Ezra Klein: Obama Afraid To Rip America Apart With Ferguson Speech
Ezra Klein’s formerly useful explainer site Vox.com now appears to be chiefly devoted to explaining how President Obama ruins everything. Last week, Obama was “breaking politics,” and this week, he’s narrowly avoiding dividing the nation by toning down his remarks on the killing of Mike Brown by Ferguson, Missouri policeman Darren Wilson.
This afternoon, President Obama gave another surprise press conference, at which he discussed developments in Iraq, as well as the situation in Ferguson, and took several questions. Klein begins by summing the whole thing up this way:
The main news in Obama’s remarks was that Attorney General Eric Holder will be traveling to Ferguson — which mostly highlights that Obama has not traveled to Ferguson, and has no plans to do so.
To the careful listener, there was actually a lot more news in this presser than that, which I’ll get to in a minute, but right off the bat, he’s introducing an expectation that no one has seriously placed on the President: that he travel to Ferguson. It has been a rough week-plus in Missouri, no doubt about it, but this is not Katrina. Hell, it’s barely a Keith Urban concert. As the President said on his speech, most of the protests have been peaceful, and what violence there has been has been mostly from non-residents. The people of Ferguson don’t need President Obama to calm them down.
As Klein notes, the reviews weren’t great from the folks that some of my Twitter followers calls “Blacker Than Thou, Inc.”, and chalks the President’s “clinical” remarks up to a desire not to ruin things the way he always does:
President Obama might still decide to give a speech about events in Ferguson. But it probably won’t be the speech many of his supporters want. When Obama gave the first Race Speech he was a unifying figure trying to win the Democratic nomination. Today he’s a divisive figure who needs to govern the whole country. The White House never forgets that. There probably won’t be another Race Speech because the White House doesn’t believe there can be another Race Speech. For Obama, the cost of becoming president was sacrificing the unique gift that made him president.
Now, there’s probably some truth to the analysis that the White House would have liked to have avoided things like the Skip Gates brouhaha, but that’s not because President Obama is a divisive figure; it’s because white people, especially conservatives, are gaping assholes. President Obama was absolutely right, the Cambridge Police did act stupidly by arresting Professor Henry Louis Gates in his own home, unless Gates got convicted of something and we all missed it.
Klein is also wrong that President Obama has avoided such controversies during his presidency, unless we all imagined the blistering Shitnado that followed his empathetic remarks about Trayvon Martin’s killing, or his uncompromising critique of racism in America following the George Zimmerman verdict. There’s a much simpler reason that President Obama didn’t get all “passionate” at today’s press conference, and he gave it from the podium:
“I have to be very careful about not prejudging these events before investigations are completed because, although these are issues of local jurisdiction, the DOJ works for me and when they’re conducting an investigation I’ve got to make sure that I don’t look like I’m putting my thumb on the scales one way or the other.”
Maybe Klein missed that episode of Schoolhouse Rock. The President is sending Attorney General Eric Holder to Ferguson and, hopefully, he will put a stop to the mayhem being done to the investigation by local authorities. If pressure needs to be applied, that is where it needs to go, not to insisting that the President show up to take Ferguson to church. Now, once a verdict has been rendered in whatever legal proceeding stems from this investigation, you might see a good deal more “passion” from the President.
As for the negative reviews, Klein seems to misunderstand the function of “Blacker Than Thou, Inc.”, which is…READ MORE
Copyright 2014 Liberaland
By: Tommy Christopher
Tommy Christopher is The Daily Banter's White House Correspondent and Political Analyst. He's been a political reporter and liberal commentator since 2007, and has covered the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration, first for PoliticsDaily, and then for Mediaite. Christopher is a frequent guest on a variety of television, radio, and online programs, and was the villain in the documentaries The Audacity of Democracy and Hating Breitbart. He's also That Guy Who Live-Tweeted His Own Heart Attack, and the only person to have ever received public apologies from both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.
24 responses to Ezra Klein: Obama Afraid To Rip America Apart With Ferguson Speech
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R.J. Carter August 19th, 2014 at 11:20
It’s good to know that nobody expects the President to go into an area that is suffering devastation and violence.
raincheck August 19th, 2014 at 14:47
How would it help if he went there?
granpa.usthai August 19th, 2014 at 15:29
it would give the GOP mastermouth an excuse to have his maid scrounge up some more thousands of Viagra pills.
R.J. Carter August 19th, 2014 at 16:40
It wouldn’t. At all.
ChrisVosburg August 19th, 2014 at 15:25
This episode of “Simpering Innuendo” is brought to you by the good folks at SnipeCo, who remind you to never comment straightforwardly and constructively when it’s so much easier to just peel off an impotent sneer or two.
“SnipeCo! It’s What’s for Dinner! And Breakfast! And Lunch!”
R.J. Carter August 19th, 2014 at 16:40
Apparently sometimes one needs to hashtag a statement. So…
#Katrina
ChrisVosburg August 19th, 2014 at 17:26
Yeah, we got it, RJ, the innuendo that Bush got a ration of shit for blowing off a visit to the Hurricane-ravaged state of Louisiana, while Obama blows off a visit to Ferguson but doesn’t. It’s lame.
R.J. Carter August 19th, 2014 at 11:20
It’s good to know that nobody expects the President to go into an area that is suffering devastation and violence.
raincheck August 19th, 2014 at 14:47
How would it help if he went there?
granpa.usthai August 19th, 2014 at 15:29
it would give the GOP mastermouth an excuse to have his maid scrounge up some more thousands of Viagra pills.
R.J. Carter August 19th, 2014 at 16:40
It wouldn’t. At all.
ChrisVosburg August 19th, 2014 at 15:25
This episode of “Simpering Innuendo” is brought to you by the good folks at SnipeCo, who remind you to never comment straightforwardly and constructively when it’s so much easier to just peel off an impotent sneer or two.
“SnipeCo! It’s What’s for Dinner! And Breakfast! And Lunch!”
R.J. Carter August 19th, 2014 at 16:40
Apparently sometimes one needs to hashtag a statement. So…
#Katrina
ChrisVosburg August 19th, 2014 at 17:26
Yeah, we got it, RJ, the innuendo that Bush got a ration of shit for blowing off a visit to the Hurricane-ravaged state of Louisiana, while Obama blows off a visit to Ferguson but doesn’t. It’s lame.
mea_mark August 19th, 2014 at 11:52
When Ezra Klein started Vox he must have made some promises for funding that are haunting him. His once clear thinking seems to now be tainted. I hope whatever pressure is on him, clouding his thinking goes away, so he can get back to the person he used to be.
mea_mark August 19th, 2014 at 11:52
When Ezra Klein started Vox he must have made some promises for funding that are haunting him. His once clear thinking seems to now be tainted. I hope whatever pressure is on him, clouding his thinking, goes away so he can get back to the person he used to be.
Budda August 19th, 2014 at 12:42
I guess we should ask Mr. Klein what should the President do that would make him happy.
MIAtheistGal August 19th, 2014 at 12:57
He wants us all to get in his way back machine and elect McCain in 2008 instead.
Failing that, he’d like Obama to resign.
granpa.usthai August 19th, 2014 at 15:34
resign in disgrace of course, but the not so fair and unbalanced Republican lame stream media would be requesting some photo ops of WHITE RACIST REPUBLICANS in Congress who feel they are just like the WHITE RACIST TERRORIST in Nevada dragging him off in chains. (another little lesson to instill fear in the not so pure WHITE RACIST ARYAN brotherhood).
Budda August 19th, 2014 at 12:42
I guess we should ask Mr. Klein what should the President do that would make him happy.
MIAtheistGal August 19th, 2014 at 12:57
He wants us all to get in his way back machine and elect McCain in 2008 instead.
Failing that, he’d like Obama to resign.
granpa.usthai August 19th, 2014 at 15:34
resign in disgrace of course, but the not so fair and unbalanced Republican lame stream media would be requesting some photo ops of WHITE RACIST REPUBLICANS in Congress who feel they are just like the WHITE RACIST TERRORIST in Nevada dragging him off in chains. (another little lesson to instill fear in those not part of the not so pure WHITE RACIST ARYAN brotherhood).
MIAtheistGal August 19th, 2014 at 12:56
We all know that conservatives will bitch if Obama goes to ferguson and they’ll bitch if he doesn’t so he may as well do what he feels is right.
MIAtheistGal August 19th, 2014 at 12:56
We all know that conservatives will bitch if Obama goes to ferguson and they’ll bitch if he doesn’t so he may as well do what he feels is right.