Tag Archives: Barack Obama

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Dowd on Wilson’s outburst: I guess it takes a white person or two to recognize an act of racism

Any other claim from a person of color gets automatically dismissed as more of that old, tired reverse-racist grievance politics.  It’s usually accompanied with a scornful response like “Grow up, you old race dinosaur. Get a life. Get real. We have a black man as president. Join the 21st century.”

Insisting that the racist tendencies of America are still operating on all cylinders gets you that kind of reaction.

And then, because the racism is so obvious, and no one hears your cry, one tends to accept it as the reality of the new America.  Save the wails for the extreme cases. Crying racism about the norm just doesn’t make it today.

That is, unless a white liberal columnist like Maureen Dowd  finally gets it enough to wake up her white readers in the New York Times about a certain Southern congressman’s outcry during President Barack Obama’s health care address last week.

Said Rep. Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina) to the President: “You lie!”

The president didn’t of course. Not like George W. Bush ever did.

But Wilson’s charge has since made him a hero and darling to those who share his same segregationist values. Wilson is a Son of Confederate Veterans, who fights for the rights to wave the Dixie flag and decries the truth of segregationist Strom Thurmond’s bi-racial child as a smear.

Wilson has a difficult time with the truth.  But his outburst made Dowd realize a truth:

In today’s column, “Boy, oh, boy” Dowd wrote: “I’ve been loath to admit that the shrieking lunacy of the summer — the frantic efforts to paint our first black president as the Other, a foreigner, socialist, fascist, Marxist, racist, Commie, Nazi; a cad who would snuff old people; a snake who would indoctrinate kids — had much to do with race.

I tended to agree with some Obama advisers that Democratic presidents typically have provoked a frothing response from paranoids — from Father Coughlin against F.D.R. to Joe McCarthy against Truman to the John Birchers against J.F.K. and the vast right-wing conspiracy against Bill Clinton.

But Wilson’s shocking disrespect for the office of the president — no Democrat ever shouted “liar” at W. when he was hawking a fake case for war in Iraq — convinced me: Some people just can’t believe a black man is president and will never accept it.”

Welcome to the ethnic truth, Maureen. Those of us who write primarily for the ethnic media have heard the drumbeats loudly before Wilson’s shout.  Hopefully your readers will snap to, as you have.

With race as a subtext, Wilson shows that  health care reform led by America’s first black president is made to order for those who yearn for the second coming of the civil war.

 

 

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Health-care Rx:Obama’s Speech Therapy

Whenever it seems like his back his to the wall, or the when “the sale” is in jeopardy, Obama’s prescription has always been the same: Give “the speech.”

That’s the way it was in campaign mode. And even after winning the presidency, it’s never let up for Obama. When the Rev. Wright stories appeared to sink his chances last year, an eloquent speech on race in Philly set the record straight. In January, a thoughtful inaugural sought to quell partisanship and indeed brought the country together. That is, until he set his attention to health care.

Now when health care is more polarizing than even race, Obama turned to his rhetorical gifts once again to forcefully lay it our for the people.

The speech was emotional and direct in the way it pared down his plan to the big picture essentials. Not the details,necessarily, but the larger view. A government-run not for profit insurance option for those without coverage, a public option, is still the most polarizing thing on the table. But what’s to fear? Competition is good. There’s a reason existing health care companies don’t want the uninsured. If  government competition can force companies to lighten up their restrictions or improve their efficiencies to see the uninsured as a profit center, than that’s better than a bailout. And more people get insured.

The speech also exposed the partisan bickering and ad hominem  for what it is. Save that b.s. for football season.

On the stuff that matters, Obama was authoritative, presidential, and appealed to the best in all Americans.

Now is the time to get the best wonks from both sides of the aisle and get a deal done.

If that really happens, chalk one up to Obama’s speech therapy.

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Ling and Lee are free: All it took was a former president

If you were wondering where Al Gore has been in the  diplomatic effort to free his two employees jailed in North Korea, Bill Clinton provided you the answer.

Gore wasn’t big enough.

It takes a former president with with enormous global charisma to do what was needed to produced  Laura Ling and Euna Lee. the two journalists with Gore’s Current TV found guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time in North Korea.

Jimmy Carter wasn’t big enough. Bush I and II? Are you kidding?

The North Koreans wanted Bill Clinton over for dinner.  And they got him.

Once I heard Clinton was heading to see Kim Jong Il, I knew it would be just a matter of days that the pawns in question  would be produced, safely in all  his high drama.

Now the question is what does the U.S. give up in exchange. Clinton is a start, but it’s just the beginning to a real transition to…..?

It’s unclear. Currently, there are no official diplomatic ties between the U.S. and North Korea. So Clinton going as an unofficial offical keeps the status quo both in check, but potentially in flux.  Obama and Clinton can maintain their hardline. But Kim Jong Il gets to show all his people that he still has standing, with or without nukes. He’s got Bill Clinton over for kimchee  and a photo op.

Americans are supposed to be puzzled as to what’s next.

But if you’re in North or South Korea, you’ve got to be in awe.

If you’re starving in North Korea, you have hope today.  U.S. recognition brings the possibility of change.  If you’re in Seoul, you have to worry.  If you’re in either country and you  doubted the power of his hairness in North Korea, you are simply starstruck. The guy who looks like he’s on his death bed still has some juice. He got Bubba to stop b,  and all the players got a little something.

Clinton got to ride into the sunset the hero. You think Clinton hesitated to be in that role, one-upping both his wife and the current president (both of whom were admittedly hamstrung).  Clinton’s stock rises.

It certainly was worth it to Kim Jong Il.

And Laura Ling and Euna Lee ?

They now come home safely, with the story of their lives.

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Obama’s affirmative action for Muslims, Harvard Class Day, my day

Barack Obama couldn’t be Harvard Class Day speaker yesterday for obvious reasons. He was too busy preparing to reach out to his Muslim brothers and sisters.

Outreach to Muslims? This is affirmative action the U.S. can really use.

Policy-wise, Obama’s address  could have been a speech George W. Bush would have given. The end goal of Obama’s comments essentially is a two-state solution exactly what Bush was pushing in the end.

But what a difference the messenger makes.

Would you say that Bush had a credibility problem? He only helped perpetuate the white stereotype that Obama referred to in his speech. Of course, it’s no different from the way Bin Laden feeds the Muslim stereotypes Americans know and love.

They all get in the way of communication.

But with a new messenger before them, the Muslim audience saw a new global leader in whom they could see a bit of a  reflection of themselves. It was worth another look at the New America.

“I’ve come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world,” said Obama. “One based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”

With Obama’s background in Indonesia, his parentage, his cultural connection comes a new kind of diplomatic tone that may prove to be a more productive path to a lasting peace.

It’s a personal touch, the kind that comes with a new messenger. Denigrate Obama’s Muslim outreach  as just a pretty speech. We are in a phase, amid war and terror, where one cannot make light of pretty speech.

Obama was plenty tough on both Israel and Hamas.  Masked in pretty speech, it may help all sides see and value their common interests.

CLASS DAY

So Obama was at a university in Cairo and not Cambridge. Not at Harvard. But Matt Lauer was.

On the “The Today” show, Lauer  talked about being the Harvard Class Day speaker: “Giving a speech to Harvard students and their parents and the faculty is just nerve-wracking and I admit it was intimidating.”

I can relate. I gave the student speech before the Class Day speaker in 1977 (George Plimpton that year). And it was intimidating. And exhilarating. It was a funny speech making fun of Harvard. So, of course, it got laughs. And one big one, I’ll never forget.

As I look back, I have given many speeches, but because of the setting the students, the parents, and  the faculty that Lauer talked about, it was special.

I look to replicate that feeling every time I step to a podium.