"Obama is too polished"

[Bluzmann57]

This is a direct quote I heard from a person last night at a party I attended. I just really didn't know what to say except to ask "What the hell does that mean?" and to point out that he is 40 years old. Too polished. I think I've heard it all now. They can't think of anything negative about him, so the guy says "Too polished". What next? Too good looking? Sheesh. I most certainly am not the smartest man in the world, but the sheer stupidity of these freeper types is truly amazing.

[The empressof all]

1. Gotta Remember

Many folks voted for Bush because he wasn't too smart and they could relate to him.

[rusty charly]

4. it's like

when my opera teacher used to talk about non-singing pop stars: they make people feel they could do it. you don't feel that way in the opera house.

[Cha]

22. That's a good analogy.

Illinois is fortunate to have him.

[acmavm]

2. Apparently we've moved into the Twilight Zone of politics where

it's desirable that members of the senate be ignorant, bumbling, backwards, screaming, carpetbagging liars.

[Cha]

24. Not so "polished"!

[patdem]

3. That is too funny, and as a poster pointed out with 12 mil people

in IL, they could not find ONE suitable republican to run against Obama?

I guess the republicans need to find their candidates in trailor parks? They would never be accused of being 'too polished'?

[murielm99]

9. Bob Boudelang for Illinois senate!

[Journeyman]

5. Let's face it, OK? Bottom line: He's too qualified to be a Senator. . .

The man's too intelligent, got too many ideas, seems like he's savvy enough, too, for the whole politics of governing, probably be able to form alliances and speak across the aisle. We can't have anyone that good on the Hill. Cripes, man, it'll make all the other congresscritters look bad. Now Alan Keyes. . . there's a schlub who'll bring nothing but ridicule and grief to the table. That's the kind of representation the people need!

[Kahuna]

6. Obama is a natural. Charisma oozes from his every pore.

They just can't stand it.

[NightTrain]

7. I've heard blues-music fans say the same thing about Motown.

They're just as full of shit as that person at the party was! :eyes:

[thebigidea]

8. I guess Obama uses too many overdubs

Now, Obama's first album was KILLER. I was into Obama when he was on a 4-track...

[yardwork]

31. There's a not-too-subtle racism in those comments, too

Motown was reviled as "white bread" by supposed blues purists.

What this meme suggests is that Obama is "too polished" to be black, which is offensively racist.

[EST]

10. Sure-telling the truth is way too polished.

With the usual crop of banal, mendacious, thieves running politics, of course a practiced mind with a message of truth would sound polished. I so fervently hope Obama raises the tone a little in Washington, but I expect little. Pouring clean water into muddy doesn't make the muddy into clear.

[AmerDem]

11. Listen, no matter what strong points a Dem candidate has...

repukes will find fault, they are programmed for nothing less! Kerry= war hero, Bush = deserter...they say Kerry is no good. Obama = articulate,intelligent, well thought out and down to earth, Keyes = nut case....Obama is no good.

See the pattern here? We can give example after example.

[pbg]

12. "I can't find anything bad about him--"

"--except that he's black. And of course I can't say that. So this will have to do."

[Cat Atomic]

17. Exactly.

[gollygee]

26. Yep, that's what it sounds like to me too.

[madrchsod]

13. to polished????

well i stood a couple of feet away and listened to him..he is not polished at all..he`s a natural,easy to listen to,and very warm...of course it will take some time to get "polished up"-dick durbin introduced him-he`s a "polished" politician

[HarveyBriggs]

14. It's a very racist comment

It's a new way of saying, "He's an uppity nigger."

I find the comment you heard just as offensive as many find the word I used up there.

But, if we can't point out just how offensive that comment is, then we lose perspective on what is going on. There is no proper way to do an extreme makeover on ugly.

Used to be for many bigots and racists, when a person of color went off and got an education and assumed the kind of social polish that is taken for granted in educated white society, that person had gone up and gotten "uppitiy." In other words, he or she did not know ones place in society. There are still places in this country where I hear those comments.

In his keynote speech at the convention, Obama also pointed out that this prejudice is also alive and well in the black community. Remember, a black kid with a book is acting white?

Apparently your friend would like to see African Americans mush-mouthed and shufflin'.

Nothing but old spin on an old, old prejudice.

Now, lieb I's gots to be shufflin' off now, massuh Bluzman.

; - )

Harvey Briggs

[barb162]

18. it's code that the person still won't vote for Obama

It is correct that no matter how good the Democrat is, the GOP types will find something wrong. It is amazing the extremes they go to to do this. I notice them often referring to Obama as Osama Obama or crackhead Obama. When I bring up Crackhead Bush or Awol Bush to them, they get bent out of shape. When they start the namecalling it is VERY OFFENSIVE and instead of me trying to counter it in a thoughtful way (which means nothing to the people who start talking this way anyway), I just then start namecalling right back to them. They "get" that. I think that is all they understand and they understand I am going to give it right back to them. Does this make for any enlightened discussions? No. But the time I used to spend trying to explain to them what a truly great candidate Obama is got nowhere. People who are doing this kind of namecalling don't want to be convinced how good Obama really is.

[davsand]

20. You are DEAD ON!!!

That's like the crap of calling Obama "articulate" or well spoken. He is a well educated man--you'd EXPECT him to be able to communicate effectively--wouldn't you? I'm not sure the racism really IS a realized thing, however.

I've about come to the conclusion that ANY person who is not a plain vanilla exterior is probably gonna be expected to be an oaf who is incapable of string more than a couple of words together.

Even the Dems do it, if you notice.


Laura

[Philostopher]

27. Y'know, Harvey, I've been waiting for somebody

to be declasse enough to call Obama an uppity so-and-so, and I think you're right -- 'too polished' is probably a perceived socially-acceptable term for that very thing. I'm with you, on this one.

[Nevernose]

29. "Acting White" is a common problem educators face

Ask anyone knowledgeable in urban eduaction, and they'll tell you that kids afraid of "acting white" is a major reason that intelligent, minority (usually black/African-American) kids fail at school.

Personally, I suspect the whole thing to be RNC funded propoganda, as most adults I know have given up the belief that "acting white" is bad, and prefer "polished"; that's part of being an adult.

[H2O Man]

33. Yes! Thanks, Harvey!

I've said before, when Malcolm X was in school, a teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up? Malcolm said a lawyer. The teacher told him that was unrealistic, that as a black person, Malcolm should consider being a carpenter. That was something Malcolm remembered as an adult; he occassionally wondered what his life would have been like if he could have gone to law school.

When I listen to Obama, I think I know the answer.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

15. He's "too smart" too. We like our politicians "dumb" nowadays dammit.

n/t

[rocktivity]

16. Not "too smart"--"elitist"

Get with the program!!!

:headbang:
rocknation

[kodi]

19. acting too white was my thought on the remark

i assume they expect to run against african americans with bones stuck through their noses.

[Cha]

21. I smell Jealousy..the Green Eyed Monster.

Obama has a very high intelligence and he's put it to the highest good. Which doesn't always happen with intelligence.

What I wouldn't give for some of that "polish"!

[Tomee450]

23. Not surprising at all.

I've heard people say that the old Cosby show was unrealistic, that blacks do not live that way. They seemed to be unaware that many black families live exactly that way. Some people can only think of the illiterate black person speaking poor grammar, of the ghetto dweller, etc. The stereotypes are ingrained. People like Obama are threatening to those who wish to believe in the inferiority of black people.

[homelandpunk]

25. Yeah, he don't sing Negro spirituals to Stephanopoulos like Keyes did.

Obama is way too polished.

[never cry wolf]

28. Maybe what they meant was...

too slick. I had a puke tell me they thought Obama was slicker than slick willie so he'd really have to watch hard for the lies.

[incapsulated]

30. "Obama is too Good"

Goddamn that black man!

[SemperEadem]

32. I think it means that Obama intimidates the hell out of the man

and he doesn't think he has (or he knows he doesn't have) the smarts to be able to have an intelligent conversation with him.

Upon reading Harvey's post, I would have to say that Harvey put his finger on the pulse of the problem--Obama is an intelligent, articulate man and the clown at the party is neither, so therefore he's intimidated by it and demonstrates his intimidation by handing out a racial slur in a silk jacket--"he's too polished".

He's too uppity--that mentality is the mentality of caste. There is no such thing as a 'place' in this country in which blacks automatically are assigned and cannot leave. To even suggest that there is is a call for an ass whippin' to be administered to the errant thinker.