Hitchens: Obama Sold Out His Grandmother

Slate:

It's been more than a month since I began warning Sen. Barack Obama that he would become answerable for his revolting choice of a family priest. But never mind that; the astonishing thing is that it's at least 11 months since he himself has known precisely the same thing. "If Barack gets past the primary," said the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to the New York Times in April of last year, "he might have to publicly distance himself from me. I said it to Barack personally, and he said yeah, that might have to happen." Pause just for a moment, if only to admire the sheer calculating self-confidence of this. Sen. Obama has long known perfectly well, in other words, that he'd one day have to put some daylight between himself and a bigmouth Farrakhan fan. But he felt he needed his South Side Chicago "base" in the meantime. So he coldly decided to double-cross that bridge when he came to it. And now we are all supposed to marvel at the silky success of the maneuver.

You often hear it said, of some political or other opportunist, that he would sell his own grandmother if it would suit his interests. But you seldom, if ever, see this notorious transaction actually being performed, which is why I am slightly surprised that Obama got away with it so easily. (Yet why do I say I am surprised? He still gets away with absolutely everything.)

Read the whole story: Slate

Comments

[totalliberal]

Thank you Mr. Drunkman for another one of your misinformed bloviations.. WTF do you care. It is true that white women of his grandmothers generation don't like and were affraid of black men. They are just a part of that time... Mr.Drunkman.

[Alessan]

What are you talking about, young white women and black women are afraid of a certain element of the black population, toting guns, wearing baggie pants and hoods, they all look like the grim
reaper, who wouldn't be afraid. Obama said she was afraid, because the man was black, she's
a racist, that's what he said, I didn't.

[MsLiz]

Obama did not describe his grandmother as a racist. Read the transcript.

[aftershock]

And yet many of those same white women, go out and buy their white sons the same "baggy pants and hoods" so they can emulate their favorite rap star... yet they aren't afraid of that "segment of the white population." No, in fact, they actively encourage it with a swipe of the old plastic.

And who wouldn't be afraid? I certainly wouldn't. I grew up around white, latino, asian, and black kids who all dressed in similar fashion. Somehow, I doubt your irrational fears of the clothing worn by black youth has anything to do with their clothes.

As for his comments about his grandmother, you like many, do not know the true definition of racism. Just because someone expresses racial fears based on years of indoctrination of racial stereotyping, does not make one racist. In fact, true racists are FAR from scared of other races, in fact, they loathe them as somehow less human than they are. You think those who hung black men and women were scared of them? Far from it, far from it... What Obama was highlighting is that both the white and black race often base perceptions of people from other races at large on irrational stereotypes. That is NOT racism.

[dax49]

i like hitchens, but he does not under stand the american experience. why do people freak when some one tells the truth in this country

[Transcendentobserver]

Hitchens pointed out tersely but objectively the strange reference to his perceived prejudice of his grandmother, which seemed to be, as an ethical lesson, devoid of substance. Not so, however, was the Senator's reference to Geraldine Ferraro. That he would equate the indefensible remarks of Rev. Wright to the objective and obvious ethical neutral observation of Ms Ferraro that neither she nor Sen. Obama is astounding. Her point was that neither Ferraro nor Obama would in historical time have defined their respective political personnas had it not been for the sex of vice presidential candidate Ferraro or the race of presidential candidate Obama. While Huffpo and the media have chosen to ignore this part of his speech, and to ignore Obama's equating of that statement with the Wright's morally bankruptcy is unforgivable. In the case of Rep. Ferraro, she confronted no less than Obama the irrational prejudices of America. Her experience should be presented as an example of the prejudices each faced and by force of character conquered.

[Rowena]

Hmmm--I think you have a hearing or reading problem, and after reading your post, I think you also have a writing problem. Obama equated Ferraro and Wright ONLY to point out that neither person should be rejected or called racist, but should be listened to sympathetically, given their age and background.

[Bulbul]

That is their proiblem !
Just to criticise one`s country does not mean they are un patriotic !
This is Bush/Cheney theory..

Remember American fries, Dixie Chicks ??? They are alive and doing great !

[GoldCanyonGal]

Whew! After I read your comments about Obama's speech/reply to this controversy, I thought for a minute there you'd lost your mind. Nice to see you back, Mr. Hitchens....back to your wonderful, Godless self!

[Lucille]

Years ago I witnessed, on one of the MSNBC shows, Hitchens ranting (I'm paraphrasing), that he thought Mother Thresa sold out because she accepted, from her admirers, offers to travel free on air planes. He went on to rage that there were better people who were more deserving, etc.

Hitchens has something bad to say about almost everyone. There are very few people who meet his strange standards.

[TheRealMacDaddy]

Spread the TRUTH about Rev. Wright’s sermons not the edited and parsed sound bites of Fox News…These videos are in total about 20 minutes long. But please watch them and then you will see that there have been some egregious liberties taken with what has been broadcast.
America’s Chicken have come home to roost:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ&feature=related
God Damn America:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw&feature=related

Hillary ain’t never been called N****R
Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciWzbtiwUxA
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvcmqnju9PM&feature=related

[kennedy]

Spread the word Obama people are trying to sugar coat Obamas preachers racists and anti-American remarks.

[Alessan]

Totally agree, Obama gets away with absolutely everything. Not only did he insult his grandmother but
every women of his grandmother's generation.

[mesuki]

What he said may have offended you,but it doesn't offend me as a woman,cause I know who I am. So speak for yourself, I don't think there was anything wrong with what he said. People like you who don't like Obama, no matter what he says you'll find fault in it,he can't please everybody.

[Alessan]

mesuki,

He called his grandmother a racist, that's an insult.

[ResidentChimp]

AS usual, HuffPo censors will allow the most vile comments about Mr Hitchens. But if someone takes the Huffers on, hes censored. I guess huffers need to feel that everyone thinks like they do. They be too insecure to handle the truth.

[homovivens]

I’m currently rereading the British G.K. Chesterton's classic, "Orthodoxy," (Chesterton who was described by the famed philosopher, Etienne Gilson, as one of the greatest minds to walk the earth in the 20th century) where he playfully destroys the arguments against faith and Christianity. Just to imagine Chesterton with his humorous, penetrating wit and round, full-figured humanity made so by the Christian perspective he came to champion, rolling Hitchens between his index finger and thumb like so much nasal detritus. What a flick that would make. Hitchens has a soar rub with Christianity. Chesterton is just the antidote. "Orthodoxy" will blow your mind in its playful brilliance and make you ponder a fuller picture of the universe and the humans who inhabit it. Hitchens, despite his rompingly fun tongue, is no match for Chesterton's wit.

[ScandalousCandice]

Hitches is reaching. He looks fat, bloated and bored. He needs to focus on Clinton more. Or maybe he think it's just too easy.

[kennedy]

OMG someone has spoken the truth about your GOD Obama. For shame the truth is being told about your blow heart.

[ScandalousCandice]

Please. Christopher Hitchens used to be great. He isn't any longer and it's just rubbish and trash talk. Most of it is for these purposes now, attention getting. Almost like Ann Coulter. He should stick to his atheism and continue to blast organized religion. It's much more interesting when he does that. He is correct about a lot of his assertions on those subjects.

[MsLiz]

What is a blow heart?

[Bulbul]

A politician is a politician is a politician­....nothin­g ifs and buts about it..


People who thinks otherwise are deluding themselves..

[JhNyc]

Hitchens says so many odd and ridiculous things. I did read somewhere that he has begun regular bathing, though, which is a small step in the right direction.

[satyriasis]

Hitchens has become such a joke. It's sad because he used to be so brilliant once.

[Ramirez]

He's still brilliant. He's just taking a look at your guy this time.

[satyriasis]

His support for the war made him a war criminal pig. He continues to think the war was a great idea. How does that qualify as "brilliant"?

[JMEB]

Christopher Hitchens is a great writer, and a profound thinker with a wry sense of humor, but his chief fault is when he doesn't know when to quit. He will belabor a point to death - maybe he's paid by the word?

I'm a "mild" Obama supporter (I like him as the least of all evils, but he has never brought tears to my eyes, and I doubt he ever will) and I have to say his "calculations" on having to distance himself from Wright, and saying some painful truths about his own grandmother (whom he loves) are neither wicked nor worthy of the cynical contempt that Hitchens heaps on him, paragraph after paragraph.

I know he's got books to sell, and, even so, he tends enjoy pissing people off, but I have to say this is yet another column by him that made me think he might be overdue for a vacation.

[RoseBlue]

You nailed it JMEB. He's normally worth a read, but he really needs to lay off the scotch a bit.

[STRONG]

HITCHENS. YOU ARE MY "INTELLECTUAL PROPHET." EVEN WHEN I DISAGREE WITH YOUR VIEWPOINT, YOU ESPOSE IT SO ELOQUENTLY, AND IN SUCH AN ADULT FASHION, THAT I FORCE MYSELF TO RE-EXAMINE MY POSITION ON THE PREMISE THAT IF HITCHENS SAYS OTHERWISE, THE "OTHERWISE" MERITS REVIEW. KEEP UP THE GOOD FIGHT. I WISH I COULD SPAR WITH YOU IN PERSON BECAUSE ONE NEVER IMPROVES HIS GAME BY PLAYING DOWN--ONLY BY PLAYING UP.

[forpeace]

*

Does anyone care about Illegal Wars, Economy, Health Care System, Children left behind, and etc. any more?!

*

[buddhistMonkey]

Hitchens has obviously done nothing more here than paraphrase a post (any post) from FreeRepublic that dealt with Obama's speech on race. Everywhere else on the web, his speech was being lauded as one of the best in history, but over at FreeRepublic, every other comment was about Obama "throwing his grandmother under the bus."

Well, guess what, Chris? This isn't FreeRepublic, so there is a much smaller percentage of right-wing morons here, and your "sell his own grandmother" line is falling flat. I guess you're caught between a rock and a hard place now. Your support of the war and your right-wing smears don't find favor on progressive sites, and the Freepers all hate your guts because you're an atheist. Sucks to be you, with your narrow and confused world view.

[ResidentChimp]

He still writes better than any Huffer. And You can sneer at what he has to say, but Obama will never be elected now. And your closed minded fraternity will still be hate mongering against those who forgot to drink the kool aid.

[buddhistMonkey]

((( "You can sneer at what he has to say, but Obama will never be elected now." )))

More than 70% of those polled after Obama's speech agreed with its content and felt that Obama had sufficiently explained his relationship with Rev. Wright. Again, that's 70+%. In other words, the only people not favorable towards Obama are the same sub-30% hard-core Republicans who still approve of George Bush.

Obama is going to win in a landslide.