Honestly, 99% of the time when I hear this “often-made” allegation, it comes from right-wingers who are going out of their way to deny it, rather than people who actually think it’s true. Like in the form of, “you all are calling us racists when we’re really just mad about his policies”, without any actual accusations of racism made beforehand.
Ok, enough with the Christopher Reeve impersonation.
Obama is obviously highly intelligent, a gifted orator and has academic credentials putting him ahead of most of the GOP contenders. Yet he is called the “teleprompter President.” That would not happen if he were a white man.
No, if he were white it’d be all “egghead” and “intellectual snob” and “stuck-up brainiac elitist”. You have to be careful with that one – what, he’s too smart to be POTUS?! – but it can be deadly, they even used it successfully on Carter to some extent, and who was this Adlai Stevenson? But since he’s black for certain values of black, better to associate him with the stereotype of the African-American who sounds smart but ain’t, e.g., the preacher.
I assume you mean that’s in the “worst” category, right?
An ellipsis is three periods, no more, no fewer. This is ordained by God. If you ignore the Law . . .
I don’t think the teleprompter thing is about race. I think it’s the classic Rovian approach: attack your opponent’s strength. Obama is a powerful speaker, so they’ve pushed a narrative that makes that into a liability: now, the more powerfully he speaks, the more evidence it is that he relies on a teleprompter. See “swiftboating”.
Without spaces between them, however…
Because the idea of questioning Obama’s ethnicity and heritage would never have even occurred to the birthers if Obama was white. Yet inspite of all the evidence supporting his citizenship, it seemed as though there was absolutely no limit to the number of intellectual hoops the birthers were prepared to jump through in order to cling on to the fiction of their “conspiracy”. White Barry Osbourne simply wouldn’t have had these same problems.
Anecdotally, my own occasional forays into the right-wing blogosphere have revealed a strong correlation between the vehemence of one’s defence of mad birther conspiracy theories and a propensity for racially charged (and, occasionally, flat-out indefensibly racist) language in other contexts.
Even better if it’s not 3 characters…
All criticism of Obama is because he’s black (unless the complaint is that he is not left-wing enough). Anyone who says different - you lie, boy.
Regards,
Shodan
Who here has said that?
Shodan. Frequently.
I thought it was William Shatner. Or he was jealous of Snoborder Bo’s attempts to stand out.
And unless I am grossly misinterpreting him, it is an example of the only way this argument is ever used. Never actually argued, but always sarcastically attributed to your opponent.
With spaces between them, sir. “…” is incorrect; “. . .” is correct.
Their latest theory, expounded in this thread, is that Obama is not a natural-born citizen for constitutional purposes because his father was not a U.S. citizen. (Where does that leave the person – I’m sure there are many, human reproductive biology being what it is – who does not know who his/her father was?)
I think if you’re going to tie something to race, there has to be, well, something about race in that “something”. I’m hard pressed to see a racial element to teleprompter, especially when you have Jon Stewart using it, too. Link.
Even the birther nonsense has the element that his father was not born in the US and was not a US citizen. I think the birther movement is larger than it would have been had Obama been white, but it would still have been there. Remember, there was chatter about McCain, and both his parents were US citizens.
He is an amazing orator, when it is rehearsed. When he has the speech down he owns the room. When he doesn’t he is hesitant, indecisive, and finds himself searching for the answers (in my observation).
While that doesn’t make him any different from anybody else, it is such a stark contrast from his usual mannerisms that that nickname, were he actually called that (seeing it is a first for me), is pretty fitting. And I say that not because he’s black but because I noticed this years ago and I was quite surprised at it. I thought he would have been better at off-the-cuff speaking than he is.
What chatter? The House (unanimously?) passed a resolution confirming that McCain was a natural born citizen, and that was it. Dozens of Congresscritters have “expressed doubts” about Obama’s citizenship, in addition to thousands of plebes.