Dan Rather’s Strange “Watermelon” Comment about Obama Falls on Deaf Leftist Ears (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on March 9, 2010
Not a peep from Rev. Al Sharpton or Janeane “I See Racists at Tea Parties” Garofalo over this strange “watermelon” comment from former CBS anchor Dan Rather during a Chris Matthews interview. If a conservative had made the same stupid statement, there would be hell to pay and rabid accusations from the left of racism within minutes of it being uttered. Racist comments should be condemned by Republicans making them as well as Democrats, or anyone, for that matter.
But was this a racist comment? Personally, I don’t think so, but some other conservative bloggers, like my cherished Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit, doesn’t agree with me on that. S’OK, no worries — we can agree to disagree. I do wonder, though… why did Danny Boy say “watermelons”? And, aside from that, Rather came across as somewhat hostile to the incompetency of Obama… although he tried to camouflage his disappointment of and disgust with Dear Leader by saying some preface crud like “this is what Republicans would say about him, yada yada yada.”
But, in this upside-down Obama utopia, conservatives/Republicans are on the itchy-trigger-finger hot seat to be attacked and vilified for non-existent smears or paper-thin innuendos on all sorts of race issues, but liberals/Democrats can say any jaw-droppingly bizarre or horrible thing they want about race or minorities with little to no condemnation. I’m not suggesting that Rather is a racist, and I have no reason to think he is (although that has never stopped the left-wing media or left-wing bloggers from crucifying any conservative for much less), but Rather’s “watermelon” comment in the interview on ObamaCare and other Obama projects was definitely ill-chosen.
Minority group leaders and the liberal media need to knock off the blatant selectivity. They need to bring Democrats to task with the same vigor as they do Republicans on race insensitivities, or they themselves make the race issue a hypocrisy, a double-standard, that will ultimately hurt only minorities. It’s the old “boy who cried wolf” syndrome. Legitimate race issues will be ignored if they are buried under the elephantine weight of myriad partisan “wolf crying” accusations.
The anti-Hispanic “coconut slur” made by CNBC commentator Donny Deutsch last month on the left-wing Joy Behar Show (and the media’s virtual ignoring of it) and what race activists and liberal news media did to falsely smear conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh as a racist in October 2009 when he expressed interest in co-buying an NFL team are but two examples.
No word on whether or not Matthews experienced any leg tingles during the interview.
Dan Rather: ‘Obama couldn’t sell watermelons’
H/t to WorldNetDaily, which provided the following commentary:
Rush Limbaugh brought up Rather’s comments on his radio show today, saying it doesn’t matter if the former anchor suggested it was something a Republican would say.
“There’s cross-talk at the end on the state trooper line, and, yeah, some of you have written me notes. ‘Don’t you understand that Rather is saying this is what Republicans would say?’ Of course he said Republicans are going to say this. It doesn’t matter. Republicans have not said it. Dan Rather did.”
Geoffrey Dickens, a senior news analyst at the Media Research Center, said Rather “stepped on one mine after another in the racial minefield that exists when talking about the nation’s first black president.”
UPDATE: I was wrong, the leftists are ALL OVER this embarrassment… by trying to bury it. This video’s been scrubbed several times from YouTube (but it is being reloaded by tenacious folks wanting to get the truth out), it is no longer on Chris Matthews’ site, and it’s been removed from other websites and blogs… please let me know if it is removed by EyeBlast.TV (the source of the video embed here). So far, so good, but the day is young.
Related:
Another Black Conservative: Silly ramblings from a white liberal: Joy Behar on Black Friday and Pam Geller enters the Viper Pit (a.k.a. The Joy Behar Show)
Moe Lane’s blog – RedState: Racist Donny Deutsch slurs Marco Rubio (R CAND, FL-SEN).
Arlenearmy’s Blog: MSNBC Maddow Attacked Les Phillip: Because He’s a Conservative Republican Who is Black
HillBuzz: BREAKING: Did Dan Rather really say “Obama is so incompetent, he couldn’t even sell watermelons”?
Gateway Pundit: WaPo Blog Lumps Black Conservatives With Mass Murdering Dictators
Scared Monkeys: Liberal Racism: Donny Deutsch Smears FL Republican Senate Candidate Marco Rubio With Racially Charged Attack, “He’s a ‘Coconut”
Frugal Café Blog Zone: “Coconut” Slur… More Racism from the Left, But It Was on the Joy Behar Show, So No One Was Watching (video) and Manufactured Racial Tension: MS-NBC & Contessa Brewer, Vile Race Baiters and News Liars and A Thing of Beauty… Pam Geller Takes on Leftists on Joy Behar’s Show for Attacks on Palin (video) and Good Grief… More Racist Comments from the Left: Matthews “Forgot He Was Black” on Obama’s State of the Union Address (video) and Hannity Show: Racial Buffoonery, Rush Limbaugh, & NFL Politics (video) and LIARS: Fringe Media’s Phony Limbaugh Quotes Killed NFL Bid… Heads Should Roll, But They Won’t Because Lying & Race-Baiting Are OK if You’re a Liberal (video) and Obama As The Joker, No Joking Matter… but Bush As The Joker, or Dracula, or Hitler? Fair Game
Mcnorman’s Weblog: Smackdown At Beyer’s Joint
Lloyd Marcus, American Thinker: If Rush Limbaugh is a Racist, Are His 20 Million Listeners Also?
Gawker: They All Look Alike: MSNBC Mistakes Jesse Jackson for Al Sharpton
Political Byline: Oh-My: MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer intros Jesse Jackson as Al Sharpton
Weasel Zippers: MSNBC’s Racist Host Contessa Brewer Introduces Jesse Jackson as Al Sharpton….
VotingFemale: Get ready for Progressives’ racism and sexism; Angela McGlowan is running for Congress
The Powers That Be: Other Things Joy Behar Can Use to Pander to Ethnic Groups & Minorities
Michelle Malkin: Genius Palin-basher thinks “Black Friday” is RAAAAACIST and Yes, let’s talk about Al Sharpton’s racial demagoguery, shall we? and The anti-Rush revival revisited and How quickly they forget
Diana West, The Death of the Grown-Up: Blackballing Conservatism
Rush Limbaugh, Wall Street Journal: The Race Card, Football and Me
The Powers That Be: Rush Has No Place in the NFL, But Look Who Does
Michael Franzese, Big Government: Rush or Reverend Al?… Will the Real Racist Please Stand Up?
Big Hollywood: When is ‘Whiteface’ Okay? When the ‘New York Times’ Says So
Right Voices: Flickr Deletes Obama Caricature – Flickr – Gawker
Jim Nolte, Big Hollywood: WaPo: Bush-Joker Kinda Made Sense, Obama-Joker Racist
Legal Insurrection: Obligatorily Snarky Obama Joker Poster Post and Do Unto Obama As Obama Did Unto Bush? You Betcha
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Thanks for a great post and interesting comments. Thanks for sharing this post.
Great post. If a conservative had said this, the MSM would be screaming bloody murder about racism and try to ruin that person’s reputation, throw rocks at their windows, smear that person to kingdom come. But racism is fine and actually acceptable to liberals if a liberal does it. Why aren’t minorities looking past someone’s political affiliation when cr*p like this happens?
Maybe conservatives should claim they’re liberals, say any dang thing they want against any one they want, and see what happens. My guess is that nothing would happen. Because liberals are hypocrites.