Monday, October 26, 2009

More Post-Racial Harmony: Even Nobel Prize Reveals Racial Divide

So glad Barack Obama is bringing us all together by driving us further apart.
Gallup has added another bit of data to its poll finding that most Americans (61%) don't believe President Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize: There's a huge divide between white and black America.

There's nearly a 50 percentage point split, with just 27% of whites saying Obama deserved the accolade, while 76% of blacks believe he should have gotten it.
OK, so who's raaaaacist here? Can you racial bean-counters out there let me know? Is it the 76% of blacks saying he deserved it or the 73% of whites who believe he doesn't?
The gap narrows a bit among Americans who are glad he won. While overall the split was 46% glad and 47% not, among whites, it was 42% on the glad side and 80% among blacks.

This seems like more than simple identity politics to us. In the earlier analysis that Gallup released, even many of the people who like Obama did not think he deserved the prize. That suggested to the pollsters feelings were more nuanced than usual with political polls, and rather than a "knee-jerk" reaction, people were wondering if the winner shouldn't have a greater body of work before garnering such acclaim.

Considering the racial divide, it may be a positive thing that whites are looking at Obama not as a black President, but as any politician, and weighing whether he deserves something on the merits, not just reacting.
Yes, yet when we dare to disagree with Obama as a politician, we're accused of having some sinister racial motive behind a simple criticism.

Ironic, isn't it, that for two solid weeks after he received a peace prize, Obama has escalated his assault on Fox News into a full-blown declaration of war?

What a peacemaker.

Meanwhile, Mr. Peace has already established himself far above President Bush in at least one regard. He's played more golf than Bush did in his eight years.
President Obama, accused of running a fratboy White House by some women's advocates, went golfing Sunday with a woman for the first time since he took the oath of office.

Melody Barnes, 45, Obama's chief domestic policy advisor, accompanied the nation's commander in chief to a golf outing at the U.S. Army's Fort Belvoir golf course in Virginia.

At first, a White House spokesman denied that Barnes was the first woman to go golfing with Obama since he became president. But when pressed by a reporter, the aide confirmed Barnes was, indeed, the first.

The golf game was also notable for being Obama's 24th, tying it with Bush's total number of golf games played - during his entire adminstration. It took Bush 2 years and 10 months to reach that tally, according to Mark Knoller of CBS News. Obama has reached it in 11 months.
I'm sure some of the President Approved Pundits won't have any problem with this. It's worth noting Bush stopped playing golf (at least publicly) altogether after the Iraq War commenced or shortly thereafter. Glad to see Obama able to juggle three major conflicts without it distracting him from his important time on the links.

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