[Rhodes22-list] Say What, Barack?

[petelargo]

Really. This is seriously nit-picky.  The march to which Obama referred was
not one of the famous Martin Luther King Selma marches, which started in
1965. In 1955, a group of black women walked home instead of taking the bus,
a preface to the more famous Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1956. As well, civil
rights marches had started occurring in late 50s.

As regards his oratory abilities.  Compared to a president that can't
conjugate a verb, speak in complete sentences, or pronounce words, anybody
looks smooth AND less embarrassing.  

For a more substantiative political critique I suggest the discussion of
whether the bush presidency will be eventually considered a catastrophe or a
disaster. I am undecided, but willing to hear arguments on both sides.  

Pete Hussein Lauritzen
Key Largo



Hank-5 wrote:
> 
>  Here is some more slick talking from Obama.
> 
> Hank
> 
> 
> 
> http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2007/03/obamas_selma_speech_text_as_de.html
> 
> 
> 
> Say What, Barack?
> 
> 
> 
> By Paul R. Hollrah
> 
> 
> 
> Tuning in to C-Span recently, I found myself listening to a speech by
> Senator Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. He was standing in the pulpit of a black
> church in Selma, Alabama, and as I studied the body language of the dozen
> or
> so black ministers standing behind the senator, I couldn't help but be
> reminded of the little head-bobbing dolls that people used to place in the
> rear windows of their 1957 Chevrolets. If their reactions are any
> indication, the new "Schlickmeister" of the Democrat Party is actually a
> pretty accomplished public speaker.
> 
> 
> 
> However, as he spoke, I found my b.s. alarm going off, repeatedly. But I
> couldn't quite figure out why until I actually read excerpts of his speech
> several days later. Here's part o f what he said:
> 
> 
> 
> "...something happened back here in Selma, Alabama. Something happened in
> Birmingham that sent out what Bobby Kennedy called, "ripples of hope all
> around the world." Something happened when a bunch of women decided they
> were going to walk instead of ride the bus after a long day of doing
> somebody else's laundry, looking after somebody else's children.
> 
> 
> 
> "When (black) men who had PhD's decided 'that's enough' and 'we're going
> to
> stand up for our dignity,' that sent a shout across oceans so that my
> grandfather began to imagine something different for his son. His son, who
> grew up herding goats in a small village in Africa could s uddenly set his
> sights a little higher and believe that maybe a black man in this world
> had
> a chance.
> 
> 
> 
> "So the Kennedy's decided we're going to do an airlift.  We're going to go
> to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give
> them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country
> America is.
> 
> 
> 
> "This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over
> to
> this country. He met this woman whose great great-great-great- grandfather
> had owned slaves; but she had a good idea there was some craziness going
> on
> because they looked at each other and they decided that we know that, (in)
> the world as it has been, it might not be possible for us to get together
> and have a child. There was something stirring across the country because
> of
> what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march
> across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. Was born. So
> don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma , Alabama. Don't tell me I'm
> not
> coming home to Selma, Alabama."
> 
> 
> 
> Okay, so what's wrong with that? It all sounds good. But is it?
> 
> 
> 
> Obama told his audience that, because some folks had the courage to "march
> across a bridge" in Selma, Alabama, his mother, a white woman from Kansas,
> and his father, a black Muslim from Africa, took heart. It gave them the
> courage to get married and have a child. The problem with that
> characterization is that Barrack Obama, Jr., was born on August 4,
> 1961,while the first of three marches across that bridge in Selma didn't
> occur until March 7, 1965, at least five years after Obama's parents met.
> 
> 
> 
> Obama went on to tell his audience that the Kennedys, Jack and Bobby,
> decided to do an airlift. They would bring some young Africans over so
> that
> they could be educated and learn all about America. His grandfather heard
> that call and sent his son, Barrack Obama, Sr., to America.
> 
> 
> 
> The problem with that scenario is that, having been born in August 1961,
> the
> future senator was not conceived until sometime in November 1960. So if
> this
> African grandfather heard words that ''sent a shout across oceans,''
> inspiring him to send his goat-herder son to America, it was not a
> Democrat
> Jack Kennedy he heard, nor his brother Bobby, it was a Republican
> President,
> Dwight D. Eisenhower.
> 
> 
> 
> Obama's speech is reminiscent of Al Gore's claim of having invented the
> Internet, Hillary Clinton's claim of having been named after the first man
> to climb Mt. Everest, even though she was born five years and seven months
> before Sir Edmund climbed the mountain, and John Kerry's imaginary trip to
> Cambodia.
> 
> 
> 
> As one of my black friends, Eddie Huff, has said, "We need to ask some
> very
> serious questions of the senator from Illinois. It's not enough to be
> black,
> it's not enough to be articulate, and it's not enough to be eloquent and a
> media darling. The only question will be how deaf an ear, or how blind an
> eye, will people turn in order to turn a frog into a prince."
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> 
> 

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