Doug Mills/The New York Times
Barack Obama, after his meeting at the White House on Thursday. A supporter said of him, “People don’t want theatrics here, they want steadiness.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/us/politics/26obama.html?adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1222427879-eB7NUlOWko+9E2Qy95m1RgAll,
See how truly insidious the American psychosis of racism really is? Notice how Obama is being attacked for not foaming from the mouth and for actually maintaining a cool, calm, clear eyed, intelligent, emotionally mature, and statesmanlike demeanor in the face of crisis while many truly demented whitefolks in the media and the general society demand from him a "visceral" display of anger as in a viciously stereotypical demonstration of the crazed, irrational black man who they think (would? should? could?) beat his chest 'King Kong' style so they can then vicariously cop their utterly psychotic and even bizarrely sublimated "sexual" thrill of watching the "hot nigger" act a fool for them in public? You KNOW that's what is behind all these outrageously idiotic desires don't you? OF COURSE YOU DO.
You see, the major problem with all clinical psychotics (and that is essentially what all racists ARE) is that they are largely UNCONSCIOUS (or "act"/pretend like they are) of the fundamental fact that they ARE psychotic. They think that being violently irrational and full of insecurity, hatred, desire, envy, fear, and ironically INFERIORITY COMPLEXES) is only reserved for the object-people that they insanely think they are "superior" to (look it up in your Psychology 101 texts folks--I'm sure there's a little section marked "PROJECTION AND DISPLACEMENT" there somewhere)...
Thus we have and will continue to have this ongoing racist spectacle of these morons damning and condemning Obama both for being who he actually is AND for who they "want" him to be--especially if it's negative behavior. That's their racist desire and expectation (and thus demand). They can't stand the fact that the brother is intelligently "beyond" all that. After all exactly what kind of Uppity Nigger does he think he is?
Kofi
POLITICAL MEMO
In a Time of Crisis, Is Obama Too Cool?
By PATRICK HEALY
Published: September 25, 2008
New York Times
DUNEDIN, Fla. — Where many politicians would have aspired to show anger, Senator Barack Obama spoke in a soft, even tone as he reached the crescendo of his speech Wednesday about government mismanagement of the economy.
“At this defining moment, we have the chance to finally stand up and say, enough is enough,” Mr. Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, told a ballpark packed with 11,000 people here.
Two hours later, after Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee, said he would temporarily stop campaigning because of the economic crisis, Mr. Obama looked downright unflappable at a news conference. Referring to this week of economic peril — and tweaking his Republican rival — Mr. Obama said flatly, “Presidents are going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time.”
However forceful and passionate Mr. Obama can be, his speeches and public appearances this week have underscored how he is sometimes out of sync with the visceral anger of Americans who are losing their jobs and homes. He often talks about growing up on food stamps and about having paid off his student loans only recently, yet his tone and volume, body language, facial expressions and words convey a certain distance from the ache that many voters feel.
“People want presidents who lead and relate to them — they don’t want presidents who analyze and seem above it all,” said G. Terry Madonna, a pollster and director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. “Obama still comes across as dispassionate to the point of coolness. He is so comfortable in his own skin, he can be hard to connect with for people who are struggling.”
Discussing the Iraq war earlier in the campaign, Mr. Obama did not need to come across as livid because many voters saw him as right: he was the only top-tier presidential candidate who opposed the war from the start. Now the economy is the issue of the day, and Mr. Obama has largely been delivering Mr. Fix-It speeches and pointed critiques.
“For the candidates, it’s show, not tell,” said Ruth Sherman, a political communications consultant. “Saying you understand is not enough, you have to be able to show it. Obama’s dispassionate approach on the economic crisis fails him on this front because his delivery contradicts his words.”
Whereas former Vice President Al Gore and Senator John Kerry struck populist tones during their presidential bids, Mr. Obama is having none of it. For better or worse, his performance in this time of financial peril goes to the heart of who he is. Mr. Obama may have looked subdued as he arrived at the White House on Thursday for a meeting on the economy, but he also stayed calm and ultimately prevailed at a similarly urgent point in his primary campaign against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose turn toward populism helped her win the Ohio and Pennsylvania primaries.
“I think it would be more popular in the short term politically to be more populist on the bailout and Wall Street,” said Gov. Michael F. Easley of North Carolina, a Democrat, “but people know in their gut that a populist approach won’t solve the problem.”
Indeed, Mr. McCain has come under criticism from some voters — and from conservatives in his own party, like George F. Will — for railing against Wall Street and proposing to fire people and enact economic policies that conflict with his record.
For Mr. Obama, the financial crisis poses different risks. He wants to appear fired up over the economy, but he has written before about wanting to avoid appearing like a stereotypical angry black man. Unlike Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and other black leaders whose fulminations could scare white voters, Mr. Obama is not from and of New York, Detroit, or the segregated South; he grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia. To some degree Mr. Obama faces the opposite challenge from fiery black leaders who came before him: Is he too cool for a crisis like this one?
(Notice the incredibly patronizing, condescending, and insidiously racist non-sequitur comparisons in this clearly racist paragraph?--Kofi)
“He may not be everything to everybody on the bailout, and he may not be a barnstorming speaker on this issue, but he is speaking credibly and seriously and honestly,” said Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, who joined Mr. Obama at a rally on the economy in Green Bay on Monday. “People don’t want theatrics here, they want steadiness.”
If voters in Michigan and Ohio do not demand stemwinding speeches from Mr. Obama, they may be left wondering where the passion is in his signature line, delivered at a fund-raiser in Chicago on Monday night: “We don’t get too high when we’re high, we don’t get too low when we’re low, we just try to do the job.”
Reba Younce, who attended Mr. Obama’s rally here on Wednesday, came away with just that impression of him. A 61-year-old independent voter and a former deputy in law enforcement, Ms. Younce said she would vote for Mr. Obama, in part because of his temperament.
“His way of approaching things may not work for everyone who’s angry nowadays, but I sense some anger just below the surface,” Ms. Younce said. “Though if things keep getting worse, he may need to turn it up a little, to show passion some more.”
All,
Meanwhile the far more visceral traditional forms of racist attack continue as a complement for the so-called "more refined" or "subtle" expressions advocated by media and (cough!) many "white intellectuals."
Kofi
Obama Effigy Hung From College Tree
By MARY HUDETZ
AP
NEWBERG, Ore. (Sept. 25) - Officials of a small Christian university say a life-size cardboard reproduction of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was hung from a tree on the campus, an act with racial undertones that outraged students and school leaders alike.
George Fox University President Robin Baker said a custodian discovered the effigy early Tuesday and removed it. University spokesman Rob Felton said Wednesday that the commercially produced reproduction had been suspended from the branch of a tree with fishing line around the neck.
George Fox University Robin Baker, president of George Fox University, described himself as "disheartened and outraged" by the effigy of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Taped to the cardboard cutout of the black senator from Illinois was a message targeting participants in Act Six, a scholarship program geared toward increasing the number of minority and low-income students at several Christian colleges, mostly in the Northwest.
The message read, "Act Six reject."
The disturbing image found near the heart of the campus recalled the days of lynchings of blacks and was all the more incongruous at a university founded by Quaker pioneers in 1891. Felton said he had been at the school since he enrolled two decades ago, and "I've never experienced or heard of any type of overt racial act."
At the end of the college's regular chapel service Wednesday, Baker told students he was "disheartened and outraged."
"It has been my dream to establish a university that more adequately represents the kingdom of God," he said. "This act causes some to question our commitment."
Baker added, "What I've learned is we still have work to do."
Administrators at the university said Wednesday they do not know who hung the effigy, which Felton said few people saw before it was taken down.
Newberg police Sgt. Tim Weaver said officials are working with the university to find out who was responsible. He also said the police department has notified the U.S. Secret Service, although it's not clear yet whether the act was a crime.
"It doesn't fit as a hate crime and it doesn't fit in as intimidation, necessarily," he said. "If it's not a crime, we're not going to be involved."
Brad Lau, a university vice president, said school officials have been questioning students to find out who was responsible. He and other school officials wouldn't say what action it might take.
The school has 17 students in the Act Six program, whose name derives from the New Testament book of Acts. All but one are members of minority groups, Felton said.
Students in the program receive full scholarships and are selected on the basis of leadership potential.
Several students in the program said they are angry but do not feel threatened.
"To me, I just felt like they weren't ready to have a black person be president," said Courtney Greenidge, a sophomore. "We're trying to bring change. Obama's trying to bring change." She described herself, like Obama, as biracial: half black, half white.
She also said that overall, the campus has a welcoming and positive environment, but that she has heard comments along the lines of, "Oh, I wish I was black. Then I could get a scholarship like that."
Obama spokeswoman Sahar Wali said the effigy hanging was "an unfortunate incident but you know we have had a very positive response from Oregonians across the state."
Obama is widely considered to be ahead in Oregon. In the run-up to the state's May primary, he drew a crowd of about 75,000 people in Portland.
George Fox University's campus is in Newberg in the Willamette Valley south of Portland. About 1,800 students are enrolled. It also has centers in Portland; Salem; and Boise, Idaho.
Felton said that about 2 percent of the students are black and about a quarter of the freshman class belongs to minority groups. That number includes international students, largely from Asia and Africa.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
