10:59:47 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: so, wait
10:59:50 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: obama's BLACK?
10:59:55 AM AnaMarie Cox: i know!?!?
11:00:18 AM AnaMarie Cox: "purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap" is a nice line, but it makes me think of Sam's Club
11:02:29 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: thank god the plagiarism stuff is over, though, or phil singer would be sending out an e-mail all outraged about obama quoting his own book
11:02:53 AM AnaMarie Cox: did he attribute jefferson? I don't think so.... he's ALMOST going to the place i sort of want him to: Wright says these things because so many people still feel so betrayed.
11:03:04 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: he won't
11:03:06 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: ever
11:03:13 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: because then he's just another black liberal
11:03:15 AM AnaMarie Cox: i feel like i should be able to have a martini every time a political candidate says "youtube"
11:03:44 AM AnaMarie Cox: but he can condemn and still point to the hurt/anger the makes the remarks possible, no?
11:04:00 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: well, yeah
11:04:07 AM AnaMarie Cox: of c, that would require the american people to hold two ideas in their heads at once
11:04:08 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: but he's trying to do a few complicated things here
11:04:38 AM AnaMarie Cox: totally quoting himself still. i bet he first wrote this speech in kindegarten
11:04:49 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: ha
11:05:17 AM AnaMarie Cox: i sort of want a record of all the chyrons
11:05:30 AM AnaMarie Cox: "obama: the american people are hungry for my message of unity"
11:05:44 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: i am the change you've been waiting for
11:05:58 AM AnaMarie Cox: "obama: i am black"
11:06:13 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: "obama: black people like to dance"
11:06:21 AM AnaMarie Cox: "obama: would you like some watermelon?"
11:06:33 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: "obama: yessir, massa hillary"
11:06:36 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: ok
11:06:41 AM AnaMarie Cox: we'll stop
11:06:48 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: i think i've just crossed some lines that i should have recognized were best to stay on the other side of
11:07:01 AM AnaMarie Cox: you're one step ahead of rev wright!
11:07:04 AM AnaMarie Cox: as it were
11:07:25 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: this part of the speech is going to backfire
11:07:28 AM AnaMarie Cox: "i can no more disown him than i can disown the black community"... very interesting.
11:07:39 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: i don't actually understand what he's hoping to accomplish here
11:07:40 AM AnaMarie Cox: that's almost "going there"
11:07:41 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: by defending him
11:08:52 AM AnaMarie Cox: oh that's harsh: "we'd be doing the same thing that reverend wright did"?
11:09:01 AM AnaMarie Cox: if we condemned his remarks?
11:09:22 AM AnaMarie Cox: "obama: rev wright has been like family to me. a crazy uncle, to be specific."
11:09:51 AM AnaMarie Cox: he does have a point about facing the reality of the situation as opposed to just condemning... if that makes sense.
11:43 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: yeah
11:45 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: but still
11:56 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: who is his audience for this speech?
11:58 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: the people like you and me
11:12:02 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: who kind of see where he's going
11:12:04 AM AnaMarie Cox: building code enforcement helps create a cycle of violence?
11:12:04 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: ALREADY VOTED FOR HIM
11:12:16 AM AnaMarie Cox: yep
11:12:27 AM AnaMarie Cox: and i didn't even know about this building code issue
11:12:30 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: heh
11:12:35 AM AnaMarie Cox: i'll be interested to talk to salter about this
11:12:37 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: actually
11:12:40 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: the building code stuff
11:12:46 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: makes sense
11:13:02 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: especially for someone who can't take the 42 bus to work because mt. pleasant street is still closed from that fire
11:13:06 AM AnaMarie Cox: yes, it's just a strange note to hit in such a high-flying speech
11:13:58 AM AnaMarie Cox: "obama: some people are still racist"
11:14:19 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: "obama: specifically, hillary voters"
11:14:23 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: er no
11:14:29 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: that's more "[me]: specifically, hillary voters"
11:14:48 AM AnaMarie Cox: "obama: specifically, hillary staffers."
11:14:55 AM AnaMarie Cox: "obama: and bill. did i mention bill?"
11:15:03 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: actually this next bit is interesting
11:15:21 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: this is where obama does something most black politicians wouldn't do
11:15:37 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: he validates the white backlash people as a way of getting them to buy into his message
11:15:40 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: or tries to
11:15:59 AM AnaMarie Cox: yeah... trying to think of an analog
11:16:26 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: some of my wife's extended family [in this town], might as well be the people he's describing here
11:16:36 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: so i find this part particularly fascinating
11:16:36 AM AnaMarie Cox: now he'd turning it into something more traditional
11:16:40 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: the problem is
11:16:42 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: it still won't work
11:17:00 AM AnaMarie Cox: "pundits have built entire careers on exploiting this anger."
11:17:00 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: geraldine ferraro, who is very emblematic of white ethnic working class people, will not be persuaded here
11:17:13 AM AnaMarie Cox: "i'm looking at you, pat buchanan."
11:17:19 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: and bill o'reilly
11:17:38 AM AnaMarie Cox: also in some ways he's condescending to them
11:17:52 AM AnaMarie Cox: those angry whites, they're so easily manipulated... sigh...
11:18:26 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: thats actually the official obama line
11:18:29 AM AnaMarie Cox: would he say that wright built his career by manipulating/exploiting anger? he didn't frame it quite the same way.
11:18:29 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: if samantha power is any indication
11:19:37 AM AnaMarie Cox: reading to children will fix racism. i'd make fun of that except i guess it's kinda true.
11:19:55 AM AnaMarie Cox: this is not a particularly enthusiastic crowd.
11:20:16 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: nope
11:20:51 AM AnaMarie Cox: he says "latino" in that way that white people do when they're trying to show they speak a little spanish
11:20:54 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: yeah
11:21:05 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: or in the way politicians do when they're trying to pretend latinos vote for them
11:21:43 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: "obama: black people have problems"
11:22:04 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: more precisely, "obama: hey whitey, we have real problems"
11:22:27 AM AnaMarie Cox: "obama: let's focus on me, not that wright guy."
11:22:39 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: if he doesn't win, no one will ever try to really get past these divisions again though
11:22:42 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: don't you think?
11:22:51 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: the lesson of an obama loss will be "cynicism works"
11:23:22 AM AnaMarie Cox: it is hard to imagine another politician as talented as obama coming along again in this generation
11:23:36 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: actually he's making that point right now
11:23:46 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: ... not your point
11:23:50 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: though salter woudl say he is
11:24:12 AM AnaMarie Cox: he's making it about "us"
11:24:26 AM AnaMarie Cox: that, uhm, he is the change we've been waiting for...
11:24:42 AM AnaMarie Cox: voting for obama repudiates america's history of racism
11:24:45 AM AnaMarie Cox: that's all you have to do!
11:24:49 AM AnaMarie Cox: vote for obama!
11:24:58 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: now you've got the full salter rant going
11:25:20 AM AnaMarie Cox: it's actually sort of brilliant, and not entirely his fault.
11:25:24 AM AnaMarie Cox: (obama not salter)
11:25:26 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: right
11:26:02 AM AnaMarie Cox: in the sense that, yeah, whitey made race an issue; so anyone who doesn't vote for obama has to answer for how that means they're not racist
11:26:13 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: except
11:26:25 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: implicitly accusing white working class people of racism is not the way to get them to vote for you
11:26:33 AM AnaMarie Cox: well they're comfortable with that
11:26:35 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: right
11:26:42 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: this angle only works on... white obama voters
11:26:57 AM AnaMarie Cox: ugh, yeah
11:27:08 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: though the whole thing is, like his campaign usually is, not about identity politics
11:27:13 AM AnaMarie Cox: or, at best, waivering dem primary voters
11:27:20 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: to me, that's the fundamental difference between obama and clinton
11:27:25 AM AnaMarie Cox: that's a great point
11:27:27 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: her campaign is about identity politics
11:27:34 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: whether it's, vote for me becasue i'm a woman
11:27:35 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: or
11:27:38 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: obama's the black guy
11:27:41 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: and his isn't
11:28:11 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: at least not when he talks to white people
11:29:07 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: "Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice."
11:29:08 AM AnaMarie Cox: but obama's trap/trick is that by making his campaign about ideas/hope, there's an implicit corallary that if you don't support him, you're not serious about ideas/hope.... and you may be racist.
11:29:14 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: right
11:29:21 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: this graf is the worst one in the speech
11:29:26 AM AnaMarie Cox: yeah.
11:29:35 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: "obama: die, straw men!"
11:30:16 AM AnaMarie Cox: ashley was one rush limbaugh show away of becoming a border fence activist.
11:30:24 AM fellow liberal reporter friend: haha
11:31:08 AM AnaMarie Cox: "obama: whew, glad that's over."
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