If his presidency is to represent the full power of the idea that black Americans are just like everyone else -- fully human and fully capable of intellect, courage and patriotism -- then Barack Obama has to be subject to the same rough and tumble of political criticism experienced by his predecessors. To treat the first black president as if he is a fragile flower is certain to hobble him. It is also to waste a tremendous opportunity for improving race relations by doing away with stereotypes and seeing the potential in all Americans.Given the sense of racial guilt that many whites, particularly liberal whites carry with them and the fact that the White House press corps lacks a certain diversity, racial as well as ideological of course, I doubt we'll see reporters responding to Juan Williams' request that they are as critical of Obama as they would be if he were white. But perhaps there are a few brave souls who will be willing to perform the adversarial function that journalists are always so proud of.
Yet there is fear, especially among black people, that criticism of him or any of his failures might be twisted into evidence that people of color cannot effectively lead. That amounts to wasting time and energy reacting to hateful stereotypes. It also leads to treating all criticism of Mr. Obama, whether legitimate, wrong-headed or even mean-spirited, as racist.
This is patronizing. Worse, it carries an implicit presumption of inferiority. Every American president must be held to the highest standard. No president of any color should be given a free pass for screw-ups, lies or failure to keep a promise.
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Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Strengthen race relations be feeling free to criticize Obama
Juan Williams pleads with the media, now that Barack Obama is president, to treat him as they would any other president. They should be critical and depart from the hagiographic treatment that they used during the campaign. As Williams argues, treating him differently now would demonstrate a different kind of prejudice - the fear that a black man can't succeed unless there is a thumb held on the journalistic scales.
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If I may rephrase a Saturday Night Live skit, "The only thing that would bring the press corp close to objectivenes would be root canals without anesthetics."
The only way the press will be hard on a black president is if he's a Republican.
The press lacks the courage, the intelligence and integrity to criticize Hussein.
How "2008" remarks about our President's middle name sound!
How insipid. How vapid. How emotionally bereft. Ultimately, they tell us the speaker has been pushed aside, as irrelevant.
While America celebrates its fitness to rejoin polite company, Quinn shows us how "mighty" is his spirit.
Perhaps "MoD" should go to The New York Times and MSNBC to post his criticism for using Obama's middle name, for both have allowed their employees (Jodi Kantor and Adam Nagourney at NYT and Chris Matthews at MSNBC to name a few) to do so. Nicholas Kristof even opined (03/06/2007 NYT) that it was advantageous for Obama to use it, for it showed to Muslims that he would be, "...less likely to stereotype Muslims as fanatics – and more likely to be AWARE OF THEIR NATIONALISM – if he once studied the Koran with them.” and, ... “Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer (there is no such thing, more on that in a moment) reciting them with a first-rate accent. Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as ‘one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.’ Moreover, Mr. Obama’s own grandfather in Kenya was a Muslim.”
So, why get bent out of shape when Quinn merely mentions Obama's middle name after Progressives/Democrats/liberals like NYT, Matthews and Kristof play with it in depth telling the world how it benefits our nation to have a president bearing that name?
If America is now "celebrat[ing] its fitness to rejoin polite company," how would MoD explain the jeering and mockery President Bush received as he entered the dais during the Obama inauguration? How insipid. How vapid. How emotionally bereft. Ultimately, it told us the DailyKos Romper Rumors, Democrat Underwear and HuffPo posters were there in spirit if not bodily.
What I enjoy is the fact that MoD didn't address the issue which is the press and their lack of integrity in dealing with the democrats in general and Obama specifically.
The silence tells more than paragraphs of text...
The Democrats like to tell us they want a classless society. Well their behavior yesterday toward President Bush prooved them to be just that--classless.
The worst racism is the soft racism of low expectations. Accountability will only happen when everyone is held to account equally.
Bachbone, to be fair, the majority of people did not boo former President Bush. Those that did are classless. 'Nuff said on that issue.
Personally, I feel that many liberals and liberal media folks will be quite disappointed with President Obama. I think the America's current financial situation will force him to govern with the input of both sides. Compromises will be made that many of the Left will be VERY disappointment about. As a member of the "realist Left" I would like to see aspects of Republican and Democratic plans in any stimulus for our country. The press may want to fawn but time is going to slap them silly and smell the coffee concerning covering Obama ONLY glowingly.
T-Stone- your comments are extremely insightful and well put. As a conservative who's bubble leans just to the right of plum, I agree. A meeting of the minds and wave of compromise is in order. I believe we can make money, strengthen our defense, and find new energy without destroying the environment or losing all sense of what is right and what is wrong.
I voted for McCain, but I feel a strong sense of hope and excitement for what our new President will bring.
conservative sites have given up dialogue. I miss the old Betsy site..always intelligent. Don't mind a remark or two, back and forth. Now it's all approval by the gods. Oh well, oh well..
don-You obviously missed a series of sock puppets that basically called Betsy a criminal and threatened to report her for various unprofessional acts. It got really bad for a month or two. And when Betsy tried the comments kept coming and as bad as it may seem this is much better.
Obama has stopped the trials in Gitmo. Lets see what his next brilliant move is.
I understand that he is having people look into stopping some of our weapons developement. If true--Russia and China and Iran will be very happy about that.
In fact, anything that he does to weaken our military will be to their advantage--not ours.
Lets just see what moves this man is planning while no one is looking-- certainly not the media and apparently not many Republicans.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/22/obama-to-close-terror-war-black-sites/
According to The Washington Times Obama will close down all the CIA black sites used to fight terror.
don,
I like the old give and take too but there were just too many that came here with nothing more than insults for Betsy. Sometimes you just have to use a screen door to keep the flies out.
Mr. Obama's meteoric rise in political offices and his lack of real accomplishments has led many to believe that this is the result of a political affirmative action type advancement. If the media does not hold his feet to the fire, it will be confirmed.
You obviously missed a series of sock puppets that basically called Betsy a criminal and threatened to report her for various unprofessional acts.
What? I missed that too. Link?
I don't believe it.
Well, that may be difficult because it appears that Betsy's archives have not kept comments. But I believe that one posted under the name Janet and various permutations and the other was, not kidding here, we, in the lower case.
For the record, Jaw Bone, here is one just one bit of anti-Semitism aimed at Betsy that was posted by a commenter who called himself "me" and also posted under a bunch of other names, one of which was "Janet," as Pat mentioned: "A tool is a toul is a tooool is a sycophant. What floats her boat? A personal
attaboy from Hugh Hewitt? I think she's collecting souls for her liberal Jewish capitalist masters who are taking money from Shriner/Carlyle Group/CFR/
Rothschild/NeoCon zealots who are secretly hoping for Armageddon when the nuclear bombs start flying. Common denominator? Religious fanatics listening to the voices in their heads that tell them that they deserve to live longer than other humans. Pathetic."
That was posted 09/17/2008 @11:39 p.m. I saved it to a file.
It's just one example of the trash Betsy tolerated far too long, in my opinion.
There's the proof, in case you actually didn't know.
Trust me jawbone, it sucked having to dredge the swamp for the good comments. This is better...
Jaw Bone is of course aware that Betsy's old comments were lost when she switched to moderation. Before the switchover it became quite clear that vicious 'janet' (later 'tenaj') was a sockpuppet of Bill Biddle. More recently it has become clear that 'Jaw Bone' is another Biddle sockpuppet. So 'Jaw Bone' pretends not to understand how this site was systematically wrecked by . . . Jaw Bone himself, writing under another name. I'm sure he thinks he's clever, but most of us think he's pathetic.
Bachbone (3:42) I saved that also as I thought that was one of the worst things I had read here.
Dr Weevil (9:36)
I had no idea those identities were all sock puppets. Good grief.
Anyhow, It looks like the new commenting has worked out well.
I do miss The Machine, suek and a couple of others though.
Regards.
Dr Weevil - yes, some of us are aware of the bigoted "dual personalities" who still post here. (Their choice of terms gives them away.) Thus, my last sentence's wording.
You are completely wrong, Michael.
I have never posted as janet or tenaj. You are just completely wrong. As usual.
Should we believe Bill Biddle's denial?
We know he's a liar who routinely pretends to be more than one person. He doesn't even bother to deny here that he is also posting as 'Jaw Bone'. In any case, there can't possibly be two posters who think calling tfhr 'fhrt' is witty.
We know he's a hypocrite and a creep, who carefully preserves his own anonymity while mocking that of others. Perhaps his real name is 'Bill Biddle', but there are 100+ Bill Biddles in North America, and this one (if he is a B.B.) takes great care never to leave a clue as to what state he lives in, how old he is, or anything else that would tell us which one. At the same time, he feels entitled to call me 'Michael' and otherwise allude to my real-world identity, though he knows that is specifically forbidden by the site-owner. In fact, he has violated that rule, and shown his hypocrisy and creepiness, at least a dozen times in the last couple of years.
We know that he has been banned many times before for breaking the site-owner's rules, but he just keeps coming back.
Most important, we know (though we may not be able to prove it, since the old comments are gone) that he sometimes messes up and signs his posts with the wrong names. He has done so at least once with 'janet'.
A brief visit back to Betsy's shows that the obsessive-compulsive virus types - Biddle, Weevil - are still on board. Sorry, didn't mean to disturb. See you back in the future, Betsy. Best..
Or refusing to use the pseudonym of the person he is responding too.
I just had a thought maybe it's the unlamented Deb Frisch posting here as Biddle, Bill B, Janet, et al. But then she was just recently in court for trying to get on a college campus with a stun gun and pepper spray so she may have an alibi.
Pat Patterson,
I saw that Deb Frisch story - a dangerous moonbat, otherwise it would be funny. I've thought about picking up a copy of Michelle Malkin's "Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild", but between Biddle and his ilk, I can get enough of that stuff right here.
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