Arianna on BBC Newsnight to Discuss Barack Obama's Win
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Arianna Huffington, Barack Obama, Bbc Newsnight, Christopher Hitchens, Election Results, Thomas Friedman, Video,
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Arianna appeared on BBC Newsnight on Wednesday, where she discussed the results of the presidential election with Christopher Hitchens and Thomas Friedman. Watch the video of her appearance below.
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Arianna was, as usual, excellent - clearheaded, accurate and moderate.
Both Christopher Hitchens and Thomas Friedman were pushing a neoliberal anti-Obama agenda and neocon talking points. But they are both unreformed Neocon supporters, who helped to give us the last eight years and for that reason alone I will always distrust anything they say in the future.
Which is a pity because Friedman's video with Amory Lovins on the Hypercar was great. Even if he left out Stan Ovshinsky and the Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batttery from the story of the Hydrogen economy.
The same battery and the same American genius that will be the heart of Obama's green energy program and which Toyota will continue to use, stories about Lithium notwithstanding.
Bravo Arianna ... Bravo.
Congratulations thinking America, you who voted aware and informed defeated the ill-informed scared of real change, to elect a sincere great leader for our time. Enough voters decided that they didn't want to look back any-more, they wanted to step into the future, Globally too. Cheers! from a NZ Kiwi, who always thought you could and should lead by example. Your World and all of "us", win from this day because, global secular freedoms and Democracy won this day, "yes we can" all respect this man
I never will understand the 'black' thing. As far as I can tell he's biracial. That's the immediate past - black father, white mother. As Tiger Woods replied when asked why he didn't do more about being 'African-American' and more for the 'black' community he asked the reporter if they suggested he should just pretend his mother didn't exist. (Thai). We elected a smart, talented, educated, able person to be President. He is a man and he is dark-skinned. So?
It is an achievement nevertheless in crossing race boundaries. This is a patriarchal culture so a black father means that he's perceived as more black than white even if biologically he is biracial. Obama's own identifications too count--he attends a black church, so that testifies to his seeing himself as African-American. Yes, he is smart, talented, educated, but he had to be superlatively so in order to convince people to transcend race in their perception of him. He bested the Anglos on their own turf in unimaginable ways. This win would not have happened if Obama had not been Harvard-educated, president of the Harvard Law Review, if he did not have solidly Anglo credentials. Notice how they had to play up the Anglo part of his family lineage and bury the Kenyan part during the election, but are allowing it to come out post-election, when it can no longer do 'damage' to his race?
It would be irresponsible (and in its own way, racist) to deny African-Americans their historic moment here. But having said all that, this is a black President who is determined to govern beyond race, to address class problems rather than race problems.
You can't compare Obama to Tiger Woods, who is multiracial rather than biracial, and also, who does not himself identify as black as Obama does.
Burying the Kenyan part of Obama's heritage may be simple because his father deserted his Mother and him, and President-Elect Obama only saw his father once for a few weeks during his life. There's nothing racial there. His white Mom and wite Grandparents raised him. His black father abandoned him. Of course the media highlights the family members who raised him. Obama is bi-racial and is President-Elect for everyone, black, latino and white.
Funny, from the beginning of this country's existence there has been the "one drop rule". One drop of black blood and you are considered Black. You will not ever understand the "black thing" if you are not Black. Even the most fairest mulattos like Mariah Carey know have faced blatant racism. Barack identifies himself as a Black man because that is what society sees him as.
i really have a problem with people who cling to the "one drop" rule. it just seems so ignorant. mainly because the same people (slave owners) who created the one drop rule also said that blacks are only 3/5 human. i'm biracial as well and so i've had african americans throw the one drop line in my face countless times. mainly because, unlike obama, i don't look black. so in my case it's been a way for them to say "well just cause you don't look like us you're still black because of the one drop rule." i say it's hypocritical. my question is why would you cling to the slave master's beliefs? it just continues's to make you their slave, if not in body, then in mind. and if you believe in the one drop rule then you should also believe you're only 3/5 human.
It's not a white thing or a black thing. I it is a uniquely american thing.
It could be monumental IF we accept the challenge and come together to do for our country.
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Yes!!!! pjburns11, you are completely right ! how come so many people don't get it !
Obama will not only heal the American people but will make the world to respect your country again.
I thanks all those Americans that finally realized how bad was the last decade ruled by stupid and corrupt neocons.
God Bless America !
eugenefromcanada
Only 130 million voted? Only 130 million out of 300 million?
When I was a young man I had gotten to a point that I thought voting was a waste of time.
But my grandfather a quiet man that never skirted around any issue, said anything he wanted to say point blank, told me. Son if you don't vote then you have no right to say anything about the outcome!
That is as true today as it was in 1970. If I could say anything to my grandfather today, I would say: Grandad I voted on the 4th.
Thank you.
Firstly, America has 300 million residents, not citizens. If one excludes the foreigners, children, mental patients, infirm, incarcerated, and insensate elderly, the eligible potential electorate is only about 180 million or less.
Does anybody care what Hitchens has to say any longer? His gadfly schtick has gotten old and trite. Offer incisive criticism, not negative trivialities. Used to love ya Chris, but you're not even funny anymore.
I care.
I prefer his schtick to your's.
Hitchens is right. Let's not build a 'leader cult' around President Obama. That requires us making him do all the hard work. The greatness about President Obama (that still thrills me to write!) is that he is asking for OUR participation. No one man can do it alone- but the best leaders show us the way. It's up to US to ensure he is a great president. If we join him and work hard on our problems, WE can make HIM one of the absolute greats.
You have a good point RockySoldier, and he is asking us to help. I can remember a time when people thought being honest was a big deal! I remember when I had just gotten my drivers license 16 years old. My grandfather ask me if I would drive him to the court house? He said my license has expired and I don't want to break the law.
How many times in the last eight years have you seen the law broken? And nothing done about it?
10- 20- maybe as much as a thousand times or more?
It appears we have become a nation of men and not laws. That laws have been created to be broken?
That if you have money you get more justice then if you don't have money?
WE just had a president that stood in front of reporters and said you know sometimes money trumps peace! Not one person said that was an awfull level to lower the human condition to!
They just went along like he had said nothing at all let alone something so vile and disgusting as the words he had just uttered. Have we become a nation of cowards? Just because a man gets the job of president that all of a sudden you can't say wow Mr President that was a very extreme statement you just made.
Here's the place to go to join him: www.change
If anyone needs any hard evidence that Barack Obama is INDEED Black, just look back at the vile, detestable smear tactics that the opposition used...
1) His face "photshopped" onto "food stamps" along with "watermelons, koolaid, and BBQ ribs".
2) Called the "Affirmati
3) Monkey jokes of all kinds.
4) The hearty laugh that the RNC enjoyed about "community organizing"
5) 5 times as much "dirt" on the opposing side.
6) 12 different "kitchen sink" tactics
For all the whites seeking to claim Barack now- "Just imagine if his mother WASN'T white"
case rested.
Obama is biracial. Let's move forward.
Obama is my cousin, your cousin, everybody's cousin! We're all cousins!
He is BLACK!
I will not let anyone minimize this moment. We should have expected this reaction from right-wingers and others whose minds cannot handle having a BLACK President.
Well said mate! and now they are calling him half Black (according to the BBC anchor) President!
They just cant leave with the fact that a Black man is the President of the USA! This is the pure evidence of the inculcated idea and the dogma of the white supremacy couple with the fact that such a precedence (i.e Obama Presidency) is not good for Countries in the Europe especially the United Kingdom. Ariana's position in that interview panel was classic! she stood out of the remaining lads! You can see that they were really anti Obama! Including the BBC anchor!
I just want to thank Arianna. If it wasn't for her or this site, I would have gone crazy these past few weeks. I am eternally grateful to this great lady and journalist for her work to help us get involved and take our country back.
Again, thank you Arianna!
Indeed I'll second that notion/
Thridded!
Leave it to Christopher Hitchens--always unpredictable and frequently outrageous--
to mention what liberals like to suppress: that Obama is not a descendant of slaves,
not an African-American, and was not created solely by the genes of his father!!
(I am an Obama voter, but I don't believe he is the Messiah)
He is an African American. And based on racist beliefs, half is as bad as whole. So the symbol is the same. The fact that he did not decend from slaves is not the point. It may have added to the drama, but....
I think that the fact we elected a guy that came from Food stamps and nothingness is actually more of a powerful message.
I challenge the veracity of your claim to have voted correctly.
What a bizarre statement, that liberals like to suppress that Obama is not a descendant of slaves! I never heard anyone suggest that he was descended from slaves. What is your evidence for this odd claim? Similarly, who said he was created solely by the genes of his father? By your logic, the "liberals" tried to suppress the publicity (lots of it) about his European-American mother, grandmother and grandfather, but failed, presumably because the right-wing media insisted on getting the truth out. You need help.
What do you mean Obama "is not an African-American?"
Many Blacks have mixed blood going back a few generations, including me and almost everyone in my family. That is sometimes evident in the lighter skin tones and various textures of hair from silky to very curly.
President Obama is as Black as I am. But by your logic, neither of us are. And that would mean a significant number of African-Americans are not really.
Throughout my life I have known very few African-Americans who have a purely African bloodline. There is usually a Caucasian great-grea
African-Americans are a diverse group. But our American experience is the same.
I recall a family gathering a few years ago where my uncle asked the question "When did you realize that you were Black?" He went around the room and made us all answer.
Everyone's answer, even the so-called "biracial" members of my family, was the recollection of undeniably racist social experiences, at an early age. I bet President Obama can recall a few of his own in response to that question.
P.S. The slave trade did reach Kenya. We don't know his Kenyan family's whole story.
If we think about "American" as an ethnicity (all ethnicity begin or began from some mixture from another) is new to the human race, which is the only race there is; the whole notion sub-divisional categories is outdated and for the other replier to suggest that defining "Black" as meeting the criteria of dealing with jerks in life, well then we are either all Black or we all deal with jerks in life.
Hurdles? You mean the incredible dem smear machine that is the huffpo? You guys played offense alot more than you played defense - and launched the very personal attacks against McCain and Palin that you so loudly protested against for your underestimated Obama. Hello kettle this is pot.
Note: You are still doing it to Palin, run her into the ground so she won't have a chance to run in 2012.
But smearing the opposition --- that's _OKAY_ isn't it?
You have FOX, we have HuffPo. Don't like it, don't read it.
formosa --
While there was certainly a great deal of opposition to Sarah Palin on sites such as this one, a lot of that was due to ongoing revelations that showed her unpreparedness for the world stage, therefore exposing the McCain campaign's poor judgement in selecting her to begin with. If they wanted a conservative woman there were certainly better choices to be found (Hutchinson being a prime example).
As for the claim that we "are still doing it to Palin", perhaps you better re-examine just WHO is doing the smearing. At this point in time, Obama supporters are too elated by his election to bother with Palin. The real smear campaign is coming from none other than the McCain campaign:
http://www
Stupidity and ignorance deserve to be run out of politics. There is no place for it in leadership. Keep beating the dead moose!
People on this site and others have every right to be mad as hell at you and your Republican party. You have run this country into the ground. Just cause the election is over does make the anger go away. You and your party should be held accountable. Some of your leaders probably even deserve to go to jail. And yes the anger should only be going one way as it is you and your party that have had all the power for the last 12 years, since your ridiculous Contract with America. It is going to take a generation to repair the damage that you and your Republican party have done to this country.
Do you actually believe that she was qualified to be VP? Senator Obama is an educated, intelligent, and articulate person. Just what this country needs RIGHT NOW! People like you are so content with mediocrity, stupidity, and ignorance and that is scary.
ariana's broadcasting from the inside of a beehive, evidently.
This made me laugh. Thanks...
listening to this video, i was impressed with ariana's comments: all through this campaign, people have underestimated president elect obama; maybe it is his basketball style, to give the opponent the freedom to come in under the basket before he blocks the ball.
Arianna, you, CH and TF missed the deeper point -- your comment about the internet touched on what is actually a meta-revolution in the public arena. 'Message control' is a dinosaur, when anyone can upload stills or video on YouTube and blogs like this one, whether from Kirkuk or Des Moines.
Postgrad theses can be made of the Palin phenom, and ancillary Fey, Couric, etc. contributions, but essentially, any twitch, comment (or wink, lol) is replayed, emailed, posted, and embedded in the national DNA.
CH's comment about Obama's being 'only half-black' and not descendent of slaves is useless fop cynicism. The family is multi-cultural, and represents the best of America. Somehow Hitchens missed the clips of Michelle and the children, a gorgeous and exemplary American family, which happens to be mostly of African descent.
Anyway, that is not why most of us voted for Obama. His bristling intelligence and cool head, and ability to win the endorsement and participation of world-class public servants, won the day and the election.
Apparently, Hitchens missed the sight in Chicago of all the Obamas and Bidens waving to an enormous multi-cultural crowd (i.e. all of us). The new Administration looks like America -- all ages, sizes, shapes and hues united for a common purpose: the revival of this country.
I'm actually glad and somewhat surprised that Hitchens touched on his race the way he did. I was actually discussing this with my friends and I completely agree with him. Obama is not Black. He's not. In fact, he's just as White as he is Black. And I think that's a very important point because it underlines the implicit racism in calling him Black. The fact of the matter is that he's 50% Black and he's 50% White. Now considering that he's half and half, isn't it fair to say that we live in a racist society when 100% of the people refer to him as Black when he's just as much White? I've never heard anyone refer to Obama as White, even though he's just as White as he is Black. At the very least, this is something to think about and to be discussed. That being said, I'm very relieved that the Bush era is over and that it's being replaced by what has the potential to be one of the most uplifting, inspiring, and competent leader of the US in decades.
This is really the beginning of the next piece in the conversation about race. To a "white" person, he appears "black", to a "black" Kenyan he does not appear white. We as Euro-Caucasians are deeply infected with the myth of racial purity. We believe (subconsciously if not blatantly) that one drop of non-white blood makes you non-white, while 99 out of 100 drops of non-black leaves you still "black". Just take a look at the the white nationalist writings (if you can stand it) to see what we unconsciously live by. Fortunately we are outgrowing this, evidently.
Also the fact his dad was african from africa,he didnt have the same baggage.As so many blacks come here from other countries and see america as a place to succed not of oppression.
As far as this country is concerned, if you have one black grandparent, you're black.
As far as I'M concerned, there's one race: HUMAN. Hopefully we can all learn that and get over ethnicities, ideologies, and racism and start getting some things done around here.
Barack Obama is as black as he's white. Oh, and he himself mentioned in his first book that some Native American blood ran through his mother's veins. Hopefully one day will Americans (and to be fair, the rest of the world) stop giving so much weight and importance to race issues, but while that happens, American people should be proud of having as president a very intelligent, decent man, who also is an embodiment of that cultural and racial melting pot that is America.
As I mentioned above, if President Obama is not Black, many of us African-Africans are not because so many of us have mixed blood. Is your argument that one has to have a pure African bloodline to be Black?
Would you consider Obama's daughters Black? Why or why not? Remember, you stated Obama is not Black so....his daughters can't be either, right?
Why do people like you and Hitchens go out of their way to minimize the achievements of African-Americans?
Or was it mentally easier for you to accept his victory by convincing yourself that he is not really Black.
The American definition of race is based upon who could and who could not be held as a slave. It ts essentially that simple. One drop was sufficient.
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