Fisking Kathleen Parker

I'm still hospital sitting and will bring you up to speed on all that later.  I brought my laptop with me today because it's easier to blog on it than on the iPad (at least for some posts).  Plus I wanted to work on a letter to the Nursing Director of WK to commend an angelic, wonderful nurse we had on seventh floor last week.

Now that that's done, let's take a moment to fisk Kathleen Parker.  It's a good thing I'm sitting in a hospital because I'm sputtering and hyperventilating as I'm reading her column. 

Let's take a look, shall we?  Her thesis seems to be that the Republican convention was too white.  She opens with the mind boggling question: "What if Barack Obama had been a Republican?"  Have I been hospital-bound too long?  Can anyone even fathom that concept?  I can't.  She contends that if he'd been Republican, i.e., if Republicans had a black nominee, then the delegates on the floor would have been black.  And she gets paid the big bucks for this.

To Parker, it's all about race.  She writes:

 Obama was elected not only because of his attractive eloquence but because we are fundamentally a good people who value fairness and equality. Electing Obama was part of our reward to ourselves. It allowed us to feel that we were this good and this big.

Choke, sputter, gag.  "part of our reward to ourselves"?  Is she kidding?   Is this satire?

More:

He was also a tantalizing candidate with a message of hope that felt like honey after eight bitter years of terrorism and war. He courted our better angels and articulated our best instincts. We were going to become a purple, post-racial nation, never again to be divided. Who wouldn’t fall in love with that?

His "message of hope that felt like honey" never came across to me.  His message from day one was of big government and socialist style programs.   Anyone who fell for his "purple, post-racial nation" bullshit was not listening past the scripted prose to examine the real man.

And by the way: Republicans are racist:

Republicans were certain that Obama was all style over substance, but their criticisms quickly were interpreted in some quarters as racial animus. Certainly some who call themselves Republicans also can be called racist. Anyone who spends time on the Internet is aware of the racist content of some political dialogue. It’s out there, and it’s ugly.

Then Parker asks "Where are the blacks?"   Kathleen Parker, meet just some of the blacks in the Republican party:

Let's start with Rev. C. L. Bryant:

Rev. Bryant gave a brilliant speech at FreePAC in July following on the heels of his brilliant documentary Runaway Slave.  Did you see Runaway Slave, Miss Parker?



Meet Mia B. Love.  Did you see her at the RNC convention?  Wonderful speech!



Meet Mason Weaver, author of It's Okay to Leave the Plantation.

 

Meet Marvin D. Rogers, author of Silence Makes the Loudest Sound, a revealing look at the racist history of the Democratic party.

 Marvin appeared in C. L. Bryant's Runaway Slave documentary and was one of the more powerful segments in the film.

Meet Star Parker, author, activist, and founder of CURE.  She speaks out on a regular circut of conservative appearances:



Meet Deneen Borelli, author and activist.  She spoke on Fox and Friends recently about her new book Blacklash.



Meet K. Carl Smith, a Frederick Douglass Republican:



Mrs. Parker, I'm sure you're familiar with Condoleezza Rice, Herman Cain, Allen West, Alveda King, David Webb, and others.

What about Stephen Broden, Sonja, Schmidt, Kevin Daniels, Jesse Lee Peterson, and Erik Rush.  You ever heard of them?

In Kathleen Parker's article, she does note that there are some minorities in the Republican party, she writes:

Appearances matter, and the GOP simply doesn’t look that friendly. Regardless of what is true, when an arena full of white people cheers jabs aimed at the first African American president, it feels wrong. This may not be a conscious recognition, but the subliminal is powerful. It was with a deep, inner sigh of relief that white Republicans heard Romney say that he had wanted Obama to succeed because he wanted America to succeed. Bless the speechwriters. 

I would suggest that Miss Parker and others get past the appearances and quit worrying so much about surface issues.  Nobody boo'd or jabbed Obama at the RNC because he was black.  It's because his policies are failures. It's not "subliminal" racist code.  His policies are failures.  They'd be failures if he was a white man.  It's not about race here.  Get over it

In all her search for racial code and dog whistles, she concludes with this, which I'm not even going to touch:

There they’ll learn that ecosystems thrive and are most productive when there is biodiversity. The same can be said of political parties. An all-white party will not long survive in a diverse environment.
The strongest and fittest are those who adapt, and that species for now goes by the name Democrat.

Take a look around you, Miss Parker.  The black conservatives are rising.

Romney-Rice?

Bill Kristol, who famously favored Sarah Palin, is "reading the tea leaves" and thinks Condi Rice might be on Romney's short list:

Rice wowed the crowd—and seemed to impress Mitt Romney, who was standing beside her—when she spoke in a featured role at a Romney campaign event two weeks ago in Park City, Utah. Rice is qualified, would be a poised (if novice) candidate, and would complement Romney in terms of area of expertise, gender (obviously!), and life experience. Rice offers an unusual combination of being at once a reassuring pick (she served at the highest levels of the federal government for eight years) and an exciting one. 

What's more, while the other VP possibilities have decent but middling favorable/unfavorable ratings(and are mostly unknown), Rice's favorable/unfavorable, according to a Rasmussen poll a couple of months ago, is a pretty staggering 66-24. Rice has said she's not interested—but Dick Cheney said he wasn't interested at this point in 2000. 

Adding fuel to the fire, Daniel Halper reports that Condi is sticking her toes back into political waters and raising money for ShePAC:

But, no, Rice is not (yet) throwing her hat in the ring. The email did not indicate that she had changed her mind--and that she would now accept the vice presidential slot on the Republican ticket if Romney were to offer it. What's more, it was a mass email, surely sent to many, many folks. 

Instead, Rice is going political, and fundraising for "ShePAC, a new group that is working to Support,Honor & Elect conservative women, to talk about these ideals," as Rice describes.  

This email does illuminate an important fact, however: Condoleezza Rice is now seeking to be a part of election politics. And seeks some sort of role this election cycle. 

Whereas before, certainly since the Bush administration (and, one could argue, while even in the administration, since her job was strictly not political), Rice strayed from politics, usually at more than an arms length. But now she wants in. 

What do you think?

Paper and Ink

Since February of 2009 I've been waiting for this book and lo and behold it arrived on my front porch today!

No Higher Honor.

I read Condi's first book, "Extraordinary People..." and admired her writing style.  I can not wait to get into this new book.

734 pages of goodness!  And the best part?  It's paper and ink.  No Kindle mess on this one.  First thing I did when I opened the box?  I opened the book to the middle and stuck my nose in the spine to sniff the fresh paper and ink.  Like when I was a kid in elementary school and the teacher passed out those purple mimeographed worksheets that still were damp and smelled like ink.  Heaven.

Can't do that with a Kindle!

Condi Takes Moonbat to School

This video is everywhere but because I'm a longtime fan of Condi I'm putting it up anyway.

There are a couple of standout things to me about this video beyond those that everyone else is talking about. I love how the room, noisy and distracting at first, settles into silence as they all listen to Condi take this kid to school over Gitmo and tough decision-making. He spits out his moonbat talking points and she is unflappable.

Not an "uhm" or "aahhhhhm" in any of it; no Teleprompter. No pauses for the "right" answer. She's brilliant.

I also loved the part where officials try to rescue her, as if Condi EVER need a rescue, and they try to move her on. She's all, "No, no. Let me finish." And she does.

"Do your homework" kid!

She's a class act and a real professional. I can't WAIT until her book comes out!

Rice Writes

Ah, reader that I am, you know that I can't WAIT for this one:

"Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has agreed to a three-book deal with Crown Publishers, starting with a memoir about her years in the administration of President George W. Bush. "Rice will combine candid narrative and acute analysis to tell the story of her time in the White House and as America's top diplomat, and her role in protecting American security and shaping foreign policy during the extraordinary period from 2001-2009," according to a statement issued Sunday by Crown..."

It's scheduled for 2011. Can't wait!

Amen, Condi!

From an interview with the Secretary of State:

"This isn't a popularity contest. I'm sorry, it isn't. What the administration is responsible to do is to make good choices about Americans' interests and values in the long run -- not for today's headlines, but for history's judgment," she said.

"And I am quite certain that when the final chapters are written and it's clear that Saddam Hussein's Iraq is gone in favor of an Iraq that is favorable to the future of the Middle East; when the history is written of a U.S.-China relationship that is better than it's ever been; an India relationship that is deeper and better than it's ever been; a relationship with Brazil and other countries of the left of Latin America, better than it's ever been ...

"When one looks at what we've been able to do in terms of changing the conversation in the Middle East about democracy and values, this administration will be judged well, and I'll wait for history's judgment and not today's headlines."

And to those Bush Bashers who say he's been the worst president ever, let's just wait and see how history judges "W" okay? That's what really matters.