BETTY WINSTON BAYE': Conservatives? The Obamas leave 'em flummoxed.
Conservatives? The Obamas leave 'em flummoxed
By BETTY WINSTON BAYE'
I don't recall ever using that word before in a column, but it's a great description of how some folks are behaving toward President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
They're flummoxed, for example, by the findings of a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll that "more than eight of 10 Americans think Barack Obama will do a good job representing their country to the world" and that seven of 10 Americans believe that other world leaders actually respect President Obama.
They're flummoxed that for all their anti-Obama bloviating and fulminating in columns and radio and TV talkfests, a new Washington Post/ABC News poll found that "the number of Americans who believe that the nation is headed in the right direction has roughly tripled since Barack Obama's election" and that "only about a quarter of Americans blame the President and his team for an economy that's in the ditch."
To be sure, the flummoxed come in all shapes, sizes and colors. There's Rush Limbaugh, the perpetually angry white guy, and Michelle Malkin, the acidic Asian-American columnist, who has written that the mere sight of Michelle Obama on a video frightened her young son. And don't forget Thomas Sowell, the African-American economist and syndicated columnist. All are apoplectic about Barack Obama's rise.
Radio-head Limbaugh prays aloud that the President's economic proposals for the country will fail, and Sowell has written several hysterical columns in which he's compared our president to Adolf Hitler, China's Chairman Mao and the monster preacher Jim Jones. This week, Sowell wrote that the President is a "rookie" being led astray by sycophants telling him that he's doing fine when he's not. "Even former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan has gushed over President Obama, and even crusty Bill O'Reilly has been impressed by Obama's demeanor," Sowell grumbled.
National Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele is flummoxed, too. He keeps whining that he has reached out, but that the President won't talk to him. Steele apparently hasn't noticed that many Republicans don't talk to him either, maybe because he keeps making a donkey's behind of himself in public.
Some of the President's critics can't seem to decide whether he's really as smart as many say he is. If he's so smart, they'd like to know, why does he so often read off a teleprompter?
Um, it might have helped if the President's predecessor had done the same more often rather than speaking off-the-cuff and looking and sounding like a fool.
The Obamas have so flummoxed some Republicans that just they get tied up in knots even when they believe they're being complimentary. Case in point is Maxine Furlong, whom The Washington Post identified as an upstate New York Republican. Of Michelle Obama, she said, "Eventually, she will be a great first lady. She definitely has this black woman's attitude. … White girls have more insecurities, which is why they care more about being ingratiating. I'm not saying this is a bad thing -- I like that about her -- but she's just a very strong woman and that can come off as condescending."
Hmm.
Less flummoxed, though, are the white supremacists, who are cocksure that Barack Obama's political ascendency means the end of the world as they've known it.
The Citizens Informer, the newspaper put out by the Council of Conservative Citizens, ran a front-page commentary headlined "Lost in a Political Black-Out." Get it? And beneath likenesses of President Obama and Steele, it said: "Obama is a god to a post-racial personality cult. Michael Steele is a mere race hustler who will lead the Republican Party out of the suburbs and into the ghetto."
Betty Bayé's columns appear Thursdays in the Community Forum. E-mail her at bbaye@courier-journal.com.
By BETTY WINSTON BAYE'
I don't recall ever using that word before in a column, but it's a great description of how some folks are behaving toward President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
They're flummoxed, for example, by the findings of a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll that "more than eight of 10 Americans think Barack Obama will do a good job representing their country to the world" and that seven of 10 Americans believe that other world leaders actually respect President Obama.
They're flummoxed that for all their anti-Obama bloviating and fulminating in columns and radio and TV talkfests, a new Washington Post/ABC News poll found that "the number of Americans who believe that the nation is headed in the right direction has roughly tripled since Barack Obama's election" and that "only about a quarter of Americans blame the President and his team for an economy that's in the ditch."
To be sure, the flummoxed come in all shapes, sizes and colors. There's Rush Limbaugh, the perpetually angry white guy, and Michelle Malkin, the acidic Asian-American columnist, who has written that the mere sight of Michelle Obama on a video frightened her young son. And don't forget Thomas Sowell, the African-American economist and syndicated columnist. All are apoplectic about Barack Obama's rise.
Radio-head Limbaugh prays aloud that the President's economic proposals for the country will fail, and Sowell has written several hysterical columns in which he's compared our president to Adolf Hitler, China's Chairman Mao and the monster preacher Jim Jones. This week, Sowell wrote that the President is a "rookie" being led astray by sycophants telling him that he's doing fine when he's not. "Even former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan has gushed over President Obama, and even crusty Bill O'Reilly has been impressed by Obama's demeanor," Sowell grumbled.
National Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele is flummoxed, too. He keeps whining that he has reached out, but that the President won't talk to him. Steele apparently hasn't noticed that many Republicans don't talk to him either, maybe because he keeps making a donkey's behind of himself in public.
Some of the President's critics can't seem to decide whether he's really as smart as many say he is. If he's so smart, they'd like to know, why does he so often read off a teleprompter?
Um, it might have helped if the President's predecessor had done the same more often rather than speaking off-the-cuff and looking and sounding like a fool.
The Obamas have so flummoxed some Republicans that just they get tied up in knots even when they believe they're being complimentary. Case in point is Maxine Furlong, whom The Washington Post identified as an upstate New York Republican. Of Michelle Obama, she said, "Eventually, she will be a great first lady. She definitely has this black woman's attitude. … White girls have more insecurities, which is why they care more about being ingratiating. I'm not saying this is a bad thing -- I like that about her -- but she's just a very strong woman and that can come off as condescending."
Hmm.
Less flummoxed, though, are the white supremacists, who are cocksure that Barack Obama's political ascendency means the end of the world as they've known it.
The Citizens Informer, the newspaper put out by the Council of Conservative Citizens, ran a front-page commentary headlined "Lost in a Political Black-Out." Get it? And beneath likenesses of President Obama and Steele, it said: "Obama is a god to a post-racial personality cult. Michael Steele is a mere race hustler who will lead the Republican Party out of the suburbs and into the ghetto."
Betty Bayé's columns appear Thursdays in the Community Forum. E-mail her at bbaye@courier-journal.com.
Labels: Keeping them honest, POTUS Barack Obama
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