And by the way Ethan, I could do something completely out of line, and apologize so many times. It doesn’t mean that I mean that apology. And the way politics are today, I highly doubt he meant those apology.

Many people have criticized President Obama without being racist. It’s good for democracy.

Other people have laced their criticism of President Obama with racially-tinged terminology, references, etc. Such people should not be surprised when their criticisms are not taken seriously.

Michael summed up what this is really all about when he says,

“Have any GOP leaders, elected or otherwise, given a major address stating that the birthers, the people who say Obama hates white people, etc., ‘profoundly distort’ what’s great about the Republican Party?”

Not only have we had no such speech, it just seems like Reoub. voices like limbaugh’s want to make it worse, using racism to whip up the troops.

As I was trying to illustrate, the people doing the street protests, which brought it to the attention of our government in the first place, were liberal Democrats.

1. Birthers-people who say he’s a secret Muslim. Obama says he has nothing to hide, but hides everything anyway. There is a lot of unknowns about Obama’s past, yet the easiest way to clean all that up is to disclose it, but he doesn’t. People are very suspect and don’t understand all the secrecy about his past. Some are very suspect (birthers), but what is really the driving force is their intense disagreement with Obama policies.

2. Not a real American- Again, Obama says there is nothing to hide, but hides it anyway. His actions and words do not make it appear to a lot of people that he likes America, in fact, just the opposite. It’s not about race, they question his devotion to American values and principles.

3. McCain investigated birthers claim. Of course they did, every opposing side looks for “secrets” or “skeletons” for use in their campaign, this is standard operating procedure. What did the other side do to Palin? Racist, no…that’s politics.

4. Beck saying Obama hates white people. This is not racist behavior, it is saying someone else is behaving in a racist manner. This was in response to Obama siding with Professor Gates, who called the white cop a racist, even though Obama didn’t have all the facts. How can you say the person making the observation about racism is a racist?

5. Limbaugh- Statement taken out of context (as usual). Limbaugh was being sarcastic relative to the Newsweek story that white babies are born to be racist by the time they are six months old. Sarcasim, you will have to read the entire text of Limbaugh’s talk to get the point of the sarcasim about racism.

6. Schmidt saying Obama foreign born, but courts don’t agree. Saying someone is foreign born does not contain a preference to race. It’s a question of citizenship, not of race.

I do not see the racial allegations that you say have been made in these examples. I do see that you have projected race into most of these. The one that does contain race (Beck) comment is observational by Beck, and Beck also has actual behavior by Obama from which he makes that observation. Twenty years in Rev. Wrights church, and the Gates statement as an example. You may not agree with Beck, but he does have specific examples to back up his claim. You say Beck is a racist for saying Obama has a racial preference, and that is what you say qualifies as racism? If that is true, you have lowered the bar to the point that you make Becks assertions about Obama completely true.

“Byrd has since explicitly renounced his earlier views on racial segregation.[47][48] Byrd said that he regrets filibustering and voting against the Civil Rights Act of 1964[18] and would change it if he had the opportunity. He has stated that joining the KKK was “the greatest mistake I ever made”.[47] Byrd has also said that his views changed dramatically after his teenage grandson was killed in a 1982 traffic accident, which put him in a deep emotional valley. “The death of my grandson caused me to stop and think,” said Byrd, adding he came to realize that black people love their children as much as he does his.[49]”

I’ve heard more than once, the myth that conservatives were mostly responsible for passing the civil rights act,then the liberals. I lived in those days. It was the blacks, and a number of liberal whites, who did all of the public protesting, with marches etc. If it wasn’t for that, the idea of it never would have been presented in Congress. Republicans, and Conservatives would had absolutely nothing to do with that aspect of it.

When you look at the signs presented by the friends of the blathering nutcase Glenn Beck, the only conclusion one can draw is in fact racism. they show Obama as a witchdoctor, with huge, extended lips, and cornrows. I would be LOL right now if it wasn’t so sad that people actually follow Mr. Beck. Further, I think he knows that he is setting up a climate that will have Obama RIPE for assassination. Never before have I seen people show up with guns to a presidential speech. It is now almost commonplace with Obama. That is because of the right wing loons, and a Republican radio host who started it.

The secret service has the right to extend a perimeter, as far back as they want to keep the armed loonies away fro him. They can make it a mile if they want. As one who lived through the nightmare of the Kennedy assassination, it is totally beyond me why they don’t do that now.