As my good friend Dr. Zaius would say "No time for blogging today" ... I'm very busy with all the last minute details at work, but I could not let this pass without comment. So I'm going to borrow the wonderful post written by egalia at Tennessee Guerilla Women, and make a few comments at the end.Olbermann's Meltdown: KO Compares Hillary's Campaign to KKK's David DukeThese guys are just so full of themselves that they can't see how ridiculous this all sounds. And where are the women's voices? Rachel Maddow simply CAN'T be the ONLY woman capable of being on a talk show?? I could name a dozen without batting an eye!
With lots and lots of exclamation marks, the increasingly eye-bulging hyperbolic Keith Olbermann told the world last night that Hillary Clinton's campaign is comparable to the former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke. I am not kidding.
Attacking Bush has gotten boring, so Keith has moved on to Democrats, and since he works for the Misogyny Channel, naturally he's moved on to attacking Hillary for what he terms the "clearly racist" remarks of that other uppity woman, Geraldine Ferraro.
Have you noticed how very few of the voices in the national discourse belong to women? ... In my view, Ferraro's comments refer to the free pass presidential candidate Barack Obama has received from national leaders and from a media plagued with what appears to be white liberal guilt, or fear that any criticism of Sen. Obama will be viewed as racist. But some take her words to mean that all of Senator Obama's achievements are due to some affirmative action program -- a decidedly right-wing frame. And so they cry racism. All of this does seem to justify the fears of the Obama-worshipping media.
Good people can disagree on the intent or meaning of her remarks, but there was a time when progressives were known for nuance, for operating on the premise that there are many shades of gray in between GOOD and EVIL. There was a time when it seemed to be a given that everyone has a unique standpoint and thus everything cannot be seen clearly from any one point of view. Those days appear to be long gone, and Keith Olbermann appears to represent the neo progressive with the view that Hillary and all her supporters are every bit as EVIL as the vilest Republican. And it's Keith's view, or no view. [please read the rest here]
These so-called liberal pundits need to be careful. They are walking a fine line with a group who REGISTERS in greater numbers than they do, and who VOTE in greater numbers than they do. They NEED women's votes to win in November. They simply can't do it without us.
23 comments:
I wrote a post today about the hypocrisy of KO and the media who are decrying Geraldine Ferrarro's remarks and ignoring the total racist remarks by Obama's former pastor. I also pointed out in my post that the video clip I had from Obama's pastor, Rev.Wright, mentions that "the white Italians" killed the "black" Jesus. Then, in another video I found from a guy named TWest, he also used the white Italian term when talking about GF. He called her the white female Italian.
If anyone thinks that people don't listen to those who associate themselves with Obama, like Rev. White...just notice the similarities in the hate speech pointed at women...whites...and Italians. So, this is acceptable? This deserves no notice? Rev. Wright was Obama's pastor for many years, Obama listened to him, used what he said in a sermon when he chose "The Audacity of Hope" for the title of his book. This man made a huge impression on Obama...and from what I see, this is NOT a good man to admire as Obama admires him.
But hey...OBama did well playing the victim again, didn't he?
Check out my post if you get a chance and click on the link for the video from TWest...it's toward the bottom of the post. I haven't seen it posted anywhere else, you'll be amazed at the horrible remarks about Hillary.
BAC, I agree with you, Olberman's hyperbole is the last thing we need. But the root of what he said was correct. Baseless, racist attacks like Ferraro has been repeating left and right are wrong and need to be outright rejected.
There is a big difference between a close supporter and member of the campaign saying openly racist remarks about your opponent and a pastor's remarks. Obama did take the title of his book from a quote of Wright's. It's a good quote. He hasn't taken any of the mindset of the man though and has thoroughly denounced (or do you prefer rejected?) the racial message Wright has espoused. When Clinton was asked about Ferraro's comments, she responded with "I didn't say it" and later said those words were "regrettable".
I believe the person playing victim is Ferraro. I have never heard anything more ridiculous than "They're attacking me because I'm white." I almost choked after hearing that.
John - I absolutely reject the notion that Ferraro's comments were racist. The spin attributed to them by a MSM that LOVES Obama and HATES Clinton were racist, but the comments Ferraro made were NOT.
You are so blinded by your love for Obama that you simply cannot see it.
And when has Obama -- OR OLBERMAN for that matter EVER called anyone out for their sexist comments????? NEVER!!
Liberal white guilt is going to propel a vastly less qualified candidate right into the Oval Office.
So when is anyone EVER going to say that sexism is wrong???? I have yet to hear even ONE MSM pundit say it.
Read my earlier post "Iron My Shirts" ... did you hear ANY OUTRAGE about that???? NO!! If that young man had yelled "Shine My Shoes" to Obama we would STILL be hearing about it.
You are so BLIND that you cannot even see this. So why don't you take your comment and go home!
BAC
BAC: i agree with the position on hyperbole: Keith went and did last night the same thing that he picks on the repugs for doing. "righteous indignation", that Ferraro spewed her spew as a partisan Democrat, doesn't justify what he did. I watched it last night and found myself feeling depressed afterwards.
Mary Ellen: two wrongs don't make a right. Per your premise, we shouldn't be bitching about the Bush Administration because the Nixon one (or insert any other president you don't like) was pretty fucked up to.
To play devil's advocate a bit though (it's a penchant of mine): An individual who happens to be female made these patently reprehensible remarks about Senator Obama. If Keith was going to call someone on the carpet about it, he should have called out....whom? some random male who was also not Geraldine Ferraro? No, he called out the individual who made the remarks (plural, several of them), and that individual happens to be female. I think we've all seen enough of his rants to know that he'd have done the same thing if a man had done it. His point was about that individual's direct affiliation with the Clinton campaign, not her gender.
The rhetoric on his needing to be "walking a fine line with a group who REGISTERS in greater numbers than they do" comes across as the same type of demagoguery which both of your posts, BAC and mary ellen, reject. The idea that an individual cannot call a spade a spade just because that spade has mammary glands is a bit silly, and while I'll accept and respect your support of Senator Clinton, I think we both know that's not a sentiment you would literally condone, because it would eventually lead the exact same problem we have with the Bush administration.
Individuals win or lose elections based on their personal merits (at least theoretically), and the inference that every woman would be voting for Senator Clinton is simply incorrect.
(Again, please allow me to say that in some ways, Keith fucked up las night. he deserves a tongue-lashing for his oversight, i just don't consider myself eloquent enough to do so)
And John, I want to give you fair warning that if you make even one more disparaging comment about Ferraro I will delete your comment. When she ran for Vice President she had to deal with pundits calling the ticket "Fritz and Tits". In 24 years we have barely evolved past that ... if at all.
BAC
Commander Other I reject the notion that Ferraro's commments were racist. I also reject the notion that Olbermann, or any of the MSM pundits would call out a man. I have yet to see them do it.
And don't think that women are going to sit back and take this YET AGAIN. We are fed up.
If Obama wins the nomination it won't be because he's the most qualified ... we ALL know that is a fact.
BAC
BAC, if Sen. John Kerry, or any of Obama's other close supporters, were to say about Clinton, "The only reason you are still in the race is because you are a woman," it would be sexist. Obama would need to immediately respond and drop that supporter like a hot potato.
When Powers made her personal remark against Clinton, she resigned almost immediately and Obama immediately spoke out against those remarks.
The people you keep referring to with the "Iron my shirts" quote were random nut jobs. Geraldine Ferraro is not. She is and intelligent and well respected Democratic leader, and a close associate of Sen. Clinton.
I cannot speak for the MSM, but I personally have spoken out against sexism during this campaign. I tore into a candidate I had great respect for after his sexist comments before the New Hampshire primaries and I would do it again. I hold that standard for all "-isms"
commader other: You said: two wrongs don't make a right. Per your premise, we shouldn't be bitching about the Bush Administration because the Nixon one (or insert any other president you don't like) was pretty fucked up to.
That makes absolutely no sense and had nothing to do with what I wrote. What are you smoking?
john j. if Sen. John Kerry, or any of Obama's other close supporters, were to say about Clinton, "The only reason you are still in the race is because you are a woman," it would be sexist.
Chris Matthews said the only reason Hillary was elected in the Senate was because her husband had an affair. These kind of sexist remarks had been made about Hillary since the beginning of this primary. If she questions Obama's record, the media is screaming "HILLARY GOING NEGATIVE!" and then we here on MSNBC and CNN, the same looped video of Obama saying she "gets her claws out", dismissing her as just a "catty woman".
Let's look at Obama: During the Ohio debate when he was asked about the picture of him in Somali garb, and asked if he thought Hillary or her camp did it, he said no. He then said if Hillary said she didn't, he believed her and they should just, "put it aside". After that debate, it was discovered that it was a Republican group that did it.
Then on Monday, in Mississippi, he said that her campaign DID put out those pictures. That was a personal attack, a lie, and negative. But how did the MSM cover it? "OBAMA GETS TOUGH ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL!"
Obama loves to play the victim and his supporters and the media just eat it up.
I applaud Geraldine for what she said and I think it needs to be said more often.
John -- in a word ... bullshit.
Here is what she said: “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman of any color, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”
Explain how this is 1) untrue, or 2) racist?
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. used sexism and racism against Hillary immediately after the NH primary. He is still part of the campaign. WHERE WAS YOUR OUTRAGE??? What about Obama's minister, who is part of his campaign team. Have you heard any of the disgusting things he's said about Hillary? Why haven't you spoken out about that??
You speak of Powers but seem to forget that Hillary immediately fired Billy Shaheen before the NH primary for making comments about Obama.
And I bring up the "Iron My Shirts" comment because NO ONE IN THE MEDIA CONDEMNED IT. The only blogs what condemned it were the women run blogs. The guys thought it was funny. And have you read the comments thread at DailyKos, AmericaBlog or Crooks and Liars??? The comments made about Hillary are beyond the pale, but NO ONE is calling them on it. You are busy coming here to annoy me, but why aren't you calling these folks out????? So don't try and convince me you care about sexism. I'm not buying it.
BAC
The quote was actually "You challenge the status quo and suddenly the claws come out." I understand your point on that quote, and I will have to think on it. It was not directed at Clinton, but clearly it was implying her attack strategy.
Food for thought.
I also agree with you on bringing the photo attacks back into the news, but he isn't the only candidate to have done similar. He would have been better to focus on her actual statements about "Is Obama a muslim?" and I disagree with him bringing those up again. But don't get me started on who is using the "victim" attacks more.
"I applaud Geraldine for what she said and I think it needs to be said more often." You said just four paragraphs before that it is wrong and sexist to say something like what Ferraro said about Obama to Clinton. Do you miss the hypocrisy in that mentality?
Blogger John J. said...
The quote was actually "You challenge the status quo and suddenly the claws come out." I understand your point on that quote, and I will have to think on it. It was not directed at Clinton, but clearly it was implying her attack strategy.
It wasn't directed AT Clinton?
Bullshit! It was implying that she was "just a catty woman"! Obama has consistently called Clinton "the status quo". He didn't imply anything other than Clinton (the status quo) was bringing her claws out. Honestly, could you be any more transparent in your tap dancing around this? You can't even admit a direct attack at Clinton? No wonder Obama has you guys bamboozled.
Your second paragraph didn't make sense. Either fix it or take a class in sentence structure.
John - please examine how quick you are to forgive Obama's actions, and the actions of his supporters ... and how quick you are to condemn the actions of Hillary or any of her supporters. Think about it.
BAC
The original comment COULD have been taken to mean, in my opinion, "If he wasn't black, he wouldn't be here," or "If he wasn't black, his message wouldn't resonate the way it does." The first one is racist - it would be no different than me saying "If you weren't a woman you wouldn't have been promoted." Ferraro later explicitly confirmed that she meant the later by saying "if my name were Gerald instead of Geraldine, I would never have been picked as the vice presidential candidate."
I explained explicitly on my blog, and in several comments on your site in the past, why her statement is untrue. I believe Obama himself said it best "if you were to get a handbook on what's the path to the presidency, I don't think the handbook would start by saying 'be an African-American named Barack Obama.'"
I did, at the time, agree with you about Jackson, but his statements were questioning Clinton's campaign tactics, not (as most others at the time were) whether "crying" made her look weak.
As for Wright, I looked everywhere and could find no corroboration of him serving on any committee for Obama. The only thing on Obama's website (other than blogger comments) even mentioning his name is a testimonial from Wright. The only official "African American Religious Leadership Committee" was a South Carolina committee that, according to the press release from 12-4-07, did not have Wright as a member.
Clinton did fire Shaheen after his comments, but she has failed to hold to that standard on a number of subsequent occasions, this Ferraro dust up being the most recent.
I don't read Kos or the like because I DON'T agree with them; I don't believe in feeding the trolls. I don't read or comment on mass sites like that, the only one similar that I do read/comment semi-regularly is Slashdot, which is 99% non-political. I read personal blogs of people I (at least generally) agree with. I read you because, on any subject but your Obama attacks, I DO agree with you.
BAC and Mary Ellen, I said I am going to look into that quote more. I will not pass immediate judgment on it after reading two small articles from more than a month ago. I didn't care about Ferraro's comments until she said "They're attacking me because I'm white." Her initial quote could have been taken a couple ways, and if she had said it was being misrepresented or taken out of context and apologized (as Michelle Obama has done in the past), it would have died there and I would not have said anything about it.
I apologize that I wasn't clearer in my second paragraph, I will blame my poor communication skills there on being a programmer ;). What I was saying is that I agree that Obama shouldn't have brought those pictures back into the debate. He said he believed her, and he should have left it at that. What he should have done in regards to that is bring up her evasiveness when asked whether she honestly believes he is a Muslim.
john j- Let's look at the conversation regarding the pictures of OBama in Somali garb:
STEVE KROFT: You don't believe that Senator Obama's a Muslim?
HILLARY CLINTON: Of course not. I mean that's, you know, that, there is no basis for that. You know, I take him on the basis of what he says, and, you know, there isn't any reason to doubt that.
KROFT: You said you take Sen. Obama at his word that he's not a Muslim...
CLINTON: Right, right..
KROFT: …you don't believe that he's a Muslim.
CLINTON: No! No! Why would I? There's nothing to base that on. As far as I know.
So, that one little sentence. How many times in conversation have you or most people, after discussing an issue and you are asked if you think something is true, has ended with, "As far as I know, it's not true"? I've said it a hundred times.
But no...the Obama people had to find SOMETHING to nail her on and that was it. That's all they could find. On the other hand, that dried up piece of garbage on CNN, Jack Cafferty, started listing all kinds of things about Hillary---including that old right wing rumor about Vince Foster. That's ok, though, to accuse her, or make it seem as if she's responsible for the death of Vince Foster--when after exhaustive investigation, it was ruled a suicide.
This is the kind of stuff I saw the right wing fascists pull in the last two elections. Now, the Obama camp is doing the exact same thing. Jump on every word, every nuance of every word and blow it up to make it sound horrible.
The Obamabots who are so desperate to tear down Hillary, when they can't find anything, also ignore the rest of what she said in that interview. Hillary continued to say, that having "been the target of so many ridiculous rumors... I have a great deal of sympathy for anybody who gets, you know, smeared with the kind of rumors that go on all the time."
The Obama camp reminds me of that dirty little smear machine from Bush's friend, Karl Rove.
I'm really struck by two things about the issue of race in this current campaign:
(1) The blatant misrepresentation of facts and quoting out of context being done by the MSM, and
(2) The absolutely voracious appetite of the American public for this kind of nonsense.
There was a time when, with healthy cynicism, we said "Don't believe everything you read." Now the public not only believes it, but grabs onto it with righteous indignation toward anyone who challenges the veracity.
I knew this would happen when we stopped teaching critical thinking skills in the schools, and instead focused on testing. I just didn't think it would happen so soon.
It was a yes/no question. Instead she chose to be evasive and say "As far as I know..."
"I mean, as far as I know Clinton isn't a racist..." "As far as I know she isn't a robot..." If someone said those things you would be all over it.
Heck, you, or I think it was a quote BAC re-posted here, tried to call Obama sexist for using the word "periodically".
I cannot speak for anyone other than myself, and I don't ask you to speak for anyone other than yourself.
john j--no question in an interview is yes or no. If that were the case, no one would want them. If she had just said "yes" to that question, she would have been further probed to continue on.
I never said anything about "periodically" but I did point out his use of the term "taking her claws out". That is sexist.
suej- there was an interesting editorial in the Chicago Trib today regarding the quote by Geraldine Ferraro, It was written by Mary Schmich in the Metro section of the paper, I'm not sure if it's on line. It's titled, "It's not racist to argue that race matters." That should says it all, doesn't it?
John J. said: "The only official "African American Religious Leadership Committee" was a South Carolina committee that, according to the press release from 12-4-07, did not have Wright as a member."
Not quite there was a national one and ones in key states like SC. From the very same site you link to for the SC one, is one for the national one.
And if you scroll down to the bottom for the list of members you see him listed.
Mary Ellen -- thanks for pointing me to that editorial. I think we just have to keep sounding that message to get people to stop having this knee jerk reaction any time there's discussion of race in America.
From It's not racist to argue that race matters:
"Listen closely to what Ferraro said ("If he was a woman of any color, he would not be in this position.") and it's clear she's talking as much about gender as race.....
Ferraro has good reason to think Obama has the edge. Twenty-four years ago, a woman ran for vice-president. That woman was the first on a major-party presidential ticket. She was the last. Her name was Geraldine Ferraro."
"I knew this would happen when we stopped teaching critical thinking skills in the schools, and instead focused on testing. I just didn't think it would happen so soon."
It's been another busy day, so I'm just getting here. SueJ I want you to know that you got a standing ovation from me for the comment referenced above. It's excellent!
BAC
Well thank you!! thank you very much!
This is exactly the petty Dem bickering that's going to hand McCain a victory.
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