Obama's real crime here was not the content and the message, but the rhythm. Ohhhh, the rhythm. The rhythm is gonna get you.
10/2/2012:
SEAN HANNITY: You notice the change in the way he delivers the speech before a predominantly African-American audience?
TUCKER CARLSON: Well, the accent ... he's speaking a different language, different cadences, different accents, different gestures. I mean, the falseness here is overwhelming. ... It's disqualifying.
SEAN HANNITY: We've got the accent, we've got anger, we got rage: "They don't care as much about you."
We've got jive talk. We've got "no justice, no peace". We've got "by any means necessary". We've got "say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud". All this and more, on K-Tel's Now That's What I Call Race-Baiting.
By the way, if you actually do believe that a candidate speaking black before black voters disqualifies them from being president, I have unearthed a video that just might turn this entire presidential race upside-down.
MITT ROMNEY (1/21/2008): What's happenin', got some bling bling here too. ... Who let the dogs out, who, who?
(shocked audience reaction)
Who let the dogs out? Did you know Mitt Romney was one of the original Baha Men? Not the band, he just keeps his money in Baja.
All right, here's what's crazy about this. If I'm not mistaken, Sean Hannity, you believe this president to be what?
SEAN HANNITY (1/13/2012): He's the worst President we've had in my lifetime.
SEAN HANNITY (7/18/2011): He is the worst President on record.
SEAN HANNITY (4/6/2010): ... a worse President than Jimmy Carter.
SEAN HANNITY (4/6/2012): This is the worst President America has ever had.
The worst! Ever! In your lifetime! On record! Ever ever ever ever! And on the eve of the first presidential debate, the best, most explosive critique that you could deliver of the worst President we have ever had in this country, is treating us to some reanimated bullshit video already been seen, as though it were the Rodney King tape in reverse.
....
JON STEWART: For more, we're joined by our Great Black American Panel: Senior Black Commentator Larry Wilmore, Senior Black Correspondent Wyatt Cenac, Junior Black Correspondent Jessica Williams. Watching that Hannity piece, it's almost unbelievable to see such naked race-baiting on television. Black people talk weird? What is that??
WYATT CENAC: It's some bullshit!
JESSICA WILLIAMS: Yeah! Fuck Hannity! Your October Surprise is that the President is black?
LARRY WILMORE: They are some desperate motherfuckers.
....
WYATT CENAC: It's not as much angry as it is depressing. I mean, this is the same dog whistle stuff they've been pulling all the time, like, you know, it's ACORN, and Shirley Sherrod, and Common at the White House. It's the same stuff.
....
JESSICA WILLIAMS: You know, seriously, I cannot believe that they say shit like that out loud sometimes. I mean, it's just desperate.
LARRY WILMORE: Yeah, I can. Look, when you've got no rational argument, OK, you have to bypass that part of the brain that processes rational arguments, right? You just stick the probe straight into the medulla, you know, the reptile brain. And you just jolt it with enough coded language and racial imagery to trigger the fear response.
....
JON STEWART: Just wondering, how do you think your conversation will be seen by people who read the Drudge Report and watch Hannity?
WYATT CENAC: I don't know, let's run it through the old Drudgity cam and see how it plays.
JON STEWART: Oh right, the lens they filter all their information through. I forgot we had one of those. Can you cue that up?
WYATT CENAC: We're in your front yard! And we're still mad about slavery!
LARRY WILMORE: Yeah, bitches! We're gonna buy crack with the food stamps you're payin' fo'!
JESSICA WILLIAMS: And then, we're gonna rape your white babies!
Just a short time ago, Barack Obama and Governor Romney wrapped up their first debate. If they had their first debate. I don't know. It was scheduled, but the show was obviously taped before that debate. And who knows if they even had the debate after what happened with yesterday's bombshell. Full day, Drudge-Con 1, blue siren alert, Obama race video, Hannity had the exclusive.
SEAN HANNITY (10/2/2012): Tonight, you will hear from Barack Obama like you have never heard from him before. ... A video has been uncovered from a campaign event in 2007 of then-candidate Obama. ... It contains some of the most divisive class warfare and racially charged rhetoric ever used by Barack Obama.
Casually tossing out words like cracker, honky, white trash, ofay, SPF 45-wearing mutha. And even though, as it turned out, the video in question had been widely covered when the event occurred back in 2007, that doesn't matter. I'll let Hannity's guest Tucker Carlson explain.
TUCKER CARLSON (10/2/2012): People say, this has already been reported. Well actually, it hasn't been reported. And I know, because I reported on it the first time.
(audience laughter and applause)
So let's see some of the highlights of this explosive video.
CHRIS ROCK: Cracker-ass cracker! I'll put my foot in the cracker ass, cracker-ass cracker! I wish that cracker woulda said some shit to me, saltine-ass motherfucker! Cracker ptoo mutha, cracker ptoo mutha!
Obviously, that's just Chris Rock, one of his fine comedy skits on race relations in America. I showed that in lieu of the Obama tape, because the Obama tape is far more explosive. In it, Barack Obama discusses how the events of Hurricane Katrina and that region's entrenched poverty has a racial component, and advocates for a concerted effort to rebuild the area, including these grenades.
BARACK OBAMA (6/5/2007): We don't need to build more highways out in the suburbs if we have people in the cities right now who want to work, but have no way to get to those jobs. ... We should be investing in minority-owned businesses in our neighborhoods, so people don't have to travel for miles away.
It is a volatile point of view, first expressed by this notorious black liberation theologist speaking from New Orleans in 2005.
GEORGE W. BUSH (9/16/2005): There's also some deep persistent poverty in this region as well. That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination. ... When the streets are rebuilt, there should be many new businesses, including minority-owned businesses along those streets.
(in Bush voice) "You see, what I'm trying to say is this. We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock... you see... won't get landed on again. Hehehehehehe."
So despite the fact that what Barack Obama was saying in that speech kind of echoed the sentiments of an other more acceptable mainstream politician of that era, and despite the fact that what Barack Obama was saying in that speech was echoed in his own speech that he gave in 2007 that actually aired live on CNN, Obama's real crime here was not the content and the message, but the rhythm. Ohhhh, the rhythm. The rhythm is gonna get you.
10/2/2012:
SEAN HANNITY: You notice the change in the way he delivers the speech before a predominantly African-American audience?
TUCKER CARLSON: Well, the accent ... he's speaking a different language, different cadences, different accents, different gestures. I mean, the falseness here is overwhelming. ... It's disqualifying.
SEAN HANNITY: We've got the accent, we've got anger, we got rage: "They don't care as much about you."
We've got jive talk. We've got "no justice, no peace". We've got "by any means necessary". We've got "say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud". All this and more, on K-Tel's Now That's What I Call Race-Baiting.
By the way, if you actually do believe that a candidate speaking black before black voters disqualifies them from being president, I have unearthed a video that just might turn this entire presidential race upside-down.
MITT ROMNEY (1/21/2008): What's happenin', got some bling bling here too. ... Who let the dogs out, who, who?
(shocked audience reaction)
Who let the dogs out? Did you know Mitt Romney was one of the original Baha Men? Not the band, he just keeps his money in Baja.
All right, here's what's crazy about this. If I'm not mistaken, Sean Hannity, you believe this president to be what?
SEAN HANNITY (1/13/2012): He's the worst President we've had in my lifetime.
SEAN HANNITY (7/18/2011): He is the worst President on record.
SEAN HANNITY (4/6/2010): ... a worse President than Jimmy Carter.
SEAN HANNITY (4/6/2012): This is the worst President America has ever had.
The worst! Ever! In your lifetime! On record! Ever ever ever ever! And on the eve of the first presidential debate, the best, most explosive critique that you could deliver of the worst President we have ever had in this country, is treating us to some reanimated bullshit video already been seen, as though it were the Rodney King tape in reverse.
JON STEWART: For more, we're joined by our Great Black American Panel: Senior Black Commentator Larry Wilmore, Senior Black Correspondent Wyatt Cenac, Junior Black Correspondent Jessica Williams. Watching that Hannity piece, it's almost unbelievable to see such naked race-baiting on television. Black people talk weird? What is that??
WYATT CENAC: It's some bullshit!
JESSICA WILLIAMS: Yeah! Fuck Hannity! Your October Surprise is that the President is black?
LARRY WILMORE: They are some desperate motherfuckers.
JON STEWART: What about this attempt to portray a relatively middle of the road left-of-center technocrat as some kind of angry black radical?
WYATT CENAC: It's some bullshit!
JESSICA WILLIAMS: Yeah! Fuck Hannity!
LARRY WILMORE: They are some desperate motherfuckers.
JON STEWART: Ah, that's the same thing you said. Do you not want to talk about this?
WYATT CENAC: No Jon, we love being part of your Great Black American Black Panel of Blacks. Black.
JON STEWART: Would it be better to have this discussion without the white guy moderating?
LARRY WILMORE: (as all three of them nod their heads) No, Jon, this is your show. You should stay here and moderate this black discussion. (points for Jon to go away)
JON STEWART: All right, I'll be over here, it's fine, I'll read. You guys can just talk amongst yourselves. It's fine.
JESSICA WILLIAMS: Can he hear us?
WYATT CENAC: I don't know, let's see. Jon! I've been siphoning gas from your car!
JON STEWART: (removes headphones) What? Did you call me?
WYATT CENAC: Nope. Not at all.
LARRY WILMORE: He can't hear.
JESSICA WILLIAMS: OK. So, how do you feel? Does it make you angry?
WYATT CENAC: It's not as much angry as it is depressing. I mean, this is the same dog whistle stuff they've been pulling all the time, like, you know, it's ACORN, and Shirley Sherrod, and Common at the White House. It's the same stuff.
LARRY WILMORE: Was he listening to Fiddler on the Roof?
JESSICA WILLIAMS: You know, seriously, I cannot believe that they say shit like that out loud sometimes. I mean, it's just desperate.
LARRY WILMORE: Yeah, I can. Look, when you've got no rational argument, OK, you have to bypass that part of the brain that processes rational arguments, right? You just stick the probe straight into the medulla, you know, the reptile brain. And you just jolt it with enough coded language and racial imagery to trigger the fear response.
JESSICA WILLIAMS: By the way, is there a reason Jon can't hear this conversation?
LARRY WILMORE: No, please.
WYATT CENAC: We just want more airtime. Speaking of, should we probably...?
LARRY WILMORE: Yeah, wake him up.
(Wyatt throws paper at Jon)
JON STEWART: Hey, what's up? So, thanks. You guys done rappin' and jammin'?
LARRY WILMORE: Yes, Jon, we're done rapping and jamming.
JESSICA WILLIAMS: It's all good.
JON STEWART: All right! I think it's informative when we can discuss these things with a panel of people directly affected by them. Just wondering, how do you think your conversation will be seen by people who read the Drudge Report and watch Hannity?
WYATT CENAC: I don't know, let's run it through the old Drudgity cam and see how it plays.
JON STEWART: Oh right, the lens they filter all their information through. I forgot we had one of those. Can you cue that up?
WYATT CENAC: We're in your front yard! And we're still mad about slavery!
LARRY WILMORE: Yeah, bitches! We're gonna buy crack with the food stamps you're payin' fo'!
JESSICA WILLIAMS: And then, we're gonna rape your white babies!
WYATT CENAC & LARRY WILMORE: Hey, whoa!
JESSICA WILLIAMS: What?
WYATT CENAC: Calm down!
LARRY WILMORE: It's too much!
JESSICA WILLIAMS: I'm sorry, this is my first Black Panel you guys, I'm really excited.
LARRY WILMORE: It's too much!
JESSICA WILLIAMS: It's really nice to be here.
JON STEWART: Well, thank you guys. Larry Wilmore, Jessica Williams, and Wyatt Cenac. We'll be right back.
this weekend at George Washington University with Bill O'Reilly.
column.
segment.