# Can someone explain why it is controversial that Obama hugged Derrick Bell? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 8, 2012, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140 "2012-03-08T12:26:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Pashnish\_Ewing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8797f3/32.png) [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/41 "2012-03-08T21:22:08Z")
> [@JQPublic](#): > > Don’t you wonder why he just materialized in Chicago So THAT’s why he had to fake the birth certificate! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/42 "2012-03-08T21:23:47Z")
Since I don’t think he’s a shadowy mysterious figure with a furtive past, I don’t spend a lot of time wondering why he’s secretly buried all traces of his past. Why didn’t he talk about a 90-second speech regarding Bell during the 2008 campaign? Uh, maybe because he was busy talking about his campaign platform, his record in the U.S. Senate, and his decade in the Illinois state senate. Whatever you’ve done in college, you put it below your professional experience on your resume. When you’re an adult running for president, bragging about what you did in college is mostly just going to look silly - like an implied admission you haven’t done much since. The other day I got a breathless email from The Washington Times about Obama’s connection to a play called _The Love Song of Saul Alinsky._ Scaaary! Obama was involved with a play about that labor leader Newt Gingrich is obsessed with- who must be a Communist or something. It turns out Obama attended a performance of the play and spoke at a panel discussion afterward. The horror! > [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > _What_ was a blur? The stuff he wrote about in his autobiography. ---
**Author:** ![Pashnish\_Ewing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8797f3/32.png) [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/43 "2012-03-08T21:38:56Z")
Serious question for **JQPublic** (or else on the Hannity/Breitbart side of the fence). When a voter is deciding whether or not to vote for Obama in 2012, what should they take more stock in? **A)** That in the past Obama surrounded himself with and was greatly influenced by far left extremists or **B)** How he has governed in the 3 3/4 years that he was actually the president. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/44 "2012-03-08T21:53:38Z")
Basically, all of **JQPublic** is rehashed/recycled Tea Party talking points that have been refuted before. Obama’s life prior to Chicago is NOT a blur, his “associations” with people the Tea Party don’t like have been addressed, the “new allegations” that are coming to light are nonsensical exaggerations of outrage at best if not downright fabrications at worst. I, too, am okay with fundamentally changing America, if those changes ensure policies that I agree with, such as same-sex marriage, universal health care, the elimination of corporate personhood, etc. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/45 "2012-03-08T21:56:27Z")
> [@JQPublic](#): > > OK hidden may be the wrong word. Buried would be more like it. > Don’t you wonder even a little bit why, if he is so brilliant and was such a leader in college, he wouldn’t play it up while trying to get the nomination away from Hillary? Don’t you wonder why he just materialized in Chicago and everything before that is a blur? Or maybe he just doesn’t feel the need to push to the forefront a 20-year-old video of him cavorting with some guy that most people have never heard of. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/46 "2012-03-08T22:00:30Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Or maybe he just doesn’t feel the need to push to the forefront a 20-year-old video of him cavorting with some guy that most people have never heard of. Right. Nevermind that the video was in fact broadcast by PBS in 2008 - I agree it didn’t get a lot of attention, and I do think it’s sort of interesting to hear Obama at this earlier stage in his life - there’s no particular reason he would have put this at the forefront of his campaign. If there were footage of Bush, Gore, Kerry, McCain, or Romney at a similar point in their lives, I wouldn’t have expected them to do much with it either. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/47 "2012-03-08T22:33:40Z")
> [@JQPublic](#): > > Sadly most now want to be talked down to and be told to fear their fellow citizens and look to the goverment as their savior. Funny, I’d say that critique applies more to (non-libertarian) conservatives than to liberals. “Tough on crime” and “war on terror” conservatives want the government to be able to spy on U.S. citisens without warrants or probable cause, to throw American citisens in prison indefinitely without access to courts, to give cops patrolling inner city streets wide latitude to crack heads or worse to keep those scary Negroes in line…etc. > [@JQPublic](#): > > OK hidden may be the wrong word. Buried would be more like it. > Don’t you wonder even a little bit why, if he is so brilliant and was such a leader in college, he wouldn’t play it up while trying to get the nomination away from Hillary? Don’t you wonder why he just materialized in Chicago and everything before that is a blur? You mean kind of like George W. Bush’s life before the age of forty? ---
**Author:** ![JQPublic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@JQPublic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JQPublic)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/48 "2012-03-08T22:38:00Z")
Ok, You’ve all convinced me everything we need to know about him was told to us in his autobiography. Anything not in that book doesn’t matter. Nobody’s past has any influence on their present. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/49 "2012-03-08T22:45:25Z")
I heard there’s video footage of Barack Obama hugging a huge black strawman. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/50 "2012-03-08T22:56:04Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > It was played on PBS during the run-up to the election, as was already mentioned in this thread. Yeah, but who watches _PBS_? What better place to hide these shocking, shocking revelations! ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/51 "2012-03-08T23:01:34Z")
> [@JQPublic](#): > > Ok, You’ve all convinced me everything we need to know about him was told to us in his autobiography. Anything not in that book doesn’t matter. Nobody’s past has any influence on their present. Excellent! Thanks for stopping by! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/52 "2012-03-08T23:21:52Z")
Just to give a brief, serious response to this: > [@JQPublic](#): > > Ok, You’ve all convinced me everything we need to know about him was told to us in his autobiography. Nobody made this claim at all. I said (for example) that his past is not mysterious, and it’s hard to call his past mysterious when he wrote a book about it. > [@](#): > > Anything not in that book doesn’t matter. Nobody said that either. It just debunks the idea that his past is a secret. > [@](#): > > Nobody’s past has any influence on their present. And nobody said this either. What’s past is prologue, but you can go too far in scouring a guy’s past for clues. Since Obama spent four years as a well-known senator and spent half that time running for president and has now spent more than three years as president, going on and on about his college years is more than a little ridiculous. He got his law degree in 1991, so it’s very, very old news. Although it’s a small improvement over the insanity that surrounds his birth certificate. And **SlackerInc** makes a good point: during his candidacy George W. Bush declares his life off limits _through age 40_ - he was around 54 at the time - because he didn’t want to discuss his alcoholism or rumors that he’d had issues with cocaine (which he pretty well confirmed by refusing to talk about them, not that this stuff had any real bearing on the race). And yet some of the same people who gave Bush a pass on that stuff are desperate to see Obama’s college grades and talk about a hug. If you want to know what he’ll do if he’s re-elected, take a look at what he did after getting elected. ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/53 "2012-03-08T23:29:02Z")
> [@](#): > > When you’re an adult running for president, bragging about what you did in college is mostly just going to look silly… This could actually be fun. (I never went to college, this is based on the pictures of drunken frat boys I’ve seen on the internet.) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/54 "2012-03-09T00:16:02Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I just don’t get it, but maybe that’s because I’m a pointy-headed ivory tower liberal. I know liberals all over Twitter have been having a good laugh over this nontroversy, but surely there’s some angle here or Hannity et al would never have floated it. Anyone get this at all? Obama wasn’t running for re-election until this year. ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/55 "2012-03-09T00:25:37Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Right. Nevermind that the video was in fact broadcast by PBS in 2008 - I agree it didn’t get a lot of attention, and I do think it’s sort of interesting to hear Obama at this earlier stage in his life - there’s no particular reason he would have put this at the forefront of his campaign. If there were footage of Bush, Gore, Kerry, McCain, or Romney at a similar point in their lives, I wouldn’t have expected them to do much with it either. Parts were aired by Frontline but, apparently, they dubbed over the portions where he endorsed Bell. Charles Ogletree admitted that they hid the tape during the 2008 campaign. I haven’t seen the original so I can’t judge. My guess, though, is that if there was a video of a republican candidate endorsing David Duke 20 or 30 years ago it would be front page news. Face it…the media had no interest in vetting Obama. They deliberately sat on the Rev. Wright story for almost a year. > [@Marley23](#): > > Nobody made this claim at all. I said (for example) that his past is not mysterious, and it’s hard to call his past mysterious when he wrote a book about it. Oh, he wrote a book about himself! I guess he was vetted! We’ve had this debate before. The press deliberately ignored certain stories until their hand was forced. Your response is that there is nothing to see here so let’s move on. Meanwhile the press was digging through Sarah Palin’s garbage for info. Maybe Bush stated he didn’t want anyone to look into anything he did before age 40 but that certainly didn’t stop the press. Dan Rather went as far as to report on false TANG documents without properly vetting them. See the difference? For the record I doubt this story will do any damage. Soledad O’brien was in full attack mode during her interview with someone from the Breitbart outfit and displayed a complete ignorance of critical race theory. I don’t think she was expecting the guy to correct her as she hand-waved. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/56 "2012-03-09T00:34:57Z")
I think this will be viewed the same way by Republicans as Ron Paul hanging out with Stormfront members will be viewed by Democrats. Speaking of which, there’s a user over at Stormfront called John Q Public… Any relation? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/57 "2012-03-09T00:37:26Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > My guess, though, is that if there was a video of a republican candidate endorsing David Duke 20 or 30 years ago it would be front page news. That’s _different_. > [@](#): > > Maybe Bush stated he didn’t want anyone to look into anything he did before age 40 but that certainly didn’t stop the press. Dan Rather went as far as to report on false TANG documents without properly vetting them. See the difference? Again, that’s _different_. Bush wasn’t running for re-election. Well, OK, he was, but it still doesn’t count. Because - well, it’s different. You can’t count past associations against a politician. Well, you can, but not Obama. Because - well, because you just can’t. It doesn’t count unless the DNC tells you it counts. Simple enough. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/58 "2012-03-09T00:46:35Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > Parts were aired by Frontline but, apparently, they dubbed over the portions where he endorsed Bell. The bastards! (I guess. Somehow.) > [@](#): > > Oh, he wrote a book about himself! I guess he was vetted! We’ve had this debate before. Evidently you’re determined to have it again by arguing with stuff I didn’t say. **JQPublic** argued that Obama’s past was “buried” and everything before he began his life in Chicago is “a blur;” I responded that he wrote a book about it, so it’s hard to argue it’s really a secret. Whether or not you feel he was properly vetted is another story - I guess if you think they should have spent a third or fourth week talking about Jeremiah Wright, you are welcome to that opinion. I forget which poster said it, but conservatives tried this strategy in 2008 and lost, and if they try it again in 2012, they will lose again in 2012. The guy is president now and it makes much more sense to talk about his record than about what he said in college. > [@](#): > > Maybe Bush stated he didn’t want anyone to look into anything he did before age 40 but that certainly didn’t stop the press. I believe what he said was that he would not discuss his personal life prior to that point, yes. > [@](#): > > Dan Rather went as far as to report on false TANG documents without properly vetting them. …that did happen four years later, yes (and Rather was wrong). I realize details like what happened when and what topic is being discussed are not very important in arguments like this, but for the record, I was discussing his campaign in 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/59 "2012-03-09T00:52:44Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > Parts were aired by Frontline but, apparently, they dubbed over the portions where he endorsed Bell. Here’s what [PBS says](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/the-story-behind-the-obama-law-school-speech-video/): > [@](#): > > While BuzzFeed did not publish all of the available footage of the event — a manager here noted that they were paying for each second of footage — they did post the entirety of what was available of Obama’s speech. While other cameras could have shot additional material from the event, no other footage of the event exists at WGBH. > > And while there does appear to be editing in the footage available, that was almost certainly done in 1990. The Ten O’Clock News practice was to store completed segments as aired along with any relevant additional footage that might be useful in the future. They do dub over part of the speech (the program after all, is about Obama, not Bell), but the narration makes it pretty clear that Obama is supporting Bell, and show the two hugging. Saying that this is “hiding the footage” is crazy. > [@](#): > > Charles Ogletree admitted that they hid the tape during the 2008 campaign. I haven’t seen the original so I can’t judge. Charles Ogletree was joking. Harvard didn’t own the tapes, WGBH did. And WGBH gave them to PBS, where they were “hidden” by airing them on TV. > [@](#): > > My guess, though, is that if there was a video of a republican candidate endorsing David Duke 20 or 30 years ago it would be front page news. Face it…the media had no interest in vetting Obama. Derrick Bell isn’t David Duke. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140/60 "2012-03-09T00:55:46Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Derrick Bell isn’t David Duke. Sssshhhh. Let them keep believing this for a while. Here’s my message to the GOP: You guys should totally run on the whole Derrick Bell = David Duke platform. It will fit very well with your whole “people who think racism exists are racists” gestalt. Trust me, the racism in your party has nothing to do with the fact that _Arizona_, home of Joe Arpaio, might be close this election. Just keep your head down and stay the course. Best of luck! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-why-it-is-controversial-that-obama-hugged-derrick-bell/615140.md?page=4)