The M$M continues to stoke racial animosity and division. CNN on Obama's approval by race...

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

Today's Cafferty show nearly destroyed my daily workout in the gym this evening.

Apparently according to CNN, 93% of black Americans support the president while only 37% of whites do so. The poll isn't what depressed me. The comments from the callers and those sending in emails did.

http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/09/why-50-point-difference-between-blacks-whites-on-pres-obama-approval/

[firedupdem]

1. Did they ever break down Bush's poll numbers based on race? n/t

[mucifer]

2. Yes they always do that. They always look at the black white and hispanic votes.

bush never polled well with African Americans and his Hispanic numbers started out high and went down some later.

[Pirate Smile]

3. Clinton's numbers were similar in '92 so don't let them get you down. The RW & Republicans always

hate all Democratic Presidents. The independent, mushy middle which tends to be white will sway according to the economy or whatever. The Dems that stick with Democratic Presidents like Obama and Clinton are a lot of minorities (regular Dem voters) and your regular Democratic white voters. That makes the numbers break down look pretty stark but we don't need to believe that it is because Obama's African American.

People bitching about black's sticking by Obama seem to forget that they stuck by Clinton when all the media and villagers turned on him.

I know some people don't particularly like loyalty around here but I've got to say, I do.

edit to add - this is why when people act like the Democratic base is the liberal blogosphere there is push back from the White House saying - not so fast.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

5. Seems that the M$M is going along with the wingnuts in pushing the meme that blacks are

the racists because they only support Obama because he's black. NO!! They support him because: (1) they abhor Bush and the Repukes; (2) he's a Democrat; (3) who happens to be 1/2 black.

Black people are not stupid and blind. People need to stop insulting our intelligence!!!

[Pirate Smile]

7. I was relieved to see how similar the numbers were for Bill as they are for Barack.

I think we should just fight back against that meme by pointing out Clinton's numbers so their race argument is crap.

[Pirate Smile]

6. Here are some of the #'s re Clinton v. Obama with White voters:

Also indisputable is the gaping racial divide that has emerged when it comes to the public’s views of Obama. In his New York Times column this weekend, Charles Blow highlighted data from a recent Quinnipiac University poll that found 91 percent of blacks approve of Obama’s handling of the presidency, compared with just 37 percent of whites -- and that 87 percent of blacks would vote to reelect him in 2012, compared to a mere 28 percent of whites.

It’s tempting to connect poll results like this to the right’s race-based messaging and to wonder if America was really as ready for a black president as we liked to think it was back in 2008. So it’s probably worth remembering that a nearly identical divide also existed when the White House was occupied by a white Southerner who some called "Bubba."

When Bill Clinton came to office in 1993, he faced the same wall of reflexive Republican opposition that has bedeviled Obama. The GOP filibustered his stimulus plan to death, provided no help when he attacked the deficit (because his budget included tax hikes for the wealthy), and accused him of trying to engineer a government takeover of one-sixth of the economy with his healthcare reform plan. Sound at all familiar? Republicans also took every chance they could find to drive a wedge between Obama and working-class white voters -- gays in the military, Lani Guinier, a crime bill that included funding for inner-city midnight basketball programs, and so on.

It all produced, at this same point in Clinton’s presidency, a stark racial divide. In the 1994 midterm elections, when Republicans won control of the House and Senate, white voters favored the GOP by a 62 to 38 percent margin. Today, the spread is 50 to 31 percent, according to Quinnipiac’s most recent generic ballot test. Heading into the '94 midterms, Clinton’s approval rating with white male voters was around 20 percent -- and it measured in single digits in some deep South states. Hence, '94’s designation as the year of the Angry White Male.

Viewed in this context, the same basic ingredients that turned so many white voters against Clinton are at work with Obama. Remember that the first two years of Clinton’s presidency were the last time before now that a Democratic president enjoyed robust Democratic majorities in both congressional chambers. That concentration of power, combined with a still-shaky economy and Clinton’s advocacy of (some) culturally and economically progressive legislation, gave the right an opening to sow fear among whites of redistribution. Race was, obviously, a part of this (as the Guinier and midnight basketball examples showed), but the campaign was just as successful in 1994 with a white president as it has been in 2010 with a black president.

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/barack_obama/index.html?page=2

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

9. Thank you so very much for this!! You are a savior. If you don't mind, I'd like to send this to

Cafferty!! :toast:

[Pirate Smile]

11. I'm posting it too and asking for a correction of some kind tomorrow so they don't leave people with

the wrong impression which just helps feed this racializing of every damn issue. It is soooo not helpful

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

12. Cafferty is a smart, reasonable man. I have a difficult time believing that he didn't know

that most black Americans support Democrats, black or white.

John Kerry, Al Gore. Both men received well over 90% of the black vote.

And still, people insist on insulting our intelligence, as if black Americans are dumb and blindly follow the Democratic Party. They act as if the Republican Party cares about us. Even Mike Steele admitted that the Republican Party hasn't done anything to lure blacks into the party. He finally admitted that the Republican Party is hostile towards blacks and doesn't deserve our vote. Now, we know this. We've known this for decades. Why do people act as if they have no grasp of history? The Southern Strategy? The racial insensitivity in the Republican Party? This whole "welfare queen" reference? Outright bigotry displayed in the Tea Party and the Republican Party itself? How the hell do they expect for black Americans to react?

http://thefreshxpress.com/2010/04/fxp-news-michael-steele-says-blacks-have-no-reason-to-vote-gop/

[Pirate Smile]

13. I posted this on his blog:

I wish everyone wouldn't act like there isn't a historical comparison which makes it perfectly clear that it is based a lot more on party then on race.

From a column by Steve Kornacki:

"Also indisputable is the gaping racial divide that has emerged when it comes to the public’s views of Obama. In his New York Times column this weekend, Charles Blow highlighted data from a recent Quinnipiac University poll that found 91 percent of blacks approve of Obama’s handling of the presidency, compared with just 37 percent of whites - and that 87 percent of blacks would vote to reelect him in 2012, compared to a mere 28 percent of whites.

It’s tempting to connect poll results like this to the right’s race-based messaging and to wonder if America was really as ready for a black president as we liked to think it was back in 2008. So it’s probably worth remembering that a nearly identical divide also existed when the White House was occupied by a white Southerner who some called "Bubba."

When Bill Clinton came to office in 1993, he faced the same wall of reflexive Republican opposition that has bedeviled Obama. The GOP filibustered his stimulus plan to death, provided no help when he attacked the deficit (because his budget included tax hikes for the wealthy), and accused him of trying to engineer a government takeover of one-sixth of the economy with his healthcare reform plan. Sound at all familiar? Republicans also took every chance they could find to drive a wedge between Obama and working-class white voters - gays in the military, Lani Guinier, a crime bill that included funding for inner-city midnight basketball programs, and so on.

It all produced, at this same point in Clinton’s presidency, a stark racial divide. In the 1994 midterm elections, when Republicans won control of the House and Senate, white voters favored the GOP by a 62 to 38 percent margin. Today, the spread is 50 to 31 percent, according to Quinnipiac’s most recent generic ballot test. Heading into the '94 midterms, Clinton’s approval rating with white male voters was around 20 percent - and it measured in single digits in some deep South states. Hence, '94’s designation as the year of the Angry White Male.

Viewed in this context, the same basic ingredients that turned so many white voters against Clinton are at work with Obama. Remember that the first two years of Clinton’s presidency were the last time before now that a Democratic president enjoyed robust Democratic majorities in both congressional chambers. That concentration of power, combined with a still-shaky economy and Clinton’s advocacy of (some) culturally and economically progressive legislation, gave the right an opening to sow fear among whites of redistribution. Race was, obviously, a part of this (as the Guinier and midnight basketball examples showed), but the campaign was just as successful in 1994 with a white president as it has been in 2010 with a black president."

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/02/obama_angry_white_males/index.html

I hope you will bring this up tomorrow so you don't leave a false impression about what is really going on.

Hey media, stop racializing every damn issue. It is really not helpful to the country.

We've had multiple cases where a black electorate voted for a white candidate instead of a black one – i.e. Tenn – Cohen and I believe there was a case in Georgia that was similar.

Black people aren't stupid. They know who is on their side and who isn't. It really isn't that complicated. Hispanics are even more clearly finding out the same thing.

[David__77]

4. A majority of whites are politically backward.

This is nothing new. A Democrat has not won the white vote since 1964.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

10. That is precisely due to the Southern Strategy. It works for so many white people.

If this country is truly over race, as many people think it is, then why the divide? Why does the "welfare queen" and the "willie horton" - ACORN imagery still have an impact on white Americans? Why are white Americans so duped by what the far right, wingnuts say? Apparently, America still has a long way to go before race is no longer an issue. Though the numbers were the same with Clinton, the fact that there still is this racial divide when it comes to political party tells me that we still haven't gotten over race at all. Not even a 1/2 black-white president could pull us together.

[Pirate Smile]

15. It is dying out - at least the most virulent forms of it - just like it is re LGBT rights.

The problem right now is that Faux, Rush and the entire RW is trying to flog it because they think it will help them in the midterms. It didn't help them in '08 and I think we shouldn't oversell ourselves on the effectiveness of teabagger & RW race-baiting. It only works on a certain segment of the public and those people are already their base.

Barack Obama won the Presidency. Don't let the assholes diminish what that says about American People. Voters would be turning on whoever was in power in this type of an economic environment. Frankly, his poll numbers have held up better then Clinton's and Reagan's did.

[smalll]

17. Yep, so politically backward ---

-- they're not happy to let in unlimited illegal immigrants (so that other people rather than themselves can cut the grass/nanny thebabies/checkout groceries/build houses/ and/or do anything else that stateside richies used to have to pay Americans to do.)

-- But H1-B visas? Horrors! So you used to make a good living in drywall? Who cares! My geekdom has been stolen by the Punjab! That's the REAL tragedy here!

-- they don't understand that there's nothing wrong with rich people -- as long as they wear Birkenstocks rather than white bucks, as long as they go mountain climbing rather than play polo, as long as they eat arugula rather than watercress, or waygu rather than Chateaubriand ---

as long as they favor Converses over wingtips, as long as they make ridiculous amounts of money in movies rather than in oil; in advertising rather than in pharmecuticals, they're cool!

What those of us who MATTER have come to learn is that the REAL crime of the old rich was not being exploiters, it was being unhip! :shrug:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. The curiosity is eating me. What IS it with you and tech geeks?

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

8. Here's what I wrote on the blog...

Shame on you, Cafferty! Shame on the mainstream corporate media!

Seems that the corporate media–CNN included–is going along with the wingnuts in pushing the meme that blacks are the racists because they only support Obama because he's black. NO!!

Black Americans support the president because: (1) they abhor Bush and the Repukes; (2) he's a Democrat; (3) who happens to be 1/2 black; (4) they typically support most Democratic presidents!

Black people are not stupid and blind. People need to stop insulting our intelligence!!!

Black Americans stood by Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. To my knowledge, they were and still are WHITE!

Black Americans ARE NOT RACISTS, no matter what Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck says.

Shame on you, Cafferty, for lending credence to all the race-baiting rhetoric coming from the far right! Shame on you!

Enough of the racial animosity and division! As long as we're at each other's throats, we are not paying attention to those who deserve blame: THE CORPORATE ELITE!!

This isn't about race. It is NOT about political party. It is NOT about ideology.

This is about what Corporate America is doing to this country. The Middle Class is shrinking right before our eyes, and yet, all we can talk about is black people, brown people, Muslims, gays!

Don't you guys understand! The power elite want us divided! Divided by race, color, religion, class!!

WAKE UP, AMERICA!!!!!! PLEASE WAKE UP!!!

[Skittles]

14. worthy of its own thread

:thumbsup:

[Jennicut]

16. I would like to see the age breakdown on the white voters. I have a feeling

that older whites disapprove more of Obama. Also, why the hell would black Americans approve more of the Rethugs? What have they ever done for blacks? I say that as a white person!

[1stlady]

18. Don't watch CNN

I have stopped watching the corporate run news channels, ie CNN & MSNBC never did watch faux. The media is doing what they do best attack, they love to build you up only later to slam you down in the mud and thats exactly what they are doing to the President right now. When things start to turn around they'll be right back there to lift him up again, but I won't watch then either. Its like a sick game with them, its best not to even watch, don't give them any more ratings. CNN is in desperate need of ratings as it is and if they think bashing Obama like faux does will bring them ratings they are sadly mistaken. Don't let any of the naysayers bring you down, just know that the Obama admin will turn things around. He mentioned during the campaign that this would happen(his unpopularity)and that change will not happen overnight. So don't let any of this foolishness stress you out, its all just a game as far as the media is concerned.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

19. I hear you. My worry is not that these attacks have any truth to them. The problem is that

even well meaning people start to believe the rhetoric. We know better. The issue is how public opinion will be impacted by the rhetoric.

[Brewman_Jax]

20. Some things haven't changed

if the comments section is any indication. I'll bet that none of the white commenters would have any problem if black voters voted for a white candidate, which was the ONLY option for so many years--if/when black people were allowed to vote.

[catgirl]

21. CNN sucks

They sold out a long time ago. I'd love to see some protest resignations.

[FrenchieCat]

23. And everyone else is too busy deciding to dog Obama on other issues,

to give a shit.

[LatteLibertine]

24. If people

fall for the Southern Strategy again, I'll be extremely disappointed.

The Republicans promote agenda's that are gutting the middle class and destroying the poor. If US citizens are dumb enough to return to Republican rule, we get what we deserve. That's just sheer idiocy, unless you happen to be a sociopath among the most wealthy.