The "RACE" Question

[President Decider]

What the hell was with the race question the lady in the media asked the President tonight? I mean, in the middle of one of the worst economic crisis' since the great depression the old lady uses her 2 minutes of fame to ask the question of weather or not President Obama has experienced any sort of descrimination in his first 60+ days in office ..... WTF?

Of all the things she could have asked while in the national spotlight, that had to be one of the worst, most boneheaded questions I could have imagined being asked.

[Thrill]

1. I think she was trying to see if he was experiencing people having

a problem taking orders from him because of his race.

I got what she was trying to ask

[patrice]

2. President Obama smacked the issue down, very politely of course, but a smack down nonetheless.

[DeepBlueC]

3. I think she was surprised to be called on

maybe unprepared? It wasn't a very substantial question.

[asphalt.jungle]

5. totally surprised

she looked like a deer caught in the headlights at first.

[Aloha Spirit]

4. I was dismissive of that Q at first, but it actually gave Obama the chance to make a beautiful point

so I'd like to think that was the purpose of the question.

[Clio the Leo]

6. I agree.

It's an issue he doesn't often address .... which is his prerogative.

But despite the fact of the awesome job of not letting his ethnicity be an issue in the campaign, I dont think we should totally ignore the historic moment in which we are living.

I enjoyed the question ... and I enjoyed the answer.

[Schema Thing]

8. I liked that she asked if she could ask

and he was confident in his "you may".

[Clio the Leo]

11. lol, well *I* would have been scared to just go there like that. NT

[sellitman]

7. My wife and I both looked at each other when she asked that question.

It's amazing what passes as a press core.

[Laelth]

9. The President's response was superb! n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[angee_is_mad]

12. Race is an issue, but

it isn't the overriding issue with all the other shit that is going on. And I agree the President gave a superb answer.

[Life Long Dem]

10. Some use DU for an outlet. Other's use a column as an outlet.

And it's all politics. What else can you say but just to brush it off like another flake.

[rvablue]

13. Ann Compton is an old school journalist and I thought the question was absolutely fine

she was trying to come up with something different and potentialy historical or philosophical amongst all of the "gotcha on the economy" questions coming from the testosterone TV press.

I take no issue with Ms. Compton...the woman had to deal with TV news when it was an old boys club and I have no idea who she is working for now as it is not ABC and I'm glad he called on her.

For those who don't remember, it is coming close to calling on Helen Thomas.

It may have been the first time for her after a long career in journalism.

[Jennicut]

14. I had no problem with it as he gave a wonderful answer

We will judge him on if he succeeds or not, not on his race.

[4lbs]

15. I also understood the question she was trying to ask, but she could have rephrased it differently.

More along the lines of "Since you are the country's first minority President, have you experienced any problems with people following your orders because you are a minority?"

I would surmise a similar question would have been posed to Hillary had she become President: "Madame President, have you experienced any problems with people taking orders from a woman?"

I hearken back to Inauguration Day where Dick the Cheney made it known he "threw out" his back carrying some phantom boxes and thus required a wheelchair to sit through President Obama's inauguration.

The way Dick the Cheney treated Colin Powell and even Condoleeza Rice over the last eight years makes me suspicious he secretly didn't want to give the respect of standing at all for an African-American President. Thus this phony (to me) story about a back injury.