This is for Main Street (and for the forgotten people Barack Obama doesn’t know)
By NoQuarter on March 18, 2008 at 8:55 AM in Barack Obama, Chicago politics, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., Tony Rezko
Paul Burka, “senior executive editor of Texas Monthly, argues that the damage to Obama from Wright’s words is irreparable” (via Howie Kurtz’s column, Washington Post, March 18, 2008):
“A candidate for president of the United States cannot cozy up to someone with this kind of anti-American rhetoric. He has lost Main Street white America. Is anyone going to believe that he didn’t know about Wright’s views? Is anyone going to accept as an explanation that he wasn’t in attendance when these things were said? He’ll get clobbered in Pennsylvania, clobbered in Indiana, clobbered in Kentucky.
“This isn’t about white racism. It’s about Wright racism.
“I thought that Obama was exempt from racial reactions because he was the Tiger Woods of politics. People looked at him and saw him not as someone who is black, but as someone who transcended race because of his unique skills and accomplishments. Not any more. He just triple bogeyed the presidency. He’s done.“
In We Are the Ones, I talked about the people of “Main Street.” Because I know those people. They live all around me.
Let me also mention one other group of people. Those are the “forgotten people“:
They are the forgotten people who lived in the disgusting conditions that Barack Obama knew about, but did nothing about, because the buildings were financed and allowed to go to ruin by his “political fixer” and campaign financier Tony Rezko:
From my story, “The Forgotten People“:
… Tenants were left without heat for five weeks
… A family “boiled water on the stove and draped plastic sheeting across the windows in an effort to keep warm during the city’s bitter winters, as the heating was not working.”
… There was drug selling and prostitution.
… The buildings were filthy and rat- and roach-infested.
… There was urine and feces all around.
… Rubbish piled up uncollected.
… Repeated requests for basic repairs were ignored.
… There were drug dealers all around.
…. People were fighting and getting shot.
… Tenants had to call the city just to get the garbage collected because Rezko and his company ignored their requests for help.
… Rezko moved on — turning away from the TAXPAYER-FUNDED “rehab” projects (he got over $100 million) and all of its tenants — with many buildings boarded up as bills and mortgage payments went unpaid, and Rezko going into the fast-food business.
… And Sen. Barack Obama turned a blind eye.
Instead of calling Tony Rezko and telling him to get his ass moving to clean up his properties and make them safe and inhabitable, Barack Obama called Tony Rezko to get him to help finance the purchase of a $1.65 million mansion. …
Be sure to let me know if and when Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews or Tim Russert ever talk about the “forgotten people.”
I’m not holding my breath.
I have said from the start that Barry and Michele planned his political career from the get-go. (They probably used Bill and Hillary as their role models!) Their decisons on everything from the start was POSITIONING (THAT’S A MARKETING/ADVERTISINGT TERM, BTW) to bring them to his POTUS run. THEY MADE THOSE DECISIONS and one decision they made was to “play it black”. But not just AA…AA according to Wright.
I was just commenting to my husband that Obama made the choice to run as a black man - even though half of his original family was white. He could have used this multi-racial argument very effectively from the start. BUT to bring it up now and get voters to dismiss the fact that he has capitalized on his AA heritage and ignored the other half just so they forget Rev. Wright is unbelievable.
It’s to late to re-define the past 15 years of their lives to try and convince us that they really aren’t “black enough”.
ON MSNBC, Mika B. just asked Pat Buchanan, “Can he do this?”
Quietly, Buchanan replied, “I don’t think so.”
He went on: “The reason … I think Barack Obama can give a magnificent speech and a very inclusive speech — but as soon as he’s done, people are going to say, ‘Why did he bring this up?’ and then we’re going to show again the tapes of Rev. Jeremiah Wright who’s a real apostle of hate and whose message is clearly anti-Christian and utterly contradictory to Barack Obama’s own statements and own perceived beliefs’.”
“And that’s going to raise the question, ‘What is going on here? How can a man like this not only be his spiritual father and pastor and teacher and friend, someone who holds these views, how can he be that close to Barack Obama?’”
“I think the speech will be good. But it will bring us right back into the issue of race, and if you put Rev. Jeremiah Wright up there, I don’t think the African-American community will be united that what he says ought to be defended at all.”
[Backed up my DVR to capture that.]
I mentioned in another thread, Pundita, on rezkowatch, made the case for Obama exploiting minorities, purposely for financial gain.
And she is accurate, Michelle and Barry exploit poor AA’s for their own financial gain, bottom line.
And if anyone really wants insight into the thinking of that crowd Obama hangs with, in Chicago, go read the tape transcripts from Rezko’s trial.
Just disgusting.
How do I find the transcripts from Rezko trial?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-rezko-storygallery,0,1295001.storygallery
This link connects to the trial evidence, included are the transcripts, to date, of the Rezko tapes.
Very good reading, very good insight into the characters of Rezko, Levine, and the others Obama surrounded himself with…
It’s amazing when you think about Obama’s church and (not his pastor) how involved in the community it is supposed to be. Even if you accept the militancy of Rev. Wright, that militancy sometimes results in better neighborhoods as groups come together to protect themselves and do good amongst their neighbors.
But Obama has done/did NOTHING. He did not lead a life that is reflective of either the good things his church community did, or what Rev. Wright might have sugggested.
Big deal…he donated cash to his church. But he never walked the walk.
The cash he donated to the church was some the money from the KICK BACKs he got from Rezko. How do you thinkl Rezco got all those contacts in Obamas district. Obama had to have backed him or was in it with the Mayor. Bu the was in it, they are just protecting him so he can get in the oval office. Once there Rezco will be let out. I am really worried about him getting into the office of president. We should all be worried.
I can’t believe that his campaign didn’t foreseen this problem arising and did more to defuse it. Obama knew it. He had that particular conversation with his paster. If he was so disagree with his paster, why didn’t he try to fix it. I can’t answer.
It raises the big question of all “Who is Barack Obama?”
Do we really know him at all?
Good point, Joey…do we really know who Barack Obama is?
Some of him we will never be able to “know” as we will have never walked in his shoes. But one of his surrogates is saying that Obama will talk about unity in his speech this morning.
But eyes have been opened with regard to his view of white America and voters will approach his desire, his ability and his committment to “unity” with great skepticism.
I get no pleasure at all from this whole thing. My heart is sad - once again - for our country.
Part of his problem is the hermetically sealed environment of New (Kos, Atrios) and Old (Kennedy, Dean, Pelosi) Lefties he has built his campaign around. These folks genuiely seem to believe that anyone to their right is either a sheep or a Republican, and so they have not considered the Moderate/left of center position to be of any importance.
To his team, Madison is Wisconsin, Austin is Texas, Berkeley is California, Cambridge is Massachusetts, Manhattan is New York, Santa Fe is New Mexico, Boulder is Colorado, and New Orleans is Louisiana. They have shown that world-view can win the Democratic Primary (Dean’s 50-State strategy. But they seem to have no idea what lies beyond that point. Obamanation is finding out.
The mirror of the neocons.
That is one very powerful video. Which means we will never see it or it’s like on MSM or cable.
What is becoming more and more evident as people like Susan and Larry try desperately to get the truth out is that media and most of the left don’t want the truth. They want a “story”. And for the story to have a happy ending, Barack Obama must be what they “want” him to be whether he is or not.
I don’t think he’s an evil man. I think he’s about par for the course in our political system. He’s an opportunistic flim-flam man. Just like most of the pols. And many of them, flim-flammers or not do manage to get things done.
However this Charismatic Flim-Flammer hasn’t managed to get much of anything done. He’s all talk. And he is about a “Fairy Tale”. A Fairy Tale that the Democratic Party and most of the left want to hear and see. A Black man and his wife and children move into the White House and America is magically racist no more. The pictures that the world saw after Katrina will be erased from their minds because they will see a handsome young black couple in the White House and Camelot will once again magically appear.
That’s more or less the appeal. Also he’s a fantastic front man for continued warfare.
Arabs would have a hard time contructing an arument that America is bombing them because America is racist.
The marketing oportunities are quite literally LIMITLESS.
BING! I’ve been thinking this for a some weeks now. “Look Third world, join us, become one of us, don’t resist. Barack did.” (said in the Lost Boys vampire tone)
I skimmed through Obama’s speech.. .damn, it’s LONG.
Is he implicitly acknowledging that he lied when he said he didn’t hear Wright’s offensive hate speech before?
If he can retain media darling status, he can get through this and win the nom. Don’t think he’ll win the GE though, although I actually don’t think either Dem candidate will.
Susan, think you can post this over at MyDD?
I can no longer log in there and I don’t have a clue why.
———-
Obama likes to call himself a uniter, just as George Bush likes to call himself. But Obama is really a divider who shamelessly plays the race card for his own political gain.
Concerning Geraldine Ferraro’s comments, a uniter would have said “Geraldine Ferraro is a fine person and Democrat. Let’s not go overboard with our assertions here. Calling someone a racist is serious business. Why, I have even said the same things about myself that Mrs. Ferraro has said and I even posted them to my Senate website.”
See examples here:
Mr. Obama has pointedly acknowledged that he benefits from his race, noting last year that a new white senator from Illinois would hardly have stirred comparable interest or intrigue. So Mr. Obama has embraced his role, but he has strived to be defined by more than color alone.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/24/washington/24obama.html?_r=2&sq=obama%20third%20senator%20reconstruction&st=nyt&scp=10&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Obama acknowledges, with no small irony, that he benefits from his race.
If he were white, he once bluntly noted, he would simply be one of nine freshmen senators, almost certainly without a multimillion-dollar book deal and a shred of celebrity. Or would he have been elected at all?
http://obama.senate.gov/news/050626-when_it_comes_to_race_obama_ma/
Now, a cinical divider who is shamelessly using the race card and seriously trying to destroy a good person by branding them a racist for the rest of their lives, would say this:
Obama Calls for Censure of Ferraro
Updated 5:34 p.m.
By Peter Slevin
FAIRLESS HILL, Penn. — Barack Obama called on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to censure former vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro for saying that Sen. Barack Obama would not be doing so well in the Democratic contest if he were a woman or a white man.
Obama called Ferraro’s commentary “divisive” and “patently absurd.”
“I don’t think Geraldine Ferraro’s comments have any place in our politics or in the Democratic Party. They are divisive,” Obama told the Allentown Morning Call on Tuesday afternoon.
“I think anybody who understands the history of this country knows they are patently absurd. And I would expect that the same way those comments don’t have a place in my campaign they shouldn’t have a place in Senator Clinton’s either.”
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/11/obama_strategist_supporter_cal.html
Lastly, do I need to mention Obama’s convenient outrage at racism, considering that he only accuses his opponent of racism while he’s been listening to Rev Wright for 20 years?
Out of the mouth of Wright. . . .
Susan, long time lurker here. Never commented before because I’m not american, but I do come here every day to check in on what is going on.
Today, I watched that video and ….WOW. Just WOW. I delurked because that video was so very eloquent. A picture truly is worth a thousand words, n’est-ce pas?
We do know who Barack Obama is….he is a con man.
Charming, verbal, ingratiating. All with a purpose: to get his marks to suspend rational thought. To know me is to love me he has said. I don’t think so.
As Lincoln said: you can fool some of the people some of the time, you can fool some of the people all of the time. But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
I just read the speech…absolute bullshit.
You do have a way with words!
One can only hope that Paul Burka (TX Monthly) is correct…that this will finish Obama. It boils down to lack of transparency (which he was touting again last night on C-SPan), lack of judgment, and an arrogant, selfish attitude that is pervasive in his campaign.
TPM is reporting that Obama was off his game in the delivery of the speech. The speech itself was a masterful attempt at obscuring the reality: he knew what Wright preached and did nothing.
To save himself today he needed a mea culpa. He could not bring himself to do that. Instead, he reiterated his support for Wright.
Gave the right lots of sound bites that we will see over and over again on Fox tonight.
Obama failed his test.
He always does nothing. He is a man of words. Not action. He is way too passive to be President. He never walked out of church or spoke up.
It doesn’t matter how “great” Obama’s speech was, which it wasn’t.
Jeremiah Wright, all by himself, has made Obama unelectable (and he already was for a variety of reasons).
Obama basically admitted he lied about attending those controversial sermons, and basically Newsmax was right despite the campaign’s denials. Newsmax had no reason at all to make it up since its initial report was way back in August. The NYT reported a year ago about the Wright-Obama relationship and that it could pose a problem down the road.
They KNEW they were caught; news outfits like Fox have the videos of the sermons.
The problem is Obama tried to put the genie back in the bottle, and he failed. There is nothing he can do about it. Papering it over, sugarcoating it, or spinning it doesn’t change things.
He’s finished. The only question is whether Democrats will persist in wrecking their chances in the fall.
Agree with you Susan.
I too worry that some Democrats will follow their piper right down to destruction.
Lets hope that there are enough reality based delegates who will vote for Clinton at the convention. Without her, we are looking at a third Bush term.
I never could have guessed, politicians don’t tell the truth ALL THE TIME. who’d of thunk?????
here’s a news flash….they all lie and there is plenty of footage to prove it.
most people lie ,for instance, ” Honey does this dress make my ass look fat? do you answer truthfully or with the socially excepted white lie? thats what people do. Lying about little shit shouldn’t be the focus of people looking for someone to rescue them from the HUGE LIE that has been fed to them.Who gives a shit what sermon he did or didn’t sit through? There are people being killed by the thousands because a DEADLY LIE that has been left unchecked and unpunished.
IF WE REALLY CARED ABOUT LIARS, we’d Bring Bush and Cheney up on war crimes BEFORE we’d worry about what someone’s preacher said!
this subject is just making you take your eyes off the ball and focus on the shiny things ( white noise)
think about the bigger picture….
Hillary or Obama will be great!!!
because they have to be.
I actually would be satisfied if BO would do two more things. I realize that he won’t - but if he was sincere in his desire to repair the damage to the extent that he can - he would:
1. Apologize to Geraldine Ferraro for fueling the controversy over her comments, mischaracterizing her comments (”BO is only where he is because he’s black” is not what she said at all), and equating her political comments with Rev Wright’s hate speech.
2. Apologize to the Clintons for Rev Wright’s personal attacks on them - and acknowledge that the Clintons have been leaders in this struggle to “perfect the Union” and deserve our thanks, not our ridicule.
I agree Barb. But he won’t do that. If the speech was meant to heal instead of more politicizing, he would have.
But he’s waiting until he has the nomination sewed up. Then he will hail the Clintons, forgive Ferraro for all that they’ve done in trailblazing discrimination, racism and sexism.
It boils down to experience for me. Hillary’s my choice. And all the claims by Obama and his supporters are simply their attempt to puff up his sparse resume.
I’m not fooled!!!
This “forgotten people” video presents the most compelling case against Obama that I have seen, including the Wright videos. I had not thought of comparing Obama’s Rezco enabled housing with that of his poor constituents. Awesome work!
Copy cat. Obama even “Xeroxed” the title of his speech, “A More Perfect Union,” from the title of Jesse Jackson Jr’s book.
I said on the other thread that this speech wasn’t going to make much difference to the Obama supporters and Hillary-haters. He gave a sound speech, framing the rhetoric of his pastor within the social/historical context of American society. And he basically threw the ball in white America’s court: voting for him = getting beyond race and racism.
As a Hillary supporter who is AA, I have to point out several things. Shainzona made one of them, that Obama could have run as a bi-racial/multi-ethnic candidate with a campaign of inclusiveness from the get-go. He chose instead to lean on his AA heritage, playing the race card while blaming Hillary/Bill Clinton for doing so. Interesting that, like the hunter, he’s been captured by his own game. Why did he wait to parade his white grandmother out into the public discourse until now? Because he needed to achieve first, the blind, uncompromising loyalty of the black community, who WILL NOT BUDGE in their support of him and who are essentially holding the DNC hostage. Had he put forth the reality that he was raised by white people and actually never knew his black African father, he would have not won over the community to the tune of 90%+. Backed into a corner, having accomplished the goal of alienating the Clintons from their once solid, AA base, his Caucasian roots helped him frame this all important dialogue on race today.
Okay, since Wright was never an issue for me (except maybe those 9/11 comments and the use by a minister of ‘God damn’), Hillary supporters must now fight back by saying that they’ve moved beyond race and that the presidential primary was ALWAYS a question of supporting the superior candidate. Are you all to be deprived of your right to choose simply because by choosing Hillary people will imply that racism is the underlying reason? That is patently UNFAIR.
But since we are on the subject of Wright and Obama took everyone to school on the historical realities of race in America framing his JUDGEMENT for choosing Pastor Wright and his reasons for NOT DISOWNING HIM and that he has CHALLENGED AMERICA to MOVE BEYOND RACE into a state of FORGIVENESS and UNDERSTANDING, wouldn’t it be a great idea for this healing to begin with him?
It’s time for Barack Obama to once and for all UNDERSTAND THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT and the realities of Senator Hillary Clinton’s vote for the Iraq War! She was after all the senator of NY, the state where 9/11 occurred. That she represents a LARGE constituency of people who have a personal interest in the Middle East. That the climate here in NY was one of being shell-shocked after 9/11, especially since the attack that day was the SECOND terrorist attack that NYC had endured and on the same target. Since we are challenging Americans to frame history and social/political context, which is certainly the way through which I understand my state’s US Senator’s vote for the war. Upon reflection, I can remember believing George Bush’s lie even though I, too, was against the war from the beginning. This New Yorker was simply beat down. Just like whites often have difficulty relating to how race effects them, the rest of the country needs to once and for all understand how the events of 9/11 affected New Yorkers, and just maybe, it’s a lot easier for many in the rest of the country to condemn Hillary’s vote, even though she was lied to, and to impugn her judgment instead of seeing why she did so in context of what was going on in NY and the whole country as well as the world at that time. I ask Senator Obama this: now that your own judgment is on the line can you not make the leap to move on from her war vote which, by your own admission, that you could have made had you been in the senate? Just words, Senator Obama, words from your own mouth.
Yes, it’s more than time to move beyond race. I WELCOME THAT. And on to the issues: healthcare, the economy, foreign policy and all of the main reasons why I chose Hillary Clinton as my candidate. A right given to me by the US Constitution which you used to begin your historic speech.
Obama is a cynical criminal.
Bottom line.
MIMI..
Well Said..I agree
[...] I wrote earlier today holds (here, here, and here — a long speech notwithstanding. But there is more. Much more. (A NoQuarter [...]
A bit off topic, but still about Obama and what he might do if he were elected to the presidency.
From Chris Floyd @ Empire Burlesque: And as Jeremy Scahill points out, Obama’s plans could also lead to an increase in the number of private contractors – mercenaries – in Iraq. Obama has refused to support legislation banning the use of these volatile hired guns in war zones.
Once again delurking - twice in one day after reading this blog from day one, without once coming out, as it were.
I felt compelled in both cases.
Mimi,
Your comment is not only heartfelt, and one can deduce that instinctively, but it is a superb comment. Well done.
Larry and Susan, you do attract the most erudite, intelligent commenters.
[...] This is for Main Street (and for the forgotten people Barack Obama doesn’t know) [...]
[...] This is for Main Street (and for the forgotten people Barack Obama doesn’t know). Go there to see another of Flineo’s videos — it’s heart-breaking — and to learn what happened to Obama’s own constituents who he ignored because he was focused on cozying up with political fixer Tony Rezko, now on federal trial in Chicago. [...]
fun roulette online
A juego al instante web juegos online gratis poker reglas de poker free mobile ringtones roulette software
free slots no download
Caso european roulette slot maschine play slots casinos francais en ligne holdem poker gratis
apostar paginas internet
Sin embargo sistemi per la roulette apostar paginas internet juego casino portal internet la ruleta de la suerte juegos de poker gratuitos
[...] This Is for Main Street (And for the Forgotten People Barack Obama Doesn’t Know) [...]
[...] This Is for Main Street (And for the Forgotten People Barack Obama Doesn’t Know) [...]
[...] This Is for Main Street (And for the Forgotten People Barack Obama Doesn’t Know) [...]
[...] This Is for Main Street (And for the Forgotten People Barack Obama Doesn’t Know) [...]
[...] This Is for Main Street (And for the Forgotten People Barack Obama Doesn’t Know) [...]