(AP Photo/Adam Harnik)

‘Plenty of Blacks capable of their own thoughts found [Obama’s] remarks to be belittling and obnoxious. Former football great &  U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker called it a step backward.’

OPINION, by Bob Hoge for | RedState.com

It reminded me of Joe’s infamous line, if you don’t vote for me, then “you ain’t black.” Obama:

And you’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses, I’ve got a problem with that.

Because part of it makes me think — and I’m speaking to men directly — part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that…

That’s not acceptable. 

He sounds like a mob boss.

Just disgusting, divisive rhetoric from the man who said in his first acceptance speech, “We have never been a collection of red states and blue states; we are, and always will be, the United States of America.”

Unless you disagree with him, of course.

Do it my way or hit the highway:

I’ve always hated the left’s use of the word “community.” The “black community,” the “LGBTQ community.” As if, just because people have one thing in common, they all have the same viewpoints on everything. Is there a “white community?” A “heterosexual community?”

Sure enough, it turns out that plenty of blacks were capable of their own thoughts and found the former president’s remarks to be belittling and deeply obnoxious. Former football great and one-time Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker was less than impressed, calling it a step backward:

We need unity brother, not division!

Well said.

Meanwhile, as a RedState man, I’m obviously not a Bernie Sanders fan, but his former campaign co-chair and former Democratic Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner nevertheless had it right when she asked, “Why are Black men being belittled?”

She absolutely nukes Obama’s race-baiting narrative and stuns the CNN hosts in the process:

“Now, a lot of love for former President Obama, but for him to single out Black men is wrong, and some of the Black men that I have talked to have their reasons why they want to vote a different way, and even if some of us may not like that, we have to respect it,” she said.

Turner explained further, “So unless President Barack Obama is gonna go out and lecture every other group of men from other identity groups, my message for Democrats is don’t bring it here to Black men who, by and large, don’t vote much differently from Black women.”

The reactions from the CNN crew are some of the most priceless I’ve ever seen. Truth is being spoken to them, and they absolutely cannot handle it.These are just two examples, but there are plenty more out there of people who were deeply insulted by being told they had to vote a certain way just because of their skin color. (As of this writing, a search on the social media platform X for “Obama” turns up an untold number—but an unquestionably large number —of black people angrily teeing off on “hopey-changey” Barack’s comments.)

Obama has been one of the smoothest politicians in the land since his meteoric rise from obscurity in the mid-2000s, but there was always a darker presence lurking underneath his big Hollywood grin.

He showed it loud and clear with this belittling speech, and he lost a lot of his luster in the process.

Kamala Harris is 100 percent correct: we need “a new way forward,” but that way should not include race-baiting, the failures of Obama-style progressivism, or the constant attempts by leading Democrats to divide the nation. ##

Bob Hoge—pronounced Hoge like rogue—is a RedState front page contributor and Editor and proud father of four. He is shown sporting his COVID beard, which his wife has since forced him to shave. Follow him on Twitter @Bob_Hoge_CA.