'Bill Clinton is as black as Barack Obama'

Remember how W handled Katrina? Clinton would have handled it much better, that is why he is liked.

Sorry the blacks offend you.
 
Bill was born poor. Was friends with many blacks (and maybe dated a few) back in Arkansas. And he knows all the words to some song that is considered basically a Southern Black National Anthem. And finally, he put his post-presidency office in Harlem.

Those 4 things seem to have gone along way towards making him "The First Black President".

Obama didn't endure the same kind of poor American hardships as a youth that Bill did. And he didn't descend from slaves (so that's a strike against him).

That being said, I don't think that Bill suffered the same kind of "Your skin is dark, I don't like you" racism at Yale that Obama must have faced while at Harvard. (Boston is notorious.)

That's all I've got.
 
Obama, like Tiger Woods was several years ago, is very threatening to people who depend on identity politics to make a living. And I mean all kinds of identity politics: religious, racial, gender, left-right, et al.

Frankly this is as good or better a reason to support him as any: to begin the end of the era of everything-personal-is-political.
 
To paraphrase Chris Rock:

"Bill Clinton give you a fifty dollar bill, you hold it up to the light.
His wife's a pain in the ***, his friends are going to jail. I know Bill Clinton, I am Bill Clinton."
 
Andrew Young like many other black leaders from era long gone are old and insignificant. There time has passed and its time they stepped aside and allowed other people to lead. What use to be a joke by black comedians has somehow transformed into some sort of delusional truth to these old people. Among the the 30something and younger crowd of my black friends we're totally amazed at how some of these older "leaders" are attracted to Clinton. It's as if all you have to do as a politician to engender their loyalty is to make some symbolic gesture displaying how you love black people and they'll be by your side forever. ******* nutz!!
 
wash's dependence on the over-exposed opinions of milquetoast 'journalists' notwithstanding, one is hard-pressed to contend that Obama is practicing anything like the identity politics of Clinton, Huckabee, and their ilk. While generational identity may a valid form as well, Obama's 'generational' appeal is defined by that generation's rejection of identity-based politics and and the dependence on the conflicts of the past as basis for reactive - rather than responsible - policy.

There, I said it.
wtf.gif
 
It is also possible that the older blacks, who grew up among rampant discrimination, are more swayed by any respectable white person who appears to genuinely care about them.
 
Washpark,
I agree with Super on this, and I think you and David Brooks are trapped by the same perspective as a lot of *ahem* older people: it's hard to understand a black candidate who isn't overtly running as the black guy.

Now, does it come up? Of course. But for Obama his race is more a example of the change in politics that he represents: that for people younger than baby boomers, we can vote for a black guy or not vote for a black guy for reasons that have nothing to do with the fact that he's a black guy.

It is impossible to consider Hillary Clinton's candidacy without her gender becoming an issue as the way we met her was as a wife and her status as first lady is what short-tracked her to political office in the first place. Gender is the leitmotif of her candidacy.

You chose an interesting link, since while I disagree with Brooks's increasingly rheumy interpretation of what he sees, he nails it here:
In reply to:
Click to expand...
 
Why would Bill Clinton do something for black people? He already had their vote. He didn't need to do something "******* great" or pass a civil rights bill. What party are they going to switch to?

On the flip side, why would a republican do something "******* great" for black people? They aren't going to vote republican anyway.

So, neither party has any incentive to do great things for blacks. The democrats have their vote and are not going to lose it because they have no other place to go and the republicans can't get it, so both sides concentrate on winning votes in other areas.
 
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