Boo Santa and beat the crap out of a Giants fan and he can carry Phily no problem.

Philly sports fans don't walk upright or have opposable thumbs, let alone vote.

Remember when appearing on a late-night talk show was an outrageous and totally hip move for a candidate to make?

Now they have to. Sports radio is next.

Man, to hear Obama and Cope on the radio together. That would be epic hilarity.

At any rate, in Pittsburgh, the only radio is sports radio. Penguins, Pirates and Stillers FTW!

If Obama can make a connection between Hillary and the Cleavland Browns, he'll take the west of the state easily.

He threw his grandmother under the bus AGAIN when he appeared on this sports show saying she is a "typical white person" afraid of people different than her.

I have absolutely no doubt that Mike Lange could work "Barack Obama" into something.

For example:
Obama needs a donut.
Scratch my Barack with a hacksaw.
It's an Obama Night in Pittsburgh.

Hang On Voltaire

I'd wait until I heard his exact words...if he only said what the article is implying, I'd say it's a pretty big gaffe.

/Obama Supporter

Hang On Voltaire: He threw his grandmother under the bus AGAIN when he appeared on this sports show saying she is a "typical white person" afraid of people different than her.

Dude, being called a racist doesn't mean you're a bad person. Saying that my 85 year old grandfather is probably a little racist isnt anything earth shattering, its the truth. I'm also a little bit sexist. Doesn't make me a bad person. It's knee jerk judgements like yours that prevent any serious examination of any issue in this country (and this goes the other way, as in if you don't agree with a black person/woman, you're a racist/sexist).

keck314: Hang On Voltaire

I'd wait until I heard his exact words...if he only said what the article is implying, I'd say it's a pretty big gaffe.

/Obama Supporter

Ask and ye shall receive. (new window) Obama is a typical black person

I thought I just heard Howard Eskin being critical of BHO. He's not the morning guy but I always thought he was the "main" guy at WIP. Or is that wrong.

Mayor Nutter (black) still wholeheartedly supports Hillary. This is Rendell country, and Rendell is nothing if not a mere tool in Hillary's swiss army vagina kit. Nutter knows whos the boss, no question.

(And the left calls out Powell and Rice for being "house negroes." What a blind spot they have, huh?)

Hang On Voltaire: He threw his grandmother under the bus AGAIN when he appeared on this sports show saying she is a "typical white person" afraid of people different than her.

Ha, I love all this faux concern emanating from the right-wing over Obama's grandmother.

keck314: I'd wait until I heard his exact words...if he only said what the article is implying, I'd say it's a pretty big gaffe.

A gaffe because he's talking about the "typical white person," but certainly not "throwing her under a bus." What do you want him to say when asked about his grandma reference?

"You know Angelo, I'd answer that question and explain a little more in case there was any misunderstanding, but I don't want to keep throwing my grandma under the bus." How is he supposed to answer the question without referencing the object of the question?

fosborb: keck314: I'd wait until I heard his exact words...if he only said what the article is implying, I'd say it's a pretty big gaffe.

A gaffe because he's talking about the "typical white person," but certainly not "throwing her under a bus." What do you want him to say when asked about his grandma reference?

"You know Angelo, I'd answer that question and explain a little more in case there was any misunderstanding, but I don't want to keep throwing my grandma under the bus." How is he supposed to answer the question without referencing the object of the question?

How about not bringing your grandmother into it at all

It's kind of funny, the speech was basically a dare to any of his opponents to actually talk about racial issues like adults, and a statement that refusing to do so would keep us in the same perpetual failure to fix any of the issues beyond PC gotcha moments.

What do his opponents do? Go out of their way to find the most pathetic 'gotcha' PC moment of all time. Yeah guys, Obama hates his grandmother and all white people. Go with that.

How about not bringing your grandmother into it at all

How about not attacking a man for what his pastor and personal friend said?

Edsel: Ha, I love all this faux concern emanating from the right-wing over Obama's grandmother.

I can't wait for the talking point to mutate into "Hussein Osama: Habitual Abuser of the Elderly?"

Hang On Voltaire: How about not bringing your grandmother into it at all

Hell, if he straight up apologizes for any and all references to his grandma, he would still be bringing his grandma once again into this race.

fosborb:

Hell, if he straight up apologizes for any and all references to his grandma, he would still be bringing his grandma once again into this race.


You want to make a courageous speech about this? You get up there and say: "My preacher has said some outrageous and offensive things. I chose to join his church and I stayed a member even when I knew he was saying these things. I am not going to defend him and I am not going to morally equate his actions or words. I am sorry and he will not be a member of my campaign anymore"

Hang On Voltaire: How about not bringing your grandmother into it at all

Of course, McCain bringing his mother onto Meet The Press is just fine and doesn't warrant a lick of outrage.

Anybody else pick up his dog-whistle speak by saying Hilary is "a very smart lady...People respect her intelligence"? It's a good one-two punch to play on class and gender biases and get the blue-collar Joe Sixpack vote - a group of people who don't take kindly to pandering intellectuals and wouldn't want to feel like their wives are smarter than them.

You want to make a courageous speech about this? You get up there and say: "My preacher has said some outrageous and offensive things. I chose to join his church and I stayed a member even when I knew he was saying these things.

So, you want him to lie?

furiousxgeorge: You want to make a courageous speech about this? You get up there and say: "My preacher has said some outrageous and offensive things. I chose to join his church and I stayed a member even when I knew he was saying these things.

So, you want him to lie?

How would he lie?

fosborb:

Of course, McCain bringing his mother onto Meet The Press is just fine and doesn't warrant a lick of outrage.


Did he throw her under the bus?

How would he lie?

Claiming he was aware of what Wright said when he wasn't?

How about not bringing your grandmother into it at all

There are millions of us born in the past 50 years, particularly in the south, who felt this part of the speech to be helpful and healing. I have grappled my entire adult life trying to reconcile the hurtful, racist attitudes of my grandparents with the good qualities in them that caused me to love them so much. I was able to love my grandparents and transcend their outdated way of viewing race. Hereditary racism ended with me and my sister. Our children weren't brought up with it. This is the case with many, many families throughout the country, and Obama validated that truth. If you can't see that, you are being willfully obstinate.

Hang On Voltaire: Did he throw her under the bus?

I don't know if she threw her under a bus, but seeing as she was sitting right next to him on Meet the Press, McCain is infinitely more likely to have thrown her under a bus than Obama, whose grandmother was in Hawaii while he was in Pennsylvania. Unless Obama really is the messiah, I just don't see how it was physically possible for him to throw her under the bus.

E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!!!!

WOOOOOOO GO OBAMA!

!@*(#&*(%)@&*

Hang On Voltaire: "My preacher has said some outrageous and offensive things. I chose to join his church and I stayed a member even when I knew he was saying these things. I am not going to defend him and I am not going to morally equate his actions or words. I am sorry and he will not be a member of my campaign anymore"

he said all of those things. Except sorry, which I appreciate because I don't think you should have to apologize for the actions of another person, even a friend.

I'm sorry you think that political expediency = heroism. Obama's speech was excellent (heroic might be pushing it) and it might set a tone for how he wants to deal with race relations in his presidency (and being he's black, it'll come up at some point for sure.)

Hang On Voltaire
Wow, we have Obama's grandmother's spokesman on the thread.
Thanks for standing up for her, she did ask you to do that, right?

Hang On Voltaire

Obama is a typical black person

Could you please define "typical black person"?

Hang On Voltaire:

Obama is a typical black person

...and there it is.

Hang On Voltaire: My preacher has said some outrageous and offensive things.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Rev. Wright that have caused such controversy.

I chose to join his church and I stayed a member even when I knew he was saying these things.

And I confess that if all that I knew of Rev. Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and YouTube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than 20 years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor.

He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine, who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth -- by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

I am not going to defend him and I am not going to morally equate his actions or words.

As such, Rev. Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems -- two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

I am sorry and he will not be a member of my campaign anymore.

Just FYI - Wright is not a pastor at that church now.


I'm just wondering if I can help explain to you the parts which you don't understand.

Hang On Voltaire: Obama is a typical black person

I would like to consider myself pretty open-minded, willing to give anything the benefit of doubt and try to see things at every contextual angle I can conceive, and I'm having a really hard time trying to perceive that as anything but racist.

Wow this grandmother spin is hilarious...what will they think of next?

The Bestest: Hang On Voltaire: Obama is a typical black person

I would like to consider myself pretty open-minded, willing to give anything the benefit of doubt and try to see things at every contextual angle I can conceive, and I'm having a really hard time trying to perceive that as anything but racist.

He is being a smart ass, Obama said something about typical white people in the interview this morning.

Don't get it twisted - things like "Hang on Voltaire" and other neocons wanted so badly for Obama to throw his pastor under the bus - then it would have been easy to show how quickly Obama dismisses his religious leader, and therefore he must not take religion very seriously. Instead, Obama said he could no more dissert his pastor than he could his grandmother, that he not only loves them both but they're a part of America, quintessentially (the ex-Marine turned pastor black man and the Kansas old white lady) and he wouldn't dissert any of them.

The right is just pissy they didn't get their checkers move in like they would. They coulda sworn they saw an easy way for a quadruple-jump that would "king" them. Obama didn't serve it up to them as softbally as HRC or Kerry would have. So now they pick on the Grandma comment, pretending not to recognize any context to it.

Disgusting intellectually disingenuous politics, but I guess that's all Tatsuma and Hang on Voltaire got.

Curious Hussein: Mayor Nutter (black) still wholeheartedly supports Hillary. This is Rendell country, and Rendell is nothing if not a mere tool in Hillary's swiss army vagina kit. Nutter knows whos the boss, no question.

(And the left calls out Powell and Rice for being "house negroes." What a blind spot they have, huh?)

now that's racist

Eh, no time to keep farking. Gotta go home and get my pre-family drink on and then throw my family under the bus.

In all honesty, that phrase turns my stomach, but that's because a close cousin of mine actually was thrown under a bus. And I understand that's a remarkably individual experience so I don't expect the world to drop the phrase out of favor because of it. Nevertheless, it is unfortunate that the right wing phrasesmiths have picked up on this particular metaphor and, because of the effectiveness of repeating a single phrase over and over again and because communicating otherwise requires the use some sort of personal creativity, I'll have to see this G-d damned phrase every time I visit the Politics tab for at least a few weeks.

\obviously, I just threw my cousin under the bus

furiousxgeorge:
He is being a smart ass, Obama said something about typical white people in the interview this morning.

Went over it, yeah, that's a gaffe.

Hang On Voltaire: You want to make a courageous speech about this? You get up there and say: "My preacher has said some outrageous and offensive things. I chose to join his church and I stayed a member even when I knew he was saying these things. I am not going to defend him and I am not going to morally equate his actions or words. I am sorry and he will not be a member of my campaign anymore"

THAT'S what you thought his speech should have been!?!

I'm reminded of an old saying: When the wise man points to the moon, the idiot looks at the finger.

And in case you just noticed, I'm pointing with the middle one.

So, I just listened to the actual audio clip (thanks, Hang On Voltaire!)

It turns out that the quote from the article is incorrect. What he instead said was:

"The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity, she doesn't. But she is a typical white person, who, If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, you know, there's a reaction that's been bred in to our experiences that don't go away, and that sometimes, come out in the wrong way, and that's just the nature of race in our society. We have to break through it, and what makes me optimistic is you see each generation feeling a little bit less like that."

The word "who" makes an ENORMOUS difference here. Otherwise, it sounds like he's talking about all white people.

keck314: So, I just listened to the actual audio clip (thanks, Hang On Voltaire!)

It turns out that the quote from the article is incorrect. What he instead said was:

"The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity, she doesn't. But she is a typical white person, who, If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, you know, there's a reaction that's been bred in to our experiences that don't go away, and that sometimes, come out in the wrong way, and that's just the nature of race in our society. We have to break through it, and what makes me optimistic is you see each generation feeling a little bit less like that."

The word "who" makes an ENORMOUS difference here. Otherwise, it sounds like he's talking about all white people.

The "who" doesn't make one difference whatsoever. He's labeling his grandmother as a "typical white person."

I do understand his comments though, but would have rather rephrased them as referring to a "typical person" instead. Because aren't the traits that he attributes to his grandmother universal among all races and sexes?

Joey Jo Jo Jr Shabadu

I think it does. If I said, for example:

"My mom is a typical white person. She eats raisins."

Then I would be implying that all white people eat raisins. This is the construction used in TFA.

On the other hand, were I to say:

"My mom is a typical white person, who eats raisins"

Well, then, we're just talking about my mom. Her whiteness is just another part of the description. That's the construction Obama used.

Obama is cooked. He was viable when is was the "candidate who happened to be black". But in the last couple of weeks he has morphed into "the black candidate". I still support him, but he probably lost virtually all of the crossover voters.

I guess it depends on how may "typical white person"s there are in Pennsylvania.

pootsie: Remember when appearing on a late-night talk show was an outrageous and totally hip move for a candidate to make?


It also helped that Clinton appeared on a "hip show". Arsenio Hall was a lot more relevant than The Tonight Show. Clinton in '92 did these appearances on Arsenio and MTV to engage the young voters at the time.

Hang On Voltaire

What is the deal with all these black people being black? Too bad they're not white.

keck314: On the other hand, were I to say:

"My mom is a typical white person, who eats raisins"

Well, then, we're just talking about my mom. Her whiteness is just another part of the description. That's the construction Obama used

I'm beginning to think that the reason why most American politicians treat the populace like drooling retards is because nuance, such as what you just noted, is completely lost upon them. They can't talk to them like adults because the last President who did that was Carter, and we all know how well that turned out.