I'm not buying your argument, Mark.

And I've been backing Obama for months now. But he was a complete fool to utter the words, "typical white woman."

People are going to blame Rev. Wright for killing Obama's campaign, but I think those three words are going to do it because those are OBAMA'S WORDS, not the words of a supporter.

You can get away from the words of a supporter, but you can't distance yourself so easily from your own words.

Obama needs to take immediate action by publicly apologizing for saying those words. He should have said, "a typical person." But his train of thought placed him at his grandmothers side and how he may have felt about her.

Let's face it, everyone looks at a white woman with a black child differently. She must have sensed it and resented it; and Obama must have resented her for it.

So therein you have a racial divide that led Obama to Wright's church of resentment.

The student (Obama) seemed to have surpassed the teacher (Wright), but then he utters the words, "typical white woman."

When I read it yesterday hidden in another SWAMP posting I said, he comes the tsunami. Now he's really cooked.

And apparently I was right.

Isn't the typical person white in this country still? Esp in Kansas? If this is what we can expect, Obama might as well start throwing th ekitchen sink back, because we have sunk to far down to get back up.

Obama said he was a transcendant person who was hope for the future but, he is just the same oh, same oh.
We learned painfully in the Jeremiah Wright tapes that Wright is the guy that put hope in Obamas head as a theme to con us.
We also learned Wright is a white hater period.
And as Ann Coulter said he threw his grandma off the bus for Rev. Wright and his hatred.
Obama is the puppet of Dickie Durbin and his invention so we really can't expect much of him
Durbin was in Springfield yesterday saying all these foreign nations have a bad image of America and pushing global warming and wanting to get rid of Abu Graib just as he condemned American soldiers as Nazis, Pol Pot or Soviets in their Gulag last year on the Senate floor.
Obama is a Chicago machine politician not an agent of change. His resume of 10 year Senator and three years in U.S. Senate is paper thin and hardly qualifies him to be President of the greatest nation on earth his running with Rezko, Wright, Weatherman Underground William Ayres speaks to his judgment he doesn't have any.
Durbin is wrong about our image in the world with Sarkozy in France and Merkle in Germany things are better every day.Many climatolgists have repudiated global warming because the statistics were poorly arrived at in fact this year the world is one degreee cooler negating warming from last year.
But, reason doesn't appeal to leftist socialists like Durbin and Obama.
If Obama is elected the tax increases plus $18 billion taxes on oil companies to be paid by us at the pump will make a recession a depression.
Durbin is concerned we have tax cuts during war time but then after the Cold War this Jackass asked for a peace dividend for welfare programs.
Enough already. Jerry White, Springfield, IL

So I guess the "one drop" rule in America still exists...Everyone keeps referring to him as an "Africa-American" when his mother is white...I am still stuck on that issue...

The deciding question is: Who would Elvis vote for?

Jerry:

Your manlove for Dick Durbin is getting out of hand. What does he have to do with this?

Can we start concentrating on the words of John McCain? Like not knowing the difference between the Shi'ia and Sunnni? And comparing the holiday of Purim with Halloween?

What is going to happen in the debates when McCain does not have Joe Lieberman whispering corrections in his ear??

If three words of "typical black person" were uttered by a white candidate, people like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Barack Obama would jump up and down the street demanding apology and resignation. Obama was one of first fews who demanded firing of Don Imus even after Imus repetitively apologized.

Two things strike me about this whole Wright situation.

The first is that the speech appeals to people's intelligence, where this tape loop mess appeals to people's short-sightedness. Think about what we've had to put up with for these last eight years. Which of these kinds of appeals do you want the President making?

The second is that Wright was there to speak out on Bill Clinton's behalf when Clinton was under fire and about to be impeached; but now that Wright is under fire for unfair attacks that take his words out of context, Bill and Hillary are completely silent.

Ponder these, ladies and gents.

Oh my, oh my, oh my. What will you people glom onto next? "Typical white person" is all you've got? I mean, how can we talk about race unless we talk about white people and black people. How can we talk about race unless we talk about the real experiences, fears, anxieties, and unspoken anger that everyone carries around with them unless we acknowledge them?

I think it is a perfectly acceptable to say a "typical white person" in America might feel one way or another. Just as he might have said that the anger, fear, and frustration expressed by Rev. Wright are those of a typical, older black man in America.

Also, here's a warning sign. When you start agreeing with Ann Coulter about anything, you know you've gone over the edge.

Here this Mr. Obama says:
"... if we take the time to listen to each other, if we're honest with each other, if we're not trying to demonize each other, then we can solve problems..."
If you really believe in what you say then maybe you shoud stop demonizing white people. What a fake lier.

It makes me sad to read the comments here declaring that his campaign is now dead and that, obviously, he isn't the person they thought he was based on one soundbite statement. Apparently, the media soundbite looping is working. Didn't Obama say in his speech that we shouldn't judge his former pastor based on one opinion or sermon alone? One comment, one misworded statement, does not make a man. I'm disapointed that we can't rise above that.

It's been a really amazing last couple of weeks, and vividly illustrates just how off-track the Conservative media pundits & Republican party hacks can take an issue, any issue and twist it to their ends. And their "partner" Hillary.

Reminds me very much of kids in a schoolyard repeating and embellishing stories they've heard and adding their take onto to it just so they can start a fight between 2 other kids for their enjoyment.

If there is anyone on the planet who can withstand this, Barack Obama is it.

I mean that if anyone took the same energy and scrutiny to Hillary Clinton they would have rafts of substantial and factual associations with many high profile scandals involving money, sex, ambitions and scandal associated deaths.

As for John McCain,he's a relative moderate as far as Republicans but his political career pretty much lived and died on lobbyists money, and is an example of how Washington has been run in the past.

These personal attacks on Obama are actually getting so ludicrous that most people who have ACTUALLY LISTENED TO HIS SPEECHES, and LOOKED UP HIS POSITIONS on his website, where they are plainly printed for ALL to see, recognize them for what they are, a divisive tactic.

Now comes word that someone, somewhere put up some State Dept employees to look up his passport travel records, no doubt to look for some trip to an unfriendly country made 20 years ago when said unfriendly country may have been an ally...(sorry, going off on a tangent here...Republicans have made me paranoid :)

Anyway, those of us who have viewed Obama's speeches and actually looked up his statements in their entirety, in context of the entire conversation, are comfortable with who he is, what he's accomplished to date and inspired by his vision of how politics could be, can be and will be once he's President of the United States.

And I predict that once his initial 4 years is behind him, he'll have earned the respect & admiration of most Americans and many of our now distressed allies.

Having someone of his demonstrated intelligence might be a big difference from some of our now infamously dull presidents who played their way through college on daddy's money, didn't pay attention to anything other than their party affiliations and only serviced their financial backers point of view and ignored the very real concerns of Americans both white, black, asian AND brown.

Anyway, today Bill Richardson has endorsed Obama, and many Democratic Party big-shots have come out to admonish Hillary for her mud-slinging and going so far as to have given her implicit endorsement to McCain over Obama as far as foreign policy experience etc, and there isn't even a slight chance Hillary will make this campaign work now. And there's no-way she'll get 70-80 percent of each and every state left in the primary, so unless she's planning to bribe ALL her remaining superdelegates to steal the election, she should quit after she draws and/or loses the next state primary.

Although I've always voted as best I can, I never really thought my vote counted.

I've NEVER in 52 years I've been on this planet, donated a penny to anyone's campaign, displayed a sign or even discussed issues with anyone, but this candidate and campaign has finally pulled me back into the fold...and I feel good being here.

No apologies to anyone...OBama 2008!

This typical white woman and her typical white female friends will NOT be voting for obama/wright in Pa.

This typical white woman and her typical white female friends will NOT be voting for obama/wright in Pa.

The big questions remain unanswered that cut to the core of Obama's credibility, character and judgment:

Mr. Obama, if you truly believe in a united America and are "post racial," why for the last 25 years have you aligned yourself and your family with the hateful, anti-America, anti-white, anti-semitic rhetoric of Jeremiah Wright and the Black Nationalist movement?

Mr. Obama, if you are truly the great uniter, why have you donated tens of thousands of dollars, including $22,500 last year alone, to Jeremiah Wright to further his message of hate and diviseness?

Mr. Obama, why did it take the media and plummeting poll numbers to jolt you out of what can only be described as a racist stupor to begin addressing your association with racism and hate?

This whole thing is getting ridiculous ... picking apart every single word that Obama says and calling him a racist because he used the word "typical"; how early in the morning was the radio show? This guy is campaigning non-stop ... cut him some slack.
I'm sick of the media only focusing on the so-called racial issue in this campaign ... I'm white and I don't care what color--be it black, white or purple--the candidate is as long as they're going to fix the issues we have in America.
The only reason you guys are so crazed over this word is because you are trying to divert attention from the real issues.
Please take a look at McCain if you want to see some scary gaffees ... this guy is who you should be calling out for saying outrageous things!

The phrase "typical white person" was used to illustrate a point about the "fear" his grandmother and many white people have.

When alone, on an el train, late at night. Say coming back from a Bulls or Whtie Sox game. I can be completely "outnumbered", if you will, by African Americans. Now, I wouldn't say "fear" is the right word, but there is some trepidation when you are out of your "comfort zone". This does not make anyone "racist". It can simply be a natural reaction of wanting to get back to your home. Where you feel comfortable. It doesn't make it right or wrong, and I wish the feelings didn't exist. But I have lived in Chicago all my life and certainly know you could be "in the wrong place, at the wrong time, at any moment".

If there was better equity, in education, housing, income, health care, etc., I believe those fears would eventually dissolve. And we can all live side by side in peace and freedom.

With each passing day, the magic of Obama is washing away and be replaced by the reality of a smug, smirking, racist con man.

Nobama. No way.

Posted by: Jerry White | March 21, 2008 9:42 AM

Anne Coulter is the "queen of hate". You can discount anything she says.

Bob, great post. Criticize Jerry for being off-topic by bringing up Durbin, then you start babbling about McCain.

Another fluff piece on Obama by Mark Silva. Obama will never have to answer for anything if Silva has any say in it. Silva, it is nice to see you feeling better. People were concerned after you fainted at the last Obama rally. That was you, wasn't it? I know, I know. He is very inspiring.

That's it. You can already see it in these comments. He's done. What he meant, the truth or falsity of it, doesn't matter. It was bad enough that he didn't wear a flag lapel pin. But this sunk him.

We are a nation of idiots, and we will insist on getting a government that reflects our stupidity. So when President McCain starts another backbreaking Middle East war, or when President Hillary gets cornered into doing the same, at least we will have the consolation that we don't have a president who made the fatal mistake of telling us anything remotely like the truth.

I hate my country for what it's about to do to Barack Obama.

Having written what I wrote above, I still find it interesting that on Good Friday Americans are so unwilling to forgive a black man for uttering the words, "Typical White Woman."

And yet, what is the entire Rev. Wright controversy all about?

Americans aren't mad that Wright noted the white racism that gave us hundreds of years of slavery, Jim Crow, and the subtle racism in our justice system that has dramactically increased the black prison population since the passage of the 1965 Civil Rights Act. No, what Americans are angry about is that Rev. Wright didn't forgive this country, his country, for that injustice.

So let us be clear: Americans WANT forgiveness; but Americans are UNWILLING to forgive.

Yeah, that about sums it up.

I don't understand all the fuss over Jeremiah Wright.

I suspect if the press were to show a selection of videos from many American preachers, you would raise eyebrows.

The late Jerry "Jabba the Hutt" Falwell used to sell videos at his services that suggested the Clintons had Vince Foster murdered.

Pat Robertson has numerous times blamed specific groups of Americans for bringing on God's vengeance in the form of natural disasters such as hurricanes.

Oral Roberts went up to the "Prayer Tower" at the "university" he named after himself to go on a hunger strike until his faithful fleeced flock coughed up another several million bucks in donations, and they did.

Scientology in the 1960s was everywhere talked of as a cult at best. It actually was widely regarded as an organized fraud and was investigated a number of times in various jurisdictions. Then the miracle of political influence somewhere gave them tax-exempt status with America's Internal Revenue Service, and they became, overnight, a (sort of mainline) religion keeping more out of each fee they charge followers.

Oh, by the way, a former church minister to the Clintons is being tried for child molestation.

Gonna give Obama a pass for his blatant racism?

Do a little digging...It was only a few years ago that surveys discovered that it wasn't only "typical white people" who suffered from LBM (Large black men) syndrome, but many black women also feel its effects.

People don't recoil from the well-dressed black men I see every day on Chicago's LaSalle Street. They recoil from the black scumbags they see in far too many areas.

Of course, just about anyone, regardless of their race, would recoil from a similar scumbag of any race.

If Obama, Clinton, and McCain are the best we've got, America is in serious trouble...

Gosh Trib, I haven't seen any other news outlets focusing on these words this morning, but I guess I haven't bothered to check Rush Limbaugh or Fox News yet. I listened to him speaking, and I didn't pay any attention to them, until you went out of your way to make sure people would fixate on them. It's really confusing, because on one page your editorial board is praising and endorsing him, while on the other you're acting like old Gen. McCormick is still alive. I guess when Sam Zell gets done firing half of the Trib's workforce this sort of inconsistency will get ironed out.

Thank you Jeremiah Wright.

Now we know where Obama honed his now barely conceived racist attitudes evident in statements such as "typical white person."

Now we know where Michelle Obama honed her hatred of whites and America in general despite being the poster child for opportunity and privilege in America.

Now we know why the Black Panther Party endorsed Obama this week.

Now we know why Louis Farrakhan loves Obama.

Yes, it's all starting to make sense now. Obama is the Trojan horse for hate in America.

i am white. in all honesty even white people that consider themselves progressive have the reaction to seeing black people (usually male)of suspicion or fear in certain situations that they don't have toward whites in those same situations. it is something you might fight against but you have an uncomfortable feeling when it crops up. because you know it's not equitable. this is what obama is refering to. coming from a bi-racial family who is better to explain this. is this generational? do black people of this generation have a different reaction to whites? a distrust of white people, maybe? the discussion could be a good thing. sociologists have studies that have found that people make these assumptions on race. thats all obama is talking about. this is not a message of hate it's reality. politics is a dirty business. every word uttered is put under a microscope.is it ok for obama to say "typical white person" if he were white? He is white! why do we focus on his blackness and define him as black?

Not this time.

Out of everything Obama has said, the only phase that is causing controversy is "typical white woman". Wow...that says it all. If we look in the mirror and be truly honest, we would know what he is saying is true. Whether we be black or white, we all have stereotypical thoughts sometimes. That is not racist. That is America today.

Kathy, you as a typical white woman and her typical white female friends WILL be voting for Barack Obama in PA.

He's the best choice and you would simply be displaying ignorance not to vote for him, rather than a FLIP-FLOPPER like Clinton.

http://zennie2005.blogspot.com

Obama explained exactly what he meant on Larry King. If we want to parse every single dangling adjective, let's start with George Bush.

Regarding, Jeremiah Wright, he was wrong, but Obama should not be left to explain. Wright owes an explanation and an apology to the American people for his harsh rhetoric. This is not excused by his long record or the fact that most of his sermons may have been more main stream, as evidenced by the Clinton’s inviting him to the White House, and make no mistake about it, he did not walk into an official reception unannounced. Times have changed. Things are better, not perfect, so he went too far.

At the same time, the story of black anger about discrimination is not simply about slavery that ended 150 years ago. A rational person could see there might be anger about the role of the government in creating and protecting a system designed to make one group a permanent underclass, that ended in its legally enforced manifestations only recently. Government has, for most of the 4oo years of U. S history since Jamestown, not been a friend of its black population.

Beyond slavery, it was just 30 years when many blacks were unable to buy a house or rent an apartment in many neighborhoods, when communities were subject to rampant redlining that made it impossible to get a mortgage and distorted rates for homeowners and car insurance, when it was available at all. It was just 40 years ago that many blacks got the right to vote and the first black athletes were enrolled in many public universities of the south, while student bodies remained nearly exclusively white. It was just 40 years ago when many unions had no black members and blacks were limited in their employment by police and fire departments and subject to blatant discrimination in hiring. Meanwhile, black men were a disproportionate part of the combat forces in Viet Nam sent to kill yellow men who, as Ali said, never did any of these things to me.

It was just 50 years ago when black children walked past modern, neighborhood schools to more distant, often dilapidated facilities, could not use public bath rooms, have a meal in a restaurant, or use a public park, beach or swimming pool, even in some northern cities, like Chicago and New York.

It is still not recognized by many that it was just 60 years ago when black servicemen in segregated units were involved and shed blood in nearly every major battle in Western Europe, including the D-Day landing and the Battle of the Bulge. The fact that they were often in support, rather than “combat” roles, did not immunize them from enemy fire or prevent an incidental direct role or disqualify a Tuskegee Airman as a target for German fighters or AAA. Still, they were rewarded by their country upon returning home by often being forced from pubic accommodations to make room for German prisoners who had, only recently, been defending the Nazi system and trying to kill Americans.

A rational person could see there might be some anxiety among black citizens about a system, supported directly and indirectly by the majority population, that has until recently denied their rights as citizens. A rational person could see that, in the wake of the Tuskegee medical studies where blacks were used as guinea pigs in a study that denied them treatment for syphilis (or the 1950’s studies where the CIA dosed unknowing subjects with LSD, mainly whites in this case) that there could be fears advances could be reversed, like the period after the end of Civil War Reconstruction, in favor of those good old days when blacks were kept in place by men in sheets and politicians in business suits.

Seriously, are we going to continue to nit pick everything candidates say? I don't think he is wrong. "Typical" means majority. I believe, whether you realize it consciously or not, typical white people do have some sort of reaction to black man approaching them. It's not right but it happens. Accept it. Lets start getting over stuff like this and move on!

Well this typical whitey has been supporting, and donating to, Clinton, than you very much!

If they nominate this guy, it will be a train wreck for the Dems. He's tainted like poison from this Wright debacle.

Richardson is a fool for hitching his wagon like this. Hispanics, hearing someone like Wright curse America in a church, a country they love, are correctly outraged.

Apparently Richardson has no television, or computer.

I'm pretty sick of typical white people myself, and I happen to be one. Wahh! What can we cry about next? Everyone wants to be offended or victimized in some way.

Jesus God. Get a hobby.

The media continues to follow Obama around and clean up his messes like he was a poor, helpless puppy.

Funny, even with the tremendous pro-Obama media, this guy is dropping like a rock.

"You can put a lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."

Similarly, the media can make excuses for Obama's obvious racist attitudes, but he's still a racist unfit for the presidency and U.S. Senate.

The sooner we rid our lives of Obama and the hate he and Jeremiah Wright represent, the better.

I'm sure his grandmother is a typical white person. My grandmothers were typical white people, too.

As a matter of fact, I'm a typical white person myself. So what?

Pretending to be outraged over something you yourself would say is an especially infantile form of political argument.

Poor choice words, but let us be honest here it is the truth. I have done it myself.

Obama continues to foot and mouth disease. we all know he is now the black candidate running for President, and if you thing Richardson endorsement will help with the Latino community, you must live on another planet.

For a while I was excited about the idea of an Obama presidency.

I still support him now, but only as the lesser of two or three evils.

Clinton and McCain are unacceptable, so I have no choice.

If he keeps saying stupid things, I may just stay home in November. If I vote for him, it will be a vote against the GOP, not a vote for Obama.

After displaying so much promise, how ordinary he has turned out to be.

Is it possible that a dialog becomes extremely difficult when one drifts off into generalizations, or interpreted differently -- stereotypes. So the use of a term like 'typical white person' or 'typical white woman' -- does have to be defined. After Obama used the phrase in reference to his grandmother, he surely did not clearly articulate what he meant by the phrase. In fact he went to some effort to remain vague and gloss over the usage of the phrase. I am a firm believer that one should be able to examine whether a term is prejudicial merely by using substitution: If one could substitute for ex., another racial, ethnic, or religious group, as in: 'typical _____person', and no one chooses to take offense, then I guess we have a fairly benign phrase.
But the truth is, someone will always take offense, because when one states a person as being typical of one group -- be it race, religion, etc. -- They have already set up their assumption of what every member of that group holds as a commonality. And I believe that practice, while possibly perfectly innocent in this case -- Is called stereoptypeing.

He may have a white mother and grandmother, but he sees himself, talks, and presents himself as black with the same black ideals as Wright. So the discussion ends with obama himself and how he uses his white family when it benefits him to do so. And then uses his black when he wants to use racism as the reason for any and all political attacks on him. He is trying to have it both ways whichever benefits him at the time. Very sad and the media and his voters are eating it up like it is a free all you can eat buffet.

You people are uneducated, self-righteous hacks. You should thank your self- aggrandizing selves every day that you never speak the truth. Everyone in this country...let me repaet, EVERYONE in this country knows that what Obama has been saying is what is said in every nook and cranny on the USA.

Stop the over-analyzing of every.single.word that comes out of this man's mouth and start confronting the race issue head on. You have nothing to fear but a greater society because of it.

Critics need to grow the f*** up and start a meaningful, ADULT discussion. Stop acting like the spoiled, entitled brats you come off to be in your comments.

Kathy wrote, "This typical white woman and her typical white female friends will NOT be voting for obama/wright in Pa."

Proving Obama's point.

Wright is a typical elderly black man raised in the US during the 40's and 50's.

I'm mixed so I guess that makes me a racist too.

The Archie Bunkers might stop Obama, the leader in a lifetime, from healing our country.

I am proud to know so much more about Obama. Perhaps Jay Leno will stop saying he was born in a manger.

I am proud of America for making Obama possible.

People get the government they deserve, right? America deserves George Bush.

News Flash... OBAMA IS BLACK! Anything he ever says will be coming from a black man and will be taken as such. The same thing would be said of a white pres. cand. if he generalized about "black people" No way around it... Obabma has been under the microscope so close these past few weeks, I wouldn't be surprised if they made a stink about HIM saying "all black men!"

I don't think he should have to elaborate on it further... Don't play stupid... we all know it was hell back then for bi-racial children and their parents. They were raised in a different time.
Now (thankfully) the stigma associated with it not as prevalent.

Obama has NEVER said he was above all this... His whole campaign is based on change... Hope for the future... Ending the sterotypes. I truly feel it WOULD take someone who lived it to make that change. Nobody will understand it better.

OBAMA '08

News Flash... OBAMA IS BLACK! Anything he ever says will be coming from a black man and will be taken as such. The same thing would be said of a white pres. cand. if he generalized about "black people" No way around it... Obabma has been under the microscope so close these past few weeks, I wouldn't be surprised if they made a stink about HIM saying "all black men!"

I don't think he should have to elaborate on it further... Don't play stupid... we all know it was hell back then for bi-racial children and their parents. They were raised in a different time.
Now (thankfully) the stigma associated with it not as prevalent.

Obama has NEVER said he was above all this... His whole campaign is based on change... Hope for the future... Ending the stereotypes. I truly feel it WOULD take someone who lived it to make that change. Nobody will understand it better.

OBAMA '08

Here we go again. Obama your campaign is officially over. You need to step aside for the good of the Democratic party. He has no chance now int he GE and I am one person who voted for Obama in IL and now want my vote back.

Mark Silva: you are part of the problem, not the solution. You bury the BIGGER story of Bill Richardson endorsing Obama in the middle of your blog, yet you try to create polarity with the headline you chose for your little story, about "Obama's poorly-chosen words." I'd like to vote for a president that gets rid of biased, polarizing reporting.

I see what Obama was trying to say when he referred to his Grandmother as a 'typical white person'... but he also said she makes racial comments that make him cringe. I can then assume that in Obama's mind, 'typical white people' also make similar racial comments.

I just think it’s very hypocritical that, if this had been a white preacher making racial comments, then the overall story would have been about white racism in America. Since it was Rev Wright making the comments, the story is now racial discussion and healing on both sides, with many people finding ways to defend and excuse Wright’s ridiculous comments.

It takes courage to be President - no doubt.

It takes courage to unpack the issues surrounding race.

Obama will lose votes for his honesty - that can't be helped.

My hope is that the majority of people will vote for someone who can be honest, even when it isn't politically expedient.

There are typical whites, typical blacks, typical men, and typical women...there is no harm in speaking in generalizations. How defensive we get may tell us more about ourselves than the person speaking the initial words.

The second is that Wright was there to speak out on Bill Clinton's behalf when Clinton was under fire and about to be impeached; but now that Wright is under fire for unfair attacks that take his words out of context, Bill and Hillary are completely silent.

Ponder these, ladies and gents.

Posted by: maxomai | March 21, 2008 9:59 AM

Words out of context, not after 20 twenty years. And lets not forget his wife and he said this. I was starting to go his way but, now who knows.

Re: Kathy

a "Typical" american taking snippets of a interview or article, and not listening or reading something in its full context... Thats the american we live in today, the ADD america.

Try listening or reading something in its entirety, then making your opinions, instead of just the snippets that the media give you...

In today's political climate, supporters of one candidate will use just about anything to bring down the candidate in opposition. As far as the recent occurences in Obama's campaign, most of the people who are having a negative reaction (like in these reader comments) weren't going to ever vote for him to begin with. But please, don't pretend you don't know what he meant by his comments. It's not racist. You can use it however you like to spew your bull**** but everyone knows what he means. And what he means was the whole point of his speech the other day. We have serious issues on race in this country and everyone wants to pretend like we don't.

Thank heaven the campaign trail is long. It has allowed us to see what Obama really is, or rather, what he is NOT: a man for all of us. There are Obama's people, then the rest of us. I'll take my vote elsewhere.

I've been very interested in HOW Senator Obama was going to go about healing the divide with blacks and whites. The utterance "typical white person" was not a good start. Here's a couple questions I have. Wasn't Obama raised by white family? Where was black father? Did he send money to US to hold up his end of the siring bargain? Who paid for all that elite education? If the answers are what I think, Geraldine was right on target. He wouldn't be where he is if he were a white male or female for that matter. I do not care for people who are ingrates. You don't bite the hand that feeds you. And that is what bothers me about Barack Obama.

Kathy: THIS typical white woman and all her typical white woman friends WILL be voting for obama and i'll tell you why- we all REALIZE that obama was speaking the truth. kathy, if you and your typical white woman friends were approached by a black man in a dark alley or in a quiet parking lot- you tell me what your "typical" reaction would be. we ALL have racism and bigoted feelings caught up in us and that is precisely why we need to talk about them, bring them into the open, and discuss them. hate cannot survive familiarity.

The point of the Rev. Wright and Bill Clinton photo is to point out that in his atonement after the the Lewinski incident he sought out forgiveness from religious leaders and now he would leave Rev. Wright hanging out to dry. Is that hypocracy?

His wife is proud to be an American for the first time, now that he is running for President...

He throws his grandmother under the boss to justify his association with Rev. Wright...

He refers to his grandmother as a typical white person...

He calls himself an African-American eventhough he has as much white (mother) as black (father) in him...

Could Obama be a racist?

Until I see that the typical white person not clutch his/her purse/wallet tightly when in the presence of 5 black men, until I see the typical white jury not give convict a black man for murder and let a white person get manslaughter he is correct. We still have not overcome overt and institutional racism, America.

Mark Silva is now penning love letters to Barack Obama. The headline speaks of "poorly chosen words," then doesn't get to those "poorly chosen words" until seventh paragraph, and then not until the ninth paragraph focusing on the poorly chosen words of "typical white woman."
Now, if this was a Republican, the headline would have blarred negativity, the poorly chosen words would have been highlighted over and over again, and there would not no love letter before getting to the point.
Does the LIBune's Washington Bureau have ONE objective and honest journalist? The evidence strongly suggests it does not.
What a freakin' joke!!

As you can see White People are sensitive about race, but they are also in denial of their complicity in perpetuating common stereotypes, so whenever someone speaks openly and honestly about race Whites want to push race under the carpet. Whites are extremely dishonest about the their racial attitudes towards Blacks in particular. If Oprah Winfrey were to do a show on race, Whites would talk, only the Blacks.

There truely is a "typical White person" and if Whites would stop being defensive and open themselves up to honest discussion, they would themselves reveal how their communities, family and friends pass on stereotypes about Blacks.

You folks ought to stop pretending that even those of us who don't practice racial hates in our lives are exposed to racial stereotypes of other cultures and though some of us may reject these beliefs access is pervasive in all races in our diverse society.

Whites want us all to pretend like they do. Not talking about race will not reduce hate and division.

I hope the typical white woman (like the typical American) is smart enough to vote regarding where their interest is regarding the issues.
War, healthcare, the economy, immigration, greater wealth disparity, civil liberties & national security...
these issues last I heard were the issues facing our nation.

But instead of dealing with these issues Obama has falling into the trap of "race" eagerly set by his ultra-conservative opponents who have nothing more substantial to challenge his campaign.(even though it seems that they went as far as go through his passport records).

Obama did not initiate this divisive issue I remember "Barack the magic Negro", Barack the Madrasa student, Barack the Muslim, appearing long before this week. All of this a construct of the conservative opposition to the real changes that would take place with an Obama presidency and a substantially greater democratic majority in congress.

I would ask the astonishing number of voters who voted the current fear mongering president into office based on rhetoric and not on the issues that impact their lives.

I would also like to appeal to those so called religious voters why make a storm out of a teacup. Obama is not perfect but everyone casting stones at him behave like they are.

As someone who believes we CAN do much better as a society we should take on the monumental challenge of moving past typical dismissal of differences to a substantial national discourse that helps make our problems visible and therefore resolvable.

Obama more than any other candidate left has done the best job of issuing this cultural challenge (I have not even heard any such vetting of McCain's controversial relationships to bigoted religious leaders, or his relationship to the racial issues thrown at Obama, Clinton recently has been notably brief on the same issues).

Let us hope that these elections will not be business as usual (meaning for big business, by big business) and that we the fragmented majority of Americans being squeezed every which way can look at the greater challenge we all face. One way or another we are all in the same boat.

Hey Kathy, your vitriolic message simply reinforces that you have not grown in understanding, politics, or social conscience since the days of your grandmother. Too bad you fail to see your own narrow-mindedness by focusing on such a small tree branch and missing the forest. Neither did you understand the context (and truth) in which those few words were spoken....

First we have ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX and MSNBC taking Wright out of context to create a certain 'image' of Obama - here's the full context:
http://baldeagle08.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/cnn-msnbc-cbs-abc-fox-news-lied-about-pastor-jeremiah-wright-see-911-sermon-in-context/#comment-53

Not at all what you expected, is it? Oops. Guess some guys at the MSM have a private agenda, don't they? No one's apologized, no one's been fired - connect the dots.

Now the latest talking point is, out of an entire interview, Obama's use of the word 'typical'.

If someone's looking for some justification to vote for someone else, I guess that works as well as anything.

Let me translate this justification for you:
"Being a typical white person, I won't vote for Obama because he's black but since that doesn't sound good I'm going to claim he's the one stereotyping me instead."

I'm voting FOR Obama not because of his color and not in spite of his color. I'd vote for him if he were purple with pink polka dots.

I'm appalled. Not only that he said it, but that he tried to explain it away instead of simply saying he misspoke. And frankly, that he said it referring to the woman who raised him shows a lack of respect and makes me question his character. But I guess that's because I'm just a "typical white woman"

Yes, a typical white woman says vile bad things about blacks, especially to her 1/2 black grandchild because she is dumb and insensitive. A typical black preacher says vile bad things about whites, Jews and America because he is dumb and insensitive and trained to be a leader.

One wonders if Obama considers Condi Rice a "typical black women" after the new video out with Jeremiah Wright calling her "CondoSkeezza." From the Urban Dictionary, "Skeeze" is about as low in the gutter as you can get in the Black community.

If Rice was a Democrat, one wonders if Wright would have referred to her as such?

Obama's arrogance is beyond words. I can't help but believe Gus Savage is his mentor.

Wow. Really amazed how stupid people are. I really shouldn't be by now. After Bush being elected twice and all, but seriously people.

If this Reverend Wright affair seriously affected your opinion of Obama, then you were just looking for an excuse not to vote for him in the first place. Calling Obama a racist? Seriously? On what possible grounds? I wouldn't even call Rev Wright a racist. Its like white people have just discovered that they can apply that word to a black person and are now trying to apply all that that has meant to black people for generations to Rev Wright. God! All of you using upper case "Oh my God, how could you vote for that RACIST Obama!! RACIST!!" Is the RNC paying you people to post here? Have some perspective. That was a man who had really and truly suffered the effects of racism in this country.

The fact that you are all trying to nail Obama to the wall based on the sentiments of his preacher is patently ridiculous.

Way to completely forget about the issues and things that matter and prepare to accept another Republican president at this pace. Stop the hysteria. These kind of stories appeal to the lowest common denominator of voters, these are the same people who wanted to kill Bill for getting a blowjob.

Here are the reasons you shouldn't vote for Hillary:

1. Voted for the war.
2. Voted for the sabre rattling Iran resolution
3. Won't meet with our enemies as well as our friends.
4. Wouldn't apologize for her war vote.
5. Sponsored stupid ban flag burning bill (Useless political garbage bill)

and in my opinion
6. Is a useless political windsock will will poll for what color dress she should wear out.

And her political experience has been so over hyped it is ridiculous. I hope that she does understand that if she gets the nomination she'll be running against someone with more experience than she does. We have had some excellent presidents with very limited experience.

For the people who don't understand that I'm sure someone will overanalyze something he's said in another newscycle and you'll have another chance to attempt to justify your not supporting a truly exciting and historical candidate!