RYou

http://www2.nysun.com/article/71278

Beyond Obama's Beauty
By KENNETH BLACKWELL
February 14, 2008
It's an amazing time to be alive in America. We're in a year of firsts in this presidential election: the first viable woman candidate; the first viable African-American candidate; and, a candidate who is the first frontrunning freedom fighter over 70. The next president of America will be a first.

We won't truly be in an election of firsts, however, until we judge every candidate by where they stand. We won't arrive where we should be until we no longer talk about skin color or gender.

Now that Barack Obama steps to the front of the Democratic field, we need to stop talking about his race, and start talking about his policies and his politics.

Now click the link for the real poop.

Zapp Brannigan

Interesting, but there is obvious inherent bias against "Obama the candidate" which detracts from the writers credibility.

__________________
"I've made it with a woman. Inform the men."

matclone

Yes, let's ignore our nation's history. Let's pretend we have none.

Who's talking about his race? YOU are. The Rev Wright lynch mob is. Duh.

And thus we see: only white people are privileged to talk about race in this country. Black people are not. Same old race relations we've had for years.

You'll note that in issues like these no one asks black people their opinion (unless they're willing to express a safe white-approved point of view). In essence their view is ignored as we, again, assert our white privilege to speak for all.

matclone

Blackwell's article is the same old infomercial: Obama doesn't have a decent bone in his body and you, and you, yes, all of us, should be afraid. A single-minded view absent any balance or perspective. Associating Obama with all the boogeymen of the world. Smear by association. Preaching to the choir.

slayer

Ken Blackwell-Criminal Ohio Secretary of State.

Great source. I love when repubs like Ryou think they find the perfect antidote to an issue that they believe helps the other side (blackie).

RYou

Meet Ken Blackwell

Merely pointing out that there issues with Obama's platform, big issues.

matclone

And what issues with his platform are of concern?

Branding him the most liberal Senator or referring to his liberal agenda (let's be vague about what this means) is not an issue to most Americans and it is not an argument; it's only a shoddy piece of rhetoric.

I like how Blackwell says, at the bottom of page one, as mentioned "we need to...start talking about his policies and his politics"--but says nary a word on page two about policies. Page two is devoted to associating him with all the bad guys of the world, foreign and domestic. On page three Blackwell finally mentions some policies but he's pretty vague about it all. Doesnt' quote Obama or anyone, just suggests that he stands for bad stuff like raising taxes.

Just an infomercial. Just a piece of schlock that any advertising hack could write.

Tell me, RYou, are we one nation or not? Do you want us to be one nation? Or, are we two nations, liberal versus conservative, never defined, but always opposed. We've had one civil war. Do you want another?

Flop The Nuts

Or, are we two nations, liberal versus conservative, never defined, but always opposed.

I think liberal and conservative are fairly well-defined by now, although there are some gray areas. The real trick is trying to define libertarianism as it relates to liberalism and conservatism.

Getting back on point - I'm happy that we have passionate people on both sides of the aisle, because it helps to clarify whatever issue we're discussing. I like to hear the lefty point of view as well as the righty point of view.

The problem is when people are labeled Republicans or Democrats. Those labels are fairly meaningless, unless you are actually a candidate or an office-holder.

Zapp Brannigan

Since I wasn't really clear in my original post, let me be more clear: I agree with much of what matclone says in his last post. Whole lot of supposition in the article, not a whole lot of researched and cited facts.

__________________
"I've made it with a woman. Inform the men."

matclone

You might think so. A lot of people would agree with you that they fairly know the distinction, i.e., I know it when I see it--but ask them to actually define it and you might run into some problems. By mentioning libertarianism you provide a perfect example of the problem.

There are classical (or academic) definitions of liberalism and conservatism (libertarianism deriving from one of these classical definitions--I won't say which), that don't necessarily correspond to today's popular expressions in media of these terms.

While a political scientist might talk of looking to the past for value (conservatism), or seeking change for improvement (liberalism), I would say that the popular definitions (given that a word can have more than one meaning) lend themselves to the following specific definitions:

liberalism: 3. a political view that conservatives oppose; standing in opposition to conservatism
conservatism: 3. a political view that liberals oppose; standing in opposition to liberalism