Obama and Our Post-Modern Race Problem - (Article of the year)

[Soul Crusher]

Obama and Our Post-Modern Race Problem

www.wsj.com

The president always knew that his greatest appeal was not as a leader but as a cultural symbol.

SHELBY STEELE

________________________ ________________________ _____________

America still has a race problem, though not the one that conventional wisdom would suggest: the racism of whites toward blacks. Old fashioned white racism has lost its legitimacy in the world and become an almost universal disgrace.

The essence of our new "post-modern" race problem can be seen in the parable of the emperor's new clothes. The emperor was told by his swindling tailors that people who could not see his new clothes were stupid and incompetent. So when his new clothes arrived and he could not see them, he put them on anyway so that no one would think him stupid and incompetent. And when he appeared before his people in these new clothes, they too—not wanting to appear stupid and incompetent—exclaimed the beauty of his wardrobe. It was finally a mere child who said, "The emperor has no clothes."

The lie of seeing clothes where there were none amounted to a sophistication—joining oneself to an obvious falsehood in order to achieve social acceptance. In such a sophistication there is an unspoken agreement not to see what one clearly sees—in this case the emperor's flagrant nakedness.

America's primary race problem today is our new "sophistication" around racial matters. Political correctness is a compendium of sophistications in which we join ourselves to obvious falsehoods ("diversity") and refuse to see obvious realities (the irrelevance of diversity to minority development). I would argue further that Barack Obama's election to the presidency of the United States was essentially an American sophistication, a national exercise in seeing what was not there and a refusal to see what was there—all to escape the stigma not of stupidity but of racism.

Barack Obama, elegant and professorially articulate, was an invitation to sophistication that America simply could not bring itself to turn down. If "hope and change" was an empty political slogan, it was also beautiful clothing that people could passionately describe without ever having seen.

Mr. Obama won the presidency by achieving a symbiotic bond with the American people: He would labor not to show himself, and Americans would labor not to see him. As providence would have it, this was a very effective symbiosis politically. And yet, without self-disclosure on the one hand or cross-examination on the other, Mr. Obama became arguably the least known man ever to step into the American presidency.

Our new race problem—the sophistication of seeing what isn't there rather than what is—has surprised us with a president who hides his lack of economic understanding behind a drama of scale. Hundreds of billions moving into trillions. Dramatic, history-making numbers. But where is the economic logic behind a stimulus package that doesn't fully click in for a number of years? How is every stimulus dollar spent actually going to stimulate? Why bailouts to institutions that only hoard the money? How is vast government spending simultaneously a kind of prudence that will not "add to the deficit?" How can such spending not trigger smothering levels of taxation?

Mr. Obama's economic thinking (or lack thereof) adds up to a kind of rudderless cowboyism combined with wishful thinking. You would think that in the two solid years of daily campaigning leading up to his election this nakedness would have been seen.

On the foreign front he has been given much credit for his new policy on the Afghan war, and especially for the "rational" and "earnest" way he went about arriving at the decision to surge 30,000 new troops into battle. But here also were three months of presidential equivocation for all the world to see, only to end up essentially where he started out.

And here again was the lack of a larger framework of meaning. How is this surge of a piece with America's role in the world? Are we the world's exceptional power and thereby charged with enforcing a certain balance of power, or are we now embracing European self-effacement and nonengagement? Where is the clear center in all this?

I think that Mr. Obama is not just inexperienced; he is also hampered by a distinct inner emptiness—not an emptiness that comes from stupidity or a lack of ability but an emptiness that has been actually nurtured and developed as an adaptation to the political world.

The nature of this emptiness becomes clear in the contrast between him and Ronald Reagan. Reagan reached the White House through a great deal of what is called "individuating"—that is he took principled positions throughout his long career that jeopardized his popularity, and in so doing he came to know who he was as a man and what he truly believed.

He became Ronald Reagan through dissent, not conformity. And when he was finally elected president, it was because America at last wanted the vision that he had evolved over a lifetime of challenging conventional wisdom. By the time Reagan became president, he had fought his way to a remarkable certainty about who he was, what he believed, and where he wanted to lead the nation.

Mr. Obama's ascendancy to the presidency could not have been more different. There seems to have been very little individuation, no real argument with conventional wisdom, and no willingness to jeopardize popularity for principle. To the contrary, he has come forward in American politics by emptying himself of strong convictions, by rejecting principled stands as "ideological," and by promising to deliver us from the "tired" culture-war debates of the past. He aspires to be "post-ideological," "post-racial" and "post-partisan," which is to say that he defines himself by a series of "nots"—thus implying that being nothing is better than being something. He tries to make a politics out of emptiness itself.

But then Mr. Obama always knew that his greatest appeal was not as a leader but as a cultural symbol. He always wore the bargainer's mask—winning the loyalty and gratitude of whites by flattering them with his racial trust: I will presume that you are not a racist if you will not hold my race against me. Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan and yes, Tiger Woods have all been superb bargainers, eliciting almost reverential support among whites for all that they were not—not angry or militant, not political, not using their moral authority as blacks to exact a wage from white guilt.

But this mask comes at a high price. When blacks become humanly visible, when their true beliefs are known, their mask shatters and their symbiotic bond with whites is broken. Think of Tiger Woods, now so humanly visible. Or think of Bill Cosby, who in recent years has challenged the politically correct view and let the world know what he truly thinks about the responsibility of blacks in their own uplift.

It doesn't matter that Mr. Woods lost his bargainer's charm through self-destructive behavior and that Mr. Cosby lost his through a courageous determination to individuate—to take public responsibility for his true convictions. The appeal of both men—as objects of white identification—was diminished as their human reality emerged. Many whites still love Mr. Cosby, but they worry now that expressing their affection openly may identify them with his ideas, thus putting them at risk of being seen as racist. Tiger Woods, of course, is now so tragically human as to have, as the Bible put it, "no name in the street."

A greater problem for our nation today is that we have a president whose benign—and therefore desirable—blackness exempted him from the political individuation process that makes for strong, clear-headed leaders. He has not had to gamble his popularity on his principles, and it is impossible to know one's true beliefs without this. In the future he may stumble now and then into a right action, but there is no hard-earned center to the man out of which he might truly lead.

And yes, white America conditioned Barack Obama to emptiness—valued him all along for his "articulate and clean" blackness, so flattering to American innocence. He is a president come to us out of our national insecurities.

Mr. Steele is a senior research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

________________________ ________________________ _______________

Shelby Steele has written what I believe the Article of the Year on this issue.

Now we all have to suffer because guilt ridden white liberals and ignorant morons were too self absorbed to do any real examination of just who the heck they were voting for.   

[SAMSON123]

I am amazed at whites who write this kind of crap. Amazed at how somehow because a African American Puppet is put in the whitehouse that somehow this negates all of the white racism that has happened over hundreds of years in america towards Blacks, Native Americans and Hispanics and now Arabs/Islam and still THRIVES in america.

Are the Native People still confined to concentration camps called RESERVATIONS...YES! Are the African American population still fighting discrimination/violence/incarceration/education/jobs/housing etc...YES! Are unfair and illegal practices still being exercised by whites in america...YES! Someone inform the white masses how anything has become better? With the majority of US cities being largely African American how is it the preponderance of not only whites in position of governors, mayors, commissioners, sargents etc etc, but in the few cases where there are Black representation they are largely surrounded by whites who are really in charge or they have little to no power to do anything. Like New York's Black governor who seems to spend all of his time battling with his administration to get anything done, yet while Miss Giuliani was there..NO PROBLEM.

Plenty of examples of these same "restrictions" all around america. Now there is a "Black" president and he clearly is under white control (jew to be exact) and this bumbling idiot (I call him that for taking that job) is now the whipping boy and representative of the supposed advancement of whites out of their hate filled shells of racism to finally getting somewhat to a point of being civilized (whites allowed america to have a Black president...Oooo). At the same time they can not help themselves to name call, bash, show contempt at everything about this president from the pronunciation of his name, to his race to his white (jewish) ancestors etc. Give me a break on the white lie of "THINGS HAVE CHANGED" nothing has changed in america insofar as whites contempt toward anyone race that is not a part of theirs...of course they will tell you otherwise.

Here is what 2010 will bring from whites. As the financial collapse gets worst (and it will) Barry will have all the more contempt hurled his way. Somehow the white wall streeters who caused all of this has ALREADY BEEN FORGOTTEN. Its Barry's fault will soon become it's Blacks fault...they caused this, it is them who took my job, caused me to lose my house, forced higher taxes on me, yadda yadda yadda. I hear that battle cry from whites already. This article just cracks the door to the room where it is being shouted.

[240 is Back]

Race doesnt matter.  It's all about $$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Soul Crusher]

Shelby Steele
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Shelby Steele (born January 1, 1946, Chicago) is an American author, columnist, documentary film maker, and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, specialising in the study of race relations, multiculturalism and affirmative action. In 1990, he received the National Book Critics Circle Award in the general non-fiction category for his book The Content of Our Character.[1]

Contents [hide]
1 Biography
2 Political opinions
2.1 On race relations
2.2 On Barack Obama
3 Works
3.1 Books
3.2 Documentary films
4 Awards
5 References
6 External links
 

[edit] Biography

Steele was born to a black father and a white mother. His father, Shelby, Sr., a black truck driver, met his mother, Ruth, a white social worker, while working for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). His twin brother is Columbia University Provost Claude Steele.

Shelby Steele received a B.A. in political science from Coe College, an M.A. in sociology from Southern Illinois University, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Utah. Steele met his wife, Rita, during his junior year at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he was one of eighteen black students in his class. Steele was active in SCOPE, a group linked to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and he met Rita at an activist meeting. In 1968, Steele graduated from Coe and went on to earn his master's degree in sociology from Southern Illinois University. Steele attended the University of Utah, where he taught black literature and studied for his Ph.D. After earning a Ph.D. in English in 1974, Steele was offered a tenured position at the university, but turned it down due to hostility encountered as part of an interracial couple in Utah.

Steele accepted a position at San Jose State University as a professor of English literature, teaching there from 1974 to 1991[1].

 This section requires expansion.

[edit] Political opinions
[edit] On race relations
Steele is a self-described Black conservative.[2] He opposes movements such as affirmative action, which he considers to be unsuccessful liberal campaigns to promote equal opportunity for African-Americans. He contends that blacks have been "twice betrayed": first, by slavery and oppression, and second, by group preferences mandated by the government that discourage self-agency and personal responsibility in blacks.[3]

“ The great ingenuity of interventions like affirmative action has not been that they give Americans a way to identify with the struggle of blacks, but that they give them a way to identify with racial virtuousness quite apart from blacks.[3] ”

Steele believes that the use of victimization is the greatest hindrance for black Americans. In his view, white Americans see blacks as victims to ease their guilty conscience, while blacks attempt to turn their status as victims into a kind of currency with no purchasing power. Therefore, he claims, blacks must stop "buying into this zero-sum game" by adopting a "culture of excellence and achievement" without relying on "set-asides and entitlements."[3]

[edit] On Barack Obama
Steele wrote a short book A Bound Man: Why We are Excited about Obama and Why He Can't Win, published in December 2007. The book contained Steele's analysis of Barack Obama's character as a child born to a mixed couple who then has to grow as a black man.[4] Steele then concludes that Barack Obama is a "bound man" to his "black identity." Steele gives this description of his conclusion:

“ There is a price to be paid even for fellow-traveling with a racial identity as politicized and demanding as today’s black identity. This identity wants to take over a greater proportion of the self than other racial identities do. It wants to have its collective truth — its defining ideas of grievance and protest — become personal truth.... These are the identity pressures that Barack Obama lives within. He is vulnerable to them because he has hungered for a transparent black identity much of his life. He needs to 'be black.' And this hunger — no matter how understandable it may be — means that he is not in a position to reject the political liberalism inherent in his racial identity. For Obama liberalism is blackness. ”

After Obama won the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Steele defended his analysis and claimed that the subtitle of the book was simply a marketing device that he had only put "about 30 seconds" of thought into.[5]

He explains Obama's victory by likening him to Louis Armstrong, donning the "bargainer's mask" in his bid for white acceptance. In his analysis, he takes whites — whom he claims have for decades been stigmatized as racist and had to prove they are not — "off the hook." In Uncommon Knowledge, which he wrote with Peter Robinson, he says:

“ White America has made tremendous moral progress since the '60s... And they've never given themselves credit for that. And here is an opportunity at last to document this progress."[6] ”

[edit] Works
[edit] Books
Steele, Shelby (1991-09-01). The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-060-97415-X.  
Steele, Shelby (1999-11-01). A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black Freedom in America. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-060-93104-3.  
Steele, Shelby (2006-05-02). White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-060-57862-9.  
Steele, Shelby (2007-12-04). A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win. HarperCollins. ISBN 1-4165-5917-5.  
[edit] Documentary films
"Seven Days in Bensonhurst". Steele, Shelby (narrator). PBS Frontline. PBS. WGBH, Boston. 1990-05-11.
"Jefferson's Blood". Steele, Shelby (writer, narrator). PBS Frontline. PBS. WGBH, Boston. 2000-05-03.
[edit] Awards
National Book Critics Circle Award (1990) in the general non-fiction category for the book The Content of Our Character.[1]
Emmy and Writers Guild Awards for his 1991 Frontline documentary film Seven Days in Bensonhurst.[7]
[edit] References
^ a b ""Past winners of the National Book Critics Circle Award". National Book Critics Circle. http://www.bookcritics.org/?go=pastAwards. Retrieved 2007-01-21.  
^ Steele, Shelby (1991-09-01). The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-060-97415-X.  
^ a b c Steele, Shelby (2006-05-02). White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-060-57862-9.  
^ Shelby Steele, The Obama Bargain, The Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2008
^ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/business/media/10book.html?ref=politics
^ http://tv.nationalreview.com/uncommonknowledge/post/?q=YmM5NDRhMjRhMWNmMjBhODBiZTBhZDhiYmI5OTc0OTQ=
^ "Brief information about Shelby Steele". PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/etc/steele.html. Retrieved 2007-01-21.  
[edit] External links
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Shelby Steele
Steele on Barack Obama
Shelby Steele's biography at the Hoover Institution web-site
Shelby Steele's biography in the African-American Literature Book Club
Audio interview with National Review Online
In depth essay on Shelby Steele's "A Bound Man" by Noel Pearson, May 2008, The Monthly
Shelby Steele at the Internet Movie Database
Exhaustive biography of Shelby Steele
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelby_Steele"
Categories: 1946 births | Living people | African American academics | African Am

[24KT]

A very well written article, although quite inaccurate in many many MANY areas. 

It's also a very insulting article as well, ...not so much to Obama, Oprah, Woods etc., but insulting to the audience to which it is aimed. But then again, people have long proven they will readily accept any pile of crap put forth that will justify or validate their doubts, fears, uncertainties, and insecurities. There are some accurate points he brings up, ...but so few, and so ubiquitously known, they don't merit mentioning.

[Soul Crusher]

A very well written article, although quite inaccurate in many many MANY areas. 

It's also a very insulting article as well, ...not so much to Obama, Oprah, Woods etc., but insulting to the audience to which it is aimed. But then again, people have long proven they will readily accept any pile of crap put forth that will justify or validate their doubts, fears, uncertainties, and insecurities. There are some accurate points he brings up, ...but so few, and so ubiquitously known, they don't merit mentioning.

It was insulting to liberal guilt ridden whites, as it should be. 

There was no serious examination of Obama before the election other than from those on the right. 

If Barack Obama were "Barry McCarthy" with the same record, lack of experience etc, he NEVER would have been elected.   

[tonymctones]

If Barack Obama were "Barry McCarthy" with the same record, lack of experience etc, he NEVER would have been elected.   

This is the truth of it, and nobody can dispute this...

[BM OUT]

A very well written article, although quite inaccurate in many many MANY areas. 

It's also a very insulting article as well, ...not so much to Obama, Oprah, Woods etc., but insulting to the audience to which it is aimed. But then again, people have long proven they will readily accept any pile of crap put forth that will justify or validate their doubts, fears, uncertainties, and insecurities. There are some accurate points he brings up, ...but so few, and so ubiquitously known, they don't merit mentioning.

We all wait for the points he made which you can dispute.Please enlighten us to what was inaccurate in the article.

[24KT]

It was insulting to liberal guilt ridden whites, as it should be. 

Yes it was, ...but not for the reasons you think.
Whenever anyone feeds you shit on a stick, it's an insult to your intelligence.

There was no serious examination of Obama before the election other than from those on the right. 

If Barack Obama were "Barry McCarthy" with the same record, lack of experience etc, he NEVER would have been elected.   

That's where I beg to differ. What the right pawned off as serious examination was absolute BS.
the birth certificate... oh puleaze! That was nothing more than a distraction. You really have to wonder who the Republicans were working to get elected on that one. There has been a very serious examination of Obama prior to the election. The thing is... the right underestimated his ability to get elected, and dismissed him outright, allowing him to get his past and his persona out there to the masses long before the Republicans and even Hilary herself, sensed his threat. Those who wanted the info found it readily available. Those who wanted to focus on birth certificates... focused on birth certificates, ...and lost a huge chunk of their constituents in the process.

...and of course, we cannot forget good ol' John McCain speaking to a crowd of 18 while under fire from an avalanche of apple sauce in aisle 4 of the grocery store, ...while Obama attracts crowds of millions.

[Soul Crusher]

Yes it was, ...but not for the reasons you think.
Whenever anyone feeds you shit on a stick, it's an insult to your intelligence.

That's where I beg to differ. What the right pawned off as serious examination was absolute BS.
the birth certificate... oh puleaze! That was nothing more than a distraction. You really have to wonder who the Republicans were working to get elected on that one. There has been a very serious examination of Obama prior to the election. The thing is... the right underestimated his ability to get elected, and dismissed him outright, allowing him to get his past and his persona out there to the masses long before the Republicans and even Hilary herself, sensed his threat. Those who wanted the info found it readily available. Those who wanted to focus on birth certificates... focused on birth certificates, ...and lost a huge chunk of their constituents in the process.

...and of course, we cannot forget good ol' John McCain speaking to a crowd of 18 while under fire from an avalanche of apple sauce in aisle 4 of the grocery store, ...while Obama attracts crowds of millions.

Forget McCain, Hillary would have won the primary. 

McCain sucked and most of us on the right hated him.  Do you really think I or most people had any real love for McLame?  No. 

Mine was pure an anti-Obama vote. 

[BM OUT]

Yes it was, ...but not for the reasons you think.
Whenever anyone feeds you shit on a stick, it's an insult to your intelligence.

That's where I beg to differ. What the right pawned off as serious examination was absolute BS.
the birth certificate... oh puleaze! That was nothing more than a distraction. You really have to wonder who the Republicans were working to get elected on that one. There has been a very serious examination of Obama prior to the election. The thing is... the right underestimated his ability to get elected, and dismissed him outright, allowing him to get his past and his persona out there to the masses long before the Republicans and even Hilary herself, sensed his threat. Those who wanted the info found it readily available. Those who wanted to focus on birth certificates... focused on birth certificates, ...and lost a huge chunk of their constituents in the process.

...and of course, we cannot forget good ol' John McCain speaking to a crowd of 18 while under fire from an avalanche of apple sauce in aisle 4 of the grocery store, ...while Obama attracts crowds of millions.

There was a serious examination of Obama?Really?Let me ask you this.If a REPUBLICAN was found to have sat in a racist church listening to a screwball nut case like Wright,would the press have allowed that story to ever die?Think they would have swept in under the rug like they did with Obama and excused it as just politics?Are you serious?Your head must be inside your ass.Christ,Trent Lott made ONE comment about Strom Thurmond and the media tried to drive him out of office.

Wake up you self hating nit wit.Obama got away with everything he did in the past because of lilly livered left wing ,self hating,guilt ridden libs like you.They were too cowardly to examine anything he said or did in the past.Christ,a white guy said one tenth of what Obama wrote in his racist book and they would have no career left.A serious examination of his past.What an absolute silly little fool you are.

[ToxicAvenger]

I am amazed at whites who write this kind of crap. Amazed at how somehow because a African American Puppet is put in the whitehouse that somehow this negates all of the white racism that has happened over hundreds of years in america towards Blacks, Native Americans and Hispanics and now Arabs/Islam and still THRIVES in america.

stfu ya douche....have ya been to Saudi and seen how dark skinned people r treated there....

you dont even hafta be black...you could be a really dark skinned brownie and you'd get treated like crap

[drkaje]

One thing is sure: His race is an excellent distraction for the dimwitted.

[andreisdaman]

333 I see you are still masturbating to Obama,,you just can't seem to accept him as your prez.....get real and stop living in denial

[24KT]

One thing is sure: His race is an excellent distraction for the dimwitted.

 

[tonymctones]

One thing is sure: His race is an excellent distraction for the dimwitted.

youre right and he played it very well to his liberal base during the election

[Al Doggity]

I remember this guy. He wrote a book that came out just before the election about how Obama could never be elected. When that didn't work out, he backtracked and claimed his election was due to white guilt. He's like some race relations professor or something. How ironic that this guy who appears to be making a living from being a black man willing to say what some whites want to consider truth would take Obama to task for being swept into office on the basis of race. Or maybe it's just a case of hyper-self awareness.

Regardless, his assessment is wrong. He unfavorably compares Obama to Reagan, but, coincidentally, neglects to mention the one overriding similarity between the two administrations that actually explains Obama's election much moreso than race. The hype and optimism surrounding both during their respective campaigns was similar, but it had as much -if not more- to do with their predecessors.(And spare me with the "Let's Blame Bush" bullshit, because that administration is a perfectly relevant factor.) Bush's and Carter's approval ratings were in the toilet and the country was looking for a change both times. In Reagan's case, the change was for conservative divisiveness; in Obama's case, liberal unity. The author's contention that hardheadedness is somehow required in a great leader is also false. Bush 2 was well-known for being very decisive and that was an absolutely disastrous presidency.


And then this.

But then Mr. Obama always knew that his greatest appeal was not as a leader but as a cultural symbol. He always wore the bargainer's mask—winning the loyalty and gratitude of whites by flattering them with his racial trust: I will presume that you are not a racist if you will not hold my race against me. Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan and yes, Tiger Woods have all been superb bargainers, eliciting almost reverential support among whites for all that they were not—not angry or militant, not political, not using their moral authority as blacks to exact a wage from white guilt.

The bargainer's mask? The most notable thing about this particular trio of celebrities is that they are, far and away, the best at what they do. With Woods and Jordan, it's not even subjective. In Winfrey's case, even if you don't consider her the best interviewer, she connects with audiences in a way no other talk show host does and her forays into other fields have been groundbreaking.  So, in that respect, i'm tempted to point out how Steele distilling their popularity down to a matter of race just shows how myopic and wrongheaded his considerations on this topic are. But at the same time, I have to point out that of the major contenders in the 2008 election, Obama's campaign was far and way the best run campaign, justifying the comparison in a more accurate way.

A+ talent and a clean cut image have always been the two biggest factors in marketability, regardless of race. Ask Tom Hanks, Peyton Manning or Tom Brady.

And yes, white America conditioned Barack Obama to emptiness—valued him all along for his "articulate and clean" blackness, so flattering to American innocence. He is a president come to us out of our national insecurities.

This is the same ol'  "not black enough" bullshit dressed up in new clothing.
Honestly, if this wasn't an anti-Obama article, you would be calling this guy a racist.

[24KT]

Hey Al,

Where have you been? I've missed you, and your inciteful, articulate contributionsto the board.
I've been too busy to provide lengthy explanations, ...'sides, ...I'm not as articulate as you.

Good Job!

I feel a little sorry for Steele. He ought to change his last name to Glass. 

[Al Doggity]

Hey Al,

Where have you been? I've missed you, and your inciteful, articulate contributionsto the board.
I've been too busy to provide lengthy explanations, ...'sides, ...I'm not as articulate as you.

Good Job!

I feel a little sorry for Steele. He ought to change his last name to Glass. 

Hey, how's it going, Judi? I still post occasionally, but I don't really check out this board as frequently as I used to. It's funny how you can check a board so frequently that it becomes habitual, but if you stop for a few days it just drops out of your routine. Sort of like going to the gym.

[Soul Crusher]

I remember this guy. He wrote a book that came out just before the election about how Obama could never be elected. When that didn't work out, he backtracked and claimed his election was due to white guilt. He's like some race relations professor or something. How ironic that this guy who appears to be making a living from being a black man willing to say what some whites want to consider truth would take Obama to task for being swept into office on the basis of race. Or maybe it's just a case of hyper-self awareness.

Regardless, his assessment is wrong. He unfavorably compares Obama to Reagan, but, coincidentally, neglects to mention the one overriding similarity between the two administrations that actually explains Obama's election much moreso than race. The hype and optimism surrounding both during their respective campaigns was similar, but it had as much -if not more- to do with their predecessors.(And spare me with the "Let's Blame Bush" bullshit, because that administration is a perfectly relevant factor.) Bush's and Carter's approval ratings were in the toilet and the country was looking for a change both times. In Reagan's case, the change was for conservative divisiveness; in Obama's case, liberal unity. The author's contention that hardheadedness is somehow required in a great leader is also false. Bush 2 was well-known for being very decisive and that was an absolutely disastrous presidency.


And then this.

The bargainer's mask? The most notable thing about this particular trio of celebrities is that they are, far and away, the best at what they do. With Woods and Jordan, it's not even subjective. In Winfrey's case, even if you don't consider her the best interviewer, she connects with audiences in a way no other talk show host does and her forays into other fields have been groundbreaking.  So, in that respect, i'm tempted to point out how Steele distilling their popularity down to a matter of race just shows how myopic and wrongheaded his considerations on this topic are. But at the same time, I have to point out that of the major contenders in the 2008 election, Obama's campaign was far and way the best run campaign, justifying the comparison in a more accurate way.

A+ talent and a clean cut image have always been the two biggest factors in marketability, regardless of race. Ask Tom Hanks, Peyton Manning or Tom Brady.

This is the same ol'  "not black enough" bullshit dressed up in new clothing.
Honestly, if this wasn't an anti-Obama article, you would be calling this guy a racist.

Keep dreaig Al. 

Obama lied his way into offe, is ling now, and is nthingbut a media created myth.

If he were white wihn te same "credentas"  he everwould have ven made it through the primary let alone he geral elecion. 

Additionaly,h won becausehe weas not Bush and little ese.

[24KT]

Keep dreaig Al. 

Obama lied his way into offe, is ling now, and is nthingbut a media created myth.

If he were white wihn te same "credentas"  he everwould have ven made it through the primary let alone he geral elecion. 

Additionaly,h won becausehe weas not Bush and little ese.

It took me a while, but I finally figured it out. 333386 is Billy. 

[drkaje]

People are losing everything and folks are worried about a black president.

WTF ever happened to "White Power" and shit?!

[Al Doggity]

It took me a while, but I finally figured it out. 333386 is Billy. 

   But I think he was probably typing from his phone. I have sent plenty of messages from my iphone that look like that.

[Soul Crusher]

  But I think he was probably typing from his phone. I have sent plenty of messages from my iphone that look like that.

Yes it was from my phone. 

As to the point above why we are discussing this, it is highly relevent because we have essentially a complete incompetent and empty slate in office for president who is there for no other reason than his race. 

Yes McCain ran a bad campaign, however, the knee padding really occured during the primary when the msm refused to do their job.

Now we are stuck with a admn who obviously is clueless on economics and apparently every other issue as well.   

[Al Doggity]

Yes it was from my phone. 

As to the point above why we are discussing this, it is highly relevent because we have essentially a complete incompetent and empty slate in office for president who is there for no other reason than his race. 

Yes McCain ran a bad campaign, however, the knee padding really occured during the primary when the msm refused to do their job.

Now we are stuck with a admn who obviously is clueless on economics and apparently every other issue as well.   

His race has little to do with it, at least in the manner you and Steele want to believe. As you said above, the fact that he was ":not Bush" played strongly in his favor. His relative inexperience and the fact that he didn't seem like your ROM pol worked in his favor. Hilary's record as an elected official wasn't too much more extensive, but even her lengthy residence in Washington worked against her. Still, during the primary, the "knee-padding" was at a minimum. Hilary was considered front-runner initially.He became more of a phenomenon as the campaign went on because it became obvious that he was actually a serious contender.