The new Obama video is ‘devastating’, but not to Obama
In case you missed it, last night we observed a test of the right-wing emergency bombshell system. It was only a test. If this had been an actual right-wing emergency bombshell ….
But it wasn’t.
In the early evening hours yesterday, Sean Hannity, Matt Drudge and Tucker Carlson started promoting what they claimed to be a “devastating” and previously unknown video of Barack Obama that would completely remake the 2012 presidential race. It would be a bombshell, a game-changer, an “October surprise” that would prove Obama to be an anti-white racist, just as they knew all along. It would do to the incumbent what the “47 percent” tape had done to Mitt Romney, if not worse.
And just to build the suspense, the world was told that for maximum impact, the bombshell tape would be released by Hannity and Carlson simultaneously at 9 p.m., Hannity on his Fox News program and Carlson at his Daily Caller site. Over the next few hours, giddy conservatives practiced their victory dance and whipped each other into an anticipatory frenzy over the video that would finally bring down their hated bête noire.
Nine o’clock came, the tape was released and … ppfffffffffft. Nothing. As in, literally nothing.
I don’t know Hannity personally. Never met the man. So I would have a hard time saying with certainty that he’s a racist fool. But after the way he behaved last night, I have no problem saying that he plays a racist fool on television. The same is true of Drudge and Carlson. In their “big reveal” on Fox, Hannity and Carlson tried vainly to pretend the tape was something it clearly is not, and they made themselves and their followers appear ridiculous in the process.
Here’s the reality:
The tape in question came from a 2007 speech by Obama at Hampton University, a historically black college in Virginia. The five-year-old speech had been reported on extensively at the time it was delivered by, among many others, Brit Hume of Fox News and by Carlson himself, on his ill-fated MSNBC show. As Dylan Byers reports at Politico, “The speech was also covered by CNN, NBC News, ABC News, The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Sun-Times, among others.”
In fact, the speech was so well known that Politico had cited a portion of it as No. 3 on its list of the top 10 gaffes of the 2008 political campaign.
In the speech, Obama dared to suggest that race — along with the Bush administration’s “colorblind incompetence” — had played a role in the excruciatingly slow response to New Orleans’ plight in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He was right; it did. Even if you disagree with that assessment, making such a suggestion is certainly not evidence that Obama hates white people, as Hannity and others now try to claim.
Obama also spoke kindly of his minister at the time, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, thanking him for bringing him to Christ. (The speech occurred before the falling-out between the two men.) He talked about the necessity of addressing poverty in the black community, including the need to “help with basic skills — how to show up to work on time, wear the right clothes, and act appropriately in an office. We have to help them get there.”
None of that is new. None of that is scandalous. Yet last night, Hannity and Carlson did their best to pretend otherwise. They even tried to gin up outrage that in a speech to a black audience, Obama adopted a more “black” way of speaking, which they claim to find deeply disturbing.
Seriously? I no doubt speak slightly differently with my Yankee cousins in Massachusetts than I do with my southern cousins in North Carolina. I speak differently in my professional capacity than when I’m having a beer at the bar or playing golf. We all do it to a degree, subconsciously, as a way of establishing common ground with our audience. At this point, if it is truly a scandal to you that black Americans speak differently when talking “among themselves,” I urge you to get out more often and participate in the 21st century.
In other words, this was not a bombshell, and it is devastating only in the sense that it exposes just how cynically and effectively the right-wing media manipulates its core audience, particularly on matters involving race. As U.S. Rep. Allen West of all people put it afterward, “What’s the ‘So what’ of this video? I don’t think it’s going to really go anywhere.”
Elsewhere, other segments of the right-wing media strained to find ways not to dismiss the video as the nonsense it truly is. On Fox News, transcript available here Greta Van Susteren and Newt Gingrich basically acknowledged that the tape is much ado about nothing, yet somehow pretended to be offended at how the media have covered it. Erick Erickson at Redstate took much the same tack, arguing that the video “is damning not of Barack Obama….The video is damning of the media.”
It is an odd argument. You concede that the video is of little consequence, then blame the media for not hyping it to the skies in the name of balance? Even the folks at Fox News understand the lunacy of that claim. If you read its muted account of the video, it is clearly attempting to put as much distance as possible between itself and this “controversy.”
The biggest tell of all, however, comes from the Romney campaign. It is sorely in need of a bombshell and a game-changer, and as it showed in its overly eager response to the tragedy in Libya, it is ready to pounce on any perceived opportunity. But in this case, it has refused to comment on the tape except to note — no doubt accurately — that it had nothing to do with its over-hyped release.
“What is the news?” Romney communications director Gail Gitcho asked in an email to Buzzfeed. “I don’t know.”
Something tells me that Romney will not be using footage of the Obama speech in his campaign ads. In fact, Romney adviser Kevin Madden made it pretty clear this morning that they want nothing to do with it. When asked whether the video was relevant, he said that “Voters … need to look at that video and make up their minds on that individually. I think what’s more important to this debate right now are the president’s policies are the president’s record over these four years. That is going to be the most important topic on stage tonight.”
The Republican National Committee also declined to comment.
On the other hand, the response among many on the left has been to mock conservatives for being suckered in by the hype from Hannity, Drudge and Carlson, and at one level I get that. But I find this whole thing troubling. It bothers me that a significant number of Americans have allowed their hopes and fears to be manipulated by people such as Hannity, who see them as nothing more than marks to be fleeced. They are being played, and it is not a fun thing to watch.
Trapped within the right-wing echo chamber, they have not only lost touch with their fellow Americans, they have lost a sense of perspective as well. When something like this comes along, they respond to it as instructed and then are dumbfounded to find that the American mainstream sees it entirely differently. They cannot understand how something that makes such a big noise within the echo chamber has almost no resonance outside it, so they explain it away as media bias.
It is not media bias. Why do you think the Romney camp is keeping this whole mess at arm’s length? It’s because they understand that “scandals” ginned up for consumption within the right-wing mediasphere simply do not play well among Americans in general. They are professionals, and they recognize the disconnect that exists between reality as depicted within that echo chamber and the reality as experienced by the rest of the country. If they allow those two worlds to collide, they will lose and they know it.
That disconnect is dangerous. It is dangerous for those on the right who find themselves increasingly alienated and estranged from their fellow Americans, and it is dangerous for the rest of the country as well. It is particularly dangerous for the conservative movement, which has an essential role to play in our nation’s future. But it cannot fulfill that function trapped in a separate world of its own creation.
– Jay Bookman
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731 comments Add your comment
barking frog
October 3rd, 2012
12:30 pm
Without the 47%, the 53%
would be the 47% or at
least a major part of it.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
October 3rd, 2012
12:30 pm
Trapped within the right-wing echo chamber, they have not only lost touch with their fellow Americans, they have lost a sense of perspective as well.
Like Ahem, Patrick, and Thulsa?
The echo chamber walls are thick…
Joe Hussein Mama
October 3rd, 2012
12:32 pm
Doom — “TC, Just like I said. Joe Mama would resort to semantics games at 12:08 to try and wiggle out of getting proven wrong.”
You don’t own my words or my thoughts, Doom, and you don’t get to assert what they mean.
Jay
October 3rd, 2012
12:32 pm
“This hurts Mitt,” 2008 Romney adviser Alex Castellanos told BuzzFeed. “An abysmally selfish and stupid event.”
They BOTH suck
October 3rd, 2012
12:32 pm
Ahem
Before they will not take it back or exchange it, you need to take go back to the tinfoil hat store and exchange yours for a larger size. The one they sold you is too small.
OBIWAN
October 3rd, 2012
12:32 pm
Jay you are correct, this is no bombshell to anyone that believes in Robin Hood, I mean the government, should take monies from one group of people and give it to another. But for the rest of us, I mean the 53% that pay taxes, it just proves that politicians, and more on the left than right, will stoop very low to buy votes… And Obama is spending your money to buy votes, is that fair? Is it also fair that he tells contractors to not lay off people till after the election, even though the law says that the employer must give 60 days’ notice…and again Obama offers to pay their legal bills with taxpayer monies….Gee does that even sound legal? But Jay and the rest on the left can’t get enough “spreading someone else’s money” around…. It amazes me how stupid the left can be, like calling anyone who does not agree with them a racist, that is about as low of a lie as the left can tell….Like John Wayne said,” life is tough and it is even tougher when you are stupid”. One question for my lefty brethren, does anybody know how to balance a checkbook? Remember that your golden boy said he would cut the deficit in half in four years, but he doubled it instead, could that be a lie? One more thing actions speak louder than words, and Obama’s actions are 180 degrees from what his mouth says, where I come from that is called a liar, not a racist…
curious
October 3rd, 2012
12:33 pm
Obama’s October surprise will be coming by this weekend.
Romney’s tax returns will show he’s part of the 47% AND he did it illegaly.
lefty_316
October 3rd, 2012
12:34 pm
Like the debate this evening, this video is meaningless. The GOP sealed their fate earlier this year when state legislators in Ohio and Virginia, both swing states, passed harsh new, absurd and totally unnecessary restrictions on abortions. Women in those two states are extremely angry; they simply don’t think it’s the place of a bunch of morally corrupt old white men to tell them how to live their lives. And that includes college educated surburban white women, who will decide the winner in those two states when they vote the straight democratic ticket. It’s time for the GOP to get out of the fundamentalist religion business and get back to being the party of Barry Goldwater.
“Today’s so-called ‘conservatives’ don’t even know what the word means. They think I’ve turned liberal because I believe a woman has a right to an abortion. That’s a decision that’s up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the Religious Right. It’s not a conservative issue at all.” Barry Goldwater, 1994.
Rightwing Troll
October 3rd, 2012
12:34 pm
“Like Ahem, Patrick, and Thulsa?
The echo chamber walls are thick…”
That’s not the only thing thats “thick” around here…
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
October 3rd, 2012
12:35 pm
But for the rest of us, I mean the 53% that pay taxes…
:roll:
Never let a good lie die.
:
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
October 3rd, 2012
12:37 pm
Sounds like Obiwan’s food stamps are late arriving this month.
canoeguy05
October 3rd, 2012
12:37 pm
If Romney truly could tell the real world from the right-wing echo chamber, he would never have made the 47 percent comment. That one still puzzles me, as it’s so obviously wrong. Many people who don’t pay federal income tax will predominantly vote Republican – for example seniors and veterans. Does Romney really not know this?
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
12:37 pm
“No. You are wrong, Towncrier.”
You make me laugh sometimes, JHM – trying to hide behind the opinion-fact dichotomy. Guess what dude? No one is going to sue you for slander! But let’s see how your dainty “defense” hold up in real life: go downtown and tell the first young black man you see that you “think” he is a n****r. Then come back and tell us how he knew you weren’t really calling him a name. What were you asking the other day – what the meaning of “is” is?
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
October 3rd, 2012
12:39 pm
Brian Hudon
This is not true:
Barack Obama, more than any other American president has increased the threat to unborn children from abortion through funding and moral support.
In actuality….
“Romneycare” covers abortions.
Who you gonna vote for now?
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
October 3rd, 2012
12:39 pm
Is it also fair that he tells contractors to not lay off people till after the election
Ohoho! Good one! We need a few new wingnut excuses for why their party can’t win dogcatcher.
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
12:39 pm
I mean the government, should take monies from one group of people and give it to another.
Riiight, like they haven’t done that very thing for hundreds of years.
Oy vey…
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
12:39 pm
“You don’t own my words or my thoughts, Doom, and you don’t get to assert what they mean.”
Interesting notion. The SCOTUS doesn’t “own” the Constitution. But it gets to “assert” what it means. It’s called interpretation, don’t you know?
Aquagirl
October 3rd, 2012
12:42 pm
In actuality….
“Romneycare” covers abortions.
I bet it even covers abortions when you’re not pregnant.
Billybob
October 3rd, 2012
12:44 pm
jay 10:12
that’s b/c the video speaks for itself…..like i’ve said obama’s own words and actions will be his downfall, no matter how many people like you continue to spin his actual words….keep trying though
jay, what about the libyan coverup and lying by susan rice and the whitehouse….what about the whitehouse asking contractors to ignore the law and then get labor board money to pay for lawsuits for breaking the law…..what kind of example does this kind of thing set….anything?
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
October 3rd, 2012
12:44 pm
I mean the government, should take monies from one group of people and give it to another
Like taking tax dollars and giving it to bankers to bail them out? Can’t miss that bonus check, ya know?
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
12:45 pm
Mitt is an advocate for murdering baby killers??????\
Oh well, there goes my vote for him… (chuckle)
jewcowboy
October 3rd, 2012
12:45 pm
So…it seems that the myth that the GOP would woo Latino voters if only they would change their stance on immigration meets reality. It isn’t just the immigration issue that the GOP and Latino voters find themselves at odds over.
“A new NBC Latino/IBOPE Zogby survey says 6 out of 10 Latinos in the sample agree that same-sex couples have the right to marry. Thirty eight percent said they disagree and 31 percent said they did so strongly.”
http://nbclatino.com/2012/10/03/nbc-latinoibope-zogby-survey-majority-of-latinos-in-favor-of-gay-marriage/
Bill Orvis White
October 3rd, 2012
12:45 pm
We The People (Tea Party Republican/those with common sense) know that the video is not new. What IS new IS THE FACT THAT THE OBAMAMEDIA BARELY COVERED AND DISCUSSED THIS CLEARLY DISGUSTING VILE ACT BY THEN PART TIME COMMUNITY-ORGANIZER HUSSEIN OBAMA. We The People (Tea Party Republican/those with common sense) NEED TO BE REMINDED OF THIS IMPORTANT VIDEO WHICH PRAISES RACIST “REV.” JEREMIAH “G-ddamn America” (America Hater) WRIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AGAIN, WE ALL KNOW IT WAS OUT THERE, BUT THAT WAS OVER FIVE YEARS AGO AND WAS A BLIP IN THE OBAMAMEDIA!!!!!!
Now that my rightful facts are laid out here, LET ME STATE THAT BY HAVING MR. HANNITY SHOW IT AGAIN LAST NIGHT – IT NEEDS TO BE TREATED AS IF IT WAS A NEW DISCOVERY!!!!!
Here’s the fact: King Hussein Obama was raised in a Marxist, jihadist-sympathizing, anti-colonialist household. THIS IS PROOF THAT THIS FAILED PRESIDENT ADHERES TO THESE VERY ANTI-AMERICAN PHILOSOPHIES!
Mr. Hannity, Mr. Drudge and Mr. Carlson are simply trying to balance out the ObamaMedia. The funny is that they do it quite successfully thank you very much. Did anyone on this liberal blog notice that NO ONE CAN NAME MR. HANNITY’S COMPETITION? IT’S BECAUSE COMMON SENSE AMERICANS TUNE IN BY THE MILLIONS TO LISTEN TO MR. HANNITY’S RIGHTFUL COMMON SENSE COMMENTS!!!!!!
You liberals just hate conservatives, pure and simple. Do you all remember the hateful things you lodge at the honorable President George W. Bush? You all were disgusting during those years of economic growth, low/no taxe$ and a culture of life.
GOOD GRIEF AND GOOD NIGHT!
Amen,
Bill
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
October 3rd, 2012
12:46 pm
Aquagirl
Only if it’s legitimate!
Ahem
October 3rd, 2012
12:47 pm
Top Five Obama-Biden Tax Hikes Burying the Middle Class
On Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden said the middle class has ‘‘been buried the last four years.’’ Taxpayers agree.
The following are the top five tax increases on the middle class signed into law by the Obama-Biden administration
1. The Obamacare Individual Mandate Non-Compliance Tax
2. The Obamacare Tax on Union Member and Early Retiree Health Insurance Plans
3. The Obamacare Flexible Spending Account Tax – a.k.a. “Special Needs Kids Tax”
4. The Obamacare Medicine Cabinet Tax
5. The Obamacare High Medical Bills Tax
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
12:48 pm
“Just another example of politicians lying to the people and telling us only what we want to hear. Not what we NEED to hear.”
Agreed, Peadawg. Romney is the same way, it appears. That is why I really like Christie: he says some offensive things at times, but at least you know where he stands and that he has solid convictions.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
October 3rd, 2012
12:49 pm
Top Five Obama-Biden Tax Hikes Burying the Middle Class
More drudgey spam.
Instead of ignoring drudgey, you’re doubling down.
GT
October 3rd, 2012
12:50 pm
Brian Hudon the man has been president for four years. The need of a resume is not as needed as it was in 2007. Vote for or against Obama, but stop with the chilling, like you just found your best friend having an affair with your wife.
Romney is the unknown in this parade. Even his comments are not “chilling” they are consistent with what we all see and GOP deny. You need to be proving your candidate deserves to be elected, not concentrating on tricks to give you an edge, like a burglar in Watergate.
Joe Hussein Mama
October 3rd, 2012
12:50 pm
Towncrier — “You make me laugh sometimes, JHM – trying to hide behind the opinion-fact dichotomy.”
I’m not hiding behind anything.
The next sentence after your excerpt is as follows — “I don’t believe he’s been *proven* to have not paid his taxes, but I also don’t believe that Reid has been *proven* to have lied, either.”
That pretty clearly indicates that I’m expressing my opinion and not making a factual assertion. In short, you’re wrong.
I don’t care if you think I’m presenting a “defense.” I’m telling you what I said, what I thought and what I meant, and I’m showing you the language I used to convey that. If you didn’t pick up on my intent or if you think something different was intended, that’s all well and good, but your *perceptions* don’t change anything.
It’s pretty clear to me that your penchant for willfully misrepresenting others’ positions and arguments is more than just an occasional thing with you. You did it in our discussion about Vietnam, and you’re doing it again now.
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
12:50 pm
“More drudgey spam.”
More Kamspam.
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
12:51 pm
For all of our democracy haters…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J_zqxExsj4
Looney Bin
October 3rd, 2012
12:52 pm
It all goes back to which party has become out of step with most of America. Those on the right just can not fathom why more people aren’t incensed about this nothing of a video. You see it here every day on Jay’s blog – people come on and assail Jay FOR HIS OPINION rather than rebutting him by debating specific points. It’s like they’re angry that someone holds an opinion that differs from theirs. And while most intelligent people embrace the opportunity to hear a differing point of view in order to better frame their own, these fools seem to think that listening to the other side somehow is a sign of weakness. The party of no compromise is also the party of closed minds.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
October 3rd, 2012
12:52 pm
NAP: ‘Lupus Meds’ Caused Woman to Strip Naked in School Parking Lot, Chant Religious Phrases…
drudgey spam
Joe Hussein Mama
October 3rd, 2012
12:53 pm
Towncrier — “Interesting notion. The SCOTUS doesn’t “own” the Constitution. But it gets to “assert” what it means. It’s called interpretation, don’t you know?”
You’re not the SCOTUS, and you’re not entitled to have your interpretations of my words treated as factual. You can say what you want about my posts, but that doesn’t mean that what you have to say is in any way factual.
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
October 3rd, 2012
12:54 pm
Drudgey spam, spam, spam, eggs, spam and drudgey spam.
Ever notice that the sound one makes
when hawking up pleghm sounds like …ahem?
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
12:54 pm
I’m showing you the language I used to convey that.
Language is not their strong point.
They have their own language where Christianity (I presume in reference to real, not fake Christians) is not a religion, refracted light is not real and they are all conservatives!
Brosephus™
October 3rd, 2012
12:55 pm
This is an extraordinary admission from a man who has furthered the funding of abortion more than any other president in American history and who both supporter partial birth abortion and opposed the Illinois Infant Born Alive bill.
What admission, that the mother decided to carry her baby instead of having an abortion? I hope you’re not suggesting that somebody would abort the baby just because of the gunshot. If so, that has to be the most stupid sh*t I’ve heard here, and we have had some very stupid stuff said here before. Funding abortions don’t make it mandatory for someone to have one. It only makes the option accessible if they choose that option.
Please insert quarter and try again….
A TAT
October 3rd, 2012
12:55 pm
Looks like that video’s been around awhile.
Funny! I’m accused of being a FAUX NEWS dittohead, and yet…
I’ve never seen it.
They even tried to gin up outrage that in a speech to a black audience, Obama adopted a more “black” way of speaking, which they claim to find deeply disturbing.
I, myself, find that disturbing. It’s as if Democrats assume all blacks talk alike.
Democrats actin’ black?
Disgusting!
willie lynch
October 3rd, 2012
12:56 pm
I recently sat in on a meeting that consisted of four black men and one white woman. Two of the men are senior executives in a global corporation and the woman is a leading official at one of the nations top educational institutions in the south. The language was “professional” in the meeting but once we left and were no longer in the company of this woman we were able to speak more “freely”. It has nothing to do with being racist that we speak differently when whites are not around, we are still speaking english but with more of a patois if you will.
Everyone has their comfort levels. It’s just that this being the “white mans world”, black people have become very comfortable in the mans environment. We have to be flexible. White’s, not so much.
Don't Tread
October 3rd, 2012
12:57 pm
I see we’re back to “Republicans = hate”…you guys should go ahead and join the party. They’re already pulling for 0bama.
Aquagirl
October 3rd, 2012
12:57 pm
Only if it’s legitimate!
Well, darn. I’m one of those feminazis who think women should be fully covered for recreational abortions when you don’t feel like getting pregnant. It sounds like a wonderful alternative to a day at the spa.
Brosephus™
October 3rd, 2012
12:59 pm
Ahem
I see that you got Grover Norquist’s email. I’m sure he appreciates you pushing his talking points about those tax increases.
emz
October 3rd, 2012
1:01 pm
Good article. Sad that things are that way.
Joe Hussein Mama
October 3rd, 2012
1:03 pm
Brosephus — “Funding abortions don’t make it mandatory for someone to have one. It only makes the option accessible if they choose that option.”
It’s akin to the ignorant claim that pro-choicers are actually “pro-abortion.” Uh, no, we’re not.
If a woman chooses to carry to term, then I want her to have access to good prenatal care and counseling as well as a decent hospital to give birth in, and I want her to have access to Well Baby checkups for at least the first year — even if she doesn’t have health insurance.
If, OTOH, she chooses to abort, then I want her to have access to a sanitary and well-equipped facility and a qualified doctor and staff to perform the procedure — even if she doesn’t have health insurance.
In short, I want women to be in a position where they can dismiss all distractions of doctors, cost, availability and safety from their minds while they consider how they want to proceed. And I support women in that choice, whether I might personally agree with their choice (in their circumstances) or not.
JayIsSorry
October 3rd, 2012
1:03 pm
Explain away Jay.
Joe Hussein Mama
October 3rd, 2012
1:04 pm
Aquagirl — “Well, darn. I’m one of those feminazis who think women should be fully covered for recreational abortions when you don’t feel like getting pregnant. It sounds like a wonderful alternative to a day at the spa.”
I know what I’m gettin’ you for Christmas.
One’a them thar Romneycare fitty-dolla ‘Bortion Bucks coupons.
Regnad Kcin
October 3rd, 2012
1:06 pm
“Is it also fair that he tells contractors to not lay off people till after the election”
but, but, but, if they DO get laid off, they’ll AUTOMATICALLY vote for Obama, right?
Cons, remind me what the meme is THIS week – WITH jobs or WITHOUT jobs vote for Obama?
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
1:07 pm
“If you didn’t pick up on my intent or if you think something different was intended, that’s all well and good, but your *perceptions* don’t change anything.”
Earth to JHM: saying you “think” he’s “one of those SOBs” that the “IRS threatened with prosecution” but who “got immunity” when he “agreed to come clean” clearly suggests “malfeasance” on his part. Preface it with a prepositional phrase as much as you want, but you have basically painted him as being evil. What world do you live in that you don’t understand that? And THAT is the hiding behind the opinion-fact dichotomy to which I referred.
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
1:10 pm
recreational abortions
LOL, Aquagirl!
(But Rush is not amused AND he wants the videos…)
bob
October 3rd, 2012
1:10 pm
This is not news, most evryone knew Obama lied about his relationship with Wright. He is the smartest president ever and we were supposed to believe that he sat in a black liberation theology church for twenty years and didn’t know it ? Lets go ahead and admit he is friends with ayers and dorne and be done with that. I wonder why Romney doesn’t have to hide anybody from his past like Obama ? Do you think maybe that Obama would lose credibility in getting Osama if people knew Obama may have killed one Pentagon bomber, he hangs out with the other pentagon bomber, bill ayers.
Joseph
October 3rd, 2012
1:11 pm
Poor Bookman… I guess you weren’t expecting to have to spend the next few days covering for Oblama about this new video. Use facts though Bookman. This tape was released a few years ago but was edited. We never saw the incendiary comments that are now coming out and his obvious hatred for white people…
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
1:11 pm
cons think they are intelligent and informed but prove themselves wrong every single day.
Joe Hussein Mama
October 3rd, 2012
1:12 pm
Towncrier — “Earth to JHM: saying you “think” he’s “one of those SOBs” that the “IRS threatened with prosecution” but who “got immunity” when he “agreed to come clean” clearly suggests “malfeasance” on his part.”
Earth to Towncrier — I don’t care what *you think* was suggested, and you can take that double-quoted “malfeasance” that didn’t appear in that post and shove it right where the sun doesn’t shine.
“Preface it with a prepositional phrase as much as you want, but you have basically painted him as being evil.”
In your opinion.
“What world do you live in that you don’t understand that?”
You are welcome to your opinion about what I said. But it doesn’t change what I said, what I thought or what I meant. On those topics, you are just plain wrong.
“And THAT is the hiding behind the opinion-fact dichotomy to which I referred.”
Your opinion about what I said does not change the fact that I didn’t accuse him. The very next sentence after the passage you excerpted makes my intent clear.
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
1:14 pm
…and his obvious hatred for white people…
What you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0
Ken
October 3rd, 2012
1:14 pm
The tape is the true Obama. We see the masked Obama every day.
IT ONLY GETS WORSE FROM HERE.
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
1:16 pm
“You’re not the SCOTUS…”
What does that matter? Do you imagine they have some greater interpretive power that the rest of us? Do you imagine their interpretations are “factual”? They merely ASSERT interpretations – make judgements, which was my point.
“…and you’re not entitled to have your interpretations of my words treated as factual. You can say what you want about my posts, but that doesn’t mean that what you have to say is in any way factual.”
I should think that goes without saying, JHM. I mean, who doesn’t know that? Nonetheless, I can assert my interpretation of your words all I want. Others can decide how “factual” such assertions are.
Brosephus™
October 3rd, 2012
1:18 pm
JHM
I agree with your last paragraph word for word.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
October 3rd, 2012
1:19 pm
Others can decide how “factual” such assertions are.
Given that you have asserted that Brother AmVet is not a “real Jew”, I tend to take your assertion with a Pacific Ocean of salt.
Halftrack
October 3rd, 2012
1:21 pm
On the opposite side of the coin, what IF; a white candidate had said the same things to their audience. Liberals and Dem’s went ballistic when a small remark was made at a birthday party for a retiring white Senator of S.C. All this “race” division is stirring up trouble. A President should be a person for all of the citizens of America and work under the principles of the Constitution. All one should expect is an equal chance to succeed; not to obtain an equal outcome when abilities are different. Example: all of us can’t be brain surgeons, or Whitney Houstons, or Jim Thorpe’s, or an Astronaut, a Pilot, etc. These outcomes are based on ability, skill and dedication.
They BOTH suck
October 3rd, 2012
1:23 pm
I was digging the “opinion-fact” dichotomy diatribe……..
After all it did come from TC who was posting opinion piece after opinion piece to prove his point as fact in regards to illegals voting.
GT
October 3rd, 2012
1:23 pm
The right hates so much I have never understood their opposition to abortion. Seems a made to order prescription for them, almost like buying futures on Wall Street. They could keep the ones they wanted, the white babies that have market value, and the other 47% they could just flush down the toilet. They are doing it anyway why not be smart about it?
They say it is religious but I have never found them particularly religious if it gets in the way of their money. Humans will be humans and we are all forgiven as we pull the lever on that chair or declare war to get oil or votes. Both those are paid for by the tax payer, maybe abortions, paid for by the government, would hedge a little of that future expense. Cut down on prisons, cost of crime, electricity for that chair, stuff the right stays up at night worrying about. Just trying to help.
They BOTH suck
October 3rd, 2012
1:24 pm
Some bloggers are like wax……..
They meltdown, but given the chance to cool off, they come back again for another meltdown
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
1:25 pm
I don’t always play the fake Jew, but when I do, I prefer to do it for crier. Say gentile, my friends
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
1:26 pm
“Well, darn. I’m one of those feminazis who think women should be fully covered for recreational
abortionsinfanticides when you don’t feel like getting pregnant.”Yeah…those darn contraceptive measures are onerous and damn inconvenient – even though when combined in some way they can be almost 100% effective. It is SO much easy to “off” the young one. I only wish we could exercise “choice” after we choose to do such things as driving while intoxicated, eating at McDonalds everyday for a full year, jumping off a cliff and things like that. Life would be WAYYY cool then.
F. Sinkwich
October 3rd, 2012
1:27 pm
“We see the masked Obama every day.”
MSM doesn’t. Neither do any lib ilks here.
They only see perfection.
Proud to be me
October 3rd, 2012
1:27 pm
Matters not that it is 5 years old; matters not that it was reported on back then (I’m sure even if it were reported on . . . probably down played or only mentioned in a couple of minutes). “(The speech occurred before the falling-out between the two men.)” — I’ve my doubts they’ve had a true falling out! We do not truly know what goes on behind the scenes. Everything Obama does he does for politics. He his campaigns are filled with promises he knows he has no intentions of fulfilling. What about the transparency . . . putting bills online, etc. Most of all what about the “bringing everybody together! (CRAP, CRAP & MORE CRAP!!). And there you go Jay . . . when all else false . . pull out the racist card!! Democrats are so full of CRAP!!
They BOTH suck
October 3rd, 2012
1:27 pm
There are not trolls, but “candle bloggers”
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
October 3rd, 2012
1:27 pm
Be sure to tune in to Fox & Friends on Thursday morning where Larry the Cable Guy will join for debate analysis.
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
1:28 pm
“On the opposite side of the coin, what IF; a white candidate had said the same things to their audience. Liberals and Dem’s went ballistic when a small remark was made at a birthday party for a retiring white Senator of S.C. All this “race” division is stirring up trouble.”
Shhhh….don’t remind liberals of their double standard on this issue.
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
1:29 pm
cnn is talking about and said it is old news.
I told them to stop taking a dive for the gop so they banned me
Martin the Calvinist
October 3rd, 2012
1:30 pm
This means nothing to me. What I care about is the economic policy of this President. I care in what direction the President takes the Federal gov’t in scope of it’s size and how they dictate policy to affect the economy….
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
1:30 pm
Speaking of having their own deranged language,
Abortion = infanticide.
Crazy with a capital C…
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
1:31 pm
The debates are important not silly con distractions.
Joe Hussein Mama
October 3rd, 2012
1:31 pm
Towncrier — “What does that matter? Do you imagine they have some greater interpretive power that the rest of us? Do you imagine their interpretations are “factual”? They merely ASSERT interpretations – make judgements, which was my point.”
They have the authority to do so, but only with the Constitution. Not only do *you* have no such authority, even if you did, it certainly wouldn’t extend to my words and thoughts.
“I should think that goes without saying, JHM. I mean, who doesn’t know that?”
You pretty clearly don’t, as you’re arguing with me over what I meant. I don’t think that even in your dimension, you’d credit that someone else knows your mind better than you do.
“Nonetheless, I can assert my interpretation of your words all I want. Others can decide how “factual” such assertions are.”
No. Others have no more direct knowledge of what I meant than you do. Others can decide what they find plausible or believable, but they’re in no better a position to determine the factual meaning of my words than you are.
Okay, Towncrier, I’ll break it down for you, using the post of mine that you quoted in part earlier on this thread. In case anyone else would like to follow along, it can be found here:
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2012/09/21/mitt-romney-and-the-gops-bad-case-of-buyers-remorse/?cp=2#comment-1084226
This is what an *actual* accusation looks like (in fact, there are two accusations in it); it was something USMC had said earlier that I quoted in my post: “Once again, The Leftwing nut jobs prove to be the liars that they truly are: Leftwing Liberal Senator Harry Reid LIED!”
Whereupon I asked USMC the following: “How, exactly? How’s that been *proven?*”
He made an assertion of fact regarding something that hasn’t been *proven.* I should point out that Doom’s made the same accusation himself a time or two; that Harry Reid has lied. AFAIK, Doom’s never substantiated that claim.
So to distinguish USMC’s direct accusation from what I was saying, let’s broaden your excerpt a bit and bring in material from before and after the excerpt you chose (emphasis added):
“I don’t know about you, but my tax forms for 2011 and prior years have been complete for a long time. If I needed to provide them for any purpose, it wouldn’t take me months and months to clean them up and revise them before I could provide them. So IMO there’s still something Romney’s not telling us.”
You see that? “So IMO there’s still something Romney’s not telling us.” That’s an expression of opinion (the IMO clearly indicates that), not an accusation. Moving on:
“Frankly, I think he’s one of those SOBs that the IRS threatened with prosecution for hiding assets in Swiss bank accounts and who the Swiss bank UBS ratted out. I think he got immunity — as many of those threatened did get it when they agreed to come clean to the IRS — and I think he RESTATED his taxes because of that.”
You see those “I think” particles in there? Also clear indications of OPINION, not accusation.
“I don’t believe he’s been *proven* to have not paid his taxes, but I also don’t believe that Reid has been *proven* to have lied, either. I think the truth is somewhere in between, but I don’t think Romney will share that truth with us. At least, I don’t think he’ll do it *willingly.*
More “I think”s and a few “I believe”s, so there are more clear indications of OPINION, not accusation.
I’m pretty sure that you know the difference between the two, so I’m at a loss to understand why you don’t seem to be grasping it here.
Billybob
October 3rd, 2012
1:31 pm
‘you didn’t build that’…..i guess he didn’t say that
‘it’s good to spread the wealth’…..i guess he didn’t say that
‘i believe in redistribution’……i guess he didn’t say that
talking to latinos ‘the republicans are your enemies’…..i guess he didn’t say that
when an ambassador and 3 others die ‘it’s just a speedbump’…..i guess he didn’t say that
he started his political career int he living room of an unrepentant domestic terrorist named bill ayers…..but i guess he didn’t do that either eh jay…..
this list could go on and on and on, but you get the idea…..in leftist world the ends always justify the means…..fun stuff
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
October 3rd, 2012
1:32 pm
getalife
You should really have started keeping score on the number of sites that have banned you. Gotta be a record.
Towncrier
October 3rd, 2012
1:32 pm
“After all it did come from TC who was posting opinion piece after opinion piece to prove his point as fact in regards to illegals voting.”
LOL. Do you EVER have anything substantive to say, lightweight?
Bloomberg Troll
October 3rd, 2012
1:32 pm
The Hannitys, Becks, Limbaughs of the world are not generally good for the Republican party.
But then again, they draw more attention to the all important deficit issue much better, than, say, the staid Petersen Institute or the CBO.
So the loudmouths are bad for Republicans, but partly good for America. Until such time as the deficit is fixed.
St Simons
October 3rd, 2012
1:32 pm
just give Bill Orvis White the Poolitzer now….a masterpiece
Regnad Kcin
October 3rd, 2012
1:33 pm
” I’ve my doubts they’ve had a true falling out! We do not truly know what goes on behind the scenes!”
Try tinfoil – that aluminum foil hat you’re using is apparently still letting through the Z-rays…
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
1:34 pm
You will see the real President Obama crushing mitt in the first debate.
Americans will be watching this one.
GT
October 3rd, 2012
1:34 pm
Proud to be me, you got a mirror where you come from. If so look at it and if you see the bigot I see you know you are not Democrat. Now you may be looking and not seeing that bigot hiding there. If so why are you in the Republican Party, you like the food or the benefits? And cut with the economy crap, you didn’t change over night because of the economy. It was fine under Clinton and I am betting you didn’t vote for Clinton or any Democrat after him. Nope what is eating at you is deeper than the economy.
smc
October 3rd, 2012
1:35 pm
Is journalism really this dead? Do you really get paid to write this crap?
You don’t even know the FACTS — what is wrong with the press?
The fact is THE STAFFORD WAIVER WAS GRANTED FOR KATRINA! — Obama lied! Do your homework!
The other fact is that the NOLA and LA local governments are 100% responsible for any negligence associated with Katrina:
1) the local governments placed low priorty on maintenance of levies
2) mayor did not call mandatory evacuation until the situation was far gone
3) the localities were asked to request FEMA assistance in advance of Katrina and refused it
4) Due to the Posse Comitatus Act it is illegal for FEMA to assist without the request of local governments.
OK — I get how an ignorant entertainer can come out and make ridiculous statements about George Bush hating white people shortly after Katina. And I get how a race baiting fony smarmy politician trying to become president makes these kinds of statements in 2007.
But here we are seven years later and the facts are easily available, but a jounralist, or oppinion writer or whatever you are can’t get this right?
Aquagirl
October 3rd, 2012
1:35 pm
What does that matter? Do you imagine they have some greater interpretive power that the rest of us?
I understand they’ve read a few law books here and there.
This really sums up conservative thinking: an opinion blatted from their butts is equal to anyone else’s. Whatever pops into their head is more valid, and they’ll do you the favor of correcting your errors regardless of their knowledge, experience, or effort to construct a logical thought.
They lecture Climatologists on the climate, Lawyers on law, women on reproduction, and Jews on whether they’re Jewish.
Mitt’s dog had the proper response to this sort of egotistical mania.
sheepdawg
October 3rd, 2012
1:36 pm
Great article Jay! Hits the heart of the issue with the radical right wing nuts and tea partiers. Take away their gullible, poor, racist, white, southern base and the party is nothing but a few ranting and screaming idiots (Sean Hannity, Rush, O’Reilly, Beck, etc)
DannyX
October 3rd, 2012
1:37 pm
“just give Bill Orvis White the Poolitzer now….a masterpiece”
I will go a step further…
Bill Orvis White 2016
Joe Hussein Mama
October 3rd, 2012
1:37 pm
smc — “1) the local governments placed low priorty on maintenance of levies”
Not a fact. The levees are the responsibility of the Army Corps of Engineers. That makes it a Federal matter.
Brosephus™
October 3rd, 2012
1:37 pm
On the opposite side of the coin, what IF; a white candidate had said the same things to their audience. Liberals and Dem’s went ballistic when a small remark was made at a birthday party for a retiring white Senator of S.C. All this “race” division is stirring up trouble.
And Conservatives defended that statement and the person making it just as the Left is defending Obama’s statement. So what?
If we want to play what ifs, then what if Whites continuously did the same thing with the complete approval of their peers. What if Whites murdered Blacks for no reason other than them being Black, and their peers refused to convict them for the crimes they committed.
I’m beginning to wonder if the true nature of the fear of Black America is because of the Bible’s instruction to “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” All the hatemongering, killing, and terror that was committed by Whites when they were the dominant majority must be eating away at the conscience of some in fear of the same being done to them or their kin.
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
1:37 pm
Kam,
Most of the rw media and cnn.
I can still post on some drudge links and they are the most fun
new "racially heated" Obama video surfaces. - Page 3 - INGunOwners
October 3rd, 2012
1:38 pm
[...] costs. Fodder for those who feed on race. Plain and simple. We get it. The president is black. http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blo…y_bookman_blog Last edited by level.eleven; 42 Minutes Ago at [...]
Joe Hussein Mama
October 3rd, 2012
1:38 pm
SSI — “just give Bill Orvis White the Poolitzer now….a masterpiece”
Is that anything like a Pullet Surprise?
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
1:40 pm
Bow is one of my favorite bloggers.
He wants ann coulter.
They BOTH suck
October 3rd, 2012
1:42 pm
“Do you EVER have anything substantive to say, lightweight?”
This from the guy who cures gays or knows how they are cured……… hahahahaha
The candle blogger is upset because he has been called out.
Go back and look at your own links you posted. They were opinions that your brainwashed self wants so bad to believe as fact.
Your choice, but that is what you posted
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
1:42 pm
Trump to Romney on Debate: Be ‘Tough, Sharp, Smart’
Riiiight you are, you birther idiot!
Because being weak, dull and dumb is not terribly effective. (Outside of the GOP, anyway!)
DannyX
October 3rd, 2012
1:42 pm
BREAKING…
Hannity, Drudge Report, and Daily Caller will report tonight on a subject all but ignored by the liberal media.
Doctors are giving abortions to men who are not pregnant! The report will reveal about 32,000 men have this painful procedure done each year.
JamVet
October 3rd, 2012
1:44 pm
Yo, Billybob, bad news regarding your contrived outrage…
Despite Mitt Romney’s campaign efforts to use President Barack Obama’s “You didn’t build that” line to paint him as anti-business, a new poll shows the effort fell flat, Politico reported.
The line, it turns out, is not a net negative for Obama among those asked in the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. Respondents were read the lines in context and asked how that changed their views of Obama, with 36 percent saying it made them feel more positively about Obama, 32 percent saying it made them view him more negatively and 26 percent saying it made no difference.
http://www.newsmax.com/US/romney-build-that-line/2012/10/03/id/458522
getalife
October 3rd, 2012
1:44 pm
miit would hire trump for his cabinet.
Keep Up the Good Fight! (and only seeing conned poutrage)
October 3rd, 2012
1:45 pm
Dang it Brosephus…. there is no race issue if no one talks about it.
Quit being so uppidity. Remember like the 50’s when there were no race issues and no one talked about them “others”.
Joseph
October 3rd, 2012
1:45 pm
JamVet:
Well thanks for calling me out. I read almost everyday on this hate filled blog how Republicans are raciest yet when an obvious video surfaces of your messiah showing his raciest chirps you get your panties in a wad.. You are just bubbling with brilliance…..
Aquagirl
October 3rd, 2012
1:46 pm
Doctors are giving abortions to men who are not pregnant!
Maybe those men WANT abortions,you repressive bigot!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBOQzSk14c