Obama: Reid’s Comments Were “Inartful” but Not “Mean-Spirited”

Obama willingly sat in Rev Wright’s church for 20 years.
How do you sit and listen to that unless you have a few racist issues yourself?
But I guess Obama would say Rev Wright’s sermons were not mean-spirited either.

Kudos to Gov. David Paterson for describing Sen. Harry Reid’s racial comments about Barack Obama as “reprehensible and degrading.” On the other hand, George Will is now on record as DEFENDING Harry Reid’s comments saying, “I don’t think there’s a scintilla of racism in what Harry Reid said.” Is George Will actually saying that Harry Reid’s comments were therefore APPROPRIATE and should be rallied around and even repeated? I put it to you that they were actually indefensible.
Seriously, it is always interesting (and sometimes shocking) to read of politicians speaking their minds and then watch and listen when they find out it has been reported, which inevitably leads to a backtracking statement to avoid political suicide. Mr. Reid’s retraction indicates the kind of cynical belief that breaches the publicly-presented-facade every once in a while. This, of course, is something that happens with both major parties (witness Trent Lott and others), but it is doubly pointed in this case as Mr. Obama is a member of Mr. Reids own party…….nice.
It wasn’t a “poor choice of words” if that is what he really believes. I don’t think that describing Barack Obama during the presidential election as a “black candidate who would benefit from his “light-skinned” appearance and speaking patterns “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one” could be spoken with ANY words that could be considered “well chosen”.
As to “improper”, does he mean “improper” in that it became public and was obviously seen as glaringly improper, or, improper because it reflects a massive character flaw in Mr. Reid that he would describe a very well spoken (much more so than Harry Reid in my opinion) African American man as being without a “Negro dialect” (is this guy in the same century as the rest of the country?).
All of this begs an important question. When he says, “I was a proud and enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama during the campaign and have worked as hard as I can to advance President Obama’s legislative agenda,” was it because he considered Barak Obama to be “a black candidate who would benefit from his “light-skinned” appearance and speaking patterns “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one”?
In the words of…oh yeah…,Mr. Reid, following the Trent Lott racial comments debacle (another pathetic an indefensible display of racist comments on the Republican side), “You play how you practice. If you tell ethnic jokes in the backroom, it’s that much easier to say ethnic things publicly. I’ve always practiced how I play.” In spite of his poor attempt at the “potomac two step”, and the sad and obviously hypocritical defense of his racially derogatory comments by Mr. Will, Al Sharpton and others (which we are all too used to and fed up with no matter where you stand politically), Mr. Reid IS correct…..he DOES practice what he played all along.
NOTE – Mr. Obama is NOT doing the nation a favor by giving Mr. Reid a public pass. He still could have corrected the statement, and all like statements in general, and added his personal forgiveness, but he did not do that. He gave up a fantastic opportunity to raise the bar for the conduct and discourse of public servants, as well as the populace in general, and he abdicated…..for what? Could it be for political expediency? Sure smacks of that to me. This is a SAD day all the way around. Political hay making aside, Mr. Steele is exactly correct on the main point, “It’s either racist or it’s not. And it’s inappropriate, absolutely.”

Those mean-spirited republicans are bad-mouthing Senator Harry Reid in their efforts to prevent the majority in the House and the Senate from doing the will of the country in reforming our medical system. Republicans have no sense of what is good for the country. Their concern is what is good for their party and the people who prosper when they are in control.

Are Halperin and Heileman giving kickbacks to cable news anchors and pundits for pushing the book? You would think nothing else happened in the world for the last few days. I did enjoy M. Steele’s speed-of-life pivot off his own racial gaffe.

Republicans still don’t understand what is and what isn’t a racist remark.
Derogatory + untrue = racist
I think their problem is they don’t think any racial slurs are untrue.

And once again, a Democrat gets a pass for actions that would prompt nationwide protests from a Republican.
Proof that Democrats are raaaaacists.

“and he’s always been on the right side of the issues,”
Actions do speak louder than words. And all it takes is a glance at the current black members of Congress – over 40 of them, every single last one a Democrat – to figure out which party considers skin color less when electing representatives. America is about 13% black, the Democratic caucus is about 13% black – about what you’d statistically expect if skin color was not a factor in electing candidates. Exactly 0% of the 218 Republicans in Congress are black; that is just not statistically possible unless skin color is a factor to Republicans in electing candidates.

Republicans willingly listen to Limbaugh for over 20 years now, does that mean they’re all racist too?

“America is about 13% black, the Democratic caucus is about 13% black – about what you’d statistically expect if skin color was not a factor in electing candidates. Exactly 0% of the 218 Republicans in Congress are black”
Way to go. It’s hard to argue with numbers like this but the dedicated will undoubtedly try.

the problem is not this specific remark. the problem is the double standard. democrats would be screaming racism if a republican had made the same statement. you can’t deny this fact.
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Hard to say. It’s difficult to think clearly with all the screaming from the Repulbicans and the right.

Posted by: Huh | Jan 11, 2010 11:51:58 PM
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Calling black women ‘nappy-headed hos’ is pretty insulting and racist.

You can say and do what you want if
you are a democrat or a liberal but
be damned if you are anyone else.
What a hapless bunch of losers.

As long as Obama felt this was a
round about compliment, then it was ok.
Apparently Obama took no offense to the
fact that Reid seemed to be offending
other African Americans. You know…
its all about “him”.

Hardly a ripple of protest was made in 2004 when Reid shamelessly slurred Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as an incompetent Negro who could not write good English. “Slap at Thomas stinks of racism,” was the headline of the New York Daily News’ December 7, 2004 editorial. Harry Reid likes to look down his nose on visitors he could smell from down the hall and negroes who do or do not speak well. Any American with an ounce of decency would not tolerate the type of disgusting racial epithets hurled by Reid at black Americans. If Reid had a scrap of politesse or common decency, he would apologize immediately to all black Americans, not just President Obama, and resign. It says a lot about his character and his innate disdain for blacks that he has refused to do so.

“Inartful”???? Thats the best defusion Obams’ writers could come up with to keep Reid in WA to push through the democrats social-liberal-Marxist agenda maintaining 60 seats??? You’re kidding, right? Like so many have said before, if a Republican had said this, the democrats would be having a special session TODAY to discus the matter and cry their favorite response to EVERYTHING that they don’t like…….”Racist”,”Bigot”, “Prejudiced”, “Intolerant”, !!!
The double standard lives,…….for now. Don’t miss America Rising 2-2-2010.

President Carter??? Where are you???

Good information!