You're right - Obama does look like a black Dickie.

• For us old folks....(sm) - Just the big bad
  • You're right - Obama does look like a black Dickie. - Smothers
    • If you had any idea of what I was talking about....(sm) - Just the big bad
  • I think he looks like, well, - I guess I better not say because I
  • I always thought he looked like Alfred E. Newman - Bushwacked
    • Haha! I thought I was the only one who thought he looked - like Alfred E! - nm
  • I am right along with should not insult - Christine
  • You really shouldn't insult Dickie Smothes like that - LOL! - Zville MT
  • I hadn't thought about that............ sm - m
    • LOL....probably....(sm) - Just the big bad
      • I was just going to write that. No message - Obama has aged in months.
        • But you have heard, black don’t crack. - Christine
    • First Pres younger than me - skunko
      • Obama makes me think of "Webster." It's the ears. :-) nm - Confetti
        • I think he's HOT. - :o)

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Why I can't vote for Obama:  Worth the read! 
I wanted to send this article from Huntley Brown - a fabulous concert pianist, a man of God and a black man. I appreciate so much his reasoning for not voting for Obama. I would like to see his article published or spread out via Email to as many as possible. It's good stuff!

Why I Can't Vote For Obama
By Huntley Brown
Dear Friends, A few months ago I was asked for my perspective on Obama, I sent out an email with a few points. With the election just around the corner I decided to complete my perspective. Those of you on my e-list have seen some of this before but it's worth repeating...
First I must say whoever wins the election will have my prayer support Obama needs to be commended for his accomplishments but I need to explain why I will not be voting for him.
Many of my friends process their identity through their blackness I process my identity through Christ. Being a Christian (a Christ follower) means He leads I follow. I can't dictate the terms He does because He is the leader.
I can't vote black because I am black; I have to vote Christian because that's who I am. Christian first, black second.  Neither should anyone from the other ethnic groups vote because of ethnicity. 200 years from now I won't be asked if I was black or white. I will be asked if I knew Jesus and accepted Him as Lord and Savior.
In an election there are many issues to consider but when a society gets abortion, same-sex marriage, embryonic stem-cell research, human cloning to name a few, wrong economic concerns will soon not matter.
We need to follow Martin Luther King's words, don't judge someone by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I don't know Obama so all I can go off is his voting record. His voting record earned him the title of the most liberal senator in the US Senate in 2007.
NATIONAL JOURNAL: Obama: Most Liberal Senator in 2007 (01/31/2008)
To beat Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton as the most liberal senator, takes some doing. Obama accomplished this feat in 2 short years. I wonder what would happen to America if he had four years to work with.
There is a reason Planned Parenthood gives him a 100 % rating. There is a reason the homosexual community supports him. There is a reason Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Castro, Hamas etc. love him. There is a reason he said he would nominate liberal judges to the Supreme Court. There is a reason he voted against the infanticide bill. There is a reason he voted No on the constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. There is a reason he voted No on banning partial birth abortion. There is a reason he voted No on confirming Justices Roberts and Alito. These two judges are conservatives and they have since overturned partial birth abortion. The same practice Obama wanted to continue.
God help him. There is a reason Obama opposed the parental notification law.
Think about this:  You can't give a kid an aspirin without parental notification but that same kid can have an abortion without parental notification. This is insane.
There is a reason he went to Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years.
Obama tells us he has good judgment but he sat under Jeremiah Wright teaching for 20 years. Now he is condemning Wright's sermons. I wonder why now?
Obama said Jeremiah Wright led him to the Lord and discipled him. A disciple is one in training. Jesus told us in Matthew 28:19 - 20 'Go and make disciples of all nations.' This means reproduce yourself. Teach people to think like you, walk like you; talk like you believe what you believe etc. The question I have is what did Jeremiah Wright teach him?
Would you support a White President who went to a church which has tenets that said they have a ...
1. Commitment to the White Community
2. Commitment to the White Family
3. Adherence to the White Work Ethic
4. Pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the White Community.
5. Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting White Institutions
6. Pledge allegiance to all White leadership who espouse and embrace the White Value System
7. Personal commitment to embracement of the White Value System.
Would you support a President who went to a church like that?
Just change the word from white to black and you have the tenets of Obama's former church.   If President Bush was a member of a church like this, he would be called a racist. Jessie Jackson and AL Sharpton would have been marching outside.
This kind of church is a racist church. Obama did not wake up after 20 years and just discovered he went to a racist church.  The church can't be about race.  Jesus did not come for any particular race. He came for the whole world.
A church can't have a value system based on race. The churches value system has to be based on biblical mandate. It does not matter if it's a white church or a black church it's still wrong.  Anyone from either race that attends a church like this would never get my vote.
Obama's former Pastor Jeremiah Wright is a disciple of liberal theologian James Cone, author of the 1970 book A Black Theology of Liberation. Cone once wrote: 'Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him.
Cone is the man Obama's mentor looks up to. Does Obama believe this?
So what does all this mean for the nation?
In the past when the Lord brought someone with the beliefs of Obama to lead a nation it meant one thing - judgment.
Read 1 Samuel 8 when Israel asked for a king. First God says in 1 Samuel 1:9 'Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.'
Then God says
1 Samuel 1:18 ' When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.' 19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. 'No!' they said. 'We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.'  21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD. 22 The LORD answered, 'Listen to them and give them a king.'
Here is what we know for sure.
God is not schizophrenic
He would not tell one person to vote for Obama and one to vote for McCain. As the scripture says, a city divided against itself cannot stand, so obviously many people are not hearing from God.
Maybe I am the one not hearing but I know God does not change and Obama contradicts many things I read in scripture so I doubt it.
For all my friends who are voting for Obama can you really look God in the face and say; Father based on your word, I am voting for Obama even though I know he will continue the genocidal practice of partial birth abortion. He might have to nominate three or four Supreme Court justices, and I am sure he will be nominating liberal judges who will be making laws that are against you.  I also know he will continue to push for homosexual rights, even though you destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for this.  I know I can look the other way because of the economy.
I could not see Jesus agreeing with many of Obama's positions. Finally I have two questions for all my liberal friends.
Since we know someone's value system has to be placed on the nation,
1 Whose value system should be placed on the nation.
2.  Who should determine that this is the right value system for the nation?
Blessings, Huntley Brown
 

I never gave this a thought. The previous incumbent was so poor and Palin scared the bejesus out of me and McCain isn't that much of a maverick and doesn't know squat economically that I never let race enter into my voting decision. For me it was an obvious choice. (Not my first choice but by Nov. my only choice.)

If you read through this cnn.com article, you'll read that blacks who were innovative do feel they're or were held to different standards.

The very fact that this article is worthy of being printed surprises me.

=========================================

(CNN) -- Just days before he was sworn in, President Obama was giving his daughters a tour of the Lincoln Memorial when one of them pointed to a copy of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address carved into the wall.

Obama's 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, told her father that Lincoln's speech was really long. Would he have to give a speech as long? Obama's answer was completed by his older daughter, 10-year-old Malia.

"I said, 'Actually, that one is pretty short. Mine may even be a little longer,' " Obama told CNN recently. "At which point, Malia turns to me and says, 'First African-American president, better be good.' "

The story is light-hearted, but it touches on a delicate question: Will people hold Obama to a different standard because he is the first African-American president?

Americans appear split by race on that answer. According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, 53 percent of blacks say the American public will hold Obama to a higher standard than past presidents because he is black. Most whites -- 61 percent -- say Obama's race will not matter in how he will be judged.

The question divided several people who were racial pioneers themselves.

Alexander Jefferson was one of the first blacks allowed to become a fighter pilot. He was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of black pilots who escorted bombers in World War II.

"We had to be twice as good to be average," he says.

Obama won't face the same pressures he did because his presidential predecessor was so inept, Jefferson says.

"No, the world is ready for him," he says. "The [George W.] Bush debacle was so depressing."

Jefferson was shot down by ground fire on his 19th mission and spent a year in German prison camps. He wrote about his POW experiences in "Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman and POW."

Jefferson says he dealt with the pressures of being a racial pioneer by drawing on the strength of black leaders who opened doors for him.

"I sit on the backs of everyone who came before me," says Jefferson, who attended Obama's inauguration with other Tuskegee Airmen.

Jefferson says he would have emotionally imploded if he'd thought too much about the pressures of representing all blacks and dealing with the racism he encountered when he returned home to a segregated America after the war.

"I did what I had to do so I didn't go stark-raving mad," he says. "There wasn't all this self-analysis and back and forth. I was too damn busy with a wife, a child and a mortgage."

Michele Andrea Bowen couldn't avoid a bout of constant self-analysis. She was one of the first African-American students admitted to a doctorate program in history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"I know Obama is going to be held to a different standard," says Bowen, author of "Up at the College" and books such as "Holy Ghost Corner," which celebrate black faith and culture.

Bowen says she faced relentless scrutiny, and so will Obama.

"You know that it was hard for you to get in it, and you know they're watching you," Bowen says. "And you know that they're judging you by a critical standard that's sometimes not fair."

Bowen says a white classmate, her partner in dissertation, once confided to her that he received the same grades as she did, even though he knew his work was inferior.

"It toughened me up," Bowen says. "It can give you headaches and stomachaches. I learned you have to be thankful that God blessed you with that opportunity. At some point, you stop worrying, and you trust God."

'Would Bush have been president if he were black?'

Perhaps Obama will avoid those stomachaches because of the massive good will his election has generated. But that could change quickly if Obama makes a controversial decision or a mistake, says Andrew Rojecki, co-author of "The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America."

Rojecki says people who say Obama isn't going to be held to a different standard because of his skin color didn't pay attention to his campaign.

He says Obama had to deal with challenges that other candidates didn't have to face. Obama's run for office was almost ended by his association with his minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose incendiary sermons shocked many.

But Republican presidential nominee John McCain's relationship with the Rev. John Hagee, who was accused of anti-Semitism, never threatened to end his campaign, Rojecki says.

"Obama was held responsible for what his minister said, and McCain was associated with Hagee, but somehow that didn't stick," says Rojecki, a communication professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Even people who regard themselves as the most progressive, open-minded supporters may subconsciously hold Obama to a different standard, Rojecki says.

He says several academic studies show that it often takes people longer to associate good qualities to blacks when different faces are flashed across a screen.

"They have these stereotypes buried in their subconscious," he says. "That's why people cross the street when they see a young black man. They'd rather not take a chance."

Obama virtually had to be perfect to overcome those stereotypes, Rojecki says. He was the first black Editor of the Harvard Law Review, he has an Ivy League-educated wife and adorable daughters, and he ran a great campaign.

"He's the perfect symbol of achievement," Rojecki says.

White candidates for office don't have to have an uninterrupted life of achievement to be considered for the Oval Office, Rojecki says.

"If George W. Bush were black, do you think he would be president?" Rojecki says.

Jefferson, the Tuskegee Airman, says Obama should have at least one consolation. The problems he confronts now are so immense that anyone, even someone who was considered by many to be perfect, would not be able to escape withering judgment.

"If the president was Jesus Christ, '' Jefferson says, "they would still debate if he's qualified."

in order to win over a "moderate muslim" because they are by definition open to Western ideas regarding politics and general ideas.  They embrace a sort of liberal Islam in sharp contrast to the extremist or fundamentalist muslims who have zero tolerance and believe in and embrace the concept of Jihad against the infidels. 

I'm not just talking about muslims who live in the U.S., but muslims around the world.  For example, President Karzai of Afghanistan has been deemed a moderate muslim because of his political ideas which is why he fears violence against him from the extremists in his country.

Get it?  Obama saying that he wants to "win over" moderate muslims is akin to a MTSO saying they want to "win over" Indian MTs to work with them.  It won't be hard and will take very little convincing.  Not to mention King Obama is the "world's president."  Like I said, he's just posturing of the media.  The liberal media loves him and his pretty speeches.  Journalists have become babbling idiots since O burst on the scene. 

*there is a great many people ready to believe in anything, even a black man from a corrupt Chicago political machine with a nice smile and pretty words. *

Yes, it is a historic event for a black man to become president, as is readily recognized and rightfully so.  However, the OP used *even a black man* in what can only be described as a derogatory manner.  -- ready to believe in anything -- even a black man -- followed by more derogatory comments.  To read a statement like this that was obviously meant to be demeaning and pick out one aspect and try to paint that as an innocent description is ridiculous.  Do you really think she meant to add a compliment in the midst of that statement?  I think not.  In fact, even the phrase *with a nice smile and pretty words* was meant as a sarcastic representation.  I'm not making a mountain out of a mole hill here.  This was obviously a racist statement.  If Obama were white do you think the post would have included the statement *even a white man?*  Of course it wouldn't.  Why do you think that is?  I think the OP managed to show her true colors on this one, whether or not she even realized it. 

Is just as wrong as not voting for because he/she is black

I am afraid that too many folks casting their votes will be doing it for these reasons, and that is scary

I personally feel the McCain hasn't been able to attack Obama like he should because they are too afraid of the race card being played.....and let's face it.....the race card is being played as it is. 

I guess you could say I have not walked in a black person's shoes.  However, don't for one second think that I have never felt racism.  I've seen the glares and dirty looks aimed in my direction by black people.  I've given smiles to strangers who instead of smiling back would glare hatefully at me.  I've said, "I have a nice day," to people who have either given me a dirty look or turned their back to me. 

I was at a hospital visiting my dying father when I left with my son to get something to eat.  My son is very young and has a developmental delay.  A black mother and her daughter walked onto the elevator with us.  My son, not knowing any better, looked at the little girl and commented that she was brown.  Without even thinking I said, "Yes she is.  Isn't she beautiful!"  The mother gave me the dirtiest look.

I wholeheartedly agree with JTBB.  I think people see different things when they see Obama.

What I see is someone who is also half WHITE.  I see someone who wouldn't even have been allowed to EXIST in this country not very long before he was born because interracial marriage was against the law.  I see how far our country has come, despite all the bigots and racists, some of which obviously linger (but hopefully will go by the way of the dinosaur).

Most of all, I see someone who represents the BEST in most of us, instead of the LEAST in the few of us.  By acknowledging my EXISTENCE (and I'm white) as someone in America who isn't a millionaire, by acknowledging the EXISTENCE of a healthcare problem and by acknowleding the EXISTENCE of all the other problems that plague people who were once part of the almost extinct middle class, he is acknowledging the existence of most of us, which is much more than has been done by the Republicans during either the last eight years or even during the 2008 Presidential campaign.

I have great faith in him, especially when I see him with his children, that he truly wants what is best for everyone in this country.  I have no idea why so many people are so threatened by him.  I truly see hope for a better future, even though I've been "programmed" to live on edge and wonder what the "President" is doing next to stick it to the little guy.  Hopefully, I'll get over that "reflex," and hopefully he won't give me a reason to question or criticize him.