This video of Chris Matthews confronting a woman calling President Obama a “communist” pretty much sums up how our political discourse in this country is now devoid of any intellectual content. The woman repeatedly tells Matthews to “study it out” but then seems incapable of explaining what a communist actually is.
Matthews was right to confront the woman and there was little need to editorialize on the scene before the Vice Presidential debate. The further statement that Obama is not an American further captures the blind hate directed against this president. I have been a vocal critic of President Obama but this type of senseless and vacuous rage is an embarrassment to the entire country. While I am not willing to give up on democracy just yet, this woman makes a powerful case for oligarchy. Fortunately I think we can do better despite all evidence to the contrary.
nick spinelli
Blouise, You forgot to mention MCCain called the woman out on that statement.
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Didn’t matter in the least.
The gift had been given the moment that woman got the mike. Republicans have been able to avoid such an embarrassment thus far so Democrats had to go on the hunt.
Tactically, it was an excellent move and there is nothing that Romney can do about it … just as there was nothing McCain could do.
Obama wants race to be one of the issues … he just can’t be seen as the guy who brought it up.
Otteray,
Matt Seniff 1, October 12, 2012 at 12:18 pm
I just want to know what
“Study it out”
actually means. It makes no sense even in today’s poor english.
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Figure it out for yourself.
Matt Seniff,
I think she meant “study it out” meant for Matthews to go look it up because it was her way of saying she did not have a clue as to what the word meant when he pressed her. And Faux Spews says she is a schoolteacher. That is freaking scary.
I guess we have the answer to Bush’s question, “Is our children learning?”
I just want to know what
“Study it out”
actually means. It makes no sense even in today’s poor english.
Elaine M. 1, October 12, 2012 at 11:38 am
Matt Johnson 1, October 12, 2012 at 9:41 am
Obama was born in Hawaii. That isn’t part of the continental U.S., but neither is Alaska.
*****
Alaska is part of the North American continent–but it isn’t contiguous with the other forty-eight states that are also situated on the continent.
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What about the mineral and fishing rights? Want to own that? How about the timber? Want to send some of that to Japan?
Elaine, I totally agree w/ you. I have believed in different forms of intelligence way before it was taught in schools of education. However, I would expect the aforementioned folks to be book smart. Autistic savants are an extreme example of the different intelligences in which we both believe.
nick,
I’ve known adults and students in my lifetime who were “book smart” and knew a lot of information. They probably would have performed well on Jeopardy. I’m sure they are intelligent. I’ve also know kids and adults who would have been dismal failures on a show like Jeopardy. These people are also intelligent–although not as book smart. I learned over the years–especially through teaching–that there are lots of different kinds of intelligence.
That should be “In case anyone’s wondering” I didn’t mean to imply that Rafflaw didn’t know that.
“I want to echo what Mike S. and Gene have said about the code words. It is startling the personal and racial attacks that this president has endured.”
In case you’re wondering what people are talking about, accusations of communism were often used to discredit and silence leaders in the civil rights movement, for instance…
http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/educate_event/putting.html
Blouise, You forgot to mention MCCain called the woman out on that statement.
During the last presidential election the woman with the bedhead hair telling McCain “don’t trust that Obama. He’s an Arab” fell into Democrat’s laps. This year they had to go on the hunt for one and Chris Matthews found her.
It just further reinforces the fact that “the media supplies the interpretation of events like debates, and that helps shape how voters understand them too.”(John Sides)
Is it racist code? Certainly, and that had to be injected into one of the debates as clearly as possible.
Excellent tactical move in advancing that aspect of the overall strategy.
I watched last nights debate and to me Biden was the clear winner in terms of
substance, but also in debating style. His smiles, grimaces ad head shaking on the split screen non-verbally projected disbelief as Ryan perpetrated lie after lie. Yet today we see pundits and conservatives decry his performance as over the top and disrespectful, forgetting his demolition of the substance of Ryan’s arguments. I expect that because of his skin color and his avuncular appearance, Biden’s efforts will be rewarded and the criticism will disappear.
The truth was about last weeks debate that Obama was subdued because had he acted in the same way Romney did, he would have been portrayed as yet another angry black men. This is the burden that all people of color who are involved in politics in this still racist country, have on their shoulders. It is at its worst, however, when it comes to black men. They mustn’t seem to be “uppity” or arrogant. They must seem humble, not proud. They are not allowed to be angry, lest they frighten many people, who at a gut level hate Black men because they fear their manhood. I’ve lost many a friend in my lifetime who when speaking in a private setting have shown their bigotry. That bigotry is also mingled with fear.
Romney’s performance last week displayed arrogance and rudeness, yet he has been praised for this very behavior, whereas Obama is portrayed as having been almost “wimpy”. The truth is in comparing the life arc of both men that is hardly the case, but one of them is burdened with a skin color that has negative connotations in our history.
For those who think me wrong and that we are in a post-racial country, I strongly disagree and am quite willing to debate the issue, because this is a topic that has long interested me on a political, psychological and sociological level. It wasn’t until my twentieth year on this planet that American blacks were finally recognized as full citizens as least in a federal perspective. However, since 1964 the Viet Nam war intervened with a huge percentage of Black men being drafted; Nixon was elected President due to his “Southern Strategy”; heroin was brought into the U.S. by the CIA as a deal with the Vietnamese in the Golden Triangle for military support; ML King and Malcolm X were mysteriously murdered; and the “War On Drugs” (really a war on Black people) was launched.
I predict that if President Obama is more forceful in attacking Romney and his lies in this next debate, he will be depicted as being arrogant and angry. Those two A words are codes for hatred of blacks.
MikeS, I was merely stating how smart these people are. A year or so ago Wolf Blitzer was on Jeopardy. He should have been on “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader. I was embarassed for him. To a certain degree I agree w/ you about the “pundit class” but it is edifying to see who has knowledge and who doesn’t, if for nothing than the entertainment value. I can tell you this, these pundits took this competition very seriously. Some people always want to be the smartest person in the room. Page had a sense of humor, none of the others really did.
“I was merely stating how smart these people are.”
Nick,
I understand your point. However, I do think actually playing the game “Jeopardy” is not necessarily a true test of intelligence. When I’ve watched Jeopardy in the past, I usually knew most of the answers across a broad swath of categories, but I’m no longer mentally quick enough to summon it to mind, frame it as a question and push the button in less than a second. Also even though having a high I.Q. score took me very far educationally and made up for many of my behavioral deficits as a student, experience has taught me that wisdom is a far greater asset than intelligence. I first began to realize that I was becoming wise in my middle 40’s, when I saw clearly that I didn’t know everything that I thought I did and that in life there were always things to learn.
To bang it up a notch, that lady is a school teacher in KY. Just heard on Fox.
I’ll put it succinctly. Paul Ryan is scum. Matt Johnson, Racine (Caledonia), Wisconsin.
Matt Johnson 1, October 12, 2012 at 9:41 am
Obama was born in Hawaii. That isn’t part of the continental U.S., but neither is Alaska.
*****
Alaska is part of the North American continent–but it isn’t contiguous with the other forty-eight states that are also situated on the continent.
It is comical to still see efforts at using the term “communist” disparagingly; that war has been won, although I suspect that during the cold war, most people still couldn’t define the word.
Regarding not being American; perhaps a little sympathy is due here. Maybe she is referring to how the leadership of either party is really just battling for our tax resources to enrich themselves, their donors, and their party elite; not America, nor Americans.
“Study it out” … Agnotology baby …
“This morning my administration released the budget numbers for fiscal 2006. These budget numbers are not just estimates; these are the actual results for the fiscal year that ended February the 30th.”
“One has a stronger hand when there’s more people playing your same cards.”
“And I suspect that what you’ll see, Toby, is there will be a momentum, momentum will be gathered. Houses will begat jobs, jobs will begat houses.”
“I’ve reminded the prime minister—the American people, Mr. Prime Minister, over the past months that it was not always a given that the United States and America would have a close relationship.”
“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”
“It’s in our country’s interests to find those who would do harm to us and get them out of harm’s way.”
“I’m going to spend a lot of time on Social Security. I enjoy it. I enjoy taking on the issue. I guess, it’s the Mother in me.”
“I want to thank you for the importance that you’ve shown for education and literacy.”
“In this job you’ve got a lot on your plate on a regular basis; you don’t have much time to sit around and wander, lonely, in the Oval Office, kind of asking different portraits, ‘How do you think my standing will be?’ ”
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
“As yesterday’s positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured.”
The Complete Bushisms
There are too many people in our country like this “Study It Out” woman who don’t know what they are talking about and who only mouth the talking points of their fearless leaders.
*****
P.S. She reminds me of the “wonkish” Paul Ryan who can’t explain his ticket’s tax plan.
Even Paul Ryan Can’t Explain How Romney’s Tax Plan Would Work
Grace Wyler|Sep. 30, 2012
http://www.businessinsider.com/ryan-romney-tax-plan-fox-news-2012-9
Excerpt:
Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan struggled to defend his ticket’s tax plan in an interview with Fox News Sunday, saying that it would take “too long to go through all of the math.”
Ryan and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney have proposed to lower all individual income taxes by 20 percent, while keeping the plan revenue neutral by ending deductions for high-income individuals. As many have pointed out, the plan is mathematically impossible — in order to keep the tax breaks revenue neutral, popular deductions that primarily affect the middle-class would also have to go.
Ryan, who is known as a numbers-crunching budget wonk, would presumably be able to explain how the plan would work. But pressed by host Chris Wallace to explain how the tax plan would add up, Ryan ducked.
This lady takes the prize for ignorance and lack of any desire to actually learn the facts. Matthews actually did a good job of letting her hand herself in her own stupidity.
I want to echo what Mike S. and Gene have said about the code words. It is startling the personal and racial attacks that this president has endured.
The return of the Fairness Doctrine would be nice, but I am not holding my breath.