Reply #3: What WOULD be a compliment? [View All]

[Nikki Stone1]

This is not a casual question. If someone takes your compliment as an insult, it's miserable for both parties. The person giving the compliment (assuming it was in good faith) will be devastated if the person getting the compliment takes it as an insult and accuses the other party of racism.

I am willing to give you Biden, not for the word "articulate" but for the word "clean" which I think was far worse and which made everything else he said sound patronizing and dismissive. But quite honestly, how should one compliment Obama, other than on his positions (being against the war, for example) without being considered a closet racist? I will be happy to read a serious answer with specific advice.

For the record, I heard Ed Schultz say this morning that General Casey was "not" articulate. This supports the contention that "articulate" is a word used in reference to politics, especially when someone is not typically in the limelight or is new to the political game in general (or to a particular level of involvement, like a presidential election.) For someone to call Senator Kennedy "articulate" might be insulting because he's been around for a long time and has proved himself time and time again, but to call Jim Webb "articulate" IS a compliment, since he is fairly new to the national political arena and gave an amazing rebuttal to the SOTU address, at a level unusual for a fairly new face, at least nationally. My take on the word "articulate" in reference to Obama is that he is being judged as a "new" national presence, not as a "black" one. (I am not counting Biden here because that whole quote was problematic.)