Harry Reid- Obama the negro

[lerxstcat]

With that being said, I don't think Lott should have resigned either, his comments were off the cuff at a dinner honoring Thurmond. The GOP establishment that supported Shrub used that to squeeze him out because Lott was not a fan of GW Bush and thought he was an idiot and unqualified to be president. He also was dead on the money.

Woah, woah, woah. Trent Lott said:

"When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years, either."


That's bad. What Lott is saying essentially is "We wouldn't have all these problems if we'd maintained racial segregation and kept the black man down." How else would you interpret that?

Reid is basically saying: "The country isn't ready to accept a dark-skinned African American candidate who talks like the majority of blacks in America." That's a statement on the voters, not on Obama. Of course the way he said it was very clumsy. I think the statement sounds worse than it was meant to sound, whereas Lott's statement was a hell of a lot worse than it sounded.

And I'm not just giving Reid a pass and damning Lott because I despise Republicans. Another example is O'Reilly's comment about lynching in connection with Michelle Obama. I don't think he meant anything sinister by that and it was blown out of proportion, even though he is a dislikeable blowhard.

Lott was speaking at Thurmond's 100th birthday party to a private gathering, and was arguably just saying it to be nice to Thurmond, an elder statesman of the Old South who was going to die soon. I'd say that his remarks should be taken in that context rather than think he was completely serious in what he said. He was stroking the old guy to be nice.

[Ugmo]

He was stroking the old guy to be nice.

Ewwww.


I'd be hard-pressed to find anything nice at all to say about the old bigot, but to imply the country would be better off it had been run by a segregationist? Is there any other way to interpret that, or am I reading too much into it. I don't think the setting is really relevant... a bunch of old boys making borderline bigoted comments amongst themselves is just as bad as if they were to do it out in the open, in my opinion.

[lerxstcat]

He was stroking the old guy to be nice.

Ewwww.


I'd be hard-pressed to find anything nice at all to say about the old bigot, but to imply the country would be better off it had been run by a segregationist? Is there any other way to interpret that, or am I reading too much into it. I don't think the setting is really relevant... a bunch of old boys making borderline bigoted comments amongst themselves is just as bad as if they were to do it out in the open, in my opinion.

Sheesh, don't take it so literally! More like "Hey Ugmo, you look JUST LIKE MATTHIAS JABS in those leopard-print pants, man!" i.e., not literally true, but meant to make you feel good about yourself.

The context DOES matter there; a gathering of people, the eldest of whom did live in an earlier, more race-divided time. An old man who WAS important in southern politics 50 years ago, who again is 100 years old and gonna die soon. What's the harm in humoring him, saying things would've been better had he been elected President?

I doubt seriously Lott believed that, he was trying to make the old man feel good on his birthday. I don't have a problem with that at all, nor do I think it should be taken the same as if he'd said it in public.

[JakeYonkel]

It's like when old people drop the N-bomb. You can't really crucify them over that. Doesn't mean it's right but you look at it in context.

[Ugmo]

The context DOES matter there; a gathering of people, the eldest of whom did live in an earlier, more race-divided time. An old man who WAS important in southern politics 50 years ago, who again is 100 years old and gonna die soon. What's the harm in humoring him, saying things would've been better had he been elected President?

I doubt seriously Lott believed that, he was trying to make the old man feel good on his birthday. I don't have a problem with that at all, nor do I think it should be taken the same as if he'd said it in public.

I was reading up on Lott's efforts to apologize afterwards and I'm going to cut him some slack. I suppose it's possible he wasn't specifically thinking about segregation, and after he said it and took heat from it, he thought to himself "Holy shit, that isn't what I meant." I guess minority leader Tom Daschle came to his defense as well.

One thing I hate is how everything is politicized. Like when someone makes a potentially anti-PC gaffe, someone from the other side of the aisle immediately calls for their resignation. Like both parties are just waiting for the other side to say something they came jump all over (which is especially pronounced during elections). Okay, if someone says something that everybody is shocked and horrified by, that's one thing, but if when it's just the opposing party making a mountain out of a molehill I hate that.

[bane]

It's almost ALWAYS a mountain out of a molehill. It's pretty few and far between that any of these guys get blown up over something truly legitimate. We're guilty of it here as much as they are on the hill.

[Ugmo]

It's almost ALWAYS a mountain out of a molehill. It's pretty few and far between that any of these guys get blown up over something truly legitimate. We're guilty of it here as much as they are on the hill.

Yeah, but it's not the same when we do it. We're not trying to take anyone's job or somehow gain an advantage in life from it. It's kinda like how we can goof on the bands we like (or hate), but when bands slag each other off in the press it's unprofessional, albeit entertaining.

[bane]

It's almost ALWAYS a mountain out of a molehill. It's pretty few and far between that any of these guys get blown up over something truly legitimate. We're guilty of it here as much as they are on the hill.

Yeah, but it's not the same when we do it. We're not trying to take anyone's job or somehow gain an advantage in life from it. It's kinda like how we can goof on the bands we like (or hate), but when bands slag each other off in the press it's unprofessional, albeit entertaining.

Sure, but my point was, we tend to parrot what's going on on the hill. It's always predictably drawn along party lines and we pile on just as much as the press does. Nobody gets hurt by it, but it's a pretty good mirror of how society at large handles it. It's kind of hypocritical for any of us to bitch about partisanship when we all engage in it all the time.

[Ugmo]

Okay, I see what you mean.

[Engine13]

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