No More Incumbents Blog

Mary Mitchell, a writer for the Chicago Sun Times, called Senator Barack Obama an Uppity Black Man in an article yesterday.

Don’t worry.  Its OK for Mary Mitchell to call Senator Barack Obama an Uppity Black man, not because Mary Mitchell has some African American genes herself, not because she writes for a Chicago paper in Obama’s most recent adopted town, but because she misquoted Senator Hillary Clinton.  [Note. This paragraph should gush with sarcasm and scorn.  I don’t like Hillary but I like people that spew racial slurs even less.]

Well, case in point, it looks like Mary Mitchell just made the whole thing up because she didn’t cite any sources or speech or comments made by Hillary Clinton using the same words not even the word that Mitchell herself quoted, “Uppity”.

You can sure as hell bet that if Senator Clinton had called Barack Obama an Uppity Black man that the press would have a field day with it and Clinton would be out of the race for President before the sun had set on Chi Town.

Mary Mitchell wrote an article that teases the reader with this concept that Hillary Clinton has played the race card. 

Note. Its actually not possible in literal terms as playing the race card is a slang term for a person of a particular race that uses their race to get something that they could not get without relying on their race.

But if Mary Mitchell had wanted to instead accuse Hillary Clinton of making racist remarks at least her title and the substance of her article would have actually made sense.

So she drones on for over 700 shallow words about how Hillary Clinton is behind attacks against Barack Obama that emerge whenever Hillary is down in the polls.  That actually could have substance, but Mitchell doesn’t say it that way.  She says that Hillary attacks Obama based on his race whenever she is down in the polls

A disturbing trend has emerged from the long Democratic primary. Whenever Sen. Hillary Clinton is trailing in the polls, a racially divisive issue pops up.

Clinton loses 11 consecutive races, and the photograph of Sen. Barack Obama in Somalian garb shows up.

Clinton falls behind in pledged delegates and gets caught in a lie about her Bosnia adventure, and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. story reignites.

The fallout over Obama’s “bitter” comment fits that same pattern.

He’s quoted as saying: “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Mary Mitchell saved the race bating comment until the very end.  Here is the last sentence of Mary Mitchell’s article of approximately 710 words, which probably borders on libel.

But worst yet, Clinton is now communicating to these voters that she that can put an “uppity” black man in his place.

Mary Mitchell made her latest addition to a series of very shallow articles covering Barack Obama, with titles that are sensational indeed but often severely lacking in little things like fact, reality, perspective or insight.  For a blogger, that might be par for the course, but for a journalist of the oldest newspaper in Chicago, its  . . . . probably par for the course as well.  Otherwise, her editors would have sent her back to her computer to cover some real news instead of fabricating a scandal.

Here’s some of Mary Mitchell’s latest and greatest Headlines

• Leave Jeremiah Wright alone! (3/30/2008 12:38:58 PM)
• Dirty Tricks? (2/14/2008 16:19:15 PM)
• Sen. Barack Obama’s letter to Tavis Smiley (2/14/2008 15:51:28 PM)
• Why is Tavis Smiley dissing Sen. Barack Obama? (2/14/2008 14:42:56 PM)
• Chicagoans in South Carolina (12/09/2007 12:30:38 PM)
• Obama/Oprah Fest (12/09/2007 11:36:08 AM)
• Andrew Young’s disgusting comments (12/09/2007 08:10:27 AM)
• Leave it to Beavers (11/28/2007 10:38:22 AM)
• Duane “Dog” Chapman said what he meant (11/02/2007 16:38:43 PM)
• The Color Complex–Part Two (10/18/2007 17:35:11 PM)

Now if you do not read those articles, you might suspect that Mary Mitchell is frequenting the Obama cool aid stand a little too often.  However, if you jump in to these articles, you would realize that Mitchell is actually trying to get Senator Barack Obama to drink some of her own AUM laced cool aid and start acting black enough for her tastes.

She has also tried to get Barack Obama to support Louis Farrakhan.  Apparently, that would be a good thing in Mitchell’s mind.  Maybe she thinks that it would even make Obama black enough.  The reality is that if Obama did support Farrakhan his attempt to rise above politics and take the high road would be over.  You probably recall the debate where Obama initially hemmed and hawed about the support that Farrakhan offered him and after Hillary offered up an example of her own leadership in rejecting support from people and groups that did not treat all people of any race with respect and dignity, Obama decided to jump on the band wagon and made a snappy one liner that he’d reject and denounce Farrakhan’s support to make Hillary feel better. 

Obama got a lot of credit for a wise ass (and funny) reply, but no one picked up on the issue that he didn’t have the leadership or good judgement to do so immediately. 

Mary Mitchell however would have had Obama whole heartedly embrace Farrakhan and his support despite Farrakhan’s racist past comments.  She was quick to jump on Don Imus and call for his ouster over racist statements, but turns a blind eye to Farrakhan. 

I see Imus and Farrakhan as being about equal in their influence, reach and racist views and happy to see both fade from public life and influence.  We need fewer racists of every color not more.

I am not a supporter of Obama, but I do believe that he should be allowed to be himself.  If being himself is too black or too white or too elite or too good at basketball or too poor at bowling, well who cares, as long as he is being himself.  Americans in general do not trust politicians of all colors, and politicians that are hypocrites loose the trust of the American people faster than anyone.  So if Obama is or isn’t black enough, it doesn’t matter as long as he is being as real as he can on that given day of the week.

But Mary Mitchell has a problem with that.  I don’t know why and I don’t care, but it is apparent and becomes an issue in that she is helping break America apart.  I do not care what her race is, but I feel that when people use the word ‘”uppity” black man’ in print, they are extending the shelf life of racism and the racial divide in America.  I do not criticize her for exercising her right to free speech.  She can speak and print messages of hate and other remarks to her soured hearts content, but we should recognize the source of the hate speech as coming from Mary Mitchell and endorsed in print by the Chicago Sun Times.

As I was reading through some of her past articles and blogs, I came across her ruminations on why Jeremiah Wright can’t be left alone.  To me the answer is obvious and I left the following reply to her article.  Many people (including myself) listened to Barack Obama’s speech on race and saw the good in the speech that would help unite the country.  What many of us, including myself failed to see what was missing.  A speech on patriotism.  Jeremiah Wright may have some very serious issues, and I definitely disagree with the comments popularized through YouTube, but he did serve his country and he is a patriot.  He earned the right to hold and express those views and defended the rights of people like myself and Mitchell to express our own. 

Barack Obama did not and has not yet stood up for patriots of the United States that offer straight talk on a topic even when that topic or the straight talk itself is hurtful to listen to and consider. 

My Reply to Mary Mitchell on the topic of Jeremiah Wright

Jeremiah Wright is still a story because Barack Obama threw him under the bus last year (when he dis-invited him to the campaign) and then backed the bus up over him when the media found video examples of comments that show Wright’s extreme view.

Instead of defending Wright’s hard earned right to express his extreme views, Obama shoved him into retirement and obscurity at a time when Wright’s reputation was trashed.

Essentially, Obama allowed the country to accept the view that Wright and his church were extreme by silencing him, disciplining him, and keeping the distance with him from his campaign.

Obama stood up afterwards and made a great speech on the topic of race, a speech that he was able to draw on great personal experience to connect with America and the world in a way that few can.

However, Obama was unable and deficient at standing up for Wright and Wright’s Right to express his views no matter how out of the main stream they might be.

Republicans have just spent 8 years throwing the Bill of Rights out the window charging people as being un-patriotic whenever criticism is raised and when Barack had the opportunity to defend a patriot that fought more and harder for this country than either the President or Vice President he had not personal experience to draw upon and dismissed Wright’s patriotism.

It takes a tough person to criticize the country that they have fought for and to expose the dirty laundry and skeletons in the closet.  We have to have leaders that will keep the channels of communication open for the few people brave enough to do that.

I do not personally agree with many of Wright’s perspectives or comments, but he like myself has served this country in the military and definitely earned the right to express our views. 

The real problem is that when Obama backed up the bus over Wright and his right to express his views, Obama essentially jumped on the bandwagon of politicians that are trashing the Bill of Rights.  Obama failed to defend the Bill of Rights in his speech and that is fundamental job responsibility of the Commander in Chief.  Protect the Constitution, including the first 10 amendments known as the Bill of Rights.

So at the end of the day, we have a journalist stirring up the news with racist remarks about a Presidential Candidate that is trying to rise above the issue of his mixed heritage and get our country focused on fixing itself.  Its a nasty situation and game that the media is playing with race this election season.  Some truly do want to make a difference and help the country heal. 

If you saw the movie “Meeting David Wilson” on MSNBC and the round table discussion afterwards you would know what I mean.

Then you have others on both sides of the racial divide that are purposefully trying to get everyone else into a fight.  They must think that we need a war where blood is shed and there is a winner and loser at the end of the war.  Well, I’ve got news for both sides.  That war has been fought.  That blood has been shed.  The war is over and guess what.

RACISTS LOST!

Its not time for another war.  Its time to finish the healing that is still going on after a war that saw the deaths of more Americans than any other war.  We do not need more racial slurs thrown around, we need fewer.  We do not need people in the media making up fake racial slurs quotes to sell newspapers or attract readers.  We certainly do not need to know if Barack Obama is black enough or white enough or common enough or elite enough to be President.  We do need leaders and we do need to heal and we need our Constitution back and right quick or else we are ALL going to find ourselves in chains, dead or worse.

Americans are slowly ever so slowly waking up to the fact that we have serious problems in this country and that we ALL need to work to solve those problems.  The days of worrying about comforter sets matching a bedroom set and paint on the wall inspired by a home improvement show are over.  We need to look at, consider and fix some serious problems now.

We can do it, but we do not need a false set of circumstances or false priorities shoved down our throats.  Fortunately, we have something, a tool that we never had before that might just enable us to sift through the facts and get a little closer to the truth.  Its the internet and it just might be the medium that enables Americans to use their own good judgement to figure out how we can  all move forward together.

Follow Up - If you are wondering why Barack Obama and his campaign (along with the national media) did not pounce on Hillary for calling him “uppity”, its because it didn’t happen.  Barack himself has dismissed the concept and that just leaves Mary Mitchell holding the bag for the “uppity” black man racial slur against Barack Obama.

Barack Obama on Tuesday dismissed a voter’s suggestion that when Hillary Rodham Clinton called him elitist it “bordered on uppity.”

“It’s politics,” the presidential candidate told a town-hall meeting on veterans affairs. “This is what we do politically, when we start getting behind in races. We start going on the attack.”

Was Clinton calling Obama “uppity?”

When times are tough, no one wants to hear a person with a silver spoon in their mouth complain about petty problems.  That is a reality that seems to have escaped the Obama campaign. 

Week after week we have had to listen to how difficult life has been for Barack Obama.  Despite the fact that he was born to an immigrant from Africa that promptly dumped him and his mother, went to Harvard and then moved back to Kenya to be a Professor as opposed to a door to door hoodia salesman or something, Barack has lived a very easy life.

He attended a college prep school in Hawaii that today charges close to $17,000 a year in tuition.  From there he went on to college at Occidental, then Columbia and then Harvard.  Wow what a rough life.  However did he manage to do all of that despite having the name of Barack Hussein Obama?

Today, Barack Obama will rapidly unleash his campaign attack dogs and internet fan boys on anyone that even mentions his middle name, Hussein.

Hello, Barack, we didn’t name you.  That’s on your parents.  If you don’t like your name, if the mention of your name makes you so insecure, maybe you should change it.  Maybe if you are so insecure about your name, compensating for it by running for President of the United States could be a bad thing for you and the country!

Early in the campaign many people in the African American community questioned whether or not Barack Obama was ‘black’ enough.  As if there is a color wheel somewhere that would open the magical voting block doors for Barack Obama to go and get 90% of the African American vote.  It was a stupid concept and apparently one that Barack Obama thought was stupid as well. He routinely down played race back then and tried to get the rest of the country to ignore it as well.

Then things started to change. 

In Iowa he learned something special.  White people aren’t racist. White people will support a candidate for reasons that are not superficial like skin color and a persons name, even when that name is shared by the former dictator that we as a country helped to capture and execute and even when the last name rhymes with Americas most notorious terrorist enemy.

The weird thing is that Barack Obama didn’t stay on the high road where race doesn’t matter.  Instead he started campaigning more heavily to attract the African American vote.  This started during the famous black vote arms race in the South with both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama trying to sound more and more like an African American Baptist preacher.  It culminated with Barack Obama winning the support of Oprah Winfrey on the stump in South Carolina.

As Obama’s campaign went through and won South Carolina (after losing in New Hampshire) Barack Obama got a taste for the African American vote and wanted it all.  White voters were still voting for Barack Obama, but African American voters in state after state seemed to show almost no support for anyone that had a pigment deficit.

Barack’s Campaign had succeeded in making race an issue.  Suddenly anything that anyone said including Bill Clinton who is rumored to be partially African American himself, was being accused of being a racist or making racist comments.  Every word and every gesture against Barrack Obama was suddenly an attack against his race.  A race that he himself struggled with his whole life growing up in a culture that was predominantly not African American nor white, but actually Asian.

In Barack Obama’s formative years, he couldn’t handle his own race, his identity and his name and by his own account turned to drugs and cocaine.  Unfortunately, there is nothing more American than doing drugs, but most people don’t turn to drugs because they have questions about themselves or their own race.

Young Barack Obama must have been one screwed up puppy to turn to cocaine because he didn’t understand himself.  He says that he never questioned the diversity within his own family and just accepted it.  But while talking out of the other side of his mouth he seems to have been very confused and tormented by the resulting differences. 

So who is the real Barack Obama?  The man that grew up color blind and culturally accepting in a diverse setting in the Pacific rim or the man that turned to alcohol and hard drugs to escape himself sacrificing his best friend to federal prison while he went on from elite prep school to elite college programs and then a mediocre political background until he ran for President.

I take 2 issues with Barack Obama today. 

My first issue is that the man has no experience.  He’s a great speaker and motivates his own base, but despite that gift for oratory, he has accomplished very little for the country or anyone else.  He has managed to work his way up quickly in politics.  So what, big deal.  Politics at Barack’s former levels were all about popularity contests.  When it came to leadership and accomplishing results, he’s been politicking through a void of speech.

My second issue is that Barack Hussein Obama at the age of 46 seems to be embarrassed by his own name.  That seems to be a deep seated character flaw to me.  I could understand a child or a teenager being uncomfortable with their name, possibly even embarrassed by it.  But we are talking about a grown man, a professor with a wife and family and a US Senator running for President of the most powerful country in the world.

If he cannot handle people speaking his name out loud.  If saying his name is to be Verboten, if we are to refer to a potential future President Obama as the President with the Middle Name That Shall not be Spoken, then he’s not the right guy for the job.

White Americans have demonstrated that they do not care what color his skin is.  African Americans seem to be jumping on the band wagon to do everything they can to make an African American President.  I do not fault African Americans for that.  Its a noble cause and its understandable that they would show their support like they are.  But let’s consider that if Barack Obama is not man enough to accept free speech in America when people say his own name given to him by his mother and father, then maybe their is an issue with his skin.  Its not an issue of pigment or hereditary, its an issue that is not physiological at all.

Barack Obama’s skin is apparently not thick enough and he’s not mature enough to accept who he is yet.  When he was a teenager he compensated with drugs and now he seems to be compensating with the high that comes from power and big crowds.  He needs to get over these issues.

If he cannot get over these issues, then he is not only going to be an inexperienced President but he is going to be a very insecure President.  That is a bad combination. 

Barack Obama grew up without his natural father and given his books that seems to have been a bit of a problem for him in retrospect.  He had all the benefits of a upper middle class background, but he hasn’t seemed to be able to get over his former self destructive insecurities.

He has a mystery father that he never seemed to really get know (meeting him once).  Every time Barack or his campaign complain about perceived attacks on his race or his name, he is really targeting his attackers with his surrogate feelings and emotions for a father he did not know and did not understand.  He seems to have the intellect to potentially over come this, but has not yet exhibited any success at getting rid of these demons.

He’s definitely American.  What could be more American than having a mixed up heritage and identity?  What could be more American than escaping your problems with drugs and alcohol?  What could be more American than chasing a popularity contest?  What could be more American than having an old uncle that’s a bigot and spouts off crazy statements at unfortunate times?

Well, the only thing more American than all of those things is over coming the challenges and the problems and his own inner turmoil.  The only thing more American would be to achieve some real results.  I’m not talking about becoming the President, I’m talking about leading Americans to a greater achievement.

As Americans we deserve better than to have to prop an insecure middle aged man up sacrificing the future of our own children so that he can feel better.  If that’s what Barack really wants then he should take a lesson out of Eliot Spitzer’s playbook, go experience a mid life melt down with a prostitute and come back when he’s ready to do some real work.  He needs to leave the personal insecurities at home and step up and be a leader.

Instead of crying wolf every time someone mentions his own name, he could take the podium and say my name is Barack Hussein Obama.  I have been troubled by my own name in the past, I have been troubled by my own background in the past, I have been troubled in the past (notice I’m repeating the concept three times since he likes that style of speaking), but I will be troubled no more.  My name is Barack Hussein Obama, wear it out if you like but I’m going to achieve something and you will remember it for good reasons and not remember it out of fear of mentioning it aloud in polite conversation.

As I write that headline I hope that I am wrong!  I was wrong about the Republican Debate the other night.  I figured Giuliani would fight a lot harder for the nomination, but everyone took the high road to show up the Democrats in an odd and temporary exhibition of Republican unity.

So now, I hope my predictive headline is completely wrong tomorrow.

Unfortunately, here is why I think I will not be wrong.

CNN is showing a Mason Dixon Poll the night before the Primary that shows the following results:

Registered South Carolina Democratic Voters Choice for Nominee

Other recent polls have shown that 56-60% of African Americans are likely to vote for Obama tomorrow. (I suspect that CNN is not displaying the African American Column to essentially stir up more of a racial issue so that they will have something more extreme to report on. 

It is worth considering that a majority of African Americans will not vote for Hillary, but it hints of racism when a majority of whites do not plan to vote for Obama.

Note history would indicate that CNN by pointing out this disparity might actually help Clinton and Edwards.  This type of information too often in the past has turned African American voters off to the point where they did not show up at the polls at all, thinking that their vote would not count.  Atlanta based CNN is essentially potentially fueling that fire to block the African American vote.

Dynamics of Turn Out and Blocked Turn Out in South Carolina

This is what the Obama and Clinton Campaigns will be doing tomorrow based on those and other polls.  They will be promoting the base that is for them to get out and vote and they will be working to dishearten the portion of the base not likely to vote for them to stay home and give in.

Edwards as a white son of the south is in a weirdly neutral position and is only disliked by people that were negatively impacted by some of his lawsuits when he practiced in this area, especially in the medical professions.

What is so sad about this is that in South Carolina, people are lining up on racial lines to choose a President.  Now, this is not necessarily surprising.  Iowa may be able to turn out a majority of white voters to vote for Barack Obama, but let’s face it South Carolina is no Iowa no matter how many snow birds like myself may move in a southernly direction.

I’m from Illinois and live in North Carolina about 14 miles from the South Carolina line by car and 2 miles by boat.

My Hope is a Massive Turnout

Now its cold here tonight.  About 32 degrees and in Northern terms that translates to about 10 degrees below zero down here where the blood is thin.  Fortunately, the forecast does look dry and it will likely warm up in the morning.

My hope is that South Carolina witnesses a massive turnout of all the races of people.  At the end of the day, I feel that democracy will win if neither Obama nor Clinton succeed in discouraging any voters.  Hopefully all of their negative attack ads will fail and people will go to the polls in droves.  I’m not saying that people should not vote for Clinton or Obama, but I do want as large of a representative group as possible to make that decision together.

If that is not possible, then I hope that both Obama and Clinton’s attack ads backfire and the voters that actually do show up, I hope they vote for Edwards.  I do not agree with Edwards on many points, but I do disagree with the political attacks that Obama and Clinton are engaged in right now.  I do not think South Carolina will decide anything tomorrow as far as the general nomination goes.  So if the Democrats were to receive a nice wake up call that attack ads are not going to be tolerated by the electorate and that the politics of discouragement are not to be rewarded then I think America will have taken a positive step in the right direction.  No longer will politicians be able to put their finger to the wind, test the polls and take actions to block the people that do not like like unplugging the power of adjustable beds in hospitals to prevent the patients from getting up and out of bed to vote. 

If this can be stopped, we will all have South Carolina to thank for opening the door to a great new future.

This Presidential cycle has brought about a new event that is really very annoying.  Its the photo op, and I have written about it before, but it seems to persist.  This waist of air time and waist of a media opportunity to convey some real information is really just pointless drivel(no offense intended to Mr. Fab of Pointless Drivel).

This stupid process is about as annoying as a relative that insists on taking a family portrait every time the family gets together.  Now, the thing that may push this practice over the edge is the large number of debates.  I’m all for as many debates as we can get.  That’s a definite positive and something the media has received little praise for, but is it really necessary to take a group picture filmed on live television every time the common cast of characters get together?

I think not.

Anything else would be preferable.  Show us some updates of the news of the day, show us some financial news, show some attack ads, or talking heads or even some commercials of home theater lighting.  I don’t really care, but please stop showing the uncomfortable moment of a photo op that is really kind of silly.