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The Spectacle Blog
The liberal media has apparently now decided that Donald Trump is a racist.
Bob Schieffer of CBS News accused Donald Trump of racial malice for calling for the release of President Obama’s collegiate grades. The veteran CBS correspondent and host of Face the Nation said, “That’s just code for saying he got into law school because he’s black. This is an ugly strain of racism that’s running through this whole thing. We can hope that kind of comes to an end too, but we’ll have to see.”
The New York Times has got in on the act as well with its latest editorial:
There was a price to the party for keeping the issue alive; inevitably, it was picked up by a cartoon candidate, Donald Trump, who rode birtherism directly to the prime-time promontories of cable TV. The Republican establishment began to wince as it became increasingly tied to Mr. Trump’s flirtations with racial provocation, and Karl Rove told him to knock it off. Naturally, he did not.
Finally, his taunting and the questions of television correspondents obliging Mr. Trump got on the president’s nerves. Mr. Obama was tactically smart to release the certificate and marginalize those who continue to keep the matter alive. It is tragic that American politics is fueled by such poisonous fire. Mr. Trump quickly moved on to a new fixation, questioning Mr. Obama’s academic credentials. Mr. Boehner, and other party leaders, have a new reason to call a halt to the politics of paranoia and intolerance.
From the outset, I have been very critical of Trump on the birther question and have repeatedly called him a buffoon. Yet calling Trump a racial provocateur is a sure sign of intellectual laziness and descends the depths of disingenuousness. Trump has been a prominent public figure for decades. If he bore racial animus it would showed itself long ago. As misguided as Trump was to focus his attention on Obama’s birth certificate, liberals are making the mistake of assuming that his criticism of President Obama is motivated solely by race.
With this in mind, how exactly is it “the politics of paranoia and intolerance” to ask President Obama to release his academic records? George W. Bush, Al Gore and John Kerry released their academic records. Why is it then unreasonable to demand the same of our current President?
Now there’s no doubt that Trump is baiting Obama. But he isn’t race-baiting. Trump isn’t going after Obama because of the color of his skin but because of its thinness. After all, Trump now has Obama on the defensive. At this point, Trump would be a fool if he didn’t demand that President Obama release his academic records.
Donald Trump can be called many things. A racist isn’t one of them.
View all comments (43) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/04/28/trump-buffoon-yes-racist-no
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Alan Brooks| 4.28.11 @ 10:01AM
Trump IS a cartoon candidate; Trump has a zero percent chance of being elected president-- or even being a candidate.
JmsA| 4.28.11 @ 10:54AM
Wow! You figured all of that by your lonesome self? Impressive. Now, let's go visit with Oprah, shall we?
Alan Brooks| 4.28.11 @ 12:22PM
Trump merely LOOKS like a president, that's all I meant, JmsA; so did Warren G. Harding. But when I wrote "not even a candidate" that means The Donald is not even a candidate now nor was he ever any sort of a candidate- Trump is a celebrity no different in political terms than Lady GaGa.
Leigh| 4.29.11 @ 12:20AM
I'd vote for a successful businessman like Trump over community organizer Obama any day of the week.
Neo| 4.28.11 @ 10:15AM
Obama ended the primary birther hysteria because after two weeks into the "War on Ryan" campaign, he hadn't made a noticeable dent in audience appreciation. What was worse was that his own minions in the media were working against his new campaign while they prolonged the "birther" saga with their attempts to embarrass various Republicans.
Instead of making Ryan and his budget the primary point of the current media narrative, the "birther" saga was letting other news, like high energy prices, slip into the news.
Meanwhile, various independents were showing there were susceptible to the "birther" doubts, while seniors were the group who now most embraced the Ryan budget. It was like Obama was invisible.
Elan VM| 4.28.11 @ 10:24AM
Very recently, Mr. Trump stated that he had "A great relationship with the blacks." If you can't see how offensive, ignorant, racist, and mindblowingly arrogant that comment was, you're just one more (white?) person who doesn't get it. For him to say that 2 weeks ago, question Obama's birth certificate, THEN question it's authenticity, and even his academic prowess (despite graduating Magna Cum Laude from Harvard), all while 'taking credit' and feeling 'proud' for getting response from the White House, is one of the most disgusting forms of publicly tolerated racism I've seen. What a disappointment for this highly successful white man to still be unsatisfied after Obama released the long-form birth certificate. It's so sad that some white people feel such a powerful need to check a black person's 'qualifications' in situations that a white person would NEVER be checked in. No white president has even endured such disrespect. All racist have a 'day of first exposure'. I'm sad to say, Trump has had his. He hid it well.
Warrior | 4.28.11 @ 11:39AM
Did you find it offensive when Obama used the reference my white grandmother? You sound like a blithering idiot with your nonsensical rant. Unfortunately for us, you sound very similar to our current President.
Alan Brooks| 4.28.11 @ 12:27PM
"You sound like a blithering idiot'
No, Elan is correct, or at least McCain got a pass because he was a veteran-- not because he was white. A candidate being tortured in 'Nam is more important to the GOP than a candidate graduating Magna Cum Laude from Harvard.
Go figure.
Warrior | 4.28.11 @ 2:36PM
What are you talking about? McCain was never mentioned, but since you brought it up. The MSM made inquiries into his citizenship because he was born in Panama. McCain was heavily criticized due to his rank in graduation at the Naval Academy. His wife's medical and other related materials were smeared across the front pages of newswpapers and huge tabloid fodder. Just the mere mention of anthying related to BHO's background and lack of qualifications instantly made the inquirer a racist. Since I believe McCain was a horrible candidate, I find your points to be all the more moronic.
Let's go a bit deeper. McCain through many years of service in the Senate and possessing a commission in the Navy at least had items on his resume that would indicate some small level of qualification for the office of President. Nothing on Obama's paper thin resume was even close. People like you Mr. Brooks piss me off because the only answers to you are racial. I don't care about any pigmenation factors of either candidate to prove them both horrible choices for town clerks, much less the highest office in the land.
Mike W| 4.28.11 @ 12:00PM
I guess I am just one more white person who doesn't get it but I don't see the problem with " A great relationship with the blacks". I guess I haven't cracked the code for the whiny, racially obsessed types.
George W. Bush was viciously ridiculed by many and he deserved quite a bit of it.
Previous poster made a good point - who can forget "my Grandmother, being a typical white person".....
ERIN| 4.30.11 @ 7:07PM
Well, if people would make up their minds what they want to be called, it would be a tremendous help. We have gone from "negros" to "coloreds" to "Blacks" to "African Americans" back to "people of color". "Whites" (who are generally more tan in color) have always been publicly referred to as "Whites". No confusion there. Wasn't it a "white" President who had the nerve to refer to himself as the "first black American president"?? Now that was ridiculous.
mantis| 4.28.11 @ 10:26AM
Bush and Kerry did not release their college transcripts. They were dug up by the Washington Post. I understand you need to lie to make your arguments, but you should just link to the truth. You're supposed to keep that hidden when you lie.
Jerome| 4.28.11 @ 10:42AM
"Donald Trump can be called many things. A racist isn't one of them."
As Elan VM makes clear, anyone can be called a racist, provided he is white. That's why Elan alludes to the author's skin color in discussing his ideas. Any idea is racist if a white person thinks it.
Leigh| 4.29.11 @ 12:21AM
White or Conservative you mean.
Pete| 4.28.11 @ 10:56AM
Obama got to where he is by playing the race card over and over, so why would he stop now? By adding the "poor me" to the "It's Bush's fault" he is just preparing for the next election the only way he knows how.
Paul McGrath| 4.28.11 @ 10:58AM
Hmm. When the left collectively starts yowling, "racist," you can be sure that they perceive that their cause has taken a hit. I personally didn't think that this "birther" thing caused Obama much damage. Evidently, the left thinks it did.
Dan| 4.28.11 @ 10:59AM
While I'm pretty sure that Obama could have earned entry into some generic law school, there's little doubt that he earned entry into that specific law school precisely because he was black, and moreover, he had a very exotic background, which liberal admissions department are besotted over.
Affirmative Action was a policy designed to help supposedly otherwise qualified individuals earn entry whereas before they might have been refused.
But with grade inflation, liberal profs handing out A+s merely for the accident of race, the days of merit based competition and entry are over.
So what now is the problem with Schiffer, who decries Trump for stating what is a fact, a politically incorrect fact, and an inconvenient fact for men like Schiffer, but nonetheless a fact, id est, Obama wasn't qualified for Harvard, nor Harvard Law, nor Columbia for that matter.
Moving away from obama's lack of qualifications, take a look at the bar passage rates for black candidates, --- that is for blacks who have gone through law school, but still have to pass the bar. The numbers are shocking. Those numbers are so bad that now there is arising a movement to ban the bar altogether as, you guessed it, a racist artifact.
MaryMitch| 4.28.11 @ 11:13AM
Anyone who graduates magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and is the president of the Harvard Law Review is NOT stupid. Trump IS stupid for not knowing this.
Dan| 4.28.11 @ 5:28PM
When Obama graduated from Harvard Law, 76% of the graduates in his class were qualified "cum laude," while over 50% were deemed qualified for "magna cum laude."
So if you're out there deluding yourself that Obama had to graduate say in the top 10% of his class to have earned a "magna cum laude," ------------- disabuse yourself fast. Because that's not what it was like.
The honours system had become such a joke, and such an embarrassment to the faculty, that soon after his departure it was altered into a genuine honours system.
About his election to law review, ---------- again, first off, he got onto law review because of the accident of race. He didn't qualify to earn entry to law review, he didn't get on through grades or through the writing competition. He got through because of vacancies reserved for blacks, and nobody but blacks.
His election to President came about because the vote was fractured by other competitors, and just enough libs voted for him, AGAIN BECAUSE OF HIS RACE and for no other criteria, to gain a slight victory.
His entire, ENTIRE existence has been one where he has floated ever higher because of white guilt and tokenism.
Facts are facts.
And that's why he's such a mess right now. He can't skate by because he's a black man.
ERIN| 4.30.11 @ 7:10PM
Is it true that Harvard is on a "pass/fail" system?
OperaNerd1986| 4.28.11 @ 11:00AM
Oh, the liberal media is now calling Donald Trump racist? That accusation has been thrown against everyone who says anything negative towards Obama. It has lost all meaning now.
Dan| 4.28.11 @ 11:04AM
By the by, LET THE MEDIA TRY TO BRAND Trump a racist, ------------ it will only demonstrate to even the most obdurate that false accusations of racism are a favourite instrument of the left, and those that roll around in bed with the left exchanging bodily fluids.
Americans KNOW Trump isn't a racist, ------- a showman yes, a self-promoter without any doubt whatsoever, ------------ but because of his repeated appearances and interviews, -------- they KNOW the guy, and they KNOW he's no racist.
Schiffer is a jerk.
Let's not forget that he was the clown who ended a debate between GW and Kerry with a final question for the evening, and that question was to GW: "Name three mistakes you made in your first term."
YEA!
But he isn't biased, ---------- No, not he!
Wayne | 4.28.11 @ 11:07AM
Trump was proven right.
Dan| 4.28.11 @ 11:07AM
I have no doubt that Obama is going to push back the cause of race relations years and years.
Combined with the now seemingly biweekly youtube videos of black youths stomping the brains out of one white some place or the other, and combined with obama putting the white middle aged man out of work in vast numbers and not much giving a damn about it, ---------- obama is dividing.
Dividing along class.
Dividing along race.
Dividing along religion.
Dividing, dividing and dividing.
Wally| 4.28.11 @ 11:08AM
Trump is not a racist. He is also not a buffoon. Do not underestimate him.
martin j smith| 4.28.11 @ 11:23AM
Donald Trump is a Crony Capitalist and his foolish--in my view focus on things like birth certificate or Grade Point Average show me he is a phony. As I have learned Trump has financially contributed to many Socialist candidates. If he is such as hot shot into getting our Political landcape why not go for the jugular--the debt,the debt ceiling,unemployment,the falling Dollar. My g-d there are so many matter a business man should be concerned about not to mention a patriot. Trump--Trum like Obama is for one person; HIMSELF. He is no more racist than Obama. Trump is some one to be scrutinizes,watched and to distrust. Until he proves otherwise. Obama has the advantage--he has been distrusted already for me even before he was elected.
Ken| 4.28.11 @ 11:35AM
MaryMitch and ElanVM'
Thank you for contributing that Obama was graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law School. You must have access to those transcripts that have been so carefully hidden from every one else. Why not release the rest of them?
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.28.11 @ 11:36AM
If Trump is a buffoon then where does that lead most of the pundits at TAS who never questioned Obama's credentials, except peripherally, like on the economy.
When you get a President with an invisible background it's not the work of a buffoon to find the truth, it's the work of a journalist.
The real problem is there are too many buffoons who tacitly support the nonsense inside the beltway, like the budget deal, all the while proclaiming that those who question it are "going too far."
That's the real buffoonery and there is so much of it.
Leigh| 4.29.11 @ 12:22AM
Excellent post! I agree.
jackie cox | 4.28.11 @ 6:53PM
This is ludricous, replacing one certificate of live birth with another, where is the defining footprint, the newsmedia have seemingly forgotten the reality of midterm elections, and keep the criminals face in the news daily, talking up his "GOOD JOB " while each day more and more evidence of his frauds are exposed. Like the 4 trillion deposited in offshore bank accounts, told to americas people it was domestic stimulus. Each day we hear another set of lies treason, and deciey---Trump would end free trade, not being an elected lawyere/judge/czar, making their way through life with bribery funds. Our current political reality, an audit of the fed would result in seizures of family dynasties fortunes--- dating all the way back to early 1900's when the federal reserve was given financial authority over thus country, an act of criminality and treason, left in tact for 90 years. The time has come to draw a close to politics, replace the ballot box with openended referendums, which would be no problemo for IBM's Watson, and forcing the governments to embrace information technology, wnding most of their numbers, and financial nobility, deluding common americans while stealing our productive assets---let the FBI, CIA, Military, and other dedicated honorable agencies do their jobs, ending the charade of elected government, and restore an independent america, making in america what america consumes, instead of getting the trash made by slaves and hawking it with poverty stricken hirelings, bringing america down. The current lawyers/judges/politicians/financial magnates/supreme court/academic caste system shun information technology, because it tolls the bell of time, ending their activities in a free country goverened by its citizens---trump is not a politician or lawyer, he wasn't awarded a certificate in professional swindling, the millions our currupt senators and congressmen receive in bribery enacted laws written and enacted using lobbies as gobetweens, is chum change for trump. His presidential perogatives used on the same level would empty the offices of criminality and embrace information technology
Nick Brame| 4.28.11 @ 11:34PM
By his actions Donald Trump is exhibiting racist behavior which is offensive , tragic and unAmerican. In fact he should be investigated for treason as his actions are advocating the over throw of our Government. I am certain that we would find a number of skeletons hanging in Trump's closet.
Nick Brame| 4.28.11 @ 11:35PM
By his actions Donald Trump is exhibiting racist behavior which is offensive , tragic and unAmerican. In fact he should be investigated for treason as his actions are advocating the over throw of our Government. I am certain that we would find a number of skeletons hanging in Trump's closet.
ERIN| 4.30.11 @ 7:00PM
According to ALL Pseudo-liberals, ALL non-pseudos and conservatives are racists. THAT is called PROFILING!!! :P
Leigh| 4.29.11 @ 2:22AM
Dude, you sound nuts.
Morton Popok| 4.29.11 @ 3:44AM
Donald Trump is very stupid or a racist. I Feel sorry for his children. I think the media should be cornering them and ask them what they feel about their father.
Mr. Connor| 4.29.11 @ 4:07AM
Shove a sock in it, loser.
ERIN| 4.30.11 @ 7:13PM
I saw Donald Trump's son and daughter-in-law interviewed on one of the "news" networks about some charity. Of course, he was asked about his father's possible run for President. He was a much better speaker than Obama even without the teleprompters and speech writers!! And he is very proud of his father, as well he should be!!
Nancy| 4.29.11 @ 2:37PM
Trump is a dishonest human being. There was never any factual basis in the request for Obama's certificate (has anyone asked a white candidate to prove he/she is an American), just as there is no factual basis for questioning Obama's academic performance in college and law school. Perhaps the Donald does not study Latin, and does not understand what it means to graduate magna cum laude or be the editor of the Harvard Law Review. So what is different about Obama, and why do people who should know better, like Trump, and others, look at Obama as un-American. He's black, that's why, and if people at this news paper and on this board don't see that, they are sadly unaware of their own bigotry. I know someone who went to high school with Obama, and she met him again when he transferred to Columbia College (she was at Barnard). He studied hard, and he demonstrated a wisdom and direction more advanced than many of his fellow students, and this was at an Ivy League institution. Donald Trump says, "Nobody ever heard of this guy." Maybe Trump was too busy boffing other women during his first two marriages to pay attention to Obama's rise in national stature. Donald is a disgrace, a hate monger, and embodies the worst characteristics of our country: if you can make a buck or grab attention, it matters nothing in how you do it. That is the Donald's philsophy, and it's morally repellent. So Donald, where are those tax returns you promised to show us? Now that would really tell us something about this alleged presidential candidate! BTW, I'm a privileged white American, and used to work at a p.r. firm that represented Trump, although I thankfully did not work on his account.
NoLib| 4.29.11 @ 4:31PM
Yes, Nancy; Chester Arthur was asked about his birth certificate. He was white.
Do some research before you get your panties in a pinch, libturd.
NoLib| 4.29.11 @ 4:33PM
If Obama was such a good student, why won't he release his transcripts to prove it? GWB and Kerry did.
You Liberals lie.
ERIN| 4.30.11 @ 6:56PM
Gee.. if Buffoons all have the wealth and intelligence to accumulate it as Donald Trump has, I want to be a Buffoon, too!! How interesting it is that "TheDonald" seems to top the list of Presidential Candidates on the conservative side of things. Of course, the pseudos on the left would mock him. They are afraid of him for the obvious reasons. He tends to speak his mind. The GOP is afraid of him, too. That is why they are pulling their usual derogatory games against him. Members of the GOP gave us John McCain. (Forgot to thank them for that!) If they don't want Donald Trump to be the next President of the United States of America, maybe they should provide conservatives with REAL Presidential candidates who are prone to tell the truth and who have knowledge of economics and world politics. Someone who will support other conservative free countries and quit supporting the infestation of America by those who only want to ruin her and are only concerned about what THEY can get for themselves. Quit supporting the communistic and dictatorial countries like China and Russia, etc., etc. Quit supporting the unions, require that any and all products sold in America must meet the same standards as the American companies trying to exist in America but getting bogged down by red tape and union mobs. THAT would be a good beginning.
Abigail| 5.2.11 @ 11:28AM
Trump: buffoon? YES! racist? YES! bad hair? YES! Presidential material? NO! Barnum and Bailey material? YES YES!!!!