Why Won’t Pollsters Ask the Right Question On Race?
By Ani on August 11, 2008 at 4:00 PM in Barack Obama, Current Affairs, DNC, Hillary Clinton, New York Times, Race Card
Charles M. Blow’s op-ed column, Racism and the Race, in Friday’s NY Times tells us:
This is supposed to be the Democrats’ year of destiny. Bush is hobbling out of office, the economy is in the toilet, voters are sick of the war and the party’s wunderkind candidate is raking in money hand over fist.
So why is the presidential race a statistical dead heat? The pundits have offered a host of reasons, but one in particular deserves more exploration: racism.
…
According to a July New York Times/CBS News poll, when whites were asked whether they would be willing to vote for a black candidate, 5 percent confessed that they would not. That’s not so bad, right? But wait. The pollsters then rephrased the question to get a more accurate portrait of the sentiment. They asked the same whites if most of the people they knew would vote for a black candidate. Nineteen percent said that those they knew would not. Depending on how many people they know and how well they know them, this universe of voters could be substantial. That’s bad.
Once again we have someone asking a generalized question when something much more specific is required. One could just as easily poll an audience to see how many would be willing to vote for a woman as Commander in Chief. I bet quite a few would say they would not. But if someone asked how many of you would be willing to trust Hillary Clinton in that top slot, you might get many more ‘yes’ answers. Simply because she has proven, over many years, that she is up to the task.
For the thousandth time, this is not a matter of race or gender or age for that matter. It is about being qualified to step up to the plate as leader of the free world now (whether or not the ‘old guard’ of the Party will be whispering guidance in your ear).
What if a pollster called you up and asked:
If a candidate for president spent 20 years sitting in a racially divisive church, purchased his home with the help of a now convicted criminal and received $250,000 in campaign contributions from him while he was already under indictment; if this candidate’s policies do not make sense and he flip-flops on critical campaign issues; if he spent only 143 days in the Senate before running for the toughest office in the world; if he had a bad habit of associating with radicals, crooks and people of questionable character, if he had another bad habit of throwing anyone or any policy under the bus at the first sign of trouble; if the only thing this man has to run on is his ‘good judgment,’ when the aforementioned shows that he has exhibited anything but – and he happens to be black – would you vote for him?
Don’t you think that is a more honest question?
I can appreciate there are still racists in this country. I am willing to bet you there are even more misogynists. The past seven months have made that all too clear. Mr. Blow seems to cherry pick polling information as if the issue of Senator Obama’s color is the only consideration in voting for him. It is not and cannot be. As long as we are trying to treat the race issue as something that exists in a vacuum, we will never get a proper reading here. And too many good, decent citizens in this country will continue to be labeled unfairly. This “polling” information is a very unfair manipulation of the larger and far more important issue.
There are those who may not like Senator Clinton, but no one in their right mind can doubt that she is ready and more than able to do the job. Her policies are straightforward, bold, progressive and sensible. She has never excluded, looked down upon or insulted anyone who chose not to vote for her. Her policies were and are inclusive. Senator Clinton has exhibited toughness, resilience, readiness and a clear, nuanced understanding of both the economic and global issues that we face as a nation. No waffling required.
Charles Blow writes:
Barack Obama’s candidacy has shed some light on the extremes of racism in America — how much has dissipated (especially among younger people) and how much remains.
So younger people ‘especially’ exhibit that racism has dissipated? I’m in my forties, so I guess I don’t qualify as ‘younger people,’ but anyone who wishes to say I have arrived at my voting decision based on any form of race bias is a bald-faced liar and I will tell them so up close and personal. There are plenty of white voters in this country who were alive during the civil rights movement who marched and were likewise punished and grievously harmed for standing up for civil rights. Let us not forget to honor them, too, please.
It is interesting that in recent days, the mainstream media has taken to postulating that Obama’s poll numbers are not breaking higher because of race. Could it be that they are starting to find an “excuse” for the ‘post-racial candidate,’ the charismatic ‘uniter,’ should he lose in the Fall. Is this to cover some of their own possible embarrassment for being so quick to tout him without first vetting him?
You may remember on June 22nd, Lt. Col. Allen West - U.S. Army (Ret.), a conservative running for Congress in Florida’s 22nd district, made this statement:
My advice to Senator Obama is to run as a Man and Leader, and the American people will evaluate you as such, not as a victim. This is a Presidential race, based solely on a capacity to lead the United States of America. It is not about skin tone…however, perhaps we should come to expect these immature statements.
It also seems rather humorous that the Presidential candidate who was supposed to be such a “uniter” and transcend race is the one talking about it the most. If Senator Obama was confident in his abilities and character, he would not need to create a crutch for failure. Senator Obama has just tipped his hand, any criticism of him and his policies will be directly attributed to racism. I congratulate Senator Obama for taking race relations in America back some 30 years.
By the way, Lt. Col. West happens to be African American.
Injecting ‘race’ into the race may have been an effective, if entirely unfair, card for Senator Obama to play, but these kinds of manipulations and guilt trips by his campaign or his supporters will not win him the presidency. We require more of our Commander in Chief. As Mr. Blow correctly points out, we have suffered too long under inept and unqualified leadership. Sound bites and image management won’t get it done.
Here is question more pertinent than any that has been asked previously. It may be uncomfortable, but it is the truth.
If a candidate for president spent 20 years sitting in a racially divisive church, bought his home with the help of a now convicted criminal and received $250,000 in campaign contributions from him while he was already under indictment; if this candidate’s policies do not make sense and he flip-flops on critical campaign issues; if he spent only 143 days in the Senate before running for the toughest office in the world; if he had a bad habit of associating with radicals, crooks and people of questionable character, if he had another bad habit of throwing anyone or any policy under the bus at the first sign of trouble; if the only thing this man has to run on is his ‘good judgment’, when the aforementioned shows that he has exhibited anything but – and he happened to be white – would you vote for him?
Until all of Senator Obama’s supporters, the DNC elite, and the pundits espousing Mr. Blow’s line of reasoning are willing to answer that question honestly, there is nothing further to discuss.
If that 19% figure is anywhere near accurate, then it means that McCain is, in reality, significantly ahead in the race. But regardless of whether or not the 19% figure is accurate, the difference between the 5% who confessed that they couldn’t vote for a black man and the 19% who said that they didn’t think that their friends would vote for a black man shows me that the “Bradley Effect” is still a significant factor. People are reluctant to confess, even to an anonymous pollster, that they have racist sentiments. But they’re there and they’ll come out in the voting booth on Electiion Day.
That couldn’t be more true.
Everyone wants to talk about how that 8% of whites are racists, but they won’t mention the 20% of AAs in the same light.
Reverse racism is wrong too.
Well, it isn’t really “reverse” racism. It’s racism. Plain and simple.
And it doesn’t even have to be a “different” race that’s being slurred for the label to apply.
We know damn well that the Brahmins looked down their (non-garlic) noses at the Irish, Italians, and Jews, caucasians all. We know that there’s a segment in the black community that favors light/bright over “darkness,” and in retaliation for that “pinky” discrimination, there are those who say if you’re not brown enough, you’re not black enough, in some quarters. Taiwanese sometimes look askance at mainlanders, American-Vietnamese do the same to those living under the regime….hell, even Romans tut-tut at Neapolitans and Sicilians. While the lines are more starkly drawn when the color or ethnicity is different from the one tossing the insults, racism can be a very nuanced thing, and very close to home, too.
Anytime you dis someone for their skin color or ethnicity, you’re indulging in racism, even if the person shares some ethnic characteristics with you.
Racism’s wrong….and Obama overplayed that card, I suspect. No one likes to be accused of being a bigot, particularly when the accusations are so profoundly unfair.
I don’t know many people who didn’t WANT to like this attractive young Obama guy, who were predisposed to like him…only he kept whipping it out and stepping on his OWN crank, all by himself. He is not that smart. His judgment is poor. He’s intemperate, he’s arrogant, he’s over-anxious, and he’s HUMORLESS.
The media may have fluffed his pillows, but he made that “racist” bed all by himself, and now he’s having trouble lying in it.
Too fucking bad. He shouldn’t have gone there in the first place.
You can keep dividing people until you get brother against brother. Dividing is easy - uniting is hard. Once you release the racist genie as a cynical ploy you can’t put him back in the bottle again as quickly. That’ll take a lot of time.
Obama has set this country back 50 years.
I think the terms “bigotry” and “prejudice” better represent the problem. As you point out it is not just race that is the target of discrimination, hatred, etc. but many Americans seem to have gotten focused only on race. Any bigotry is wrong.
I completely agree.
Everyone I know wanted him to do well.
‘Embarrassment of riches’ was the comment about the Democrat’s wide selection of people to choose from.
Which had Obama’s rising star front and center.
To claim that most Dems don’t support Obama over racism when that was a major point of pride for Dems, a woman and an AA, just doesn’t track.
Like the Col says the racism card is creating the ‘crutch for failure’.
Indeed. I started out excited by the Obama/Clinton choice. My excitement for Obama dropped substantially when his henchmen tarred Bill and Hillary with racism. I totally wrote Obama off after the Reverend Wright tapes.
If Obama can’t be a post-racial candidate what do you have left? 123 days in the Senate and an out of control ego.
Yawn.
Labelers hate to look at the man as the explanation. They prefer to have their categorical view of the world confirmed.
Are you labeling me a labeler, podner?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCRLBJfVXIQ
This is from The Chris Matthews Show, and is basically what all of us here (save the trolls) know to be true. Obama is a con man.
http://www.againstobama.com/2008/08/chris-matthews-panel-cannot-come-up-with-any-real-obama-accomplishment/
Thanks for the clip. I wonder what happened to Matthews’ thrilled leg.
Mr. BB King: The Thrill Is Gone
“The thrill is gone
The thrill is gone away
The thrill is gone baby
The thrill is gone away
You know you done me wrong baby
And you’ll be sorry someday”
“. . .funny how things change. . .”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtm66Z3lebc
Turned out to be sciatica…
What percentage of Blacks in this election won’t vote for White Person?
a White Person.
I really can’t stomach non-editing features in a free blog.
The “admit” / “know someone” numbers come in again and again at c. 5% / 15-20%. From a market research perspective, you assume the latter response is code, and estimate 10% or more.
The “Bradley Effect” is also usually misrepresented. It’s not indicative respondents who are unwilling to admit a racist bias for not voting for the candidate, rather people who oppose the candidate for political reasons, but are afraid of being *perceived* by the pollster as a racist.
Barry’s profligate use of the race card is a double-edged sword. It shores up his white-guilt/buy-the-world-a-coke Dem base, but will kill him in the swing states in the general. Goodbye, Pennsylvania!
They never seem to ask the wright questions. lol
Hillary knew about Georgia.
http://www.hillaryclintonforum.net/discussion/showthread.php?p=278934&posted=1#post278934
Get to work. Send and post Hillary’s statements everywhere!
I am thankful that McCain is the nominee for the republicans. When he shows his strengths like he has on the Russia/Georgia issue I don’t worry about things so much.
I would rather have Hillary in the White House but I will settle for McCain.(if I have too.)
WARNING: SFHILLARY/DR WANG/
DEBBIE DOES DUMBASS BELOW.
SHE’S PSYCHO!
DEBBIE CLAIMS TO BE AN AUTHOR, BUT CAN’T PROVIDE THE TITLE OF HER BOOKS.
DEBBIE “WAS JUST INTERVIEWED BY A REPORTER”.
AND SHE HAS A “FRIEND”.
SHE’S PSYCHO! WARNING!!
WARNING! DEBBIE DOES DUMBASS BELOW!
The presidential race is not a statistical dead heat. That term applies ONLY to a single poll. Obama is up nearly 5 points in the realclearpolitics.com poll average and that has been his average lead since he clinched the nomination.
A 5 point lead in the polls is an electoral college landslide.
And Obama has gained in the last week, as McCain’s lame celebrity ads have backfired.
These are August polls; we have not even begun to see the heavy artillery which will come out once the race really gets going. We’ll see.
Just keep on spinning and spinning Debbie. Look how many polls had Obama ahead and then he lost them at the last minute. Wasn’t Obama ahead in California by 10 points and lost the state by 15 points. By my way of counting that a 25 point spread. Yes the Bradley effect is live and well as per an article I read last week. It went away for a few years (per the article) in city/county/state elections but it reared its ugly head again in this election cycle. The only reason why the exit polling and the final data was so different was the Bradley affect. Don’t think that Bradley effect won’t affect the final outcome of the GE.
Obama is more behind in the polls than pollsters care to admit.
No, your information about CA is not correct.
He was supposed to win CA by 10 pts and he lost it by 10 pts. Still a 20 pt. spread.
Nope. Not even close.
debbie continues to be drunk with the Obama kool-aid. Please sober up, Obamabot.
May I remind you, Little Debbie, that gainsay is not argument. I don’t think I’ve met a more insufferable troll than you.
If you want change, Missy, you must work for it and not pin your hopes on a pathetic gasbag like Oblahblah in lieu of actually doing something yourself. That’s the problem with you bots–you want everything handed to you.
Just keep on spinning and spinning Debbie. Look how many polls had Obama ahead and then he lost them at the last minute. Wasn’t Obama ahead in California by 10 points and lost the state by 15 points. By my way of counting that’s a 25 point spread. Yes the Bradley effect is alive and well as per an article I read last week. It went away for a few years (per the article) in city/county/state elections but it reared its ugly head again in this election cycle. The only reason the article could come up as to why the exit polling and the final data was so different was the Bradley affect. Don’t think that Bradley effect won’t affect the final outcome of the GE.
Obama is more behind in the polls than pollsters care to admit.
You really are without a clue, aren’t you. The only reason the RCP poll average is up that high is because of polls from the likes of CBS News and the NY Times, both of whom have always been biased to the left.
The Gallup and Rasmussen tracking polls are the ones you need to watch. These two organizations do polling for a living, unlike the major media organizations, and they don’t have a political axe to grind.
Both Gallup and Rasmussen have the race anywhere from McCain +1 to Obama +3. And since the statistical margin for error in these polls is +/- 3%, the race is a staistical dead heat right now.
Debbie believes in Hopey dopey Nowhere man. I feel so sorry for these koolaid false democrats.
Most of them do not believe in democracy where every vote is suppose to count. How quick they yelled voter fraud when Bush repubs did it, but the DNC did the same thing. So Hypocritical Debbie. How do you reconcile that without your koolaid????
There is one poll that is the CBS/NY Times poll — one. And, actually, Gallup and Rasmussen both have problems, mostly because they don’t do call-backs. (As you are certainly well-versed in polling methodology, I surely don’t have to explain call-backs to you.) And Rasmussen weights by party and changes its weighting each month.
By the way, what do you think are the impacts of party weighting and call backs? Perhaps you’d like to have a serious conversation about polling methods.
Clue one from the AUTHOR:
Maybe it’s a statistics book because you sound so statistical!
Stop the hate!
Showing off that poli sci class you took last semester. Go pack for school, kid. Isn’t rush week coming up?
Statistical dead heat refers to the result of ONE poll. When you have dozens of Rasmussen and Gallup polls and only two had McCain in even a one point lead, that is no statistical dead heat. This is Statistics 101 - determining statistical significance when you have multiple data points. It’s usually covered about two weeks into that first college course on statistics.
but, you just said that both gallup and rasmussen polls have problems, why are you referring to those polls if you think they have problems?
Debbie, do you always regurgitate MSNBC Chuck Todd’s talking points from Hardball? You know that Todd is an idiot right?
I didn’t get my talking points from Chuck Todd but I’m curious why you think he’s an idiot — besides the fact that you don’t like his analysis.
Man debbie you get around!
I had to follow you here to get an answer to my post.
The good “AUTHOR” Debbie has graced us with her presence once again.
I beg for the title of one of your books before so I could get you to autograph it for me and you ignored me.
Please don’t leave us hanging.
Stop the hate!
Because the idiot is often wrong. His electoral map is a freakin’ joke.
Why don’t you comment on the last part of the posting, would you vote for the white guy that sat in a racist church for 20 years?? You want to change the subject all the time Debbie but what this post is talking about is how most people see Obama. Obama hung with Rezko for 17 years, doing whatever he could to advance Rezko, write letters in support of his Slum projects and Rezko would give Obama money. You can tell about anyone by checking out their friends.
The troll isn’t going to answer your question, Hank.
Wow, and you came over here to tell us that, why?
I’ll tell you why. Because you’re afraid. You want to tamp down any negativity, even in a place where Kool Aid isn’t served.
And you know those numbers you’re tossing around just are not true. If you’re not on a college campus, you can feel it–it’s OBVIOUS.
Obama’s in TROUBLE. “The One” isn’t the one most Americans have been waiting for.
In fact, he’s “The One” that most Americans want to STFU, because he’s a hectoring, bossy, humorless nanny who whines a lot. And copies other people’s ideas–a LOT.
Be Very Afraid, Little Debbie.
Very Afraid, Indeed.
You’re very good at telling other people what they feel. Do you normally do that with other people?
No, no, no, no, NO, Little Debbie–YOU are telling ME how YOU feel…see, by your very presence here, we know you.
We know all about you.
You’re an open book.
A very nervous, frightened, foot-stomping, angry, “Acolyte of the Anointed One,” open book.
Be very afraid, Little Debbie. Your coronation plans are going awry.
But don’t blame us–blame your lousy candidate.
OOOOO LITTLE DEBBIE
lOVE YOUR NUTTY BARS!
well, you’re already doing that around here.
Easy, lil’ Deb when one is so transparent. Go along now.
Fact of the matter is that a dead-heat is probably being nice to Obama. You can cherry pick what ever polls you wish to present your side. Here is where you should be worried — a sitting President with the lowest approval rating ever, a tanked economy, gas prices higher then they have ever been, a war that has drained the economy and we wish ended, tied with a presumed nomination that was handed to Obama, he and his wife are on every magazine cover and TV entertainment show, his well publicized trip to Europe and a media that is basically still in the tank for him — with all this any democrat should be so far ahead in the polls that there should be no reason to speculate or cherry pick polls to say Obama is ahead in the polls. If the present situation can not put any democrat far in the lead RIGHT NOW then what can? And like many said — the republicans have not started their attack machine yet…
Bravo!!
Your last point is so crucial.
The Republicans haven’t even started their onslaught!! It’s not looking good for Obarnum right now, and they haven’t even begun to REALLY attack him.
Won’t it be nice when the Republicans take over the heavy lifting? Can’t wait to sit back every night and laugh myself silly while they dismantle this poser.
They aren’t stupid. They’ll wait until all the heavy lifting is accomplished. Then, rather like their PREY, they will sweep in at the last minute, dismantle the guy, and take all the credit!
It’s a “takes one to know one” strategy….and they’re experts. Obama thought he was “the shizzle” taking Clinton apart…her crime was she didn’t think a fellow Democrat could be that fucking soullessly vicious, especially with that race card.
Like “The Porge” sez: Fooled me once, heh heh heh…won’t git fooled aGIN!
I think you summed that up nicely. The Wright tapes are out. Republicans never use their hard stuff early on. We saw the damage the Wright tapes did, imagine what will happen when they do finally bring out the big guns and they will bring out the big guns. The fact that they considered the Wright tapes to be nothing in the primary should make Obama people very nervous.
Many unBlack Americans are simply hiding what they really believe, that Blacks will be unfair to all other races if they are given power. Blacks will always favor other Blacks no matter what choice maybe. What many unBlacks believe and think in regards to Obama comes back to one event: The trial of OJ Simpson. Those Black jurors saw the power they had as a majority thanks to Johnny Cochran and that idiot Marcia What’shername and they did what they do. They freed a murderer because they could and the motivation was retribution for past injustices. Black people have a one track mind when it comes to retribution, they want it, all of them want it. If they are given power they will get their retribution one way or another. Remember the shock on unBlack faces when the verdict was announced, remember the cheers from the Blacks? Do you think that lesson learned has gone away? UnBlacks are waiting to vote in November and Obama is payback time.
Using the article and the past, that means Obama is already behind as Obama has consistantly polled higher than he’s performed.
McCain VS Obama: McCain
McCain VS Hillary: Hillary
Hey where do we sign up for those cushy nasty blogger jobs? Do you have to actually drink that stuff
Poor Debbie. Keep trying there. Of course, the polls she doesn’t cite are the most reliable (Gallup & Rasmussen). Remember that Dukakis was up by 17 points at this time? How old are you sweetie? You have no idea what’s on it’s way, and Obambi is going to look like the confused little fawn that he is. He already stumbles around like he’s completely lost. And McCain’s ads backfired? LOL. They were a huge hit. Plenty more to come.
lol @ Little Debbie fawning over the Little Fawn.
you are so full of shix.
Obama winning is a fantasy scenario. He has truly lost any hope of that. He always overpolls. Half these media outlets doing this polling have shown their bias towards him in the past.
Not a realistic argument. Sorry.
Ani, I think it’s because the pollsters are in cahoots with the corporate-obama-media and the obama campaign.
They skew the polls with their questions and their “methodology” - and I think they’re showing bambi polling higher than he really is (like they did all through the primaries).
But then, they hedge their bet by asking the lame “racial” question so that when barky loses, it won’t be a referendum on barry or his enablers in the media, it will be only because the pollsters and the MSM were “right” - “Despite all our high-minded attempts to educate and uplift you rubes, you’re still a bunch of bitter racists - and you just couldn’t stand that barry was right!”
Government, politics and media in this country have long been down the rabbit hole - but it’s a particularly grotesque display in this election year.
Oh, so it’s the pollsters who are in cahoots with the Obama campaign.
Very interesting. Cognitive dissonance must be avoided at all costs!
The only “polls” that “count” will be posted in November.
LOL, Debbie, what, did you take an intro to psych course, now you want to go around thinking you are like “Hannibal Lector” getting into peoples’ minds!
ROFLMAO! People, don’t feed this troll. She doesn’t answer direct questions.
Zogby and his brother (who seems to be an Obama superdelegate) have been in the tank for Obama since the primary. Only recently people are starting to see some truth in those numbers. I wrote them off long ago because of them, so I can’t verify that. But here is a Salon article which can.
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/08/05/zogby_poll/index.html?source=rss&aim=/politics/war_room
“Anyway, there’s a new Zogby poll out. Despite the fact that results from Zogby polls have been questionable in the past, usually Zogby results are dismissed as too favorable to Democrats, so the latest results showing Obama tanking with key groups (women, young voters) should cause some alarm — with major emphasis here on “some.” It is still only August: In the next three months we still have veep picks, conventions, presidential debates, dozens more ads, hundreds more candidate appearances, and what will seem like millions of spin and counterspin points from both campaigns.”
~~
Anyway, how convenient that you forget how racist push polls were used against McCain in 2000.
While using sarcasm to try and prove your false notion that pollsters can’t be in the tank for one Presidential candidate verses another candidate.
Debbie, if you look back at the body of the OP you notice some questions like “would you vote for a black” “would the people you know vote for a black” — very general, too general and susceptible to too much variant interpretation, so much that I would say the interviewer could very easily drive the responses with their tone or even an occasional extra word or chuckle. Then there is a long and very precise statement giving many details about a hypothetical person. Also not so good at the other extreme. What you see is an example of how methodology and statistics are mutually entangled. If the pollster wanted certain results they would go for one type of question. Polls are very dubious because of this circular nature to their construction.
We need a Hillary poll She would be blowing Nobama away and have at least at 10 point lead on McCain.
Funny–I wrote this very guy a polite and thoughtful letter along the same lines the other day, when his column hit the OP ED.
He never got back to me. At least not yet. Here’s an excerpt of the thing I bothered to put down, where I make similar, salient points:
OK, Mister Blow. Who IS this guy? He wrote two “confessional” books–about HIMSELF–and managed to say almost NOTHING. He told a story of angst, drug experimentation, self-esteem challenges, and “daddy” issues. Didn’t we just go through eight years of a similarly inexperienced President with those same problems?
Let’s suppose some caucasian bozo named Harold Peckerwood, Junior Senator from Any State, same age, decided that he is running for the Presidency with Obama’s EXACT credentials.
How HARD are you LAUGHING….at Harold Peckerwood’s AUDACITY? No, not his audacity–his NERVE. His brass balls. His “Who the hell does that Peckerwood think he IS???” What would your column say about that guy? That people who didn’t like him were being MEAN? Or that they didn’t think he was sufficiently EXPERIENCED? You sure wouldn’t be accusing his detractors of racism, now, would you?
There’s racism going on, all right. The racism that no one dare say anything BAD about the guy who gives a great speech–so long as he has a teleprompter–but who can do little else. Because otherwise you get accused of being a racist.
Why are so many people willing to suspend their good judgment and just fall in love with this fellow? Because he is young. Because he is CUTE. Because he has a sweet smile. Because he’s BROWN. He’s a little bit of this, a little bit of that. He plays that “All things to all people” game. He calls himself a symbol–and maybe he is that. And you got suckered in to “defending” him with the RACIST canard.
Like I said, the dude never bothered to write back. How can you defend the indefensible?
“The Media Elites In The Tank For The Anointed One” apparently cannot handle the cognitive dissonance.
PLEASE keep writing letters like that to people.
And please tell everyone you know that Obama can’t speak without a teleprompter and then do urge them to see that for themselves by watching the debates.
All three of them? Obama is terrified of a Debate.
Umm, uhh, uhhh
Obama asked for five debates.
The good AUTHOR can’t answer a simple question.
Stop the hate, Deborah!
Please. He wanted it on the 4th of July when no one is watching tv.
That isn’t a real debate.
That is hiding behind fireworks hoping no one will see him bomb yet again.
What debates are those??? The ones he cowardly didn’t show up to?! Uhhh Uhh hmm huuhh
Yes, more of this, PLEASE. I beg you, please tell everyone you know that Obama will do a terrible time in the debates.
Thanks!
Yeah…because he took his loss so well the last time.
He had to brush and flip off Hillary.
LOL
If it’s without his beloved telepromtor, he will fail in a debate.
…like a deer caught in the headlights.
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Thanks for that laugh Debbie. Now we KNOW you are drunk on Kool Aid. I did watch all of the debates, and he did exactly what we are talking about: uhhhhhh….ummmmm….uh….I agree with what Hillary said.
You just proved that you are completely lacking in objective awareness. He sucked in the debates. Why did his numbers go down every time he debated Hillary? Because she was knowledgeable, articulate, and commanding. He stumbled and fumbled and copied her. Why do you think he refused to debate her anymore, and now refuses to debate McCain or have open access to the press? Wake up and get your head out of the punch bowl Debbie, you’re embarrassing yourself.
We all have. He couldn’t debate his own cardboard cut-out.
debbie,
i was an obama supporter until the debates. he didn’t prove himself on any level…and i left (hoping that he would gain experience and run again in 2016).
it’s hard for me to understand how any intelligent person can continue to support him at this point. and i mean that sincerely. he brings nothing substantial to the party; his record in chicago was thin; he has been less than stellar on the national level. sorry. he’s a weak candidate and he never should have gotten this far.
i won’t vote for obama because i am tired of the dnc nominating unelectable candidates. too, republicans should never have voted for bush, jr. in ‘00 and ‘04. he has been a disaster…mainly because of his inexperience. i will not have that on my conscience by voting for obama.
i don’t think he will beat mccain. his lack of ability on foreign policy is showing itself hugely right now: something we have known all along, and that obama can no longer hide.
I was wise to Obama for a long time — I was smart enough to have never gotten on his bandwagon.
Obama can’t talk without cue cards and he can’t think without 5000 advisors and we still get rubbish out of this opponent. Tire inflation saves more gas than drilling would produce — that is the dumbest statement I have ever heard and moreover there is no way to create a tire inflation program that would not waste more gas than it saves and would cost millions if not billions to administer.
Hey, Shakespeare–apparently you didn’t watch the Democratic Primary Debates! You’re living in a fantasy world where you believe the opposite of what actually occurred, I see.
You remember those debates, you know, the ones where Barry Uhmmmmmed, and Ahhhhhhhhhed, and hmmmmmmmmed through most of his answers, save the ones that he’d memorized? Where the media all said he “did poorly” and Clinton “wiped the floor with him?” Those debates?
It’s plain you’ve had too much KoolAid, there, “Author.” Put down the jug, honey. Or maybe you’d prefer “Sweetie.” Maybe add a bit less sugar to that drink, you seem to be having a reaction of some sort. You’re a bit, er, over-wound, Little Debbie.
Say, what WAS the name of your book, Little Debbie? A few people have asked you, and you fail to respond, for some reason. Come on, Ma Petite Shakespeare, don’t be shy!! After all, you’re an AUTHOR!! AND, you’ve been INTERVIEWED!! WOW–point us to those interviews, so we can sop up the majesty of your authorial wisdom, now, hmmmmmm?
If your candidate is winning, Little Debbie, why are you here? Do you feel compelled to insert defeat into the jaws of victory, all on your own? You’re telegraphing your fear with each and every post you make, and not helping your Adored One, either.
Or is it that you’re ill, unwell, in need of mental health counselling and medications? Do you have obsessive compulsive disorder, or are you simply a chubby little lonely girl with no friends, hoping to find some here, through your use of “witty” (cough) repartee?
You’ll probably not find a soulmate here, little Debbie. You might want to go back to working on that great opus, now “author!”
Poor Little Debbie. She can’t help it. She was born with a Size Ten FOOT in her mouth! (Hat tip to the late, great AR).
Keep trolling, Little Debbie, keep trolling. You’re a harbinger. With every post, we sense your fright, and the fright of your fellow bots!
Well said Clinton Fan!!