After Potomac, who's the "Underdog" ?

Parent Cafe
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<p>From a July 5, 2007, story about Obama’s speech to the National Education Association convention:

Now, last I looked, there were still a couple of white people in the NEA - yeah, there they are. Still there. :)</p>

<p>My take on this is that Obama picked up a catchy phrase from a recent popular movie which expressed the concept of people being intentionally misled about things and expresses it in a pithy and memorable way. And he’s used that phrase in a variety of contexts, just as anyone else might.</p>

<p>Except he’s black. And the movie was about a radical black man. And that fact is used to hoodwink and bamboozle the credulous blog-surfers into accusing Obama of race-baiting. Just my impression, of course.</p>

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<p>And yet you should’ve seen the outrage around here when somebody pointed out that Hillary was changing her mannerisms slightly when talking to certain audiences - prominently Southern ones.</p>

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<p>NYT just ran a story about how we all use mimicry to persuade people of our message. I’ve noticed that Oprah does this all the time. I find myself doing it too, if for example, I’m talking to a Texan or a Southerner, I find my speech trying to pick up their cadence and tone… I guess researchers are finding this to be universal and evolutionary-based:</p>

<p><<Psychologists have been studying the art of persuasion for nearly a century, analyzing activities like political propaganda, television campaigns and door-to-door sales. Many factors influence people’s susceptibility to an appeal, studies suggest, including their perception of how exclusive an opportunity is and whether their neighbors are buying it.</p>

<p>Most people are also strongly sensitive to rapport, to charm, to the social music in the person making the pitch. In recent years, researchers have begun to decode the unspoken, subtle elements that come into play when people click.</p>

<p>They have found that immediate social bonding between strangers is highly dependent on mimicry, a synchronized and usually unconscious give and take of words and gestures that creates a current of good will between two people.</p>

<p>By understanding exactly how this process works, researchers say, people can better catch themselves when falling for an artful pitch, and even sharpen their own social skills in ways they may not have tried before…</p>

<p>…Any amiable conversation provides ample evidence of this subconscious social waltz. Smiles are contagious. So is nodding, in an amiable conversation.</p>

<p>Accents converge quickly and automatically. >></p>

<p>[NY</a> Times Advertisement](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/health/12mimic.html?ei=5070&em=&en=215c583b91cdc068&ex=1203138000&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1203032683-lLTern4Ew7/66cu30G7ZYA]NY”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/health/12mimic.html?ei=5070&em=&en=215c583b91cdc068&ex=1203138000&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1203032683-lLTern4Ew7/66cu30G7ZYA)</p>

<p>the above link is to the article, not an ad.</p>

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<p>^^bottom line, I don’t think he’s playing the race card in using words like bamboozled, which happens to date back to 1700 England, by the way. Jonathan Swift had a fit over it and other made-up words.</p>

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<p>The problem with the Billary campaign is that they are not masterful in any card game, so they keep re-shuffling the deck. :rolleyes:</p>

<p>(You know, the race card, the gender card, the experience card, the day one card, the joker, the attack dog card, the sympathy card, etc. etc.)</p>

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<p>Well, by comparison he has become one. Also, who is there to challenge the sainthood of Obama if most of the rats jumped ship as soon as the voters replaced favorable focus groups. </p>

<p>The conversations *used *to be much different last summer when the Hillary rollercoaster was leaving its apex. Too bad, it’s been more like a Cliff Hanger! Seven years in the making and all it takes is another junior Senator who did not get the “submission” memo to derail the best laid plans. </p>

<p>Say it ain’t so! :D</p>

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<p>xiggi and sokkermom give it a rest for a day. Show some love. Today is Valentine’s day.</p>

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<p>We will change the way Washington works. Or politics as usual. The change we can believe in - $ almighty still the change agent.</p>

<p>Many of the superdelegates who could well decide the Democratic presidential nominee have already been plied with campaign contributions by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, a new study shows.</p>

<p>“While it would be unseemly for the candidates to hand out thousands of dollars to primary voters, or to the delegates pledged to represent the will of those voters, elected officials serving as superdelegates have received about $890,000 from Obama and Clinton in the form of campaign contributions over the last three years,” the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics reported today.</p>

<p>About half the 800 superdelegates – elected officials, party leaders, and others – have committed to either Clinton or Obama, though they can change their minds until the convention.</p>

<p>Obama’s political action committee has doled out more than $694,000 to superdelegates since 2005, the study found, and of the 81 who had announced their support for Obama, 34 had received donations totaling $228,000.</p>

<p>Clinton’s political action committee has distributed about $195,000 to superdelegates, and only 13 of the 109 who had announced for her have received money, totaling about $95,000. </p>

<p>[Superdelegates</a> get campaign cash - 2008 Presidential Campaign Blog - Political Intelligence - Boston.com](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/02/superdelegates.html]Superdelegates”>http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/02/superdelegates.html)</p>

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<p>Sounds like a phony “issue” to me. Prominent politicians sharing the wealth of their campaign coffers with less prominent politicians in their own party for their off-year election campaigns is SOP around here, and I assume elsewhere in the country too. Which means that

  1. Both Clinton and Obama would have shared campaign funds with state politicos who they know and support.
  2. Superdelegates are local elected officials, therefore,
  3. Superdelegates are the kind of people who would ordinarily receive campaign contributions from the campaign funds of people like Obama and Clinton, and,
  4. Obama and Clinton are more likely to have contributed to “their” people, and “their” people are likely to endorse them, therefore,
  5. Clinton and Obama will have shared campaign funds with superdelegates who are likely to endorse them.
  6. That appears, in fact, to be what has happened.
  7. Probably true on the other side, too, except for Huckabee, who probably didn’t have any cash to share.
  8. Yawn.</p>
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<p>kluge, your conversion is complete.</p>

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<p>Idad, I’ve been black ALL my life, and (I swear!) I would never have picked up any black “code” in the use of the words, hoodwinked, bamboozled, or Okey-dokey. I can assure you that the vast majority of black people in this country below the age of 50 have never actually heard a speech by Malcolm X, either, so (aside from a few short sound bites in Documentaries/news shows), any use of “Malcolm X code” would have gone clean clear through, with no registration whatsoever. How exactly are these words being used? In what context? To what end? Did the NEA become a black organization while no one was looking?</p>

<p>I do believe that Obama may change his speech patterns and vernacular somewhat when addressing black audiences, because virtually every educated, mainstreamed black American I know (including myself) engages in the same thing. In a sort of reflex, we will relax our diction, add a bit of a drawl, throw in a bit of slang, and amend our body posture when we feel totally at ease, and in the presence of folks who we believe totally “get” us, who understand us, and with whom we have had similar experiences. It doesn’t mean we are being “racist” or attempting to manipulate our audience. It’s just a reliance on a common culture. Awareness that we are “other” in ordinary discourse within the wider world makes us carry ourselves with that fact in the back of our minds. I can speak English with perfect diction and grammar, and usually do in the course of interacting with most whites and other non-blacks, realizing that my credibility and overall status will suffer if I “devolve” into “black speak”. I wish to be taken seriously and respected in most circumstances, and I innately know what NOT to do toward that end.</p>

<p>I believe that cultural comradery causes other sub-mainstream groups to do similar things. Asians from like ethnic groups often engage in speech and actions common to their cultural experiences when gathered together. There’s no racist motivation in such behavior. The impulse to connect with people of similar backgrounds and interests is universal, and NOT limited to race or religion. Many people are “members” of overlapping groups. My children, being bi-racial, like Senator Obama, straddle two racial cultures, and their mannerisms and speech have been known to change subtly, depending upon immediate social circumstances. It merely stems from a desire to connect. I think that many times, white people are so use to connecting as members of the mainstream, that they never have to consider what accommodations others feel they must make everyday to “fit themselves” in. </p>

<p>I suspect that I’ve been thoroughly misunderstood in my attempt to communicate here. Such are the limitations of language, and internet forums:confused: But I think it’s important that we try to understand one another in this ever shrinking world. What choice, other than war and mayhem, do we have?</p>

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<p>“I swear!)”</p>

<p>No need. I trust you.</p>

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<p>Maybe the Republicans will tell us that Obama is both anti-white and anti-black, since he is half and half.</p>

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<p>^^I think if he opens his mouth at all he must be playing a race card. (sigh)</p>

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<p>The Republicans will just try to pin him as sympathetic to Muslims. That’ll do it.</p>

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<p>There are any number of trap doors they can set for Obama. The “race card” trap door is one with an extremely sensitive lever. All he has to do is appear in a black church and use the vernacular of that audience, and it’s all over in the minds of some people. All the Clinton campaign really has to do is somehow arrange for Obama to be photographed with Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. Game. Set. Match.</p>

<p>I was speaking with a friend recently about Obama, and she said, “I don’t trust him. He’s Arab (:eek:), and a Muslim. My religion forbids me to vote for a muslim.” My friend is Jewish. It took a long time for me to convince her that Obama is neither Arab, nor Muslim. That Muslim rumor has amazingly resilient legs. My son, clear up until a couple of weeks ago, thought Obama was Muslim, too (he planned on voting for him, even when he thought he was Muslim). But that’s what his circle of friends thought was true, based on internet rumor.</p>

<p>It bothers me, however, that people would NOT vote for a candidate because he or she is a Muslim. The way violent extremism has been inextricably linked to Islam in the minds of many people is troublesome. It’s the kind of mindset that permits genocide based on religious affiliation, a road we’ve been down a time or three…:rolleyes:</p>

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<p>It seems that some of the superdelegates disagree with I’dad. They do not think it is Obama that is playing the race card at all, but rather the Clinton Campaign.</p>

<p>[ABC</a> News: Black Superdelegates Move to Obama](<a href=“Black Superdelegates Shift to Obama - ABC News”>Black Superdelegates Shift to Obama - ABC News)</p>

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<p>and you don’t think the Black Superdelegates were not moved by Race?</p>

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<p>I hesitate to post here again, because simba is right-- Obama is considered a saint here-- but I do agree with interesteddad-- I think Obama is given a pass on everything he says and does (and doesn’t say). I really do agree with some (on political talk shows) who have pointed out that no one will criticize him for fear of being called a racist. People don’t mind criticizing Hillary, because in this country-- if you’re called sexist, nobody cares. I said that early on, but now that the field has narrowed to these 2, I believe it even more.</p>

<p>As far as candidates suddenly sounding like the crowd they’re wooing-- am I the only person who remembers when Obama suddenly started sounding real southern in SC? That was so transparent and fake. I heard him on the radio, and I thought-- who in the world is that? I could not believe that voice and that accent was coming from the same person. Haven’t heard him speak like that since. That was when I first started questioning his authenticity.</p>

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<p>“and you don’t think the Black Superdelegates were not moved by Race?”
Yes, mainly because Bill Clinton made such an issue about race with his Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton analogy in SC!</p>

<p>janieblue, I appreciate your comments. However, I don’t think Obama is a saint. I haven’t seen any reference to such in any posts. In my opinion, I think that the increased interest in Obama by many voters may simply be more of a “sick and tired of the Clinton deception” sentiment, as opposed to the canonization of Obama. </p>

<p>It may not be anything to do with “sainthood” at all. It simply may be that Obama is seen as the “lesser of two evils”. It could be that the voters now see Bill and Hillary as the devil(s) that they know for whatever reasons.</p>