Obama Tells Letterman: I Was Black Before the Election

[sabra]

Source: CBS News

Addressing suggestions that recent criticism of his health care reform efforts has been grounded in racism, President Obama this afternoon quipped, "I think it's important to realize that I was actually black before the election."

The comment, which the president made in an afternoon taping of CBS' "The Late Show," promoted host David Letterman to jokingly respond: "How long have you been a black man?"

Mr. Obama said the notion that racism is playing a role in the criticism, which has been voiced by former President Jimmy Carter and others, is countered in part by the fact that he was elected in the first place – which, he said, "tells you a lot about where the country's at."

"One of the things that you sign up for in politics is that folks yell at you," the president said, noting that "whenever a president tries to bring about significant changes, particularly during times of economic unease, there is a certain segment of the population that gets very riled up." He pointed to the experiences of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan as examples.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/21/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5327972.shtml?tag=stack

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[Taverner]

1. Ooooh I just saw the new RW talking point

"OBAMA COMPARES HIMSELF TO REAGAN"

[Name removed]

40. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[No Elephants]

41. You don't seem to understand what the job of a President is.

[polichick]

2. Funny, but he's wrong. The racists we're seeing so much of didn't vote for him...

Just took them a while to organize.

[jefferson_dem]

4. This is just Obama taking the high road...as he should.

If he ever "went there" on the race issue, the media would chew on him for days.

Obviously, the bigoted bottom-feeders were out in force during the campaign also. They didn't vote for him and are still in denial that "that guy" was actually elected president. Thankfully, theirs is a dying breed.

[polichick]

5. imo lying is not the "high road" - but he has to protect himself so I don't blame him. nt

[MoJoWorkin]

8. Are you Joe Wilson? What he said is NOT a lie. He WAS elected and he WAS black then.

Many more people voted for him than not. Sure he can't admit to the racist element, but he is NOT lying.

[polichick]

9. Sorry - I'm lumping together what he said and what Gibbs has been saying...

This was a funny thing to say and deflected well ~ but I don't think that the WH should lie about this.

[No Elephants]

36. Not many more. He got 53% of the popular vote. For elections these days,

that is a healthy majority, but it is only slightly more than half of those who voted. And most people don't vote at all.

Of course, not everyone who did not vote for him did so on racial grounds.

Agree he cannot cry "race." Also agree he did not lie.

[Mrs. Overall]

33. +1

Absolutely agree.

[dflprincess]

6. Obama knows that

he also knows he's walking a fine line to avoid having the newest distraction be 24/7 coverage of "Obama plays the race card" or the continuing "If you disagree with Obama you'll be called a racist".

I think he's dealing with this very well and in time, hopefully, he'll be able to call the racists out. Maybe how he's doing this now will even take some of the wind of out of their sails if they think they aren't getting to him.

[polichick]

7. This was fine, but Gibbs really has been lying about it. nt

[Demit]

11. You're harping about 'lying'—what's the lie? Is there incontrovertible proof of something?

Have a lot of teabaggers been caught on tape saying 'I'm a racist' and you have the tapes?


What would you have Gibbs say exactly? And where would it get the White House, and Obama, and the whole administration?

[Cha]

15. Thank you, ..save me the

trouble of saying the same thing.

I love the President:patriot: and Robert Gibbs:patriot: out there walking the fine line of blatant and not blatant racism in America..egged on by the corporatemediaWhores of America.

[goclark]

31. Obama is doing the right thing

Obama is taking the high road ~

All they want is for him to start calling them names and it would be worse.

He has been Black all this time and he will not be turning White and even if he did, they would still keep it up.

[rmp yellow]

28. Some people would never admit that Obama is simply speaking his mind

In the minds of those who want to exaggerate race problem, Obama thinks like them and if he doesn't, he's lying in a calculated way because it's the good strategy.

[customerserviceguy]

12. Well said

He knows that if the race card gets played to shut down debate, it will be the effective end of his Presidency.

[FBaggins]

13. I disagree

There's certainly a shift here. Some people who voted for the President are less enchanted with him... and/or some people who failed to vote are now energized... and/or people who voted the other way but came to support him have now left... or whatever.

The President is smart enough to know that:

1) Calling those people racist is a pretty stupid way to convince them to support him or his policies.

2) Althought there ARE plenty of racists out there... the large majority of conservatives who aren't racist (and feel free to read that either way) were most certainly opposed to health care changes along these lines LONG before we elected someone who wasn't white. They opposed it with Clinton and it wasn't because he was the "first black president" (Bernice Johnson or not).

[polichick]

19. Carter mentioned racists in order to point out how dangerous it's getting...

imo the WH should simply say that the protesters speak for themselves through their words, actions and signs.

I agree that not all the protesters are racists ~ but the reason the prez is getting this question is because of Carter's recent statement.

[No Elephants]

37. They've been opposing it since Teddy Roosevelt and you can' get much whiter than Teddy.

[ladywnch]

23. I'd venture to say most of them didn't turn out to vote at all in the last election

becuase they didn't like their options....but boy have they turned out to bitch!

[sentelle]

3. NOT LBN

I don't think its fair to call this LBN...
After all, President Obama has been black for at least 40 years, right? Unless someone has a reason to believe that he's really Asian......right?

[road2000]

14. What's LBN? n/t

[Fozzledick]

18. Latest Breaking News

This forum

[road2000]

22. Thank you! n/t

[FBaggins]

10. Lol!

That's pretty good.

[tclambert]

16. Are you SURE he's black?

Have you checked ALL his birth certificates?

[groundloop]

20. Glass half full / half empty???

Half black or half white?

Now really, President Obama is doing what he needs to do. It's a shame that the idiot from South Carolina managed to distract the news coverage away from healthcare for so long, the last thing we need is for something else to do the same thing.

[damntexdem]

17. What? This is shocking! Why didn't he admit it during the campaign?

I demand to see where on his birth certificate it says that he's Black!

;-)

[sentelle]

25. This sounds like....

a scene from Blazing Saddles.....

a very racist one, but funny as hell.

[Unvanguard]

21. Yeah, and before the election he was accused of being an un-American Muslim terrorist

This business didn't start Jan. 20.

[bluedigger]

24. Sure, he was black before he was President...

but, when did he decide to be black? That's what we need to know!:shrug:

[TreyZ3]

26. A friends facebook status message reads:

"According to Obama on letterman "I was black before the election" then how come his approval rating has dropped because we are a racist nation? Hhhmmmm"

[ingac70]

34. His approval...

still mirrors the percentage that elected him.

[LatteLibertine]

27. President Obama

always acknowledges that there are racists out there that don't like him because he's black and it is true these people are a distinct minority.

It's always worth remembering that some among the most wealthy use race to keep poor and middle class people divided. It's an old tried and proven technique people need to stop falling for.

IMO President Obama is taking the right path and position on this.

[wickerwoman]

35. Yeah, I agree.

You're never going to convince these people that they are racist. They will never admit it, even to themselves.

So why not shift the debate to something you *can* win? You can convince them that they are being ripped off by insurance companies. You can convince them that taking care of other people means they will be taken care of when their turn comes.

We're not going to win this debate or make any progress by accusing people of being selfish or racist *even when they are*.

[2Design]

29. Great to hear Hail to the Chief and the cheering - Dave was so happy

he was just so happy, it shows on his face, this is great - the audience was obamas too - this was nice to see

[No Elephants]

38. First time a sitting President did a talk show and Dave is such a great Democrat. To

be honest, I enjoy Leno's (conservative) humor/style more, but I would watch only Dave because I felt his heart was in the right place.

His great moments in Presidential speeches was hilarious. Just about the only political thing from the Dummya years to which I looked forward. Well, that and the 2008 election.

[951-Riverside]

30. He's not black n/t

[Raschel]

32. He's just reminding critics how popular he is, and minimizing those against him.

Smart man, of course.

[No Elephants]

39. Yes, I remember that Obama was black. I remember that lying POS from No Quarter saying we

had to nominate Hillary because a black man could not win the election. At least, that is how he started. Then, he degenerated into racism, birtherism and the myth of the "Whitey" tape pretty quickly. Nothing racial about any of that, to be sure.

:sarcasm:

I also remember Ed Rendell saying he was backing Hillary bc a "black" man could never win Pennsylvania.

I remember Cokie Roberts saying on national TV that he should not have gone to Hawaii to visit his dying grandmother because that made him seem "exotic" and that was harmful to his candidacy.

I remember people in Hillary's camp circulating the email about his being a Muslim and also surfacing the photo showing him in Kenyan garb. I remember her talking about the hard working "white" people.

I remember Geraldine Ferraro insisting Obama would never be in the primary if he weren't "black."


And so on.

Are there plenty of racists in this country? You betcha. Even in the Democratic Party? You betcha.

Do they comprise the majority of those who oppose Obama's agenda? I honestly don't know. I love that Carter said what he said, but I think it would have had more impact if he simply said "many" rather than "most."

Can Obama say anything other than what he has been saying? No.