President Obama
The President and First Lady Michelle Obama
at 2011 Congressional Black Caucus Dinner
at 2011 Congressional Black Caucus Dinner
http://www.popularcritic.com/2011/09/26/president-obama-is-not-a-fighter-michelle-obama-regal-in-black/
All,
The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) speech by President Obama last saturday night (before a nearly all black audience) was not only a corny insipid speech full of empty clichés and hollow platitudes but was also incredibly condescending, patronizing, and downright INSULTING. What is wrong with Barack? Has he lost his damn mind? I can tell you all one thing for damn sure: If he had given this same type of dismissive, insulting speech to any other constituent group of American citizens in the entire country (i.e. Hispanics/Latinos, Jews, labor unions, Gays and Lesbians, members of the military, poor, working and middle class whites, etc. etc.) he would have been justifiably VILLIFIED and attacked by these groups and the media for his outrageous arrogance, smugness, and incredible rudeness. The utterly patronizing way the President talks DOWN to black folks in public is absolutely appalling and one more indication that he is only taking us and our legitimate and important concerns and issues as a People AND as American CITIZENS for granted. A LOT of black people across the country (myself included) were highly upset with the president's overly cavalier and pompous attitude and have said as much, including our black Congressional Representative from Los Angeles, the always redoubtable and gutsy Maxine Waters:
(See her important response to the speech in the CBS YouTube videolink below)...Just below her link is one to an excerpt of the President's CBC speech...Stay tuned...
Kofi
Maxine Waters response:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd5ZnSOYUkg
Excerpt from President's speech:
President Obama Is Not A Fighter;
Michelle Obama Regal In Black
September 26, 2011
Posted by Popular Critic
Tags: Barack Obama, Congressional Black Caucus, Michelle Obama, President
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama wrapped up the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference on Saturday night at the Phoenix Awards in the Washington, D.C. Michelle Obama was her usual regal self in all black. But this time, Michelle’s fashion choices took the back seat to her husband’s speech. President Obama is working really hard to maintain his track record for saying things that contradicts his base. He knows he needs black voters, as he stated in his speech, “And I know we won’t get where we need to go if we don’t travel down this road together. I need you with me.” Yet, for such an eloquent speak President Obama manages to put his foot in his mouth – again!
Here’s another snippet below:
“So I don’t know about you, CBC, but the future rewards those who press on. With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. I’m going to press on for equality. I’m going to press on for the sake of our children. I’m going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on.” “I expect all of you to march with me and press on. Take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying. We are going to press on. We’ve got work to do, CBC.”
Well, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Nick Chiles had a thing or two to say about President Obama:
"Last week President Obama stepped onto the stage of the Congressional Black Caucus desperately trying to light a fire under black folks before the election season heats up—just as we got word that he is having trouble eliciting campaign contributions from the army of small donors who threw money at him in 2008. It occurs to me that the President is in such a vulnerable state because he forgot a fundamental lesson he probably learned in elementary school: People will have more love and respect for the guy who stands up to the bully—even if he gets his face bashed in—than the guy who tries to pull the bully aside and talk the bully out of beating him up..."
Read the full article below: "When Will President Obama Start Fighting Back?"
http://dimewars.com/Blog/ViewBlogArticle.aspx?vn=When+Will+President+Obama+Start+Fighting+Back?&BlogID=f6076015-c288-4279-bf8a-fc29d36830b8
When Will President Obama Start Fighting Back?
By Nick Chiles
Nick Chiles
Last week President Obama stepped onto the stage of the Congressional Black Caucus desperately trying to light a fire under black folks before the election season heats up—just as we got word that he is having trouble eliciting campaign contributions from the army of small donors who threw money at him in 2008. It occurs to me that the President is in such a vulnerable state because he forgot a fundamental lesson he probably learned in elementary school: People will have more love and respect for the guy who stands up to the bully—even if he gets his face bashed in—than the guy who tries to pull the bully aside and talk the bully out of beating him up.
The Republicans in Congress have been acting like bullies since the day Obama took office. He thought he could get things done by reasoning with them, trying to compromise with them, caving in to them when necessary, with the ultimate goal being a track record of legislative achievement. While we all may intellectually understand the wisdom of that approach, it’s hard to be inspired and stand behind someone who we believe deep in our hearts has acted like a punk. Human nature compels us to be attracted to the guy who goes down swinging, who confronts the bad guy and takes his shots, even if he is badly defeated in the end. It’s the formula of a thousand Hollywood features, from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” to Queen Latifah in “Set It Off.”
During the election, Obama inspired us with the message that he could bring together a divided country, Gandhi-like, and lead us to a new age of harmony. That all sounded wonderfully utopian, but the Republicans wanted none of it. They wanted a fight. And as they started throwing their blows, it began to sound suspiciously like a race war, with a lot of veiled insults that were clearly the 2011 version of nigger. Black people have a lot of experience with racial conflicts in this country; they are an indelible part of our history. And when they go down, we don’t want a leader who is busy trying to make nice with the other side, trying to conciliate and negotiate. One of our most revered leader, Martin Luther King Jr., a well-known pacifist, was not a conciliator. After all, there is nothing more confrontational and assertive than refusing to move to the back of the bus or give up the lunch counter seat. Fighting back is not necessarily a reference to violence; it means using whatever means you have at your disposal to take down the opposition. Giving in to the opposition is not an acceptable battle strategy.
When a fight breaks out, we want to march into battle behind Duane “The Rock” Johnson, not Gandhi. We will always fall in love with the fighter, while we tolerate the thoughtful negotiator. We worship revenge and confrontation, not reasoned discussion and capitulation.
Being a bully is mostly about PR—convincing onlookers that you are a big, bad, scary dude. When the bully is revealed as a coward or an idiot, his cloak of invincibility is snatched away. Obama has badly lost the PR battle—he has capitulated to the bully so many times that it may be nearly impossible for him to alter our deep-seated fear that he is a punk. He has 13 months to go before the election. After all the debates are done, the country has been crisscrossed many times over and the hundreds of millions of campaign dollars are spent, his success in November 2012 will depend largely on how our gut answers one basic question: Is he ready to fight?
Nick Chiles is a New York Times bestselling author and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
All,
The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) speech by President Obama last saturday night (before a nearly all black audience) was not only a corny insipid speech full of empty clichés and hollow platitudes but was also incredibly condescending, patronizing, and downright INSULTING. What is wrong with Barack? Has he lost his damn mind? I can tell you all one thing for damn sure: If he had given this same type of dismissive, insulting speech to any other constituent group of American citizens in the entire country (i.e. Hispanics/Latinos, Jews, labor unions, Gays and Lesbians, members of the military, poor, working and middle class whites, etc. etc.) he would have been justifiably VILLIFIED and attacked by these groups and the media for his outrageous arrogance, smugness, and incredible rudeness. The utterly patronizing way the President talks DOWN to black folks in public is absolutely appalling and one more indication that he is only taking us and our legitimate and important concerns and issues as a People AND as American CITIZENS for granted. A LOT of black people across the country (myself included) were highly upset with the president's overly cavalier and pompous attitude and have said as much, including our black Congressional Representative from Los Angeles, the always redoubtable and gutsy Maxine Waters:
(See her important response to the speech in the CBS YouTube videolink below)...Just below her link is one to an excerpt of the President's CBC speech...Stay tuned...
Kofi
Maxine Waters response:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd5ZnSOYUkg
Excerpt from President's speech:
President Obama Is Not A Fighter;
Michelle Obama Regal In Black
September 26, 2011
Posted by Popular Critic
Tags: Barack Obama, Congressional Black Caucus, Michelle Obama, President
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama wrapped up the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference on Saturday night at the Phoenix Awards in the Washington, D.C. Michelle Obama was her usual regal self in all black. But this time, Michelle’s fashion choices took the back seat to her husband’s speech. President Obama is working really hard to maintain his track record for saying things that contradicts his base. He knows he needs black voters, as he stated in his speech, “And I know we won’t get where we need to go if we don’t travel down this road together. I need you with me.” Yet, for such an eloquent speak President Obama manages to put his foot in his mouth – again!
Here’s another snippet below:
“So I don’t know about you, CBC, but the future rewards those who press on. With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. I’m going to press on for equality. I’m going to press on for the sake of our children. I’m going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on.” “I expect all of you to march with me and press on. Take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying. We are going to press on. We’ve got work to do, CBC.”
Well, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Nick Chiles had a thing or two to say about President Obama:
"Last week President Obama stepped onto the stage of the Congressional Black Caucus desperately trying to light a fire under black folks before the election season heats up—just as we got word that he is having trouble eliciting campaign contributions from the army of small donors who threw money at him in 2008. It occurs to me that the President is in such a vulnerable state because he forgot a fundamental lesson he probably learned in elementary school: People will have more love and respect for the guy who stands up to the bully—even if he gets his face bashed in—than the guy who tries to pull the bully aside and talk the bully out of beating him up..."
Read the full article below: "When Will President Obama Start Fighting Back?"
http://dimewars.com/Blog/ViewBlogArticle.aspx?vn=When+Will+President+Obama+Start+Fighting+Back?&BlogID=f6076015-c288-4279-bf8a-fc29d36830b8
When Will President Obama Start Fighting Back?
By Nick Chiles
Nick Chiles
The Republicans in Congress have been acting like bullies since the day Obama took office. He thought he could get things done by reasoning with them, trying to compromise with them, caving in to them when necessary, with the ultimate goal being a track record of legislative achievement. While we all may intellectually understand the wisdom of that approach, it’s hard to be inspired and stand behind someone who we believe deep in our hearts has acted like a punk. Human nature compels us to be attracted to the guy who goes down swinging, who confronts the bad guy and takes his shots, even if he is badly defeated in the end. It’s the formula of a thousand Hollywood features, from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” to Queen Latifah in “Set It Off.”
During the election, Obama inspired us with the message that he could bring together a divided country, Gandhi-like, and lead us to a new age of harmony. That all sounded wonderfully utopian, but the Republicans wanted none of it. They wanted a fight. And as they started throwing their blows, it began to sound suspiciously like a race war, with a lot of veiled insults that were clearly the 2011 version of nigger. Black people have a lot of experience with racial conflicts in this country; they are an indelible part of our history. And when they go down, we don’t want a leader who is busy trying to make nice with the other side, trying to conciliate and negotiate. One of our most revered leader, Martin Luther King Jr., a well-known pacifist, was not a conciliator. After all, there is nothing more confrontational and assertive than refusing to move to the back of the bus or give up the lunch counter seat. Fighting back is not necessarily a reference to violence; it means using whatever means you have at your disposal to take down the opposition. Giving in to the opposition is not an acceptable battle strategy.
When a fight breaks out, we want to march into battle behind Duane “The Rock” Johnson, not Gandhi. We will always fall in love with the fighter, while we tolerate the thoughtful negotiator. We worship revenge and confrontation, not reasoned discussion and capitulation.
Being a bully is mostly about PR—convincing onlookers that you are a big, bad, scary dude. When the bully is revealed as a coward or an idiot, his cloak of invincibility is snatched away. Obama has badly lost the PR battle—he has capitulated to the bully so many times that it may be nearly impossible for him to alter our deep-seated fear that he is a punk. He has 13 months to go before the election. After all the debates are done, the country has been crisscrossed many times over and the hundreds of millions of campaign dollars are spent, his success in November 2012 will depend largely on how our gut answers one basic question: Is he ready to fight?
Nick Chiles is a New York Times bestselling author and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
