Bob Kerrey on Barack Obama - A Modest Translation

From Jill Tubman over at Jack and Jill Politics:

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rikyrah just wrote on this. I give her props and just want to echo and deconstruct what Bob Kerrey said. Cuz let me tell y'all something -- black folk can hear a dog whistle just as well as whatsoever pitifully few ignant, fearful country whites in Iowa to whom Kerrey is signaling and might actually respond to this lizard-brained level of thought. It's something African-Americans have learned to do out of a spirit of sheer self-preservation. Which is to listen very carefully.

Thus, I give you select passages and my translation -- hear's what Bob Kerrey was actually saying with an astonishing glib insincerity to the public on CNN:

"I have a very high regard for Senator Obama..."

Translation: In no way, shape or form therefore could anything I am about to say (or repeat) possibly be construed as racist...

"[...] As an African-American, he can speak in an authentic way to underperforming black youth who I think will follow his example."


Translation: The niggers are coming! The Niggers are COMING! NIGGERS!!! And they will be emboldened by Barack Obama (didn't he say he sold drugs? or maybe he just used them, whatever) to rob your stores, rape your daughters and generally run amok. Crime! Lowered property values! NIGGERS!

And of course:

"I’ve watched the blogs try to say that you can’t trust him because he spent a little bit of time in a secular madrassa. I feel quite the opposite — I think it’s a tremendous strength. Whether he’s in the United States Senate or whether he’s in the White House, I think it’s a tremendous asset for him."

Translation: Did I mention there are a billion sand niggers, ahem, Muslims?! Better kiss any hope of immigration restrictions or successful war on terrorism goodbye because guess who's coming to dinner and getting a green card from Cousin Barack Hussein? No matter what he claims to be, fact is -- he's one of them! He lived with them. He went to school with them -- he is related to them. Elect him and expect your kids to be speaking Arabic at school and worshiping Allah in the not so distant future. NIGGERS!

Peep more analysis and video over at
Huffington Post and Think Progress..

Honestly though, I have a soft spot for the Clintons. And this just makes me ashamed of them. That they would stoop so low as to send out a surrogate to say such things. It's also a risky and desperate strategy that they have to know will alienate black votes which they must hope to compensate for with a higher number of scared white votes. They should know better.

It will say a lot to me if Hillary fails to distance herself from a man who continues to defend the invasion of Iraq as necessary and justified (as recently as May 2007!) and who sided with President Bush on privatizing Social Security saying in the Wall Street Journal in 2005 after the re-election of Bush --

There is no doubt that Social Security and Medicare are two of liberalism's most enduring and popular triumphs. And there is no doubt that a vocal and influential minority remains true to its strong conservative belief that the Social Security Act of 1935 and the 1965 amendments to this act, which created Medicare and Medicaid, represent socialistic and dangerous interferences with the marketplace. However, liberals are wrong to fear that President Bush's proposal represents a threat to Social Security.

I sincerely hope they do not merely defend their proudest achievement. I hope they see that President Bush is giving them an opportunity to finally do something about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

Ugh...when black is white and positive is negative. Are we in 1984 yet?

Obama 'Willie Horton' Watch - Back to the Muslim Smear Today

From Marc Ambinder:

Speaking on CNN tonight:

BOB KERREY: "It's something by the way I have told Barack Obama when I've met with him. It something that I've spoken about before. So this is not something that just sort of came out of the head birth out there in Iowa. I've thought about it a great deal. I've watched the blogs try to say that you can't trust him because he spent a little bit of time in a secular madrassa. I feel quite the opposite. I feel it's a tremendous strength whether he is in the United States Senate or whether he's in the White House, I think it's a tremendous asset for him.

Ahem.

You can be naive if you want to be. But then, I'll be telling you that you're a fool. It's all part of a coordinated effort. Remember now, not one, but TWO people have had to quit for spreading the Madrassa LIE in the Clinton campaign. And now, they have Kerrey talking about it.

If you can't see a hit job when it's in front of your face, then I feel bad for you. It's marching orders from Hillary and Company.


Cross-posted at BrownIowa

Hagel Won’t Seek Re-election to Senate

Per the NYTimes.com

Hagel Won’t Seek Re-election to Senate
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and JEFF ZELENY
Published: September 9, 2007


WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 — Senator Chuck Hagel, the Nebraska Republican and outspoken critic of the Iraq war who had been mulling a run for president, will retire at the end of his term in early 2009 and will not run for the White House, aides said on Saturday.

Mr. Hagel has scheduled a formal announcement in Omaha on Monday morning, the aides said. Mr. Hagel declined interview requests on Saturday.

In announcing his retirement, Mr. Hagel will fulfill a promise he made to voters when he first ran for the Senate in 1996 that he would serve only two terms. But his decision presents yet another challenge for the Republican Party in its effort to stop Democrats from extending their majority in Congress next year.

Former Senator Bob Kerrey, a Nebraska Democrat who has been president of the New School university in New York City since leaving office in 2001, has said that he might return to Nebraska to run for office again. Mr. Kerrey is also a former governor of Nebraska.

Mr. Kerrey has informed the New School’s board of trustees of his potential interest in running for Mr. Hagel’s Senate seat and has said that the board was supportive.

But in an e-mail message on Saturday, Mr. Kerrey declined to comment on his intentions. In an interview last month, he had expressed skepticism about running, but added: “These moments don’t happen very often. It’s a possibility.”

Rest at link above.

Like the story says, this is a possible pickup for the Democrats in 2008. Senator Hagel's stance on the war, I respected, and after reading a piece on him at The New Republic, I understood more about his position. The Republicans may not know it yet, but it is their loss.