Andrew Sullivan: Unleashing a race war on President Barack Obama

[proud2BlibKansan]

Jimmy Carter’s political touch remains, it appears, eternally off-key. After a summer of simmering right-wing dissent against the Obama administration, and a protest march by about 70,000 conservative activists in Washington, Carter declared that most opposition to Barack Obama was rooted in racism.

He was responding to the unprecedented heckling of a sitting president from the floor of Congress by a good old boy from South Carolina, Joe Wilson. This is how Carter put it — and the nuances matter:

“Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national programme on healthcare. It’s deeper than that. I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man ... That racism inclination still exists. And I think it’s bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country.”

Few words would have caused Obama more heartburn than these. Obama has, from the start, emphasised the nonracial and post-racial aspects of his politics. He feared that if he were to become the black president, rather than the president who happens to be black, something deep in the American psyche would kick in, and he would be marginalised for good. In the campaign, the Clintons went up to the edge of this tactic, with Hillary at one point appealing directly to “white voters” in the South, and Bill dismissing Obama as another Jesse Jackson.

more . . . http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6841197.ece

[Jennicut]

1. Great article. Obama is facing both paranoia about Dem policies and racism.

Its quite a combo but I think he is calm and even handed enough to handle it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. I like the way he is handling it

Let's see what he says today but so far, Obama is handling this well.

I also applaud Jimmy Carter for what he said.

[OwnedByFerrets]

3. President Carter told the truth, whether he was "supposed" to or not.

[vssmith]

4. What Carter said is correct

but I understand why Obama doesn't want to use race as any kind of excuse--it would make him look like a whiner. Obama is the Jackie Robinson of presidential politics.

[Indigent]

5. Duplicate thread

Original one here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8662650&mesg_id=8662650

[Raineyb]

6. Well Andrew Sullivan is wrong (At least on Carter's being off key)

Non-racial and "post-racial" are merely lines of bullshit put out there by those who would pretend that racism doesn't exist in this country. And what the hell is he talking about when he says McLame didn't run a race-baiting campaign? What the hell was that bullshit his running mate was saying about the country implying that Obama wasn't a "real American?"

Someone is off key all right but it isn't President Carter that's for damn sure.

Edited to specify where I think Sullivan is wrong

[Cha]

7. Glad Carter said what he said..

also glad PO is making this about his prescidency and that he happens to be Black.

But, others do need to call out the fooking insecure racists.