out in the open in March. November is a long ways away.
OK, that's it! No chocolate Easter bunnies for the white people this year!
In light of Obama's recent Moonbat Eruption, I think it would be lovely if The Stranger were to publish a follow-up, written by Jonathan Raban, to Raban's typically excellent article, published in The Stranger back in January, on Obama's strange political relationship with Wright.
"Things should start to get interesting right about now"
Just sayin'...
ain't nothing rev. wright said that was wrong. except that god could damn (or by extension BLESS) america. it was just impolitic.
ain't nothing ward churchill said that was wrong, either.
but you can see the shape of the general already: who loves america more. & you can't out-flag hump the GOP. i'm on the verge of tuning out.
smear
n 1: slanderous defamation
Are you saying that the misrepresented the pastor or Obama's relationship with him?
Josh if Dino went to Hutcherson's church or the Church of Mars (sorry if I got those wrong)would that be an issue for you? If you pointed it out would that be a smear?
The crazy pastor probably isn't all that crazy, taken in context.
The type of sermon he does tends to pull the crowd down, expose flaws, criticize, then seeks to build back up and exhort everyone to acknowledge their flaws and work towards a higher moral purpose.
It's pretty stock stuff, actually.
"...all the more unique..."
Ach!
Funny that the impossibly crazy ideas put forward by Wright (AND Obama) like sky god, original sin, eternal life, &etc. get a pass while the merely nearly impossibly crazy ideas put forward by Wright like government HIV conspiracy (sorry, homos, we were really just after the blacks all along) get some grudging concern while the not so crazy and highly likely ideas put forward by Wright like foreign policy being somehow related to foreign relations gets the majority of the airplay and the majority of the condemnation.
Well, you've convinced me.
I'm not gonna vote for Pastor Wright.
I don’t know if F.U. is the most effective way to deal with violent old-time religious crazies like al Qaida, and I don’t see how Obama’s ethnicity would trump their crazy talk. Remember, al Qaida wants to overthrow all governments everywhere of all ethnicities and set up a caliphate. But if that’s your style, it might mess with their heads more if the most powerful person in the world were a woman.
Let's face it--if we go down your path, the most powerful person in the world will be a phlegmatic old man with chipmunk cheeks and a marked propensity to deal with Iran by trying to bomb it back to the stone age.
Chocolate City is my least favorite p-funk song. Does this make me racist?
Props to you, Josh, for using an MC Breed line in your posting.
@17 Yes. Only because Chocolate City is one of my favorites.
I love ya, CC.
@16 Well, at least we agree on what's at stake.
Someday everyone will stop talking about black and white and just get on with building a country.
Many countries have black presidents. Women are presidents too. It is nothing new it just points out a blatant fact that the US is so damn backward in trying to come to terms with possibly having a black president or a woman.
You do realize the rest of the world is rolling there eyes when they hear all the talk about this election.
Just get on with electing the right person, not the wrong person like in last elections. Once you do you will realize they will be faced with the same problems and make the same mistakes as any other person fit for the office of president. The more they fix the better president they will be.
@ 21 - La La Land is not in a voting district.
McG @ 11,
Dino's rhetoric on gays sounds like Hutcherson's.
Obama's rhetoric is the antithesis of Wright's.
I'd vote for that Ali slate in a heartbeat. It's better than anything we've had since.
@17: No. But bothering to say so on a public forum makes you stupid. :)
As for me, if Obama gets elected I'm gonna go break out my Flashlight. Funk yeah!
@17: Are you kidding? You'd rather listen to The Electric Spanking of War Babies or George Clinton 'singing' Holly Wants to Go to California than Chocolate City?
chocolate city was corny before the election and is even moreso now.
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