{"id":323,"date":"2008-03-19T17:22:11","date_gmt":"2008-03-20T00:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=323"},"modified":"2008-03-24T20:59:04","modified_gmt":"2008-03-25T03:59:04","slug":"obama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=323","title":{"rendered":"Obama"},"content":{"rendered":"

I heard only parts of Senator Barak Obama’s speech yesterday.\u00a0 But I heard enough to make me want to read the entire transcript<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We’re told that Obama’s speech was born\u00a0from the political need to counter right wing\u00a0 media (read: all media) hysteria over the firebrand comments of Obama’s pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, but along the way it turned into another John F. Kennedy “The Pope Isn’t the Boss of Me” speech.<\/p>\n

Only better.\u00a0 Way better.\u00a0 I can respect a man who’ll stand by friends and family while holding to his own views.\u00a0 I can respect a man who doesn’t let racial resentments run his life.\u00a0 I can respect a man who appeals to my intelligence.<\/p>\n

Until yesterday, I was marginally in favor of Clinton over Obama,\u00a0in a detached,\u00a0unemotional way.\u00a0 She’s been around longer; she’s more plugged into the DC power structure; she’s more likely to be able to get things done or at least ride herd on congress.\u00a0 But now I feel an emotional attachment to Obama.\u00a0 I like the guy.\u00a0 I think he’s sincere.\u00a0 I’m glad that he’s American and that he’s running for president.\u00a0 I think a lot of people who were wavering are now\u00a0more pro-Obama.\u00a0 I think Obama scored big.<\/p>\n

So, there’s that.<\/p>\n

Then, there’s this.<\/p>\n

Up to now, we’ve all been polite about the\u00a0fact that a black man (never mind that he’s really of mixed race) is\u00a0campaigning for the Democratic Party’s nomination as its presidential candidate.\u00a0 But mark my words:\u00a0right-wingers, racists, and shitheads of all stripes have been waiting for us to start discussing race frankly and honestly.\u00a0 And now that Obama himself has started that discussion, they’re going to join in.\u00a0 With white robes and flaming torches.<\/p>\n

What do I mean by that?\u00a0 Okay,\u00a0you know how those right-wing radio creeps\u00a0scoff at political correctness? Yet it is a fact that they are politically correct themselves, at least by their own lights.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because they’re compliant enough to refrain from using the N-word.\u00a0 I’m afraid they’ll interpret a frank national discussion of race as permission to suspend political correctness.<\/p>\n

And before long, one of them’ll slip the N-word into a broadcast.\u00a0 Probably it’ll be Rush, because he’s just dying to do it.\u00a0 When he does, he’ll do it in his own chickenshit way, cloaking it in some “humorous” context so that he can duck behind the cloak the instant he’s called on it: “I was just joking!”\u00a0 “Don’t you understand satire?”\u00a0\u00a0“Why, I’ve heard African Americans use the term themselves!”\u00a0\u00a0Once Rush starts using the N-word, the rest will follow.\u00a0 You watch.<\/p>\n

Obama thinks we’re intelligent.\u00a0 Let’s hope he’s right.<\/p>\n

Update (3\/24\/08):<\/font><\/em> Did I nail it<\/a>, or what?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I heard only parts of Senator Barak Obama’s speech yesterday.\u00a0 But I heard enough to make me want to read the entire transcript. We’re told that Obama’s speech was born\u00a0from the political need to counter right wing\u00a0 media (read: all media) hysteria over the firebrand comments of Obama’s pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, but along the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,16,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-media","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}