Obama has to rise above comments like this which are meant to push his buttons and fight back…. as elrod has said Obama has been vilified before.

Whenever I see people pushing (or trying to push) Obama's buttons and get a rise out of him, I can't help but think of my Mom…. whenever someone did something which angered me Mom would say things like, “Don't get your bowels in an uproar”, or “Don't let it get to you, it serves no purpose”, or something similar. So I would inevitably calm down….

And now when I see someone trying to rise someone else's ire and that person responding by escalating the situation and I see these two people behaving childishly, I realize how right my Mom was. And still is because there are still times that I'm tempted to respond back in kind. I'm not perfect but I admire Obama for holding back from these sorts of snide remarks.

I also like Obama when he says that he'll bring a gun to a knife fight. Obama seems to have the judgement to know which fights are worth fighting and he will not back down.

Thanks all for your comments.

Elitist, on the other hand, is the word used to describe anyone who actually dares to show intelligence in public instead of keeping it hidden away at home where such shameful behavior belongs. The U.S. is a deeply anti-intellectual society that considers the only purpose of education to be job-related and looks down on those who are different than they are, anyone who isn't just one of the girls/guys. Look at the people who are saying that Palin is such a game changer because the middle class will view her as “one of them”. Hasn't the last 8 years shown what happens when that is your sole criteria for voting for someone?

Well, I guess you could say the same for the N-word, but man, if you are not black and greeting your friends, it almost assuredly is.

The same here. I have to agree this was not even a coded message. This was inexcusable.

Or where racist whites classify and “assign” blacks to “belong,” inferiority in the old days of white supremacy, which is why the word is tainted. That someone would use the term now, even to refer to whites rather than Obama only, shows ignorance (and shows that while our society has changed, some individuals, including in the South, haven't).

This one smells of racism; Obama can happily just let this guy lynch himself. [grin]

A _separate_ issue here was the dishonest extension of racism toward use of “elitist” when everyone knows that term is not racist (the dishonest claim is that it, too, is racist in how it is used); the word applies to many “progressives” and fellow lefties (think “Manhattan cocktail party chatter” by the Chattering Classes) and you realize that any time Obama is mentioned that way it's because he fits in fine with his fellow liberal Democrats and his progressive original hard-core fans (which is in fact the opposite of racism).

Note that even “agitator” is tainted by use by Southern racist authorities toward civil rights workers (white more than black) as well as toward black resident activists in the old days (“outsahd agitatuhs”).

Obama knows better than to point out racist attacks; he's been vilified for that before.

You know what? When I hear a White Southern Republican Congressman call the Obamas uppity, I do not feel hopeful at all.

Well then, I'll be the first to say that I stand corrected. Thanks for the context. But as I noted above Obama did not take any racial overtones in it. That doesn't make it right, but it doesn't sound like anything he's taking a great deal of offense to.

I hear what you're saying about the word “elitist”.

But are you saying “uppity” isn't a racist code word?

I think Obama gave a classy response:

“The Obama campaign, asked about the quote, did not note any racial context.

“Sounds like Rep. Westmoreland should be careful throwing stones from his candidate's eight glass houses,” said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor.”

(from the same source David cites)