Obama: My grandmother who fears black men is a “typical white person”
posted at 2:15 pm on March 20, 2008 by Allahpundit
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Via Breitbart.tv and our old pal Ian Schwartz. I actually think he misspoke here, that he was simply trying to say, “My grandmother, who is white, is a typical person insofar as she’s suspicious of strangers of other races.” Didn’t come out that way, though. How do you suppose it’ll play in that bar in Pennsylvania that Politico focus-grouped?
Exit question, true or false: Obama’s stumble here is no more than a momentary brain fart whereas McCain confusing AQI with the Mahdi Army and then correcting himself is a deeply significant insight into his worldview and/or mental capacity.
Update: Just how deeply reflective of the community is Wright’s style of preaching, such that Obama could no sooner disown it than disown black America in its entirety? If you guessed 25%, you guessed right!
Update: Since I’m giving Obama the benefit of the doubt on this, I’m curious: Has anyone seen any lefty bloggers give McCain the benefit of the doubt on the AQI/Mahdi Army flub? Has even one of them offered, en passant, that the guy’s been traveling a lot, may have been a little tired, and simply made a good faith mistake which was duly corrected? If so, post the link in the comments. Credit should be given.
Update: Who’s enjoying this the most? Not Hillary, but you’re close.
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That’s how the MSM will play it. Me? I think it’s a Freudian slip that shows us more about Obama than the entire rest of the speech did.
crazy_legs on March 20, 2008 at 2:19 PM
A Fruedian slip is where you say one thing, but you mean your mother.
Sefton on March 20, 2008 at 2:20 PM
Maybe his grandmother knows that black men who make up about 6.5% of the population are committing around 50% of violent crime. Sounds like she is informed, not racist…
Nozzle on March 20, 2008 at 2:20 PM
His explanation following the flub doesn’t make it any better.
Vizzini on March 20, 2008 at 2:21 PM
This “typical white person” says that either it wasn’t a slip, or it was a banana peel waiting for a slip to happen.
NeighborhoodCatLady on March 20, 2008 at 2:22 PM
I had no idea that Jesse Jackson was the typical white person…
Queasy on March 20, 2008 at 2:22 PM
He needs to shut up about his grandmother already. That woman has been thrown under the bus so many times she may never heal.
HawaiiLwyr on March 20, 2008 at 2:22 PM
For a Harvard graduate this dolt has a lot of trouble saying what he really means. I suspect he says exactly what he means or what he wants you to hear, then if it backfires on him he attempts to back out of it.
rplat on March 20, 2008 at 2:22 PM
Wait a minute, didn’t his wife say she fears he (”as a black man”) will get shot getting gas? Whom does she fear will shoot him?
Brat on March 20, 2008 at 2:22 PM
I see…white people can’t understand black America, but you sure got our number pegged, don’t ya?
Oaf.
James on March 20, 2008 at 2:23 PM
…
He didn’t misspeak. He’s a racist, plain and simple.
When will everyone stop giving Hussein Obama the benefit of the doubt and see him for what he is… America’s first viable black racist candidate.
madmonkphotog on March 20, 2008 at 2:23 PM
But The Messiah is a Messiah, not a typical person, so luckily enough for us, he is not suspicious of strangers of other races, such as white voters he needs in order to become POTUS.
shaken on March 20, 2008 at 2:23 PM
So…
the point he was making wasn’t that she harbors any racial animosity, even as he counterpoised her to Uncle Jerry.
So he doesn’t either?
Typhoon on March 20, 2008 at 2:23 PM
It won’t, Hillary is gonna give Obama a thrashing in the PA primary.
doubleplusundead on March 20, 2008 at 2:24 PM
Hey I’m white but I’m not a grandmother to a bi-racial jerk.
Keep digging Barry. Maybe you can lose PA by 30 points?
Vote Sauron 08 on March 20, 2008 at 2:25 PM
Does it really matter what a white person thinks? Barack will tell you everything you need to know about whitey.
snaggletoothie on March 20, 2008 at 2:25 PM
He’s self-destructing.
He was never in a position to make it as a candidate. He’s just not quite there yet.
I really can’t believe he is killing his Grandma like this.
What kind of man does that. Where is the “no comment”.
I would NEVER talk about my Grandma like that…she would be off limits.
benrand on March 20, 2008 at 2:26 PM
GRANDMA probably experienced more Racism than Barry ever did. Black and White Racists probably voiced their displeasure at her daughters interracial relationship, and her raising a interracial child.
PrezHussein on March 20, 2008 at 2:27 PM
Also, it is simply amazing what Hillary can do…she knew this guy would implode.
Bravo my dear!
benrand on March 20, 2008 at 2:27 PM
I’m wondering if Obama thinks that his father was a typical black man by taking off on his family?
Hummer53 on March 20, 2008 at 2:28 PM
Sadly, it doesn’t matter what he says or thinks. He’s a Democrat so most Democrats will vote for him no matter what.
Granny was Klanny.
deewhybee on March 20, 2008 at 2:28 PM
He’s well on his way there, if he isn’t there yet. I’ll be curious if the Messiah can resurrect his campaign, but I’m not so sure.
doubleplusundead on March 20, 2008 at 2:30 PM
As per Encarta:
Freudian slip – Definition:
psychologically significant slip of tongue: an accidental mistake, usually the use of the wrong word in a sentence, thought to betray somebody’s subconscious preoccupations
crazy-legs’ use of the term was correct. And, by the way, if you’re going to be the grammar Gestapo, at least spell “Freudian” correctly.
OhEssYouCowboys on March 20, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Where does the AARP stand on this issue?
No more milk and cookies for you, Barry!
TexasJew on March 20, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Doesn’t much matter. The story doesn’t have legs to hurt McCain, particularly this far out from the general. The lefties are just trying divert attention from their trainwreck of a nomination. Add to it that McCain’s out with foreign dignitaries while the Dems are at home sniping at each other, and you have yourself a contrast the Dems probably don’t want to make very clear.
Vizzini on March 20, 2008 at 2:31 PM
AP,
Thanks for the Protein Wisdom link, as always. And thanks to PW commenter happyfeet for catching it in the first place.
Karl on March 20, 2008 at 2:31 PM
Funneh.
doubleplusundead on March 20, 2008 at 2:31 PM
Extend foot……cock the hammer……BANG!!!
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on March 20, 2008 at 2:32 PM
While you’re there on Encarta, look up ‘play on words.’
James on March 20, 2008 at 2:34 PM
Comment of the day!
At least he corrected himself. It’s amazing to me misstatements like McCain’s don’t happen more often than they do – for any of the candidates. The work required to be current on world events and have the most incredible minutiae on those events always on the tip of your tongue is staggering.
BacaDog on March 20, 2008 at 2:35 PM
AP is back, back to apologizing for BHO. Took you what, 2 days? Now the tingle is back for you.
WoosterOh on March 20, 2008 at 2:36 PM
Again, it’s really, really simple. If you sit and listen to racists anti-American rants for 20 years people are going to naturally assume you agree with it. When you drag your kids to hear it, it confirms the assumption. When your wife parrots it in public (albeit in a sanitized form) it reinforces the assumption. When you refuse to put a flag lapel pin on and put your hand over your heart during the national anthem, people have all the evidence they’ll ever need to write you off permanently. Everything else is noise…
TheBigOldDog on March 20, 2008 at 2:36 PM
I don’t know why anyone would give this dissembling, deceptive douchebag the benefit of restating his unfortunate statements for him, and I have no idea what he means by “typical white person”.
That said, and for the edification of his idiot wife, the indisputable fact that perpetrators of violent crime are black, completely our of proportion to demographics might explain his grandmother’s mindset, which of course we only think we know based on her self-serving grandson’s shifting explanations.
Jaibones on March 20, 2008 at 2:37 PM
I don’t have sound, anyone have a transcript.
The only time I’ve been scared by black people is if they’ve done something threatening or anti-social like beg for money.
ninjapirate on March 20, 2008 at 2:37 PM
Oh man, I missed the forest for the trees. Sefton, my apologies. James, my thanks.
OhEssYouCowboys on March 20, 2008 at 2:38 PM
I guess it all depends on what the meaning of typical is.
Obama’s Kenyan grandfather objected to the marriage of his son to Barack’s mother, Ann Dunham:
Was Barack’s Kenyan grandfather a typical black person? How about Barack’s preacher and mentor? Typical or atypical?
What’s up with that Barry?
Buy Danish on March 20, 2008 at 2:38 PM
If HotAir re-opened registration today, I’d be sorely tempted to adopt Typical White Person as my new screen name.
CK MacLeod on March 20, 2008 at 2:39 PM
Bill Clinton was right, Obama was nothing but the biggest fairy tale the country has ever seen.
TheBigOldDog on March 20, 2008 at 2:39 PM
Good Lord.
Election Fact: Empty Suits Can Actually Self-Destruct.
amerpundit on March 20, 2008 at 2:40 PM
The man said what he means and means what he said.
“Typical white person” – y’know the ones who have “resentments” instead of “grievances”.
Django on March 20, 2008 at 2:41 PM
“Honky” is shorter, and easier to type.
:O)
OhEssYouCowboys on March 20, 2008 at 2:41 PM
I was thinking that would be a nice sockpuppet.
doubleplusundead on March 20, 2008 at 2:42 PM
I can’t wait until he gets the nomination and has to actually debate McCain on live TV and actually have to say something and have a stance on something.
He may be the emptiest suit EVAH!!!!!!
When he is put on the spot, he can’t give you a straight answer, or his true colors shine right through.
Ahhhhh, November. I can’t wait for the rout!!!!!
RobG on March 20, 2008 at 2:42 PM
#14 Having Black Friends
ninjapirate on March 20, 2008 at 2:43 PM
Bwahahaha. It was Josh Marshall’s opening point yesterday in arguing his proposition “why John McCain’s poor grasp of foreign policy and military strategy makes him a dangerous choice for the role of commender-in-chief”. It threw me for a loop, I thought it would be the color of McCain’s tie.
Dusty on March 20, 2008 at 2:43 PM
Sans teleprompter.
OhEssYouCowboys on March 20, 2008 at 2:43 PM
Wow, it’s one thing to miss the joke. Another to get on your high horse about it. And then to bring up Nazis! And grammar?
tlynch001 on March 20, 2008 at 2:44 PM
Hillary’s chalking up another couple points to the Pastor of Disaster.
CK MacLeod on March 20, 2008 at 2:44 PM
This is interesting. It is not a black / white thing. It’s a black culture / white culture thing.
Hussein, after all, is half white. It’s just that he’s embraced black culture (e.g. in the church he’s a member of).
BowHuntingTexas on March 20, 2008 at 2:45 PM
Now does Barry O have to give another “brilliantly Lincolnesque” speech in front of 600 American flags at the Pillsbury world headquarters explaining how much he loved his little old white granny lady?
More MSM swooning!
TexasJew on March 20, 2008 at 2:45 PM
Especially in the early 60’s. Interracial marriages weren’t fashionable for white women until ten years later.
Harpoon on March 20, 2008 at 2:46 PM
–James Carville, 2/18/2008
amerpundit on March 20, 2008 at 2:46 PM
Apparently, you missed my apology to Sefton. But, thanks for your help.
OhEssYouCowboys on March 20, 2008 at 2:46 PM
Yeah, the endless stream of Obama-bashing posts over the last 48 hours was a passing fancy. You’ve sniffed me out, Wooster.
Allahpundit on March 20, 2008 at 2:46 PM
Statistics show that the majority of crimes committed against blacks are done by (drumroll) . . . blacks.
TooTall on March 20, 2008 at 2:47 PM
Damm Reverend Wright propagandized Obama good to make him believe his own grandmother a racist. The same grandmother that didn’t disown Obama and his mom but opened their arms to him.
Fly on the wall moment:
-Wright: Yourrr Grammamma just anutterr Craker a*s Craker. Yaa no,,, all white folks racist kin to da devil put on diss earrh to Opress us brudas,, Obama,,, open da eyes.
-Obama: It all makes sense now brother Wright, all those irrelevant moments all make sense. Thank you brother Wright.
C-Low on March 20, 2008 at 2:47 PM
What’s worse, this or THIS:
ninjapirate on March 20, 2008 at 2:47 PM
There are many black people I would vote for as President, and bho you are not one of them. The black people I admire have never, to my knowledge, ever been as racist against white people as you seem to be. You are a disgrace to your race trying to make the fact you are black white people’s fault and trying to make us feel guilty. You are the one with the really big problem, not me.
L
letget on March 20, 2008 at 2:48 PM
At what point does the evidence mount so high that one should really start believing that Obama may in fact be a racist himself?
azcop on March 20, 2008 at 2:49 PM
He was awkwardly kidding around with teenagers and they were laughing.
He didn’t claim typical Black people are bigoted.
amerpundit on March 20, 2008 at 2:50 PM
In addition, and for mitigation purposes … had the sentence said:
A Fruedian slip is where you say one thing, but you mean your grandmother … all would’ve been moot.
Thanks, again, for your help.
OhEssYouCowboys on March 20, 2008 at 2:51 PM
This is great. I hope this keeps up right up to November.
Kini on March 20, 2008 at 2:51 PM
I was joking myself.
ninjapirate on March 20, 2008 at 2:51 PM
crazy-legs’ use of the term was correct. And, by the way, if you’re going to be the grammar Gestapo, at least spell “Freudian” correctly.
OhEssYouCowboys on March 20, 2008 at 2:30 PM
C’mon.. wasn’t that just a clever Aggie joke, OhEssYouCowboys?
TexasJew on March 20, 2008 at 2:52 PM
There is absolutely nothing wrong with, as he says, seeing someone on the street “that you don’t know” and having a nervous response.
That does not need to be trained out of us.
If the anecdote in his book is the incident to which Obama refers, it was his grandfather that introduced race into what was a perfectly rational (and safe) response from grandma.
Typical.
MayBee on March 20, 2008 at 2:52 PM
Obama is making remarks that reflect his beliefs. I’m sure he thinks a typical white old lady fears a black stranger. But he needs to reflect upon the fears of the typical old black lady who fears a black stranger. I mean since we’re being so open and all.
Randy
williars on March 20, 2008 at 2:53 PM
Yes, Typical White Person (TWP) would be an excellent name to adopt for terrorizing comment threads where Obamamaniacs dwell.
CK MacLeod on March 20, 2008 at 2:53 PM
You must be a TU fan?
OhEssYouCowboys on March 20, 2008 at 2:54 PM
Typical White person?
Are we allowed to refer to typical Blacks?
How about that it is typical of any woman who does not know some shady looking dudes coming down the road to be concerned?
That isn’t typical White, you racist. It’s human.
Just keep talkin’……..and sinking deeper
Hening on March 20, 2008 at 2:55 PM
Oh, sorry. You can never tell these days, as Obama supporters can actually out-parody parodies.
amerpundit on March 20, 2008 at 2:56 PM
I guess me being afraid to walk through the 5th ward in Houston at 11:30 at night a typical white person.
I bet there are a lot of black people that live in the same area that are also “typical white people”
TheSitRep on March 20, 2008 at 2:57 PM
Jesse Jackson, Typical White Person
ninjapirate on March 20, 2008 at 3:00 PM
I thought the line from Obama’s speech about why so many black men abandon their families was particularly telling. Obama attributed the phenomenon to the fact that black men are angry and humiliated at not being able to find jobs and provide for their families. (So basically, it’s the fault of the racist and greedy white man that “Reverend” Wright talks about in his sermons.)
But Barack was abandoned (at age 2) by his own black father, a Harvard-trained economist. Daddy Obama got a job as a minister in the Kenyan government. Presumably that job paid enough so that Daddy Obama could contribute to supporting little Barack, and even occasionally visiting his son. But Daddy Obama couldn’t be bothered. I wonder which sins of racist white America were to blame for that decision?
AZCoyote on March 20, 2008 at 3:00 PM
He probably did the mosts grevious sin a politician could do… he told the truth.
His Grandmother probably WAS frightened of Black men…
But you have to ask… why?
Could it be because of little things like the video about 6 down? of the “confrontation”?
Or Black Preachers who Preach Racism themselves?
Or maybe the Black Panthers?
Or the fact that Black men do disproportionaly commit more crimes? (or at least get caught more?).
Fear is a very well ingrained SURVIVAL trait.
Heck, I’m 6 ft and 205 lbs, ret Military, Martial Artist… and I get nervous in some parts of town…
But heck, now its Chicanos… some Blacks… Moslems… dang…
Romeo13 on March 20, 2008 at 3:01 PM
We know for a fact his mentor and pastor, J. Dudley Wright does not like White People.
We know for a fact his wife is not proud of America as long as White People are in charge.
Why is it so hard to believe that Obama does not think very highly of white people?
Has he spent his whole life hating that part of himself that is White?
EJDolbow on March 20, 2008 at 3:01 PM
The man said what he means and means what he said.
“Typical white person” – y’know the ones who have “resentments” instead of “grievances”.
Django on March 20, 2008 at 2:41 PM
Let me clarify…
I suppose that people (ie, “taxpayers”) who have to continually pay and pay and pay for other people’s idiotic behaviors and destructive personal habits are expected to RESENT it, while the other people who expect to be paid more for actually having those same idiotic behaviors and destructive personal habits are AGGRIEVED when they don’t get paid as much as they would like…
TexasJew on March 20, 2008 at 3:02 PM
911 OP: What is your emergeny?
Caller: Help there is a typical white woman being dragged under a bus!
911: Where is the bus?
Caller: It is following another bus called the Straight Talk Express!
911: What about the other bus?
Caller: People are trying to help the lady, but it seems the Straight talk won’t let any other vehicle near. She is really old and really white and really scared! Some black guy who really looks a lot like the white lady is driving the bus.
911: Sometimes it is just practical to do these kinds of things, I am not sure this is a real emergency. Thanks for calling
Caller: Hello??? Hello??? What is this country coming to??
USBB on March 20, 2008 at 3:03 PM
Obama should speak for himself. I don’t need to “break through it”, because I was never behind it in the first place. At the extremes, it’s the people like those who attend Obama’s church or KKK rallies who need to “break through it”, not me. The fact that Obama hasn’t broken through yet disqualifies him for the office of POTUS, IMO.
As for, “each generation feeling a little bit less like that.” try instead, “the present generation feels nothing at all like that.”
FloatingRock on March 20, 2008 at 3:04 PM
First of all, fear of the other is natural. We need to crusade against our natural tendencies. But to say America is expecially evil because it too shares in this propensity is incorrect.
Secondly, we have to separate culture and race. Black men are disproportionately represented in prison. This is cultural. If a black man has a suit, no worries. But if he is young and wearing gangster attire, – depending on the setting – caution might be justified. That does not have to do with any inherent genetic feature. This is not racist, it is culturist.
Culturism allows us to discuss such things intelligently. Calling everything racism stops necessary discussions. Obama’s logic and word choice are antagonistic to serious discussions of diversity.
http://www.culturism.us
culturism on March 20, 2008 at 3:04 PM
Hear that? It’s years of identity politics, er, “coming home to roost”.
amerpundit on March 20, 2008 at 3:05 PM
Everybody sing!
Grandma got run over by politician
Coming home from our house on caucus eve!
You may say there so such thing as Obama
But as for me and the bloggers we agree!
USBB on March 20, 2008 at 3:07 PM
He’s putting racism on white people. He deflecting his racism, his wifes racism, his churches racism and blaming it in his grandmother.
Kini on March 20, 2008 at 3:08 PM
OK, as I grew up in Western PA, among the folks in a bar much like the one in the previous story, let me speak on this:
The TWP may well have the suspicions that BO discusses. It comes across to me in conversations with my old neighbors every time we talk or see one another.
What the TWP doesn’t want to hear is someone tell them to their face that they are (a) racist or tb) a strong candidate to be a racist. Especially by a politician. It might be somewhat acceptable from a parish priest; it isn’t in the politician’s field of play.
thirtypundit on March 20, 2008 at 3:09 PM
He doesn’t come across quite as ‘eloquent’ without a teleprompter does he?
Queasy on March 20, 2008 at 3:11 PM
Of course, Pastor Wright did approvingly publish the views of Hamas on the “Pastor Page” of the church bulletin:
Did Obama not read it?
HerrMorgenholz on March 20, 2008 at 3:11 PM
TexasJew on March 20, 2008 at 2:52 PM
You must be a TU fan?
OhEssYouCowboys on March 20, 2008 at 2:54 PM
Worse. An alumni.
Of course, I spent several years up in Ponca City, so we’re almost neighbors, I guess..
TexasJew on March 20, 2008 at 3:11 PM
An “aggie joke” is blowing a 21 point, 4th quarter, lead in football.
:O|
Congrats on the basketball prowess. Good luck in the Tourney.
OhEssYouCowboys on March 20, 2008 at 3:14 PM
Sorry, not a slip.
jukin on March 20, 2008 at 3:15 PM
“…typical white person….”
“…that’s just the nature of race in our society….”
Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay….
…and this is the bigotted jerk who claims to want to “lead” us towards unity?!?
Lockstein13 on March 20, 2008 at 3:15 PM
The thing about a Freudian slip is that after you make it, you usually correct it. But that didn’t happen here. In fact, what he says afterward about each generation seems to reinforce what he said before.
29Victor on March 20, 2008 at 3:19 PM
Ahahaha… that made me laugh.
Nineball on March 20, 2008 at 3:21 PM
Sweeeet…
Hening on March 20, 2008 at 3:22 PM
Try the first line with:
Grandma got run over by Hussein, dear
(Not mine. I saw it yesterday by a poster on MM’s site. It’s funny though, and the rhyme works better).
AZCoyote on March 20, 2008 at 3:22 PM
Hey, you seem like a pretty good guy. For an Okie.
Bugler on March 20, 2008 at 3:26 PM
bravo
funky chicken on March 20, 2008 at 3:26 PM
OhEssYouCowboys -
One thing I’ll say about Oklahoma, it was the most multiracial environment that I ever lived in. Over a quarter of Oklahomans have Native American blood, and the areas I worked in were full of very intermarried people, of all racial groups. Really an intermixed bunch – Tonkawas, Poncas, Osage, Pawnees, etc. And intermarried in with every other racial group.
I somehow see Obama as using his background as a political ploy, more than as something to help his insight into his background. Obviously “being” black is more adventageous than “being” white. That’s why his grandparents are useful as a political tool of some kind, and why he can’t break off from Rev. Wright.
With him, like Hillary, it’s all identity politics.
And that is why they will fail.
TexasJew on March 20, 2008 at 3:27 PM
As Rush said, “Obama is the bread that’s ready to be put into the toaster”
ToddonCapeCod on March 20, 2008 at 3:32 PM
Probably just a slip… at least in the sense that he didn’t mean to say what he actually believed.
The main point remains that one can’t pick who their grandmother is, but sure as hell can choose who to pick as their “spiritual advisor” and what church to frequent over a 20 year span.
There is exactly zero chance that Obama wasn’t familiar with Wright’s views, and that he picked him of all people to represent him in spiritual matters suggests that he shares those views at least to some extent.
He can dance around it all he wants, but this is little different than if McCain chose David Duke to be his campaign advisor on race issues.
Hollowpoint on March 20, 2008 at 3:34 PM
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