Was Joe Wilson's Outburst to Pres Obama Based On Racism?

[Dumak]

Source: Associated Press

ATLANTA — Former President Jimmy Carter says Congressman Joe Wilson's outburst to President Barack Obama last week was an act "based on racism." Carter says Wilson's comment was part of an "inherent feeling" of some in this country who feel that a black man should not be president.

Carter called Wilson's comment "dastardly" and said the president should be treated with respect.

The South Carolina Republican lawmaker was formally rebuked Tuesday in a House vote divided by party lines. Wilson shouted "You lie!" during Obama's speech to Congress last Wednesday.

Carter was responding to a question submitted Tuesday night at a town hall held at his presidential center in Atlanta.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/us/politics/16carter.html>

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Do you agree with President Carter?

[angee_is_mad]

1. Duhhhhh

Gosh.

[baldguy]

2. It wasn't just *a* factor - it was *THE* factor.

All the RW opposition to Obama & his policies stems from the fact of his skin color. That they can't articulate any coherent argument against his administration without some element of racism indicated that is what it's based on.

[burning rain]

5. "Come on! Be fair!

"I'm no racist! I like Clarence Thomas Sowell just fine!" --Joseph "Joey Reb" Wilson

:eyes:

[saltpoint]

3. Absent the abilty to know Wilson's heart, I'd guess from a distance that

racism is a component in a white Southerner yelling out "You lie!" to a Northern Afro-American liberal president.

But not the only component, and perhaps not the primary motivation for the outburst.

In every other respect, Wilson follows protocol. He showed up, for one thing. He sat among his colleagues. He looked the part, resplendent in Congress-cuff links likely spit-shined to a dazzling finish.

But something happened that resulted in an abandonment of decorum on the floor of the Congress and an abandonment of the principles of being a grown-up. Most children, were they foolish enough to disrupt a public event like that, would be ushered swiftly out of the chamber, made to wait in the car, instructed on the severity of their transgression, and handed a month's grounding by mom and pop.

Certainly Wilson is getting off relatively easy. If 7-year olds or 13-year olds behave generally better than Wilson behaved on the floor of the 111th Congress the other night, then we might be better off grounding Wilson and appointing one of the grade schoolers to sit in temporarily until he cools his brow.

Not least among the points to consider was that it was Wilson, not President Obama, who was mistaken on the facts. At the point where Wilson interjected his remark that Obama had lied, Obama had just in fact told the truth. I hold Wilson accountable for the spirit and letter of his offense, both considerable. Carter sets the frame for the discussion, which is not only timely in the present case, but useful in the coming Congressional elections.

[burning rain]

4. Yes.

The idea that Joey Reb might have yelled out at Hillary or Walnuts!--that just doesn't pass the laugh test.

[eridani]

6. Is a bear Catholic?

Does the Pope shit in the woods?

[grantcart]

7. I have to laugh at Wolf Blitzer asking Republicans if they would have objected if a Democrat had

done the same thing to a Republican President.


The comparison, wolfie, is what they would have done if an African American Democrat had done it.


Can you imagine the uproar?

[quaker bill]

8. No

many republicans do not and should not like Obama for significant differences in policy, I expect that Joe Wilson is one of them.

However, the notion that he felt sufficiently free to do this to the sitting President during a Presidential address to a joint session of Congress probably is racist.

[Beacool]

9. Not in my opinion.

The guy was disrespectful and boorish, but that doesn't necessarily make him a racist.

:shrug:

[rucky]

10. That would require Wilson to explain himself a bit more.

Unless somebody's blatantly rascist, it does us no good to play the card - even when we all know it's true.

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. Oh course. I'm sure that Wilson would be completely behind Obama if he were white

[trayfoot]

12. I voted YES, because just as President Carter,

I am a daughter of the South. I KNOW these people and their modus operandi - these vitriolic outbursts and signage is based on a high degree of racism.

[hamsterjill]

13. Yes, I believe the outburst was racially motivated

I also believe the stubborn refusal of Wilson to apologize on the floor of the house shows that his original remark was racially motivated, too.

In other words, Wilson was coerced into calling the White House to apologize, and he did that because there was no "public" display required on his part. But when it was clear that an apology was expected on the House floor, he refused because he wasn't going to back down in front of his fellow (mostly white) Republican colleagues.

And you know what? It really saddens me greatly that in this day and age, that *I* have to even think about whether or not race factored into the equation. We as a society should simply have evolved past that sort of stupidity.

[stranger81]

14. Wilson's a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

'Nuff said.