"Barack Obama, for an hour and a half, was able to refute every single Republican talking point used against him on the major issues of the day."posted by ericb at 1:25 PM on January 29, 2010 [31 favorites]
Whereas the State of The Union is basically a one-sided sort of political theater, this event actually captured the actual State of Our Political Union/Disunion.posted by boo_radley at 1:32 PM on January 29, 2010
It's been almost two decades since we have had a functioning adult in the White House.Wait, Bill Clinton wasn't a "functioning adult"? It hasn't even been a decade since he was in office, let alone "almost two".
Nice change, huh?
The man not only knew the Republican positions, but also all their numbers.
'President Obama is leading an extreme left wing crusade to bankrupt America. I stand in his way every day.' -- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
Just from what little I've seen of [Mrs.] and Mister Obama, Senator Obama, they're a member of an elitist class individual that thinks that they're uppity.
"I forgot he was black tonight for an hour...I was watching, I said, 'Wait a minute! He's an African-American guy in front of a bunch of other white people and there he is president of the United States and we've completely forgotten that tonight -- completely forgotten it!'"[mouth agape]
-- Chris Matthews, on Obama SOTU address
[Obama:] But if you were to listen to the debate, and, frankly, how some of you went after this bill, you'd think that this thing was some Bolshevik plot.I'm really confused what the applause here was from. Is applauding the Republican version of playing dead?
(LAUGHTER)
No, I mean, that's how you guys -- that's how you guys presented it.
(APPLAUSE)
Chris Dumber-than-Dumb Wallace'It was Chris Matthews, and I agree with Senor Cardage that you're overplaying it.
In the following example, the speaker was later accused of using a term that, while having a common, dictionary-definition for most, has a secondary, racially derogatory connotation to some, usually recognized by those who were raised in the Southern United States.Sorry my post is so long. I just thought this might be a good place to add some fun bonus info to that god awful quote.Example 3.3.2 US Representative Lynn Westmoreland (Republican, Georgia), discussing Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s speech with reporters outside the House chamber. He was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama, the African American wife of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. September 4, 2008.Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah,” according to the Capital Hill newspaper (The Hill, 2008). At the popular slang-words website, UrbanDictionary.com, we find an entry for uppity, meaning: Word used by racist old white Southerners to refer to any black person who looks them in the eye. Usually followed by nigger. “That uppity nigger is not working in the cotton field like he should be.”
"Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they’re uppity."
The Dogwhistle: Use of the word ‘uppity’.
What the General Audience Heard: The common, dictionary-definition for the word ‘uppity’.
What the Target Audience Heard: A secondary, racially derogatory connotation.
Google.com search results provide 29,200 hits for the phrase “uppity nigger”. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) does not provide an entry for this racially-loaded meaning at this time, but they have stated that the term has not been updated since the 1970’s and will be researched for the upcoming edition (personal communication). Several other online sources corroborate that ‘uppity’ was commonly used by poor whites during Jim Crow, to refer to African Americans who were thought to speak or dress in a manner that was considered above what was socially acceptable during this time of racial segregation and oppression.
Westmoreland, who was raised in Atlanta, Georgia, denied any knowledge of this secondary meaning. This is plausible deniability with regards to the offensive dogwhistle accusation, but does not bode well with his credibility as an informed politician in the face of the many Southerners he represents, who were aware of this oppressive, racist connotation, but do not agree with its sentiment. This is a significant population who did hear the dogwhistle, but for whom it wasn’t intended. They may conclude a Lying Politician or, ironically, an Elitist Politician narrative for Westmoreland, since he is above the social sphere of his constituents that would have given him access to important cultural knowledge about lexical choices, as well as appropriate recursive action to take in refutation of an untoward accusation. The lack of citable sources for this connotation adds to Westmoreland’s credibility, but a previous public outrage at the use of the term referring to Obama, one month prior by the Republican Campaign, would have raised awareness about this issue at the time of Westmoreland’s comment (Stein, 2008).
The implications for some of the possible interpretations have negative consequences for the speaker, regardless of exercising deniability of intent. As explained above, those who heard the dogwhistle episode, but were not its intended recipients, may feel offended by either Westmoreland’s racist comment, or his lack of insight and sensitivity in both making the comment and in dealing with its possible offensive interpretation in a tactful manner. Even so, the remaining group for whom the dogwhistle wasn’t intended may take the message at face value — public slander against the opposing side’s representatives.
Just like lexical choice matters, the manner in which these choices are presented matters. The difference between screaming a slur versus whispering one contains a value judgment about what doing so means. If a person of political power uses charged language in way that makes them liable to being accused of veiled racism, and is made aware of that outcome, one would expect a following response that clarifies the original intent, so as to allay any misunderstanding. In this sense, silence can be just as much a dogwhistle as spoken utterance. Either way, plausible deniability is an option for any interpretation that could potentially damage the speaker’s credibility.
I have to tell you, you know, it's part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama's speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often.posted by delmoi at 4:24 PM on January 29, 2010
Instead, he told Congress to come up with their own bills. This stymied the attack machine until the last possible moment.What?
In retrospect it does seem to have worked as what's stopping the healthcare bill right now has little to do with the teabaggers.It has a lot to do with them. They successfully scared a significant number of people; you can hear any number of people -- not teabaggers -- saying that they're scared of healthcare reform. Including people who say they like Obama. They successfully spread inchoate fears to a significant portion of the population.
OBAMA: Although, that's the -- that's one of the points that I made earlier. I mean, we've got to be careful about what we say about each other sometimes because it boxes us in in ways that makes it difficult for us to work together because our constituents start believing us. They don't know sometimes this is just politics, what you guys, you know, or folks on my side do sometimes. So just a tone of civility instead of slash-and-burn would be helpful.posted by yaymukund at 1:11 PM on January 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
The problem we have sometimes is a media that responds only to slash- and-burn-style politics. You don't get a lot of credit if I say, "You know, I think Paul Ryan's a pretty sincere guy and has a beautiful family." Nobody's going to run that in the newspapers, right?
(LAUGHTER)
And by the way, in case he's going to get a Republican challenge, I didn't mean it.
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posted by ibmcginty at 1:19 PM on January 29, 2010