You didn't build that

[TracyCoxx]

Originally Posted by ila

The attached picture is the way many people interpret what Obama said. I found it at this site, but I have also seen it on tv.

More along the same theme can be found here.

I think for some people, it's like "wow, he's finally admitted it". And for many others, obama put words to a nagging feeling they've had about him. Obama is trying to get away from those comments, but it's not working. It's got too much of the ring of truth (at least that BO feels this way) for people to dismiss it.

[smc]

Originally Posted by TracyCoxx

I think for some people, it's like "wow, he's finally admitted it". And for many others, obama put words to a nagging feeling they've had about him. Obama is trying to get away from those comments, but it's not working. It's got too much of the ring of truth (at least that BO feels this way) for people to dismiss it.

Shame, shame, shame ... this bullshit about Obama's speech is just more of the attempt to paint him as something "other" than a real American. It is as shameful as the birth certificate bullshit. It is all wrapped up in racism, too. Shame, shame, shame.

Tracy Coxx even uses the "nagging feeling" phrase that is used by some of the worst offenders. Shame, shame, shame.

I don't support Obama, as I've written before, but ... well ... shame, shame, shame on those of you who give any truck to this bullshit. It is so patently un-American.

[TracyCoxx]

Originally Posted by smc

this bullshit about Obama's speech is just more of the attempt to paint him as something "other" than a real American. It is as shameful as the birth certificate bullshit. It is all wrapped up in racism, too. Shame, shame, shame.

Seriously? The race card? The defense one uses for the candidate you claim not to support when there is no defense. This has nothing whatsoever to do about race. I find it amazing that you label these values that Obama goes on about unamerican when they are defended by you and your co-thinkers. What that says about you and other "non-obama supporters" I'll leave that to the reader to decide.

[smc]

Originally Posted by TracyCoxx

Seriously? The race card? The defense one uses for the candidate you claim not to support when there is no defense. This has nothing whatsoever to do about race. I find it amazing that you label these values that Obama goes on about unamerican when they are defended by you and your co-thinkers. What that says about you and other "non-obama supporters" I'll leave that to the reader to decide.

TracyCoxx, does it give you some kind of perverse pleasure to pretend to be a complete idiot, or pretend to be functionally illiterate? Does your need to be an inveterate troll so overwhelm you that you just can't help yourself? It's truly sad.

I didn't write that "these values that Obama goes on about" are un-American. I wrote that it is un-American to "give any truck to this bullshit" ABOUT him and what he said in the speech in question ... that is, the bullshit about his "otherness."

You know that, because you can read. But whatever it is that compels you just gets the better of you, doesn't it. To quote your pseudo-wit from another thread, directed at me, perhaps there is a 12-step program that can help you.

I stand by my point about racism. I'm not defending Obama by raising it. I'm defending what is right. This Obama-as-other stuff is wrapped tightly in racism. You can pretend it isn't, but it doesn't change reality.

[TracyCoxx]

Originally Posted by smc

I didn't write that "these values that Obama goes on about" are un-American. I wrote that it is un-American to "give any truck to this bullshit" ABOUT him and what he said in the speech in question ... that is, the bullshit about his "otherness."

Ok, let me try and understand. I didn't give any, uh, truck? to this bullshit ABOUT him and what he said in the speech in question. And this is when I said "I think for some people, it's like "wow, he's finally admitted it". And for many others, obama put words to a nagging feeling they've had about him. Obama is trying to get away from those comments, but it's not working. It's got too much of the ring of truth (at least that BO feels this way) for people to dismiss it".

Ok, I guess the key word in what you said is 'truck'. I am not an academic where words like truck and their obvious uses do not apply. You'll have to rephrase that one.

Originally Posted by smc

I stand by my point about racism. I'm not defending Obama by raising it. I'm defending what is right. This Obama-as-other stuff is wrapped tightly in racism. You can pretend it isn't, but it doesn't change reality.

Ok, look again at

Originally Posted by TracyCoxx

I think for some people, it's like "wow, he's finally admitted it". And for many others, obama put words to a nagging feeling they've had about him. Obama is trying to get away from those comments, but it's not working. It's got too much of the ring of truth (at least that BO feels this way) for people to dismiss it.

Please bold the "Obama-as-other stuff" part so I can see what you're talking about.

[smc]

Originally Posted by TracyCoxx

Ok, let me try and understand. I didn't give any, uh, truck? to this bullshit ABOUT him and what he said in the speech in question. And this is when I said "I think for some people, it's like "wow, he's finally admitted it". And for many others, obama put words to a nagging feeling they've had about him. Obama is trying to get away from those comments, but it's not working. It's got too much of the ring of truth (at least that BO feels this way) for people to dismiss it".

Ok, I guess the key word in what you said is 'truck'. I am not an academic where words like truck and their obvious uses do not apply. You'll have to rephrase that one.

One of the meanings of the noun "truck" is "close association or connection" (e.g., "I will have no truck with crooks.") I should have written "have any truck," not "give any truck."

I cannot miss the opportunity to point out that you could have simply written that you are not familiar with the term as I used it, and asked for clarification. By writing what you did about not being an academic, you seek to do with me the very same thing this bullshit about Obama's speech, and the birther movement, seek to do to Obama: paint a picture of him as "other." You will deny it, of course, but the point of making the "academic" remark is to set me apart, in this case by virtue of my choice of words. It's as if to say to those who read the post, with a wink: "Don't forget that smc is not like the rest of us ... and be sure to take that into account when you read what he writes." It's insidious insinuation (you can look those words up if need be).

Originally Posted by TracyCoxx

Ok, look again at
Please bold the "Obama-as-other stuff" part so I can see what you're talking about.

I am referring to the entire enterprise of this portrayal of Obama's speech by those who are engage in it, which involves gross misrepresentation for political gain and to continue this "otherness" campaign (see below). Specifically, your "nagging feeling" comment is part of the "Obama-as-other stuff" to which I refer. The response to this speech by the right cannot be separated from all the other things that have been done in an effort to paint this picture of Obama as "not like us" or "someone who doesn't get America" and so on. The reality is that other than not being a White, Anglo-Saxon, Obama -- the Obama story -- may be the most American story of any president in a long time. It's not the story of a Kenyan-born Muslim, educated in a madrasa in Indonesia, who is "other." Differ with the man on policy, but have no truck with this campaign of innuendo and ignorance, pushed by those who demonstrate time and again their disrespect for the very country they claim to love, and embraced by people many of whom don't even recognize Hawaii as part of the "real America" (cue Sarah Palin). Really, TracyCoxx, you want to throw your lot in with those people? Or do you want to distinguish yourself, and your political views, by being serious?

[smc]

How do you make someone appear to say something that they didn't really say, so you can create a big political kerfuffle and support your underlying notion that someone just doesn't get how America works, that he isn't one of us, that he is other? The Romney campaign's political ad is an object lesson, along with the deliberate misquoting and taking out of context that has been practiced by the right-wing talking heads.

Here is what Obama said in his speech (it's part of the public record, and it was recorded):

Let me tell you something. There are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you?ve got a business, you didn?t build that.

I bolded some of this for a reason. In the Romney advertisement the speech is made to sound as if Obama went right to "if you've got a business, you didn't build that" from "let me tell you something." You can see it here:

http://www.mittromney.com/forms/these-hands0

Watch and listen to Obama's speech, carefully, as presented in this video. The video deceptively edits the remarks by removing a number of sentences so that two different parts of the speech can be made to seem seamless, thus promoting a lie about what Obama actually said. In Romney's case, it allows for the opportunity to have a "business owner" accuse Obama of insulting him, and ask Obama why the president is "demonizing" people who work hard to build a business.

It's complete bullshit.