 by Melissa Harris-Perry |
On Saturday's edition of her MSNBC show, Melissa Harris-Perry read an open letter to Washington Post George Will, whose October 1 column posited that President Obama's good fortune in the polls to this point was due less to white guilt over giving up on America's first black president.
Every now and then, I like to push back from the big panel and give some people individualized attention. And sometimes the best way to make your point is with a personalized touch, like a letter. So George Will, this one's for you.
Dear George. It's me ... Melissa.
On Monday, your column made a case for rejecting President Barack Obama's re-election bid. It was based on our tough economic realities and questioned whether Mitt Romney could turn this contest around.
Now, let's be clear, I disagree with your assessment of the Obama administration, but the first part of your argument in reasonable. It is based in empirical realities. You convincingly demonstrate that Americans have had a tough time fiscally in the past four years. I might disagree with you about the causal relationships between the economic factors you cite and the Obama administration but I don't argue with your data.
Which means I hope you won't quibble with the new data released yesterday showing unemployment fell to 7.8 percent, and also offering upward revisions of job growth, and an additional 114 thousand jobs created last month. But after a reasonable start you went off the rails a bit by writing this,
"Obama's administration is in shambles, yet he is prospering politically. This may not, however, entirely be evidence of the irrationality of the electorate. Something more benign may be at work."
Interesting word choice, benign. Because what you really mean is something sinister. You suspect something is amiss when, even after the President's meager performance in Wednesday's debate ... he still enjoys a 46 percent to 44 percent lead over challenger Mitt Romney.
See, George, I don't think it's all that paradoxical. It could it be that Democrats have effectively linked Romney with candidates, elected officials, and policies that represent the extreme anti-reproductive rights initiatives in the Republican party. That big gender gap could be because of transvaginal McDonnell, "Legitimate Rape " [Todd] Akin, and no-pills [Rick] Santorum.
Or George, perhaps it's that Mr. Romney chose a running mate who advocated transforming Medicare into a voucher system. That just might have caused some reliably conservative seniors to reconsider their willingness to support the president.
And George - it could be that until Wednesday night Mitt Romney had run a breathtakingly uninspiring campaign pockmarked with gaffes, inconsistencies, and evasion.
No, George, you took none of this into account. Instead you wrote the President's lead is solid because- and I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this- it's because the president is *black.* You say:
"... the nation, which is generally reluctant to declare a president a failure - thereby admitting that it made a mistake in choosing him - seems reluctant to give up on the first African American president."
Right, George -- because we all know that black men hold an unfair advantage in the labor market. You can see evidence of it all around you!
After decades of racial good will shown to black workers as a result of the unfairly imposed guilt trip by radical race-card playing media types like me, black workers now have an unemployment rate of 13 point 4 percent.
Yeah, racial guilt. That's it.
Whew, well, I hereby give you permission to set down the white man's burden. If you don't want to vote for the president ... don't. Plenty of other voters seems to have found actual reasons to support him.
Sincerely,
Melissa
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You pushed back on this one. You took him to the "woodshed." Applause!!
Bold, accurate, and appropriate. I think the reason the President is leading is even more, there are millions of us, never polled, and never close to the ranting opportunists visible on TV, we may be classified independents, but we know who is fighting our cause. Even if the polls show Mitt leading, the votes will prove them wrong, if for once in the life of this country.
I have been appalled by the comments of MANY old, white guy, republicans during this election!! They are frightingly "bigotted" and I don't know why the average republican voter is not outraged at the disgusting comments of their party leaders, commentators, and co-chairmen.
I am a white woman who will vote for Obama because of his intelligence, kindness, humor, family values, and passion to help the AMERICAN people. As a country, why is it ok to help the whole world in financial ways, but Obama and Democrates are critized for helping our own people, the working poor, the union members, the sick and needy?
We are a nation built on Christian values, and the rightwing, religious conservatives have "shelved" their christian values during this election. They are mean spirited, tellers of untruth, and downright bigots.......I am FEARFUL if people like those are elected to local, state, and national positions. I PRAY for the return of sanity in these wonderful United States of American!
the biggest bigot out there is Obama he also is a under cover Muslim. The war on women that the Democrats say the Republicans have started, It was started by Ted Kenndey when he killed that lady while he was drunk and did not do i hour of jail time. About the Republicans being racist then why did the Republican party free the slaves and the Democrats started a war to keep slaves. Obamacare is what your happy about, free health care hate to tell you , you might get free health care but when tax time comes you will be taxed a minium of $2500 and you don't pay you don't get any government benefits (foodstamps, tanf, healthcare and what ever government benefits) until your taxes are paid. The tax benefits kids credit were under Bushes tax cut which expired the last 4 year and every year before tax time Obama threaten to let them expire and he threatened people on social security, military pay and a few other that work for their money but he let S.S.I. foodstamps tanif and all the other free stuff people get but the ones that paid for it he threaten to stop them when the government shut down but the middle class kicked up a stink so he sign them for 1 year at a time and they will expire this year. He destroyers S.S. people that paid for it and given it to people that did not pay for it and to the illegal. That's your parents and grandparent retirement money that was promised to them but he is given it away to people that don't deserve it. Democrats help the people but they get the money from the rich to pay to help the people. We are a nation built on Christian values and obama is a under cover Muslim and since the Democrat party is so good then why do they have/had members from the KKK, black panthers and a bunch of other hate groups elected to the democrat party their is a bunches of racists elected to the democrat party and the party that wanted to keep slavery alive. PS your a racist for voting for obama because he is black. Everything obama called bush like unamerican for spending 4 trillion $$$ in 8 years because we were attacked and at war but obama does it in 4 years and blames it on bush. don't forget about the commercial saying romney want to pollute the air he and his family breath, killing old people because they didn't have insurance, in that case obama has killed millions because of unemployment and the 4 and a half million jobs obama has created pay between $9.00 to $13.50 an hour. Who can live and support a family of that little of money. Since obama has taken office inflation has gone up over 7% and net pay has decreased 3%. The first 2 years he was in office he could only pass a couple of laws included obamacare and they all passed barley he couldn't even get all the democrats to agree with him.
The education loan is still available, you may want to take advantage of it before things go sour with a republican govt.
You don't know how the polling works, they take a small % of people and ask them usually a few 1000. The polls showed Obama leading a few % points all the way to the debates then it changed a little with Romney a head in a couple but not by much. Now here comes the tricky part when pollster make the calls it has been proven that they call more democrats that republicans and that is why Obama is leading by a small%. But if Obama wouldn't of been in Vegas and up in Denver instead he might of had a better debate because of the altitude caused him not to be able to do that good only showing up a few hours before the debate to Denver he had altitude deprivation. Or it could of been because he is black, you know blacks are not good debater. The last 2 excuses came from obamas campain the altitude hell Vegas is over 4500 feet and he was flying over 30,000 feet. last election he flew from Hawaiian to vegas thats from sea level to 4500 and it didn't bother him then. And the one excuse because he is black now how is pulling out the race card again. romney handed his head on a platter last debate and I hope he does it 2 more time just as bad
You are crazier then a @!$%# house rat...
Kevin - Ditto! Hope he is on somebody's 'watch-list'.
Throughly enjoyed it. Let's keep moving forward.
Signed,
A middle aged, middle class, caucasian, independent, male.
Racial Guilt? How about better qualified. Obama has done so much for our country and his efforts to bring us out of the recession are working. Obama is a man of principle and integrity. Romney is just out for himself. Think about it. He earns over 20 million a year, if he wanted to help people he could probably do more as a private citizen. Romney just wants power and authority for personal gain. He has a long history of banking outside of our country in order to avoid his tax responsibilities. He has investments in Chinese and Iranian Oil. When he was at Bain, he exported jobs to sweatshops in Mexico, China and India. Romney's 47% comment was the most accurate in terms of who he is and how he thinks. Those words match his deeds. Romney is a power hungry liar who will flip flop in any direction to please his audience. Obama saved us from a great depression, passed landmark legislation, got Osama, regained our respect among the international community, respects women's right for equal pay and our abilities to make our own health decisions, and has passed landmark legislation in spite of the obstruction he faced from the Republicans. Obama/Biden 2012
I am amazed. I do think people tiptoe around President Obama due to his race. He has never been criticized like other presidents. The media gives him a pass on everything. If he were not black he would be called on the carpet like every other president of the past. But that doesn't happen. If you dare criticize him, you are a predjudiced bigot. That is a sad commentary on our society. That we can't express an opinion or feel free to criticize a president no matter what his race. MSNBC is especially quick to jump to the conclusion that everything is racially motivated. Never say a bad word about Obama or you are racist.
Melissa, I'm glad you shot straight on this, I just hope the sh** from that column didn't splatter your shoes...nasty. (Although devout GOP acolyte Chip Dooley may volunteer to clean it up for you, he seems to think it's ambrosia...another word he can't spell)
I have never read such a collection of condescending swill as that which came from Will..... 'White guilt', indeed! The only "whites" that SHOULD feel guilt are incapable of it, they feel JUSTIFIED (or is that "Romney-fied"?). {BTW, since those I refer to are the followers of the trash that conceived the "one-drop rule", I use it against them to distance myself...after all, I AM the same % of Cherokee blood as the new leader of the Nation!}
Melissa, I hope George actually recieves this letter. Our president has been called everything but the "N" word this campaign period.
Rev.Royal - He's probably been called that too, just edited from the coverage. He has indeed been called every thing but a child of God.
George Will has been there all my adult life astride the divide between academia and journalism. I read some of his books and found them informative and educational. Never considered fact checking. As I have gotten older, I criticize a lot more. George please do not speculate for all white Americans. We do not all feel guilt for having given up on President Obama. Many of us haven't given up on him at all. I find this Will observation, as it is handed down from Mount Olympus, to be tedious and crafted to support the Will agenda. I see as you have gotten older you still remain critical and your conservative viewpoint worn out. MHP please keep up the observations I can see you are a real troublemaker!
Mellissa Harris Perry should spend her time more constuctively, like talking about how many young African American Men are getting gunned down on the streets of Chicago every weekend, and where are the community leaders, and why are they silent. Instead she only spends her time categorizing white people as racist. I've learned over the course of my lifetime of 58 years that you tend to be what you accuse others of.