Archive for March 5, 2009

“Sometime’s being Black isn’t enough” promoted from Morning Joe

Posted: March 5, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , , ,

For three days Morning Joe has been tweaking Rush and then tweaking Republicans who don’t stand up to him. Yesterday they Mocked Michael Steele for backing off of his attack on Rush.

Yesterday Rush now that the White House has elevated him to leader of the Republican Party challenged him to a one on one debate on his show. Blog reaction has been strong. I was interested in seeing what Morning Joe had to say about this today.

They played the challenge that Rush issued up front but pooh poohed it in 30 seconds. They then played a clip of Michael Steele on Hannity and said the following. This caused Joe Scarborough to say the following about picking Steele for party chairman:

6:14 a.m. “Sometimes being black isn’t enough.“

This is an amazing statement coming from a MSNBC show. The media has been grovelling all over Obama and the “historic” nature of his presidency. What is historic about it? His skin color. During the campaign the networks elevated him to messianic status, they proclaimed him JFK/FDR & Lincoln over and over again. CNN & MSNBC both have a first 100 days watch. And yet again today it is noted that no jokes are made about him. Meanwhile the economy continues to tank and in under 60 days more spending is proposed than for the previous two centuries.

All of this has happened and Joe Scarborough tells the RNC that Being Black isn’t enough for Michael Steele to lead them? And nobody says a word on it?

Let’s come out and say it: Being Black is apparently enough to immunize you from any critique serious or comic if you are this liberal president.

Being Black is NOT enough if you are a republican.

Being Black is enough if you are a liberal senator from Illinois who seems to have interesting connections to a disgraced ex governor or a liberal representative who keeps thousands hidden in his freezer.

Being Black isn’t enough if you would be the first Black Governor of Pennsylvania or Ohio and you are a republican. Or how about William Lucas:

A few years before, there was a black gubernatorial nominee in my home state of Michigan. His name was William Lucas. Not many said that he would be the first black governor since Reconstruction (he would have been). No one said that the election was a test of the racial maturity of Michigan voters. Nope — Lucas was a conservative Republican, and therefore he didn’t count, in liberal eyes, as black. He was denounced by all the usual forces, and in the usual ways: “sellout,” etc. And he lost — to a garden-variety white liberal (Jim Blanchard, who was later Bill Clinton’s ambassador to Canada). Ho-hum.

This is racism. Obama is their token who absolves them from their sins so he is celebrated. Steele, Sowell or Williams challenge them on their ideas, they are ignored or rejected.

If the media in general or MSNBC in particular isn’t ashamed, it’s only because they have lost the capacity to be ashamed.

Oh and BTW if anything happens because of Mr. Scarborough’s statement it will be because he is the sole Republican of any stature on MSNBC. He can be safely targeted. He is their token. They can always get another token.

Update: Like Meucci it’s not who is first it is who is quoted first.

Morning Joe will they call the president a coward?

Posted: March 5, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , , , ,

Now we find out if the Morning Joe team that has been so happy to make fun of republicans for not standing up to Rush will challenge the president to do the same.

5:50 a.m. It is 10 min before the show. I’m predicting that they will pooh pooh the idea of the debate and only Pat will be there to ask why it is incumbent on Republicans to challenge Rush but it is not incumbent for the White House that attacked him to do so. Will I be right?

6:00 a.m. Ok lets see….They lead with the counterproductive quote.

6:02 a.m. Oh they’ve spent very little time on Rush says Barnicle, only what 4-5 news cycles now?

6:04 a.m. Apparently it’s mission accomplished for the White House, no comment on the challenge by Rush yet. Apparently the only thing that Rush has ever said is the 60 seconds of his 80 minute speech that they played over and over and the 30 seconds of his rebuttal to Michael Steele. Nothing else exists.

6:05 a.m. I’ve got to admit that is amazing that fellow lived.

6:07 a.m. They now show the debate challenge, they all dismiss it.

6:10 a.m. Barnicle brings up Tip, I loved Tip he was awsome and an honest opponent.

6:12 a.m. Apparently everyone who meets Rush likes him, he’s funny and not a hater, but I disagree with him.

6:13 a.m. They are still hitting Steele but they have still dismissed the challenge to President Obama

6:14 a.m. “Sometimes being black isn’t enough” says Joe. They are talking about Michael Steele, I wonder who else this could apply to?

6:18 a.m. Funny Rush Joke. Good point the late nights won’t attack Obama, but will now attack Rush.

6:30 a.m. They point out the distraction factor on the Rush story.

6:40 a.m. I did miss this, they hit Geithner on hypocrisy. Good!

6:45 a.m. Apparently Patterson doesn’t enjoy the president’s immunity. That was funny. Note the joke had nothing to do with race.

7:00 a.m. Hey the 7 figure offer for the birth tape is better than the 7 figures for the sex.

7:06 a.m. They play Rush’s challenge again followed by the counterproductive quote from Gibbs. That is interesting.

7:08 a.m. Carlos says there is only so much time you can distract from the issues.

7:10 a.m. Watson says Steele can recover by organizing actual alternatives.

7:11 a.m. Again we see the Steele is a coward and looks weak, but apparently the president isn’t cowardly or looking weak not answering Rush’s Challenge.

7:12 a.m. They are right about the grass roots stuff.

7:13 a.m. Now lets attack Palin as a token and bring back the Being Black is not enough line, Mika tried to head it off. They still don’t get the irony of all of this.

7:15 a.m. This has the potential to be an Imus moment for Morning Joe, it will not be because Mr. Steele is a conservative Republican.

7:17 a.m. “Why does Rush Limbaugh hate children?”

7:20 a.m. Lets make something clear. If Michael Steele was the DNC chairman instead of the RNC chairman this would be Morning Joe’s Imus moment.

7:30 a.m. Now the topic is Iran. Actually a good question from O’Donnell does the worldwide downturn give us leverage against Iran. Haass says yes and praises diplomacy. The problem that these guys have is that they forget dictators don’t care what the standard of living is for their people.

7:32 a.m. Cuba is doing ok according to Hass, but apparently retreats in Syria, Russia etc are all positive things.

7:39 a.m. Is there anything in the advice that Smiley and Scarborough said about Steele that could not be said about the president?

7:41 a.m. Limbaugh challenges the president to a debate and is the lead story so the topic of discussion is the fecklessness of Michael Steele, amazing! Is there an actual conservative that they are willing to talk to or have on for more than 60 seconds.

7:43 a.m. Smiley is asked the “black enough” question in different words. He says symbolism is important but substance matters more. This is what is called “projection”.

7:44 a.m. OMG Smiley says that Obama has to be held accountable to deliver! This is a seminal moment!

7:45 a.m. Annoying doctor: “Leaders don’t grovel.”

7:53 a.m. They are talking healthcare, they are now asking about costs.

7:55 a.m. The Doc is talking about a dark underside on this stuff dealing with coverage.

7:56 a.m. Did you hear anything out of their mouth?

8:01 a.m. Now they are laughing at Gibbs, Good!

8:05 a.m. Obama is just like any other pol looking for advantage says Ari Fleischer as a guest.

8:07 a.m. Barnicle says they aren’t really worrying about Rush in the Whitehouse is he. I say look at the news cycle.

8:07 a.m. Would you have gone after Michael Moore? Would you go after Moore.

8:09 a.m. “Are you going after Democratic candidates for not denouncing Keith Olberman?” Zing! Fleischer is cleaning their clocks.

8:14 a.m. Defensive medicine, they are really talking solid sense now. This is the best non-Rush topic they have done today.

8:16 a.m. 50k is what this doc pays for insurance. This is a solid topic, I’m sure they would LOVE to talk about this instead of Rush on the radio today.

8:20 a.m. I think Tavis Smilley might have saved the day for Morning Joe.

8:29 a.m. How can this argument concerning a “fundamental change” be true when gay marriage wasn’t legal in California until the last year or so. Correct me if I’m wrong but hasn’t California been a state before the civil war?

8:50 a.m. Breaking Bad interesting show.

8:57 a.m. What did I learn today. Being Black isn’t enough if you are a black Republican who won’t oppose Rush. That’s being a grovelling leader. Being Black IS enough if you are a liberal first term senator who wants to be president and doesn’t want to engage Rush in debate. At least that is the case on Morning Joe.

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