Re: Michelle Obama - How is this kind of stuff going to play out in middle America???

[demo dutch]

This has been circulating the blogs
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8642.html

Is the right going to run away with this? ... Is this the beginning of the crap they're going to use as we move towards the GE

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Thank you for your concern.

[Drunken Irishman]

2. OH NOES A BLACK PERSON DISCUSSING RACIAL ISSUES!!!!11ONE1111TWO THREE!111

[sniffa]

25. OH NOES A HILLBOT HAS SOMETHING THEY THINK THEY CAN GRASP ON TO

:scared:

[demo dutch]

32. Not at all Sniffa, I'm actually astounded at the level of racism that

still exists in this country! Quite shocking really! But I might look at it differently since I did not grow up in the US.

[stillcool]

48. I'm thinking that the level of racism...

is not as prevalent as some would like me to think. Interestingly enough, when I read certain posts I find the same exact language repeated ad nauseam on the net. Also what I find interesting is when I do a search for articles, I get the same article being re-produced in a zillion newspapers. I have to go to the fourth of fifth page of the search to get anything close to what I was looking for. I think I'm being played. It is evident here as well, when you get a number of posters, spamming the board with the same race baiting crap.

[sniffa]

50. I'm not shocked by the level of racism in our country

as I've witnessed it first hand many a time, but the most brutal time was with 2 white cops in Amherst, Ma. of all places.

That being said, I'm shocked by the almost daily now (and that's including my obese ignore list) racist remarks I read here. Sometimes in the same post, the poster will say, "And I know some here will call me racist."

[demo dutch]

53. Exactly, that's why I think we might need to brace ourselved for what's to

come as we move towards he GE. It will be similiar with a female candidate which we've already witnessed out in the open recently at some rally. There will be maga back door tactics

[H2O Man]

3. Oh, dear!

[MadBadger]

4. Seems like The Politico is reaching here...Go Figure.

[demo dutch]

6. I'm not worried about us, I'm worried about them!

[MadBadger]

8. They will try but fail to make something of her 23 yr old paper about what Princeton used to be like

[H2O Man]

14. Yes but

aren't you concerned about Barack's pre-school papers?

[Window]

49. Ha, ha, ha.

Peace:thumbsup:

[Drunken Irishman]

10. The people who will get offended the most by this wouldn't vote for Obama anyway.

Which I think is an extremely small number of the population.

I still believe most Americans aren't stupid and they know the history of racial issues in this country. It isn't surprising a black woman wrote her thesis on racial issues and how they impacted her life.

[Carrieyazel]

56. But in a tight race, even an extremely small number would easily tip it over to the other side.

[Drunken Irishman]

59. And these people are the base of the GOP, that would never vote for a black or a Democrat.

So they're going there anyway and there is nothing we can do about it.

Just like there are groups of the Democratic base that would never go to the GOP.

[tekisui]

5. They will try to run with every racist thought they have. We can't stop them.

Michelle wrote an intelligent thesis that I am sure she is proud of, and should be.

The pukes will try everything, it won't play in more than 50% of the country, that's the bottom line. I simply don't believe the racists have a voting majority in this country.

[demo dutch]

12. I hope you're right

[tularetom]

7. I don't think the "heartland" is as monolithic as they'd have you think

We all have TV's and puters and some of us actually read books. So they can circulate this crapola all friggin day if they want. I think they have overstepped their ability to scare us.

[Sparkly]

9. I don't see the problem.

If anybody has a problem with her thesis topic, I doubt they'd be voting Democratic anyway. :shrug:

[Redstone]

11. What a surprise this is, the sudden influx of so many posts barfing up rightwing bullshit, and

all of it under the guise of "concern about what the Republicans MIGHT say."

Redstone

[demo dutch]

16. I'm posting it to keep informed on what's to come down the line. To ignore it

would not be realistic

[jmg257]

13. The RW stooges telling us that how a young black woman felt about being black

in college is wrong? I HOPE they try that BS - it'll back fire in a NY minute.

[Emit]

15. "That comment has fueled debate on countless blogs, radio talk shows and cable news for days on end"

no kidding :eyes:

[RBInMaine]

17. LOTS of research context to consider, also this was 1985.

[demo dutch]

21. Sure, is that what people will consider?

[rocktivity]

18. Consider the source--politics' answer to TMZ.

The thesis, titled "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community" and written under her maiden name, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, in 1985...

Obama and Michelle met in 1988 and married in 1981. Why do they try to make it sound as if Michelle had a choice about writing it under her maiden name? At the time, that was the only name she had!

:eyes:
rocknation

[ContinentalOp]

60. Obama and Michelle met in 1988 and married in 1981?

Damn, he really CAN do anything!

[rocktivity]

63. LOL!

They married in 1991, of course!

:blush:
rocknation

[skooooo]

19. Middle American can start learning how to respect ideas and opinions...

....that aren't exactly like their own. That's what I think.

[BeyondGeography]

20. You mean those red states that Hillary has been ignoring???

[Reterr]

22. Look, whoever runs in the GE

they are going to haul out all that nonsense. I think the "they will attack Barack" more vs. "they will attack Hillary" more stuff is pointless honestly..
They will attack whoever ends up being the nominee-the thing is for the nominee to swiftly try to squelch it (which was one of the areas the Kerry campaign disappointed me in-
he should have gone on counter-attack against the Swift-boaters much faster) and there I think both Obama and Hillary can do it about equally effectively.

And I am saying this as a Hillary supporter (well sort of-at this point I am starting to wonder if it isn't better to cut to the chase and just have a nominee).
We can't ever predict what they will use that will actually fly with the public eventually. Remember, they don't need ANYTHING for their smears and lies. If Barack and Michelle don't make a single "snafu" between now and the Nov., they will make shit up. I didn't think there was anything wrong with what Michelle said about America.
They attacked both Gore and Kerry with the most pointless crap and they will do it to any Dem nominee. The thing is the nominee needs to fight back fast and I think both these campaigns could do that. Until there is an actually informed electorate people will run the risk of falling prey to nonsense such as concerns over Gore's hairstyle and earthtones blah blah...

[truedelphi]

30. You make some good points about how the RW will simply make stuff up

Or as Jon Stewart said on the Daily Show, "Senator Kerry, you never were even in Vietnam, were you Sir?"

The remark brought down the house.

[cali]

23. ridiculous.

there's no there there. try another tactic. I enjoy laughing at this bullshit.

[demo dutch]

29. Cali I think it's rediculous too, Maybe I have a different outlook having grown up in Europe, but

I'm astounded all the time by how much racism is still alive in this country.

[HeraldSquare212]

24. Better than telling them you're going to add another FICA taxt to their paycheck

[spooky3]

26. oh, for heaven's sake

if a student can't examine racism, sexism, etc., in a thesis, then anyone who questions the extent to which these -isms are alive and well in the US today is out of his/her mind.

[demo dutch]

27. Agreed, but will others feel the same way, that's my point

[spooky3]

28. surely a few will, but they are not going to vote for Obama, or probably

any other Democrat, no matter what.

[demo dutch]

31. Like I told Cali, I may have a different outlook having grown up in Europe but

I'm astounded all the time at how much racism still exists in this country

[demo dutch]

35. Sure but why hide it, that's not going to go over well

[Emit]

33. You do recall what happened with Hillary's thesis, no?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17388394/

How the Clintons hid Hillary's thesis
‘A stupid political decision,’ says her former Wellesley poli-sci professor
By Bill Dedman
Investigative reporter
MSNBC
updated 6:08 p.m. PT, Thurs., Sept. 6, 2007
WELLESLEY, Mass. - Hillary Rodham Clinton's political science professor said he'd give the tactic an "F."

It was early 1993, in the first days of the Clinton administration, when Hillary Clinton's friend and former thesis adviser at Wellesley College took the phone call that would land him in the middle of a political intrigue.

"I got a call from someone at the White House — I don't remember who — shortly after the inauguration, saying the Clintons had decided not to release her thesis," professor Alan H. Schechter told MSNBC.com.

"I said, 'Why? It's a good thesis.' I got some mumbo jumbo about how they were beginning to work on health care and she had criticized Sen. Moynihan in the thesis, and didn't want to alienate him."

In fact, the thesis from 1969 contains not a negative word about Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the late Democratic senator from New York, and Schechter allows that the real source of fear must have been the subject of the academic paper: Chicago radical organizer Saul Alinsky.

(See the main story: Reading Hillary Rodham's hidden thesis)

‘Quite naive’

"I argued with them that they should release it," the emeritus professor said in the telephone interview from North Carolina, one stop on his tour of Wellesley alumnae groups to discuss their favorite topic these days, the political development of Hillary Clinton.

"The more you hide something, the more people will want it," Schechter said. "It was a stupid political decision, obviously, at the time."

Schechter, a Clinton supporter who has contributed money to her campaigns, said that hiding the thesis, which got an "A" grade, was one of many "quite naive" decisions by the Clintons in those early days — he also lists making gays in the military the first priority, and trying to do too much with her health care plan. But liberals, he said — and he counts himself among them — tend to overreach instead of taking the incremental approach.

After the call from the White House, Wellesley's president, Nannerl Overholser Keohane, consulted with lawyers and closed access to any thesis written by a U.S. president or first lady, a rule affecting only Hillary D. Rodham's thesis. Keohane moved on later that year to be president of Duke University, and now is a visiting professor at Princeton, where she teaches political philosophy, leadership and feminist theory. An Arkansan who was eight years ahead of Hillary Rodham at Wellesley, Keohane is a regular contributor to Democratic candidates and to a congressional PAC that gives exclusively to Democrats, including Hillary Clinton.


Cont'd
© 2007 MSNBC Interactive
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17388394/

[demo dutch]

34. All right, so we''ve already been through that one

[Mags]

36. Obama fans, don't bury your heads in the sand, this stuff

is going to be brought out by McCain and no matter what you think, people will think she is as racist as any of them. It is a shame that will happen, but don't think for a min. that it ain't gonna happen. They don't care to get down in the gutter with the crap.

[madrchsod]

39. big john can bring it on

and there will be a backlash that this country has never seen...if the republicans think they will get any where with the race issue they will reap the whirlwind

[demo dutch]

41. The thing is though, it will not happen out in the open, McCain will stay clean

Just backdoor tactics

[knixphan]

45. agreed

WHIRLwind.

[Emit]

58. agreed, too

there will be a backlash that this country has never seen

[NOLALady]

43. Reagan won in a landslide.

People will think she is as racist as any of them... Reagan, Buhs?

Some of middle America have been voting for racists for some time now. So now, I'm to believe they have a problem with racists. If that's the case, we can call that progress.

[madrchsod]

42. from what i have read about that theis

is that she goes negative on saul`s philosophy of grassroots organization to change the status quo. i read most of it but i could`t figure out what the hell she was talking about. but i do know her setting the up the obama - Bernardine Dohrn "terrorist linkage" is telling about her knowledge of what went on the streets outside her dorm room

[madrchsod]

37. it`s a non issue to "middle america"

we have more problems than to worry about the color or the sex of a person.

[DURHAM D]

38. I just can't see how there is a story here.

However, I am sure that Limpballs, Hannity and Oreally can make up some shit about it.

[Kaylee]

40. That's it!....I will only accept a candidate who's never....

written anything, talked to anybody or gone anywhere where they might have seen anyone else....how else can we be sure that "middle America" won't be offended.

[cooolandrew]

44. If it was working there would of been no cross overs in WI. He's doing amazing.

[boston bean]

46. Well, I finished reading it and ho hum, it was boring! nt

[anigbrowl]

47. yesterday it was 'Michelle Obama's thesis kept secret!!!!' today,

it's 'Michelle Obama's thesis about black introspection!!!'

Well, you gotta give them a little sympathy. They must be so upset that their story about the thesis being restricted failed to have any legs.

[demo dutch]

52. It's circling the blogosphere. I think we should brace ourselved when

the floodgates open. There will be major back door tactics

[jackson_dem]

51. No big deal, especially since she isn't running

[Carrieyazel]

54. Michelle needs to keep her involvement to a minimum. She isn't helping Obama.

It will be on him to take charge and break it to Michelle that she is not helping right now.

[ProSense]

61. Oh, nonsense!

Ohio:



Rhode Island:



Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., addresses supporters at an
Obama campaign rally in Warwick, RI., Wednesday
evening , Feb. 20, 2008. Rhode Island holds their
presidential primaries Tuesday, March

[whatchamacallit]

55. How's my ass crack going to play

when I stand on the highest peak in the rockies, drop trou, and moon the "heartland"?

[knixphan]

57. until his poll numbers drop

I'd say Barack should do whatever he feels he needs to do. I remember all the Oprah-flack. SC went to him. Seems like a decent PR investment in hindsight.

The best D is a good O.

[ContinentalOp]

62. I find this whole thing kind of sad and touching.

I haven't read the whole thesis, but this quote got to me:

"I hoped that these findings would help me conclude that despite the high degree of identification with whites as a result of the educational and occupational path that black Princeton alumni follow, the alumni would still maintain a certain level of identification with the black community. However, these findings do not support this possibility."

[NOLALady]

64. Did you read it?

Somehow, I didn't find it negative, hostile or controversial.

What can they use in her thesis that may harm his campaign?

Actually, it may just help.

[ErnestoG]

65. How dare she not be proud of Americas immoral, criminal wars?

Just who does Michelle Obama think she is, anyhow?