From the Perspective of an African-American Male: Keith Olbermann is a Mad Dog!!!

[CL358]

I watched breathlessly as he proceeded on a misogynist tirade, using Geraldine Ferraro's comments and Obama's race as an opportunity to masquarade as a crusader and champion of racial equality and party unity while actually waging a thinly veiled, full out attack on Hillary Clinton. As an African American male myself, I appreciate Keith Olbermann's 'interest' in serving against racial injustice, but a real agenda of race equality does not begin by attacking a candidate for something someone else said when your job is to be an objective media pundit.

Regardless of whether or not you agree with Ferraro's comments, the fact exists that it is not inherently racist. To suggest that identity politics don't matter in politics is to deny the fact that being 'white' and being 'male' was a factor in all previous presidential candidates! One could argue that whiteness and maleness are among the usual bundle of 'presidential assets'. Ferraro suggests that this bundle has changed and voters are embracing it! This change is in part related to his 'blackness'. Not negatively related. She never suggests this, but 'related' nonetheless. Unfortunately the media never takes a critical, analytical or historical theorhetical eye to such statements (as shown by Hillary's VERY TRUE statement about President Johnson and the Civil Rights Legislation). This media conspiracy is very real and will certainly be one for the history books and women's and media studies academics for years to come. The media along with Obama used every ounce or wrath, rage, and hatred they could at Hillary to KNOCK HER OUT on March 4th. Now that didn't work and they are slightly baffled by her strength and relentlessness. NOW they are changing their strategy. Allow me to explain.

Prior to March 4th the Media suggested that if Hillary could stay in past March 4th AND win Pennsylvania, Obama would have a difficult time convincing superdelegates that he could carry large states and that he would have less of a case to be nominee. But this was all said thinking she would lose. Now that she has won, pundits suggest that Pennsylvania doesn't really matter and that the number of states won and delegates matter more. They are attempting to minimize the legitimacy of her case. Secondly, the media has begun to portray her as a divisive, insiduous party threat. They describe her as a black widow spider of sorts, willing to devour her own party and poison the political atmosphere with her self-serving venom. Since they realize they cannot legitmately pressure her out of the run before the convention, they are slowly starting to portray her in a manner that will turn democrats against her. Suggesting that the only way she could win would be by using 'dirty' or 'underhanded' or 'manipulative' tactics. They assert that any argument for how superdelegates should vote other than by who has won the MOST delegates is somehow 'dishonest' and 'unfair'.

It is no coincidence that all such arguments favor Obama. They are willing to risk their credibility and a good portion of their fan base. They of course have little to loose. The wealthy men running the media will be just as wealthy regardless of who is president. They are well off in the Bush economy and hence will be well off no matter which of the 3 candidates wins the nomination. Their only hope at the moment is to drive the public into a delegate math frenzy by which ordinay citizens buy into this delegate argument and overwhelmingly demand superdelegates vote based on pledged delegates ONLY. They know that if they don't, Hillary, just might in fact win this thing. And given how she's made it this far with everything they've put up against her, she most likely will!

[CGP]

Sheer brilliance. And 100% TRUE. Thank you for this outstanding analysis.

[LetsHelpAmerica]

Wow, CL358.....
that was great!! Thank-you for such a refreshingly astute and well articulated
post.

[xyndau]

CL358 - Rffffff! Mad Dog he be! Thank you for that extremely well written commentary. I went to bed last night more frustrated than I have been in some time, thinking of Olbermann's vitriolic hyperbole. What an unwarranted, unjustified, personal attack on Hillary Clinton. I sent a nasty-gram to MSNBC and queried how could anyone - after Olberman' "special comment" - view MSNBC as engaging in impartial journalism or not favoring Obama over Clinton. Of course, when I looked this morning to see whether my comment was posted, it was not and, not surprisingly, the only comments posted were laudatory of Keith's "extraordinary courage" and "justifiable outrage".

Please, send your comments to MSNBC and please keep posting here on this forum. I'm relatively new to the site, but have enjoyed it immensely and believe that you will too.

[CGP]

I know CL358. He is a great advocate for Hillary - we met at the New York City rally in February at Hunter College.

[G4Hillary]

CL358,

That was a great analysis. I truly believe we should vote for the most capable and experienced candidate regardless of what our backgrounds may be. Hillary to me is the dream candidate. I have waited to vote for her for the last 5 years.

I just question who Obamas puppet masters are, you know. His rise has been too fast to be legitimate. What are the motives of the media? Just rating or is there something else there. I am skeptical of these people when they get so jazzed about something like this. I tend to think there are some essentials involved, namely money. Now how does the money play out here, I don't know. But I can bet anything that many rich folks are scared of Hillary and they are seizing any opportunity, in this case Obama, to knock her off the path to the WH.

[CGP]

I just question who Obamas puppet masters are, you know. His rise has been too fast to be legitimate.

Good observation. The majority of presidential candidates, white or black, spend years building a reputation and political legacy. Obama pops into the Senate for a few votes here and there over the past 3 years and next thing we're being told he is the next great political savior! What absolute BULLSHIT!

What's the real agenda here? And who is helping install this man? The mind boggles...

[skc1976]

One word for this post: REMARKABLE!

[Tea toaD]

:):):):):)

[tcbwriter]

I just went to the MSNBC website to listen to Olbermann's "special commentary" and feel sick to my stomach. It made me so angry I nearly put my fist through my computer screen - and I am by no means a violent person. :mad::mad::mad:

As he sat there and called Gerry's remarks "despicable" and outrageously racist and on an on and on I kept wondering how ANYBODY could take what she said as being vicious or racist. ESPECIALLY since many commentators (I refuse to call these opinionated creeps journalists - journalists don't express opinions) on MSNBC have stated that Hillary has only gotten this far because her husband was President. THAT'S not insulting? :rolleyes:

Has Hillary gotten 85-90% of the women's vote? Hardly. But we keep hearing how it's primarily "women over 50" who are voting for her (or uneducated people, with the inference that that somehow makes them stupid). Yet if somebody points out that Obama is getting that percentage of the African American vote, they are racist. Geraldine is right. Nobody is allowed to criticize Obama's campaign in any way, shape or form without being accused of espousing "revolting" racism. :(

This frustrates me to no end because I don't know how to fight back. It seems Hillary has nobody in the media to stand up for her and if anybody else does that are Ferrarorized! :mad:

But I think it's imperitive that ALL of us write to MSNBC and let them know how outraged we are. Not only is Hillary's campaign at stake but the significance of womanhood and our own sense of self-worth.

Please join me in contacting MSNBC:

Contact information:

Steve Capus,
President, NBC News
steve.capus@nbc.com

MSNBC
letters@msnbc.com
MSNBC/Microsoft-NBC
30 Rockefeller Plz
3rd Fl
New York, NY 10112
(212) 664-4444


Also, please write to Media Matters at mm-tips@mediamatters.org.

[JJ4Hillary]

I agree!:cool::cool:

[Soren]

yes good post - great post

and see this simple article in todays WSJ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120536677319031953.html?mod=opinion_main_review_ and_outlooks

it points out that it's too easy to avoid questions about readiness by calling the question racist.

[JamieKuuipo]

I just voted no i do not agree with keith Olberrman's comments.

The poll is 48% disagree with his stupid comments
to 44% agree with stupid commets

may be he should read his own polls, and shut up.

[Renee in Florida]

They are both their respective networks instigators to rile up the electorate.

There is no point to getting angry, the more anger you express to them, the more they are fueled.

[RachachaSharon]

Good observation. The majority of presidential candidates, white or black, spend years building a reputation and political legacy. Obama pops into the Senate for a few votes here and there over the past 3 years and next thing we're being told he is the next great political savior! What absolute BULLSHIT!

What's the real agenda here? And who is helping install this man? The mind boggles...

The other night I was reading an article (I've read so many lately that I can't keep track so I can't give proper credit to the author) wherein Emil Jones, a Chicago politician and a Barack Obama mentor, confided that he was going to "make" a state senator (meaning BO). I believe it's been like this all of BO's life - from one benefactor/mentor to another. Add Rev. Wright, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to the mix and I think you can see the beginnings of BO's powerful support committee and the source of some of the racial rhetoric of his candidacy. The machine behind the candidate also includes some of the slimiest political operatives money can buy.

Unlike many of us who have mixed heritages, BO is half black and half white. His backers have rightly surmised that he would have greater cross appeal with blacks in general and white males, particularly with the absence of a white male opponent following Edwards' withdrawal. They're counting on BO's charisma to appeal to young, first-time voters who have a naive view of the world and can be turned by "hope" and "change" without any idea what they mean or how they can be accomplished, and the angry white male, who is repelled more by the thought of a female president than a black president, and who can at least identify with BO's maleness.

This contest is all about race, gender and age and the people who exploit the vulnerable for a particular purpose - that being the election of the first African American president. The greater question is whether BO's support committee is pulling his strings or if he's pulling theirs. I suspect it's the latter in view of the various "breaks" BO's received throughout his life.

Here's another thought. BO's meteoric rise feels like a personal agenda to me. He has systematically managed to not make any vote that could stick to him. He would rather vote "present" than take a controversial stand that could cost him politically. Could it be that his agenda includes "be elected president before the age of 50"? This would be the only time that could happen for him.

[Jayling]

...BO is half black and half white...


There was an interesting study done on his heritage. You can read about it over here:
http://kennethelamb.blogspot.com/2008/02/barak-obama-questions-about-ethnic.html

There's a lot of links to follow up on to get a clearer picture. According to Kenneth E. Lamb, it appears that Obama shouldn't be claiming 'African American' as his race -- Lamb explains how he's 50% Caucasian, 43.75% Arabic, and only 6.25% African Negro. (You must be at least 12.5% of the racial component you claim for minority status, so the 6.25% isn't even half of that).

So is Obama really an Arab-American? Possibly.

[justme819]

his commentary was so disgusting...so, i let him have it...this is my response from a different Oberman thread...btw, outstanding post, CL358... :cool:

MSNBC is The Obama Love Network!

must admit...i saw his seemingly unending speech...and i was thinking the same things...the guy just babbled on and on...it was so poorly done, it was almost funny in an obscene way.

the only thing missing for this clown was the clown music...que up the band...BA BOOP BOOP...BA BOOP BOOP...you get the picture...

it was as phony as Obama is...fitting...obviously rehearsed numerous times...but that didn`t help any...and those different camara angles for dramatic effect...WOW!...WHAT A WASTE!...this guy couldn`t act if his life depended on it...and, imo, dramatic acting is exactly what he was trying to do...failed miserably at it i must say...what a Looser!...the acting didn`t work...the dramatic effects/camera angles didn`t work...and he should be out of work...to go on and on...sounding at times like he was actually begging the Clintons to get new advisors, etc...just simply pathetic...anyone could say what it took him a seemingly endless amount of time to say just like this:

"Hillary...your advisors have made mistakes...pleeeeeaase get new advisors...stop playing the race card...even casually...whether you mean to or not, some are interpreting it that way...also apologize and distance yourself from Ferraro!"

that`s it!...all misguided and off the mark...as well as arrogantly stated as his leader, Barack H., would ...bet his leader, Barack H., would be quite proud of him!...

someone ought to tell Oberclown that Obama advisors have also made mistakes, have played the race card by suggesting that Ferraro`s a racist and should apologize, etc...btw, a ridiculous notion according to almost every person who commented on both FOX and CNN...including Obama supporters...as Ferraro said then, she`s the one who deserves an apology from Obama...moving on, Hillary has NOT been playing the race card in any way and she`s already distanced far away from Ferraro who`s only 1 of 100`s on the campaign finance committee...oh, and btw, since this IGNORANT CLOWN, Oberman, missed it, Hillary did apologize for Ferraro`s comments as well as for Bill`s in SC!..an apology still unreported by the press...which can only help her...

other than this, i also found myself thinking, "Hey Moron...if Hillary wanted your Pinhead, over-stated, useless and arrogant advice, she would have asked for it!...so shut the Hell up before you stick your foot even further down your throat than you have already!...You BIG Clown, You!", (actually used other words which i can`t repeat in this public forum...)

[justme819]

There was an interesting study done on his heritage. You can read about it over here:
http://kennethelamb.blogspot.com/2008/02/barak-obama-questions-about-ethnic.html

There's a lot of links to follow up on to get a clearer picture. According to Kenneth E. Lamb, it appears that Obama shouldn't be claiming 'African American' as his race -- Lamb explains how he's 50% Caucasian, 43.75% Arabic, and only 6.25% African Negro. (You must be at least 12.5% of the racial component you claim for minority status, so the 6.25% isn't even half of that).

So is Obama really an Arab-American? Possibly.

Obama is NOT legally African-American...yet, he lets the blacks, etc., continue to think that he is...obviously so he can con all their votes too!...what a phony!!! :rolleyes: :(

[RachachaSharon]

There was an interesting study done on his heritage. You can read about it over here:
http://kennethelamb.blogspot.com/2008/02/barak-obama-questions-about-ethnic.html

There's a lot of links to follow up on to get a clearer picture. According to Kenneth E. Lamb, it appears that Obama shouldn't be claiming 'African American' as his race -- Lamb explains how he's 50% Caucasian, 43.75% Arabic, and only 6.25% African Negro. (You must be at least 12.5% of the racial component you claim for minority status, so the 6.25% isn't even half of that).

So is Obama really an Arab-American? Possibly.

Or a white man?

[Sincere]

I did not get especially angry at Olberman as now I am beginning to see all news programs as trash, biase and not worth wasting my time.
I can't think of any I trust. I do feel frustrated as the media trashes HRC, and as I click through the blogs I see the same trashing, outright lies and vitriol.
Most sensible, thoughtful posts by HRC supporters or rebuttals are edited out and not posted.
This has worsened over the last couple weeks.
Today I checked my minutes on my cell and made quite a few calls to Pennsylvania. I will resume calling tonight for a few hours.
PLEASE use extra minutes to call in Hillary's behalf.
I really appreciate this post about the MSNBC rant and the support for Hillary.
Taylor Marsh put a nice editorial on Huffington tonight. I am amazed they let it come in as they are against Hillary.
They sure try to keep my remarks out but did post one of my in her support this evening..

[Sincere]

Removed Taylor Marsh's article as soon as i wrote in the blog, but all the negative against HRC with Olberman are still up.
It probably is getting not worth the effort to blog any more.
The Democratic underground banned me for mentioning Obama's preacher rant.
Oh well, back to the phone!

[G4Hillary]

Sincere,

You know, we the supporters of Hillary are probably at least 1/3 of political readership of these newspapers at this time. I think we need to start boycotting them and let them feel the pain when their sponsors hear about this.

Once we boycott the chatter of this will travel.
So if Huffington post doesn't want to allow you to blog while it allows Obamanuts then just let them talk to each other all the time and admire each others ignorant, sexist and racist statements. We can chime in on a need to write basis.

We'll just kick their butts all over PA. Let our actions do our talking while we communicate proactively.

[mooaks]

Well stated and something I have been giving a lot of thought to; although I could never speak so eloquently about it as you have. It is really amazing how the corporate media (must be republicans all) use their bully pulpit to stir up a manure pile. In many ways, this media analysis junk has worked in Hillary's favor; although, if kept up, I believe that it is only going to surface dormant negative racist feelings among those voters who have been intentionally masking over those feelings for many years. What I mean by that is that there are many out there who were afraid of being labeled politically incorrect and are looking for any excuse they can find to put forth a racist agenda. They do it among their friends, and will begin to do it more and more openly. I believe the hierarchy should fire those newscasters that even sound like they want to roll back the years when fire hoses, and police dogs ruled the south. Of course they will deny it, and pull forth their freedom of the press card, but they do fester and do it knowingly. Look at Obama's minister. My god! I certainly hope he never gets a chance to lead the Senate or House in prayer. Let us pray, "God Damn America" exaggerated of course, but point being. those dormant feelings are there among many voters and people like Olberman and others know it and should be horse whipped away from the microphone.

[no_more_bush]

Great post, I agree completely!

[CGP]

Bump...

[Laura Cereta]

Check this out... I used the email address to MSNBC/letters and according to my "sent" box, sent them an email regarding Keith Olbermann at 8:51 p.m. I have a function on my email that sends me a receipt when my sent mail is opened, and I got a receipt that my email was IMMEDIATELY deleted at 8:51 p.m.-- 7 seconds later!! A copy of the receipt can be found below:

Your message

To: Letters
Subject: Keith Olbermann's "Special Commentary"
Sent: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:51:39 -0700

was deleted without being read on Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:51:46 -0700

gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

I will be contacting them by phone tomorrow. I think this election is really turning me into an angry person!! :(

[SantaCruzen]

There was an interesting study done on his heritage. You can read about it over here:
http://kennethelamb.blogspot.com/2008/02/barak-obama-questions-about-ethnic.html

There's a lot of links to follow up on to get a clearer picture. According to Kenneth E. Lamb, it appears that Obama shouldn't be claiming 'African American' as his race -- Lamb explains how he's 50% Caucasian, 43.75% Arabic, and only 6.25% African Negro. (You must be at least 12.5% of the racial component you claim for minority status, so the 6.25% isn't even half of that).

So is Obama really an Arab-American? Possibly.

I have had a personal thesis that Arabs are interracial from thousands of years ago. Take a dark skinned Arab who has the features of a Brit with extra melanin. Well, a few things make more sense about why BO is interested in the Middle East.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIe4d9Nmg9k&feature=related

[Charlie Brown]

Great post. I agree :) I think she may win this thing. They cannot knock her out thats for sure. God knows we need a fighter, times are tough.

[KYWildcatFan]

Wonderfully written!

Cult Free you are not alone. I have had the same problems as of late. My emails are never read and deleted and my blogs are NEVER posted. And who is being discriminated against?

[CGP]

Bump!

[Lodi]

Removed Taylor Marsh's article as soon as i wrote in the blog, but all the negative against HRC with Olberman are still up.
It probably is getting not worth the effort to blog any more.
The Democratic underground banned me for mentioning Obama's preacher rant.
Oh well, back to the phone!

Thank you :) for all the great observations/information. This media bias is really too much now. I can't wait to see how it all plays out. Something has to give when Hillary supporters have to look to Fox News for even a glimmer of the truth about Obama.

Did you ever think it would come to this?!

[jerseygirl7]

CL358 - Rffffff! Mad Dog he be! Thank you for that extremely well written commentary. I went to bed last night more frustrated than I have been in some time, thinking of Olbermann's vitriolic hyperbole. What an unwarranted, unjustified, personal attack on Hillary Clinton. I sent a nasty-gram to MSNBC and queried how could anyone - after Olberman' "special comment" - view MSNBC as engaging in impartial journalism or not favoring Obama over Clinton. Of course, when I looked this morning to see whether my comment was posted, it was not and, not surprisingly, the only comments posted were laudatory of Keith's "extraordinary courage" and "justifiable outrage".

Please, send your comments to MSNBC and please keep posting here on this forum. I'm relatively new to the site, but have enjoyed it immensely and believe that you will too.

Send emails expressing outrage to:
phil.griffin@nbc.com; steve.capus@nbc.som, letters@msnbc.com and when Matthews is outrageous send to all of the above as well as hardball.com.
They got rid of Tucker Carlson - maybe Griffin and Capus will do the same if they hear enough about Olberman. And just a bit of trivia: GE owns NBC. You can always put in that you will boycott GE products and GE subsideraries.

[CGP]

This media bias is really too much now. I can't wait to see how it all plays out. Something has to give when Hillary supporters have to look to Fox News for even a glimmer of the truth about Obama.

Did you ever think it would come to this?!

Yes, its a sad day when we are turning to Fox to hear some truths! But that's what this has come to!