RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Barack Hussein Obama in '08?

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rex said:

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Wonder Boy said [as trollishly scripted by rex, ignoring what WB clearly posted above]:
My primary objections to Obama has to do with his race.

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Friendly Neighborhood Ray-man said:
maybe Wonder Boy isn't so much offended by Obama's race, but more the fact that one of his parents was white.
WB is very big on racial purity.

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what Wonder Boy ACTUALLY said:
Yeah, I did describe meeting the daughter of a Pakistani couple that owned a restaurant I ate at for years, who were very friendly toward me, and when I expressed an interest in their daughter (very beautiful!) they very uncharacteristically changed, and said she's muslim and she only dates Pakistani men.

I similarly described a Vietnamese co-worker who, when I asked her out after a year on the job together, said she only dates Vietnamese men.
Both incidents I found rather racist. They certainly would have labelled me a racist if I said I only date white Protestant women.
And other incidents involving discriminatory behavior by black co-workers and employers. It happens to whites as well.

But I'm hardly traumatized by it. I've dated women from Morocco(muslim), Iran(non muslim), Spain(Catholic), the Phillipines (who I wanted to marry, but she moved away), plus women from all over central America, South America and the Caribbean.


I was just making the point that people who are quick to label myself and other white Americans as racist, are often laughably racist themselves.

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Yeah, I clearly am the white racist you portray me as, who only dates women of "racial purity".

Except that both the women I almost married don't fit the racial label you slapped on me (one Phillipine, one hispanic).

• Barack Obama outraised Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton by $10 million in second-quarter contributions that can be spent on the Democratic presidential primary contest, aided by the contributions of 154,000 individual donors.
  
  Obama's campaign on Sunday reported raising at least $31 million for the primary contest and an extra $1.5 million for the general election from April through June, a record for a Democratic candidate.
  
  Counting this quarter's surge of donors, the first-term senator from Illinois has received donations from more than 258,000 donors through the first half of the year, an extraordinary figure at this stage of the campaign. Obama raised $25.7 million in the first three months of the year.

• If money were the decider, Barack Obama would be the next Democratic White House nominee - not the once all-but-coronated Hillary Clinton.
  
  After the first six months of the 2008 White House race, the freshman Illinois senator has catapulted himself past one of the world's most famous women, building a bankroll of $34 million to chase his party's nomination.
  
  The former First Lady, in spite of getting a running start from her 2006 Senate victory in New York, has $33 million to compete with Obama, according to details released last night.

• http://barackobama.com

• diggersrealm

• [Is] white America is ready to vote for a black man to be the president of the United States in the year 2008. Sadly, the answer is no!
  
  Race is still the 800-pound gorilla sitting on the sofa in this country. Every important issue facing America today is tinged by racism. Everything, the legal justice system, schools, health care and even the illegal immigration debate. Let's be honest, we aren't talking about all illegal immigrants, just the "brown ones."
  
  If the Democrats want to blow what should be a slam dunk, they'll nominate Barack Obama for president.
  
  VERNON S. BURTON
  San Leandro

• "Saturday Night Live" looked more like "Meet the Press" last night, with NBC anchorman Brian Williams as host - and a surprise appearance by Sen. Barack Obama.
  
  The Democratic presidential candidate made his cameo in the opening skit as a guest to a Halloween costume party thrown by Bill and Hillary Clinton.
  
  While Joe Biden masqueraded as SpongeBob SquarePants and Hillary played a bride, Obama was dressed up as Barack Obama. "I have nothing to hide," he said, after removing his own rubber mask. "I enjoy being myself. I'm not going to change who I am just because it's Halloween."

• While the top three Democratic presidential candidates are locked in a fierce campaign battle for Iowa, one candidate is riding a new wave of support.
  
  According to the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll released Tuesday, Sen. Barack Obama has surged to a 4 point lead over Hillary Clinton, and an 8 point lead over John Edwards.
  
  In a survey of likely Democratic caucus-goers in Iowa, Obama draws support from 30 percent, compared with 26 percent for Clinton and 22 percent for former senator John Edwards. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson received 11 percent.
  
  While Obama has seen recent gains in the early-voting midwestern state, it remains a tight three-person race for precinct caucuses, however Obama's lead over Edwards was beyond the margin of sampling error.
  
  The poll also asked Iowans whether they are more interested in "new direction and ideas" or "strength and experience." 55 percent said they favored new ideas and direction, compared to 33 percent who prefered experience. Among the "new direction" voters, 43 percent favor Obama and 17 percent back Clinton.
  
  The poll showed no other Democrats receiving more than 5 percent of support.
  
  The ABC News/Washington Post telephone poll surveyed 500 adults likely to participate in the caucuses and was conducted Nov. 14-18. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

• Perceptions are nine-tenths of reality in politics. If the voters think you're a winner, they are more likely to jump on your bandwagon. If they think you're sitting dead in the water, you're a bum, no matter how appealing your ideas might be.
  
  That's been U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's problem. After his rock-star presidential campaign launch, the Illinois Democrat has been languishing in second place, running 20 points or more behind U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.
  
  Recently, though, as the clock ticks toward the casting of actual votes, Obama appears to have risen out of bum-hood and onto a roll.
  
  he is drawing sharp contrasts and distinctions between his own positions and those of his leading opponent. The perception of decorum is important in politics, even as you quietly put on your brass knuckles.
  
  The turning point was evident in the Oct. 30 Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia. Clinton was questioned sharply, especially by Obama, the journalists' panel and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.
  
  After exhibiting supreme confidence in the earlier debates, Clinton sounded evasive and even self-contradictory on key issues in Philadelphia. Afterward, even she admitted that she had fallen off her game.
  
  A good example was her awkward wavering on whether she supported granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. She seemed to be trying to support the idea in principle, but not necessarily in practice. Obama has since made a theme of criticizing Clinton as lacking honesty, candor and consistency. Clinton countercharges pointedly that Obama lacks experience.
  
  knowledgeable observers noted that Clinton was stepping on shaky ground in boasting foreign policy expertise. She was a first lady, after all, not a secretary of state.
  
  Adding to Obama's perception of momentum is a new ABC News/Washington Post poll released last week. The poll is the first in which Obama has scored a higher percentage than Clinton in Iowa, where the Jan. 3 precinct caucuses will formally launch the 2008 presidential race.
  
  Obama's lead in the ABC/Post poll is within the survey's margin of error, pollsters caution, which means he and Clinton remain in the statistical dead heat in Iowa that they have been in since at least mid-summer. More ominous for Clinton is the apparent shift in what Iowa Democrats say they are seeking in a candidate. A majority in the new poll favor "new direction and new ideas" over "strength and experience" by 55 percent to 33 percent. A July ABC/Post poll found the ratio was 49 percent to 39 percent. Suddenly the lock that Clinton seemed to have on the nomination appears to have come unlocked.
  
  The new battle of perceptions between Obama and Clinton is one of "honesty" versus "experience," in the Iowa poll. Even among Iowa's women, who have been more supportive of Clinton than Iowa's men, 30 percent believe Obama is more "honest and trustworthy," while just 18 percent say that for Clinton. For Obama, Iowa has turned from lackluster into a love fest.