I agree with Belafonte, but Russert has no f'ing business . . .

[wndycty]

. . .asking Obama to condemn or condone Belafontes comments. Belafonte is an entertainer, he does not have the responsibility that Obama has and Obama is an elected official he should not have to respond to Belafonte's comments regardless of how he feels.

[goclark]

1. Russert is a lap dog for the crime family!

What did Obama say?

[wndycty]

2. He just said he never uses any comparisons to Nazi's because. . .

. . .the history of the Holocaust. But his answer is irrelevant and Russert asked that question to put him in a fucked up position. If he agrees with Belafonte the right bashes the shit out of him and you have a media storm. If he disagrees with him he pisses off the far left and the GOP pounces on the dissension. This is a question that can only hurt Obama reagrdless of his answer. He made an excellent dodge.

[BlueManDude]

3. russert sees two people of color

so of course he must ask obama how he feels about belafonte's remarks. didn't see the exchange but if obama played along and didn't blast timmy then he's (obama) useless. he has no more obligation to answer for HB than say - Jay Rockefeller.

[wndycty]

4. LOL so now he has to antagonize his questioner or he is useless?

LOL, anyone who would make that statement is useless. He dodged, moved right along. . .he is there to talk about ethics and his not about to get derailed at all. But if certain DUers feel he should use this opportunity to bash Russert so be it.

[goclark]

7. I'm with you

a dodge is exactly what Russert was not looking for ~ he was looking for a video clip for the evening news.


Why doesn't he ask Big Al S., I would love to see that exchange.

[BlueManDude]

26. russert had NO BUSINESS asking obama that question

unless he was asking it of everyone - and obama should have blasted him for it.

[wndycty]

27. I agree it was f'ed up for Russert to ask the question. . .

. . .however I'm uncomfortable telling Obama what to do. Its his airtime and he was there to talk about ethics, he can manage it however he wants to.

[BlueManDude]

32. problem is - obama gets subliminally tainted by belafonte's opinion

when russert asks him about it. it comes accross as "here's one of your guys saying this - defend it.." (I'm not even speaking about whether what Hb said is right or wrong - people can disagree on that). obama had nothing to do with those comments and it's not his responsibility to comment on them - but russert subtley links him to HB's words. it's insideously evil - and if i were obama i would have been royally pissed off.

[European Socialist]

5. I agree. Way out of line and bizarre.

[spanone]

6. I agree entirely. As if Obama had to answer for 'black' people.

I thought it was insulting.

[GoldenOldie]

16. Obama's responses made Timmy look like the whore ass he is

Obama talks of his trip to Iraq. The importance of the Sunni's in the involvement of Iraq government and Timmy's responds with totally inappropriate comments made by Hillary and Harry.

Timmy is incapable of interviewing without using the CON weekly scripts. Not once was he able to continue with Obama's statements but defered to his usual CON script.........It's the law student in him acting as a prosceutor/defense attorney fighting one side of a case. Timmy is not an investigator nor a journalist who wants the whole story and then presents it to public for them to determine their own truth.

Timmy is no better than Bill O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, he just has been given a better stage setting.

[RandiFan1290]

8. Would he question

Trent Lott about Ted Nugent's comments?

[robbedvoter]

9. Extremely racist of Ruslut. So, Obama ducked and weaved?

I would have called him on the very racism of asking me the question.

[wndycty]

12. I did not see it as racist as much as a liberal thing. . .

. . .I'm African American and I did not see it as racist, despite significant backlash on the DU against him Obama is viewed as a liberal icon and I think he was more concerned with showing a divide amongst liberals.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

24. I watched it and felt it was racist of Timmy. eom

[elehhhhna]

10. Hello? All black people know each other, don't they?

lol

[Kahuna]

28. Yes. And further, we are all responsible for each other's actions.

:P

[Karenina]

11. Harry Belafonte

is an American who has a right to express his thoughts and opinions as enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution. NEXT QUESTION.

[wtmusic]

13. Have to disagree

Russert put him on the spot. It's his job. It's a simplistic question, but Obama is a grown man and has to be able to deal with it as such.

The problem lies (more) with Obama's unwillingness to take a strong stand for or against anything. I've had enough of the "he's a freshman senator, give him a break" bullshit. At this critical point in history we need him to come out swinging.

[spanone]

17. I disagree. It has nothing to do with Obama other than he's black.

He had James Carville on later and he didn't ask Carville about Belefonte. He had Paul Begala on and didn't ask him about Belefonte. As the original thread says, why ask a Senator to 'weigh-in' on what an entertainer has to say about politics?

[wtmusic]

20. have to admit

I didn't see it, and to single out the only black man on the show about another black man's opinion is more than a little silly.

But beyond that, Harry Belafonte is a public figure who has made candid and honest statements which have been widely reported in the press...again, the problem is not the question, but the refusal to answer it.

onedit: what if Carville had been asked? He would have "dodged and weaved"...is that OK?

[wndycty]

19. Well in politics everything anyone does is calculated. . .

. . .Obama is on MTP today to talk about ethics and that is going to be one of his issues. He is the youngest, brightest and most likely the cleanest Senator out there. Yesterday he announced that he will pay FULL FARE for flights on private jets. Sounds boring? Well guess what it puts him in an excellent position to beat the living SHIT out of the GOP on ethics. We all want to set his agenda, we all know what is best for him, but in reality if he is going to be effective he has to carve out his own agenda (not the DU's) and we voted for him because we trust that over the course of 6 years he will be an effective senator. I voted for him for a reason and he is serving me well.

[goclark]

23. From what I read, he did come out swinging

Timmy Rock Bottom did not get the blasting answer that he wanted.

He will try but not get the spin that his book publisher wanted in order to increase the sales of his " I Love My Daddy" book.

Obama handled it just right in this Sisters brain.

He did not put the good brother Harry down at all IMO.

[wtmusic]

35. If this is "swinging" he's going to get his ass kicked

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x215685

[goclark]

36. When he answers for a Black Person he can't win

Progressives will say he didn't say enough, Conservatives will say he said too much etc.

As an African American, IMO, he answered correctly.

We know exactly how to read between the lines --- he was very supportive of Belafonte.

I've asked several friends what they thought about his answer, progressive democrats, and they agreed with me.

We don't want Obama to answer the way Al S. or Jesse would answer, he is our ONLY Senator and we want him to make his own decisions about who to please.

He is not stuck on stupid.

[1932]

14. Good point. Why did Obama have to answer for Belafonte?

Because he's a black man?

He had to answer for Hillary too, but at least she's a fellow Senator from the same party (even though Russert was really asking Obama because there was an implied issue of race, and we should definitely question that).

[journalist3072]

15. Does Russert think we African-Americans are a monolithic group?

It seems to me that some people like Tim Russert believe that the African-American community is a monolithic group, and that's not the case.

We are not, nor have we ever been, 100% in agreement in our thinking, just like White America is not monolithic in its thinking.

Why would Russert even ask Obama to condemn Belafonte's remarks? Barack Obama is entitled to his views, and Belafonte to his.

The neo-cons in this country don't make apologies for each other.

[goclark]

18. Because he is out of touch with reality

and he is being paid by the WH .

[annabanana]

25. It would feel like I was being patronized... blatantly

if I were treated like that.

[Dawgs]

21. Agree..

Obama should have just said 'He's an American citizen, and he can say whatever he wants. I'm not going to comment on someone's remarks just because they are controversial.'

[f-bush]

22. That's the problem with a giant corproate media

they lose their soul and become whores for the administration!

[tuvor]

29. Russert's done this before!

From Huffington Post: An astute blogger tells us about the only other time (based on a preliminary search) that Russert asked a guest about Belafonte. And who was that guest? Why, Colin Powell.... Do the math.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/014258

[fujiyama]

30. I didn't really think about it

that way when I initially watched the interview, but on second thought, I find extremely curious to ask a high profile black politician their opinion of Belefonte and no one else.

I thought Obama handled it reasonably. He mentioned how he's not fond of Nazi anologies and said, it's best to be careful when making historical analogies in general. Then he said, we should all be concerned about striking the right balance between civil liberties and security.

But if I were being asked that question, I immediately would have thrown the question back at Timmy and asked why I was being asked that question. I would have told him it's an irrelevant question about an entertainer and that he may as well as him what he thinks about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Belefonte is an American citizen and has the right to say what he wants.

And if he were to have been especially bold, he might have brought up race and asked Timmy if he was planning on asking every guest on the show that question.

[deacon]

31. I saw the show-uselss fluff--the entire show was a waste of time n/t

[Little Star]

33. Obama should have asked Russert

if he agreed with everything Rover said seeing they are both fat pigs.

[Vinca]

34. I thought the whole line of questioning was racist. It seemed he

expected Obama to be focused on Harry Belafonte because they're both men of color. It's a shame when our senators get national air time they're grilled on trivial crap.