the fuckwitaciousness of bill bennet
By shag carpet bomb • Jan 10th, 2008 • Category: Election 2008, Obama, PoliticsThanks to Dennis Claxton:
“Talk about the black community — he has taught the black community you don’t have to act like Jesse Jackson; you don’t have to act like Al Sharpton. You can talk about the issues.”
Black Agenda Report and Media Matters.
Oh, and here’s a video on ObamaRama’s ChChChChange
Also, this is from Doug Henwood on the exit polls in New Hampshire:
Interesting: Hillary’s voters hate Bush more than Obama’s, and think she’s more likely to win than his voters did. And she beat Obama in every educational category except postgrad. Her voters are more likely to be “falling behind”; his, “getting ahead.” Surreally, her voters are more eager to get out of Iraq, too.
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So it seems that all this talk of “the Bradley/Wilder effect” of older, less educated White folk faking it about supporting Obama because they secretly didn’t want a Black candidate may prove to be nothing but the usual bollocks….they really did think that Hillary was the more progressive Democrat. Oh, well….more power to them.
Oh…..and you just might be interested in this Roseanne Barr meltdown on Obama and Oprah that I just posted to the SmackChron this morning:
The SmackDog Chronicles: Pol Smackdown 2008, Chapter 1: Roseanne Whacks Oprah Over Obama
Oh….and Bill Bennett is a certified asshole. He has about enough credibility to lecture Black folk on “their” choices for Presidential candidates than he has with lecturing others on addictions. He needs to go back and deal with his gambling and cigarette habits and leave politics to the grownups.
Anthony
Nice blog you have here
I think the Bradley/Wilder effect is about whites giving pollsters a socially acceptable response. They tell them what they think the pollsters want to hear or tell them they support a black candidate because they know they should and probably do in the abstract. When they get into the voting booth, however, they break for the white candidate - maybe out of fear of the unknown.
Do you think Obama is more progressive than Clinton?
In a word….no.
Both try to sound like “traditional Democrats” in the sense that they play to the loyalties of certain groups historically tied to traditional Dems (Obama to Blacks and young people; Hillary to older, blue-collar, socially conservative but economically less priviliged women.
But in the end, both are simply flunkies of the DLC who will most likely follow the center-right corporate/military line. The fact that Al From has recently endorsed both of them equally as his kind of “moderate: Democrat” says wonders about their acceptance….and should give liberals real alarm.
And yet, when we get to November, principled progressives will be met with the same tired song that we absolutely have to defend and elect either one of them, lest the big, bad Republicans gain power and destroy what’s left of the Constitution…..as if Democrats in charge haven’t been doing much of the same damn thing already. Well….either that, of bolt for the right-wing populist and sacrifice people of color and socially progressive people for a few antiwar trinkets.
Damn, but this system really sucks.
Anthony
Anthony –
yup. At work, we sometimes talk about the election and, boy, is it irritating to have to can it (on my part) because it became painfully obvious the first time i didn’t that no one wanted to hear any objections to any of them, whether Clinton, Obama, or Edwards. Now, this is a departure from previous elections, it seems to me. I can’t put my finger on it except that people think the stakes are higher. In the past, people would take the criticisms as evidence of the two party system sucking or ALL politicians sucking. They’d take that in stride: well, all of them suck, so you vote for the least suckiest.
but this time around, it’s not like that. first, i think people want the republicans out at whatever cost. those who lean democrat or who are democrat are chomping at the bit to get a dem in the WH.
those who see themselves as more progressive or even radical tend to be obama supporters precisely because they want to see a black man in office. whereas they *know* electoral politics sucks, they can’t shake it i guess.
clinton supporters aren’t so much about her being a woman as, i think, hoping she’ll bring back the camelot year of the clinton presidency or something. *shakes head*