What about black irish? Are they all voting Obama?

You bet we are even though Obama is a prostitute - er, Protestant. We just pretend he is a Muslim.

Best, Terry

Four words: America needs more Sinbad.

Sinbad/Clinton would be a sure winner.

Eat your heart out Al Franken.

Best, Terry

Exactly! For those who would say that AAs are only voting for Obama because he's black, consider that the tide turned on HRC when her surrogates started making racially-suggestive statements. Before then, polls indicated that HRC was supported by a much higher percentage of AAs. Sure, one could say there's a racial element if black voters really are only voting for Obama because he's black. But what's much more likely to be going on is that black voters are voting against a candidate who would condone race-based tactics. It makes perfect sense that AAs would not choose to vote for a candidate perpetuating racist stereotypes.

Okay, I love your avatar with your screen name. I heard all of them "say" your post.

Finally! Somebody truly gets it!

:-D

Cannot be better said!

I posted this comment on an earlier thread:

I have no idea whether or not Geraldine Ferraro’s recent comments are evidence that she is a racist. She may well be, and that’s sad. But do I believe that these comments, while much more than a little troubling, are not per se racist. To suggest that Sen. Obama would not be where he is today in this presidential primary race were he not black is not to denigrate him, or his successes, or his qualifications. It is simply recognition that his race has played a big part in who he is. If we like him or support him for who he is, then we have to allow that his race is part and parcel of the man Barack Obama has become.

It is not racist to suggest or to accept that Sen. Obama’s race has brought him to where he is, both in his personal life and in his political life. Sen. Obama celebrates his African-American heritage and his successes as a black man. (Check out his books.) His campaign website boasts that he “was born in Hawaii…[h]is father, Barack Obama Sr., was born and raised in a small village in Kenya, where he grew up herding goats with his own father, who was a domestic servant to the British.” At Harvard, “he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Soon after, he returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer…his advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate,…he became the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Senate.”

Again from the Senator’s campaign website: “It is an exciting time for African Americans, who will play a pivotal role in this election.…There is no better advocate for African Americans than Barack Obama. Barack knows your story, because it is his story. The causes that you hold dear have been the causes of his life.”

Sen. Obama is not the only one who celebrates his African-American heritage and his successes as a black man in a white world. Biographer, Steve Dougherty, writes that Sen. Obama’s personal story is basis of his political desire to unite. He “grew up in Hawaii, forever an outsider, a black kid abandoned at age two by his father,…raised by [his white grandparents] in a white neighborhood and looked at askance by all of a more definable hue and tribe, who struggled mightily to find an identity and purpose in life,…has risen to become…a voice whose call for a union undivided by liberal and conservative, red state and blue, or black and white, springs from his own struggles to find a way to united his own divided heart….” (Source: “Hopes and Dreams,” by Steve Dougherty, p. 34 Feb 15, 2007.)

Publisher’s Weekly describes (excerpt at Amazon.com) how Sen. Obama’s first book, “Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance,” came about. “Elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama was offered a book contract, but the intellectual journey he planned to recount became instead this poignant, probing memoir of an unusual life. Born…to a white American woman and a black Kenyan student…. So Obama's not-unhappy youth is nevertheless a lonely voyage to racial identity,…. He slowly found place and purpose among folks of similar hue but different memory, winning enough small victories to commit himself to the work.”

Audio File (excerpt also available at Amazon.com) makes similar comments about “Dreams.” . “Throughout the book, the U.S. Senator looks at race from the point of view of someone who has seen and been part of a variety of cultures, and he explains how his perspective shaped his views.”

From an Editorial Review (at Amazon.com) for “Barack Obama: An American Story,” by R. Edwards and K. Call: “Of mixed race and cultures, Barack Obama struggled for years with his identity and place in society. …[H]e has made history as the fifth African American U.S. senator ever to be elected. Now “the skinny kid” continues his political journey and strives to become the nation’s first black president. …Senator Obama’s life has been interesting and inspiring.”

Check out other titles on Barack Obama: “The Politics of Hope,” “The Improbable Quest.” Ask yourself — and be honest — would Sen. Obama’s story be as hope-filled, improbable, inspiring, poignant, powerful and compelling is he were not an African-American in an all-too-white world?

You also have to ask yourself: Would this little-known state senator (who lost his bid in 2000 for the U.S. Congress) have been given the opportunity to give the Keynote Speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention if he were not black? And isn't that where the country was first introduced to this inspiring man? Would his story be as inspiring and compelling if he had grown up as just another poor white kid — like say, John Edwards? Had Obama not been given the Keynote Speech and had he not done such a wonderfully rousing job of it, would Obama have won his seat in the U.S. Senate, and would he have been able to move on so quickly to put his hat into the ring for the 2008 presidential election? And, given former Pres. Clinton’s popularity with black voters — i.e., “the first black president” — do you think that Sen. Obama would have been able to wrest that vote from Sen. Clinton to the extent that he has if he were not black? (Remember, his own campaign website states: “It is an exciting time for African Americans, who will play a pivotal role in this election.…There is no better advocate for African Americans than Barack Obama. Barack knows your story, because it is his story. The causes that you hold dear have been the causes of his life.”) And, would he be where he is in the primary numbers without that black vote?

This country is not color blind — would that it were. If Sen. Obama can use his color to his advantage (and to the advantage of his constituents, his supporters and, ultimately, this country), then more power to him!! But we shouldn't kid ourselves into thinking that his race has not played a part in getting him (meaning pushing or driving him to find himself and to succeed, not pulling him along regardless of his abilities) where he is today. Not any more than Sen. Clinton can deny that her gender (and even her husband) has helped her. Whether Obama’s color and Clinton’s gender are viewed as burdens to overcome or to capitalize upon, or as benefits to take advantage of, color and gender are part of who these candidates are. And who they are is why we support them.

Of course Hillary's not racist. However, they ARE using/exacerbating race divisions in this country to gain power and win an election, and that I cannot stand for.