Subject: The Double Standard of American Politics
If a black Democratic presidential candidate was an affirmative action
selection (akin to the legacy selection for McCain) at the Naval Academy
and graduated 894 out of 899, Fox News <http://www.foxnews.com/> and
the conservative right would push this story as the basis for his
disqualification for the nation's highest office. The rest of the media
would then be forced to report on it, giving the story wide exposure.
If a white Republican presidential candidate graduated magna cum laude
from Harvard, he would be celebrated as an intellectual giant ready to
lead the country in bold new directions. But since we are talking Obama
here, his education fits into the "uppity" and presumptuous
narrative.
If you're a Harvard and Princeton-educated black woman married for years
before having your first child, Fox labels you a "Baby Mama."
If you are a white woman who eloped and had a baby eight months later,
you are Sarah Palin
If you have studied international affairs for several decades, you're
inexperienced at foreign affairs
If you live in a state that is geographically near a foreign country,
you have foreign policy expertise
If you both write and present your own words, you just give good
speeches.
If you read someone else's words from the telepromptera superstar is
born.
If you are Obama, your greatness must be measured by what you've done
and its NEVER enough, NOT by any of the profound speeches you wrote
yourself, or the repeated grillings you've taken in the press.
If you are Palin, your greatness is measured by just one speech, written
by Bush IIs speechwriter, and you will not take any questions from the
press.
If you attend two of the top ivy leagues schools in the country, you are
surprisingly articulate. If it takes you several colleges to graduate
and you deliver a speech with the phonetic new-clear on the
teleprompter, you're a poised and eloquent speaker.
If your staff is so dumb they mix up Walter Reed Middle School for
Walter Reed Medical Center in your conventions big night, its because
you wanted to focus on education & it would have been political to use
the soldiers in that format.
If Obama had done that, he would be eviscerated for not knowing the
difference between the two, hating the troops/America & would be
dangerously unqualified to be CinC.
If your a liberal mayor and you ask for government financing, your a
fan of big, tax and spend, corrupt government.
If you're a conservative mayor and wind up on John McCain's worst pork
list in 2001, you are disgusted that small towns like yours are
dependent on earmarks, even if your town had no earmarks before you
became mayor.
A white woman talkin' tough is an advocate of women's rights, a black
woman is angry and bitter. A white man talkin' tough is a straight
shooter and a conservative, a black man is a angry gangsta rapper.
If you're a GOPer you naturally wouldn't see what the problem with any
of this was, even if you slept for 20 years on a dictionary opened to
the word hypocrisy.
If you're a Republican and you talk to America 's enemies, its
diplomacy.
If you're a Democrat and you talk to America 's enemies, its
appeasement.
If you're a Republican, you swear Jesus is a registered member of your
party.
If you're a Democrat, you appreciate that Jesus was a community
organizer.
If you're a Republican and you wind up on the cover of People magazine,
it's because you're a regular American.
If you're a Democrat and you wind up on the cover of People magazine,
its because you're a celebrity.
If you're a black Democratic man who can fill a stadium with 18,000
people (or worse, a German atrium with 200,000), you're a vapid
celebrity. If you're a white Republican woman who can get a room full of
fire breathing evangelical right wingers to holler, you're a star
If you are a Democrat, the days are counted down since the last time you
have been to Iraq .
If you are a Republican, you have all the foreign policy experience you
need because your state is close to Russia .
If you're a black woman, with advanced academic degrees, and you have
children while married, you're a baby mama
If you're a white woman who barely graduated from college, and you get
knocked up and then get married after you're pregnant, you're a
"Super
Mom"
If you are black and your daughter is pregnant, unmarried and has an
uninvolved baby daddy, you are a statistic, but if you're a white and
your daughters baby's daddy has an explicit MY Space page where, in
between four-letter words, he exclaims "he don't want no kids,"
you get
to run for Veep.
If you're a black presidential candidate that has wide appeal and the
ability to motivate over two million Americans to re-engage in the
political process you're an egomaniac with a messiah complex seeking the
spotlight.
However, if you're a right wing conservative - you're applauded for
your
likeability and called a unifier for the Republican base
If you're white, win a beauty contest, attended 5-6 colleges before
finally graduating, join the PTA, are voted to be mayor by 1000 people,
govern a sparsely populated state for a almost two years now, and
randomly get chosen at the last minute to be VP, you've lived the
American dream, she's every American.
But if you're black, raised by a single mother, lived on food stamps,
help the community, get into Harvard, become the first black editor of
the Harvard Law Review, build a great campaign organization from
scratch, and are voted to be the presidential nominee by millions of
people, you are just uppity.
If you are a democratic candidate and people around you complain about
the MSM vitriole toward you, you're a whiner.
If you are a republican candidate and you wont answer the questions the
MSM attempts to ask about your qualifications for the second highest
office in the land, you're being victimized.
If you are a white republican mom with a special-needs baby, you are
suddenly the advocate of all special needs families in the US .
If you are an Alaskan democrat mom with a special-needs baby, you just
saw state funding cut for programs like special-ed. You're "on your
own."
If you are a black democrat homeowner that was preyed upon by mortgage
companies and your house is in foreclosure, you made bad choices and
don't deserve a house.
If you an older white republican who can't keep track of how many houses
he has, then he deserves another one.
The Double Standard
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