# Republican Congressman calls Obama "boy." **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 15, 2008, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409 "2008-04-15T05:59:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/121 "2008-04-16T00:48:45Z")
> [@Sarahfeena](#): > > I agree, except that it hasn’t stopped his opponents from trying to play up the “he’s young and inexperienced” angle. My assumption was that this was the point Davis was trying to make. Ah. Well, it’s certainly possible. I apparently don’t know as much about Kentucky politics as I thought I did, so I can’t dismiss it offhand, but it seems awfully coincidental to me. Just my gut sense here. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/122 "2008-04-16T01:07:24Z")
The position _calls_ for a younger man, it is a brutal occupation. There was a time when the position called for a man of age, wisdom and probity. But the pace was much more sedate, and situation less complex. This factor favors Obama and Whatsherface, both of whom have intelligence in abundance and a deep bench of advisors. As for wisdom and probity, they can always call, I’m in the book. By the time this campaign comes to a close, Obama and/or Whatsherface will be looking haggard and worn. They’ll be keeping McCain alive with methamphetamine and shock paddles. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/123 "2008-04-16T01:24:00Z")
[QUOTE=JohnnieEnigma] I just found an [article](http://www.smallgovtimes.com/story/07aug23.invisible.america/index.html)… apparently she did this in the White House too… [/QUOTE] Learn the difference between an article and an editorial. As for elitism: > [@Pres. George W. Bush at a fancy reception](#): > > Here they are: the Haves and the Have-Mores. Or as I call them, my base! One of those little jokes that are in fact true. Getting back to the OP: never mind the word “boy”. If it really was a “highly classified national security simulation”, should Congressman Leghorn even be talking about what happened in it? > [@Cleavon Little](#): > > Watch that “boy” shit, redneck! ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/124 "2008-04-16T02:25:45Z")
At least Davis didn’t call Obama “uppity”. (As far as we know.) ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/125 "2008-04-16T03:45:59Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl] Who said this? [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=wring] I don’t recall ever refering to some one under the age of 10 as a “boy”. [/QUOTE] If, as suggested earlier, it’s a typo and should be “over” instead of “under” it makes a lot more sense. If not, then I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/126 "2008-04-16T14:40:01Z")
[QUOTE=JohnnieEnigma] By the way as a sidenote, this same acquaintance, Alexandra, lives in NYC and was in the WTC during the 9/11 attacks. She and her brother were getting coffees in Au Bon Pain on the ground floor. They ran out of the bldg and were safe but it did affect her emotionally. I knew her from the George Magazine messageboard forums. She was also a regular there. After it closed down after John Jr’s death, a number of us GeorgeMag regulars started posting on another forum which still exists. She stopped visiting the newer forum after the 9/11 attacks though, so i kind of lost track of her. Anyway that’s the background. [/QUOTE] Never mind. In the future please refrain from accepting the word of someone _you only know from the freaking internet_ about something that their brother told them. ---
**Author:** ![JohnnieEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@JohnnieEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnieEnigma)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/127 "2008-04-16T18:44:38Z")
[QUOTE=Larry Borgia] Never mind. In the future please refrain from accepting the word of someone _you only know from the freaking internet_ about something that their brother told them. [/QUOTE] oh right, because the friendships you’ve made on this board aren’t really real. After all it’s just a message board. We’re all non-real entities and incapable of become friends and acquaintences with another board member. Good to know. /scarcasm off ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/128 "2008-04-16T18:57:15Z")
[QUOTE=JohnnieEnigma] Besides, what could be more elitist than to have a “no eye contact” rule in your office like Hillary has. She does not allow her staff to make eye contact with her. Talk about the height of elitism, she takes the cake. [/QUOTE] Sounds as if you’re stating a fact, not something that somebody on the Internet claims her brother claims happened. If you told me that your brother said he saw something that sounds unlikely on the face of it, I wouldn’t start stating it as an unqualified fact. And in this case I don’t believe it. I think either you made it up, your alleged online friend made it up, or her alleged brother made it up. Why? It’s too similar to stories I’ve heard about other celebrities. Sounds like an urban legend. ETA: Good sarcasm requires wit. Not your forte. ---
**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:** [April 16, 2008, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/129 "2008-04-16T20:42:32Z")
> [@](#): > > oh right, because the friendships you’ve made on this board aren’t really real. After all it’s just a message board. We’re all non-real entities and incapable of become friends and acquaintences with another board member. > > Good to know. Hillary Clinton has hardly been living in obscurity. And Lord knows there were plenty of people who were willing to expose her faults. So it seems very unlikely that such a blatant act as her telling people they couldn’t look her in the eyes would not be common knowledge. But it apparently was never heard of before now. So logic would dictate that it’s unlikely to be true. And in such a case, offering nothing but a single third-hand piece of hearsay is not credible proof. ---
**Author:** ![JohnnieEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@JohnnieEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnieEnigma)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/130 "2008-04-16T22:25:40Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] Sounds as if you’re stating a fact, not something that somebody on the Internet claims her brother claims happened. If you told me that your brother said he saw something that sounds unlikely on the face of it, I wouldn’t start stating it as an unqualified fact. And in this case I don’t believe it. I think either you made it up, your alleged online friend made it up, or her alleged brother made it up. Why? It’s too similar to stories I’ve heard about other celebrities. Sounds like an urban legend. ETA: Good sarcasm requires wit. Not your forte. [/QUOTE] Sounds as if I’m stating a fact? I already gave the background to my story, so take it as stating a fact if you want. The bottom line is the concept of hillary having a ‘no eye contact’ rule in her office really slays a number of you. And yeah, I wanted to deflect this on her since she’s the one accusing Barack Obama of being an elitist. What balls of her. He is the least elitist person in this campaign. I don’t know you at all and I’m not sure if wit is your forte, (your character and personality are irrelevant to me), but I do know having to marginalize another poster is in sad, poor form. Attack the idea, not the person is what I always say. Edited: And since when do you have to cite your shit in the BBQ pit? This isn’t Great Debates. So kiss my ass. ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2008, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/131 "2008-04-16T23:16:51Z")
[QUOTE=JohnnieEnigma] Sounds as if I’m stating a fact? [/QUOTE] Not even a little bit. Sounded as if you were stating an untruth you intended to be taken as fact. [QUOTE=JonnieEnigma] …having to marginalize another poster is in sad, poor form… [/QUOTE] Posters here are largely marginalized by the improbable, poorly-evidenced and grotesquely unlikely things they assert to be true. Folks who point out the flaws and bias inherent in certain posts are mostly held blameless for the effect on posters who are careless with or impoverished of the facts or the process by which facts are separated from idle and malicious rumor. [QUOTE=JonnieEnigma] …Attack the idea, not the person is what I always say… [/QUOTE] This saying comes in handiest, of course, for persons who have no ideas. Ideally it’s an admirable principle, but it sours when coming from someone offering a fishy third-hand story attacking a political candidate on completely _ad hominem_, policy-irrelevant grounds. [QUOTE=JonnieEnigma] …This isn’t Great Debates… [/QUOTE] If you brought this crap there, Great Debates woudn’t be, either. [QUOTE=JohnnieEnigma] …So kiss my ass… [/QUOTE] Draw an X on the part you want kissed, then, because you look 100% all ass to me. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/132 "2008-04-17T05:12:01Z")
> [@JohnnieEnigma](#): > > Sounds as if I’m stating a fact? I already gave the background to my story, so take it as stating a fact if you want. > > The bottom line is the concept of hillary having a ‘no eye contact’ rule in her office really slays a number of you. It sounded a lot more like something you were presenting as absolute fact earlier in this conversation. And, no, the concept of you actually believing that in spite of the gigantic mountains of logical reasons not to believe it, especially second-hand, is what slays us. > [@JohnnieEnigma](#): > > And since when do you have to cite your shit in the BBQ pit? You don’t, but if you say bizarre, outrageous shit that doesn’t make a lick of sense, you have to give us a good reason to believe you. ---
**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:** [April 17, 2008, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/133 "2008-04-17T06:02:58Z")
You think the no eye contact rule is incredible? Dennis Kucinich doesn’t allow anyone in his immediate radius (wife excepted) that is taller than him. Several of his diminutive staffers had to be constantly alert for any tall people and push them away. Rudy Giuliani requires his staffers to address him as “His Holiness.” Anyone breaking protocol was immediately waterboarded. And Mitt Romney required that everyone approach him by backing up in his direction, so as not to gaze unrequested upon his countenance. It’s true. My facebook friend’s pet gerbil spelled it out in his feces. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/134 "2008-04-17T06:03:13Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] You don’t, but if you say bizarre, outrageous shit that doesn’t make a lick of sense, you have to give us a good reason to believe you. [/QUOTE] Or you will be mocked, even in The Pit. _Mock, mock, mock_. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/135 "2008-04-17T16:16:31Z")
[QUOTE=Richard Parker] It’s true. My facebook friend’s pet gerbil spelled it out in his feces. [/QUOTE] The friend’s feces or the gerbil’s feces? Does the gerbil have anything to say about Richard Gere? ---
**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:** [April 17, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/136 "2008-04-17T16:28:47Z")
[QUOTE=InvisibleWombat] The friend’s feces or the gerbil’s feces? Does the gerbil have anything to say about Richard Gere? [/QUOTE] I once held an ambiguous pronoun writing competition. I hung the winners for all to see. ---
**Author:** ![Flipshod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f19dbf/32.png) [@Flipshod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flipshod)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/137 "2008-04-18T14:37:44Z")
To this southern white boy who uses and hears the term “boy” all the time in non-racist contexts, THIS remark struck me as purely a racial slur. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/138 "2008-04-18T15:58:51Z")
**Johnnie** , we’re tight, right? So take this as not an attack: Many years ago, a friend of mine told me, with many fine details, the story of an amazing thing that had happened to his uncle once upon a time, how he’d had a package stolen from him, but – hahahaha! – what the thief didn’t know is that there was a dead animal inside it! Heeheehee! He was completely convinced of the story’s truth – after all, it happened to his uncle, fercrissakes! That’s what he’d heard from another family member, so it must be true. Many years later I was reading a book about urban legends and there it was – [the same story,](http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/deadcat.asp) with many of the same details. Imagine that! The thing is, the person who told you this story may truly have believed it, but was passing on a story she’d heard from someone else who’d heard it and believed it, who’d heard it… These FOAF (friend of a friend) stories seem plausible because they happened at only two removes, in the telling, but if you actually tracked them back you’d discover that the supposed source always retreats another remove, and rarely comes home to an actual source. Even when it does, most often the truth is that a mundane if slightly quirky event has been magnified in its travels, each retelling burnishing the tale until its connection with the original reality is tenuous at best. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/139 "2008-04-18T16:26:36Z")
[QUOTE=JohnnieEnigma] Attack the idea, not the person is what I always say. [/QUOTE] Johnnie, I attacked your less-than-credible statement to my satisfaction, _then_ insulted you; don’t confuse the two. Should have used two separate posts, I guess. (Ironically, I failed to take your slowness into account.) Please accept the insult as a personal attack unrelated to the argument at hand. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409/140 "2008-04-18T18:56:06Z")
It’s a southern thing, it just means a young dude. I use “boy” all the time to refer to people younger than myself. I think the racial use of “boy” is a lot older than anyone alive today. Honestly I’ve heard “colored” (not even in a deragatory way) and “nigger”, but not “boy.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-congressman-calls-obama-boy/445409.md?page=8)