Obama: "I need you to grab Cousin Pookie to vote. I need you to get Ray-Ray to vote."

[rodeodance]

Forum Name General Discussion: Primaries
Topic subject Obama: "I need you to grab Cousin Pookie to vote. I need you to get Ray-Ray to vote."
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4209279#4209279
4209279, Obama: "I need you to grab Cousin Pookie to vote. I need you to get Ray-Ray to vote."
Posted by journalist3072 on Sat Jan-26-08 09:25 AM

Has Obama lost his mind? "I need you get grab Cousin Pookie to vote. I need you to get Ray-Ray to vote."

If that's not playing to Black stereotypes, I don't know what is. And this is why I, as a Black woman, cannot and absolutely will not support him.
______________________________________________

Obama walks a tricky racial line

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jan 26, 1:49 AM ET

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Barack Obama is walking a tricky racial line, trying to excite black support in the South without getting tagged as "the black candidate" and scaring off anybody else.

At a spaghetti dinner in the basement of a black church this week, he told a cheering crowd the civil rights movement started from the bottom up, with marches and boycotts. "That's how change comes," he said, linking black civil rights to his own campaign slogan.

But here in South Carolina, which has its Democratic primary Saturday, he also says over and over that color doesn't matter.

-snip-

The racial minefields haven't kept him from having fun with heavily black audiences in South Carolina this week.

The Harvard Law School graduate sometimes playfully breaks into vernacular, which seems to amuse him and his audiences greatly.

"I need you to grab Cousin Pookie to vote," he told a crowd in Kingstree on Thursday. "I need you to get Ray-Ray to vote."

-snip-

After fielding questions from an audience of about 200, Bill Clinton called on a black man standing near the stage. The man said he was a pastor and told Clinton that "black America is voting for Obama because he's black." He said Democrats are in a dangerous position because if Obama wins the nomination, voters will elect a Republican in November. "They're not ready for a black president," he said.

Several black audience members nodded and said, "That's right."

"I have to tell you I hope you're not right," Clinton responded.

He said that despite the "mean things" said about him "in the Obama camp this week," he would support the Illinois senator if he is nominated.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080126/ap_on_el_pr/obama_race ;_ylt=Ap4cA8iWx3XNIz4FsW1c36Ks0NUE