Today's show had plenty of highlights. Perhaps tops among them was Melissa's open letter to Washington Post George Will, whose October 1 column posited that President Obama's good fortune in the polls to this point was due less to white guilt over giving up on America's first black president. I have another take on this of my own which I may offer later, but I doubt I'll do better than the response Melissa offered today.
She offered another explanation, other than melanin, for the President's poll advantage:
It could it be that Democrats have effectively linked Romney with candidates, elected officials, and policies that represent the extreme anti-reproductive rights initiatives in the Republican party. That big gender gap could be because of transvaginal [Virginia Governor Bob] McDonnell, "legitimate rape" [Missouri Congressman and Senate candidate Todd] Akin, and no-pills [former presidential candidate Rick] Santorum.
Could be, right? Check out the entire segment below; those who are unable to play the video can find a transcript after the jump.
Melissa Harris-Perry reads her open letter to Washington Post columnist George Will over his column from Monday that argued against a second term for President Obama.
Every now and then, I like to push back from the big panel and give some people individualized attention. And sometimes the best way to make your point is with a personalized touch, like a letter. So George Will, this one's for you.
Dear George. It's me ... Melissa.
On Monday, your column made a case for rejecting President Barack Obama's re-election bid. It was based on our tough economic realities and questioned whether Mitt Romney could turn this contest around.
Now, let's be clear, I disagree with your assessment of the Obama administration, but the first part of your argument in reasonable. It is based in empirical realities. You convincingly demonstrate that Americans have had a tough time fiscally in the past four years. I might disagree with you about the causal relationships between the economic factors you cite and the Obama administration but I don't argue with your data.
Which means I hope you won't quibble with the new data released yesterday showing unemployment fell to 7 point 8 percent, and also offering upward revisions of job growth, and an additional 114 thousand jobs created last month. But after a reasonable start you went off the rails a bit by writing this,
"Obama's administration is in shambles, yet he is prospering politically. This may not, however, entirely be evidence of the irrationality of the electorate. Something more benign may be at work."
Interesting word choice, benign. Because what you really mean is something sinister. You suspect something is amiss when, even after the President's meager performance in Wednesday's debate ... he still enjoys a 46 percent to 44 percent lead over challenger Mitt Romney.
See, George, I don't think it's all that paradoxical. It could it be that Democrats have effectively linked Romney with candidates, elected officials, and policies that represent the extreme anti-reproductive rights initiatives in the Republican party. That big gender gap could be because of transvaginal McDonnell, "Legitimate Rape " [Todd] Akin, and no-pills [Rick] Santorum.
Or George, perhaps it's that Mr. Romney chose a running mate who advocated transforming Medicare into a voucher system. That just might have caused some reliably conservative seniors to reconsider their willingness to support the president.
And George - it could be that until Wednesday night Mitt Romney had run a breathtakingly uninspiring campaign pockmarked with gaffes, inconsistencies, and evasion.
No, George, you took none of this into account. Instead you wrote the President's lead is solid because- and I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this- it's because the president is *black.* You say:
"... the nation, which is generally reluctant to declare a president a failure - thereby admitting that it made a mistake in choosing him - seems reluctant to give up on the first African American president."
Right, George -- because we all know that black men hold an unfair advantage in the labor market. You can see evidence of it all around you!
After decades of racial good will shown to black workers as a result of the unfairly imposed guilt trip by radical race-card playing media types like me, black workers now have an unemployment rate of 13 point 4 percent.
Yeah, racial guilt. That's it.
Whew, well, I hereby give you permission to set down the white man's burden. If you don't want to vote for the president ... don't. Plenty of other voters seems to have found actual reasons to support him.
Sincerely,
Melissa
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Thank you Melissa Harris-Perry. Brilliant.
This takes me back to Romneys' secret tape and his comment wishing he was Hispanic.
What does that say? It says that he thinks he could get the Hispanic vote if HE HAD BROWN SKIN. I was furious when I heard that and the accompanying laughter, but everyone honed in on his 47% comment and never mentioned the one I found just as offensive if not more so.
I am so sick of the Republican Party and there plain and simple racism.
Thank you for this open letter.
So well said...nothing more need be added.
What an embarressment to the country these republicans have become. Shame on them.
Thank you Melissa. The only thing I would add is that lyin ryan and akin co wrote several bills to present to the US congress " redefining" rape and " legitimate" rape and " forcible" rape. YEP THAT PAUL RYAN Let's NOT forget this war on women and women's health rights. I have not. I fought this battle 40 years ago. I am not going to allow this rethug party to STEAL this election and revert back to the ignorance of women's rights 40 years ago. My daughter and her 30 something friends stand on the shoulders of my sister and I, breaking through glass ceilings. No rethug congressman is going to tell her what she can and can not do with her health. Ladies, this is a real threat. Research and believe these men are out to change laws affecting you, your daughters and your granddaughters, and therefore your sons and grandsons. As an aside, my father in law, a physician in NY, refused to write prescriptions for birth control pills to unmarried women in the early to mid 70s. ( he was catholic). My friends could not get their tubes tied without the signature ( approval) of their husbands. My sister and I could not get auto loans in the mid to late 70s without being co-signed by a male. We found banks that would loan but it took several tries. I am NOT going back!
Ladies there IS a war on women being conducted by the rethuglicans. Believe it!
I love Melissa and watch her every weekend and when she guests on other MSNBC shows. I support my president and stand by him. One thing I would never want to do with him is play cards, he has a great poker face and I think many missed that point on Wednesday night. I believe that he was just giving Mitt enough rope to hang himself and I also believe that is what he did with more lies. If President Obama's blackness bothers some voters, please remember that he is, after all, half white and maybe they can vote him in for another 4 years.
Thank you, Melissa. As usual, brilliant and factual. George Will needs to be "corrected" every so often, and this time it was by you! Thanks!
MHPShow is now a regular 'tune-in' for me on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I've watched MHP ever since I first saw her on Olberman's "Countdown" on MSNBC some time back. Beautiful, Intelligent and Poised; MSNBC has got themselves a fantastic host.
FWIW
The biggest flaw in Will's reasoning is the absent of that same good will being extended to other black men or the larger black populace as a whole. Why stopping at Obama? If indeed so many whites in this country were afflicted with this politically paralyzing white guilt, why hasn't it manifested itself in the banking sectors, employment data, housing sector etc? Why isn't the wealth gap shrinking? At the very least his reasoning rests on inconsistent data, hence lacking any modicum of cogency. But of course we all know that George Will is simply a racially insecure clown who is too obsessed with the black race for all the wrong reasons to see race matters objectively.
Republicans now have no other course of action, except the race card. Racism and bigotry has been driving principles of republicanism since the beginning of time. They say they are the party of Lincoln. But they forget that Lincoln fought a war to set men free. This not white guilt. It is superiority. Reduce blacks and other people of color and women to secondary class status and take control. Call it what it is....racism.
E-mail I sent to Mr. Wills - I stole an idea and some verbage from one of Ms. Perry's guests.
Interesting article "Can Romney turn this contest around?" Freedom of speech is wonderful it allows you to put forth your opinion and allows me to disagree. You consider President Obama a failure and I do not. You do not think the Republican Congress has been obstructionists and I do. You consider Romney/Ryan as truthful qualified candidates and I consider them to be Liars who lack character, integrity and honor. I believe them to be self serving and are only interested in promoting their own careers and will not work in the best interest of our Country and the American people.
Your statement: "Perhaps a pleasant paradox defines this political season: That Obama is African American may be important, but in a way quite unlike that darkly suggested by, for example, MSNBC’s excitable boys and girls who, with their (at most) one-track minds and exquisitely sensitive olfactory receptors, sniff racism in any criticism of their pin-up. Instead, the nation, which is generally reluctant to declare a president a failure — thereby admitting that it made a mistake in choosing him — seems especially reluctant to give up on the first African American president. If so, the 2012 election speaks well of the nation’s heart, if not its
head." Could the same not be sad about the excitable boys and girls at Fox News and opinion writers such as yourself about not being able to admit that your party made a mistake in choosing Romney/Ryan -- and that you want to be the party with the first Mormon President and a Vice President who worships an
Atheist?
I came away from your article that you feel we are voting for President Obama because he is black. My
question is, do you have a ledger that shows how many people are voting for Romney because he is NOT black. Now that is a ledger sheet I would like to see.
Excellent!
You are really blind! Racism starts with the black people and ends with the black people. Your problem is not with white people. You are not slaves now! No one is superior to another. If you would stop feeling sorry for yourselves and constantly crying that your are so persecuted, you would be a lot better off. Your own black "leaders" if that is what you want to call them, like Jessie Jackson and big mouth Al Sharpton, just to mention one or two, have held you down for years in order to push their own monetary gain and I am shocked that you cannot see that. Even Obama is holding you guys back, and it is so obvious. Obama wants to push his agenda and that agenda is NOT one that will help blacks. What has he done for you? He has used you!! We are NOT better off with this moronic President and another four years will be a tragedy. Wake up or pay the price and stop blaming Republicans...it's the democrats and Obama that are the scary morons.
Yeah, so I am guessing you are voting for the "elitist" who feels he should be president because it is "his turn" and who feels "you people" don't need to know about his shady past.
Given his retroactive retirement contract, his retroactive income tax filings...I'm guessing integrity isn't high on your list of required traits for president.
Melissa, excellent and brilliantly said! Shame on George Will for such obvious and continuous racism.
The POTUS IS BLACK !!!!!!!! I thought he was half white. Someone should remind George Wallace Will of that fact also, but Melissa should continue to call out bigotry and self proclaimed spokespersons for the human race and other whites when they constanstly take their hoods off when the preach to the national audience.
I am another proud white POTUS supporter who is a veteran and in his 60's and Will is just a typical elitist looking to tell us what we are doing wrong. Reminds me of the those politicians who never served nor did their children. Keep it under your HOOD. We KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND YOU WILL BE WRONG AGAIN.
George Will is an"old" staunch Conservative with racial disdain for the President. What is sinister is their open hatred and defamation of character against the President. The planned methods of trying to assure the President fails has become the President's strengths. The strategy of using your "enemies" strengths against them have worked in reverse in the President's favor. That's the real issues why the GOP are outraged and livid is inspite of the "maniacal, deviant" schemes the President Is still doing an excellent job. They can continue to rotate on ignorance and hatred it just reveals "Who" he and they really are. What you believe in your heart comes out of your Mouth. Remember the 47% it wasn't a mistake it was realistically spoken by Mitt on how "Truly" HE felt about Middle Class Americans. Kudos Melissa! Obama 2012!
Right on, Melissa! You bring me to tears with your emotional and intellectual honesty! Thank you!!
I would love to know how Romney goes to church on Sundays. With all the lies I would think his religion would frown on that. And I bet his father would be ashamed of him. And what a great learning moment for his grandkids. Winning at any cost.
Thank you, Melissa. You bring me to tears with your emotional and intellectual HONESTY. Rings so true it cannot be denied.
Melissa, you have given Mr. Will something he has not had in a long time, I think- a good spanking! The very fact that we have an African American as the most powerful man on the planet has always made republicans heads spin 360 degrees, every moment of every day, and in spite of the obstruction, the blockage, the fillerbustering, voter suppression, the tea party, and do nothing republican controlled congress- President Obama has had SUCCESS AFTER SUCCESS! It is his SUCCESS that they can't take, in spite of everything they have done to try and make his presidency a failure. Regardless of what has been put in the presidents' way- he has made it work out, and the american people see that, respect that, and respond to that. THAT is why the american people love him, and want to see him continue for another term. If he were not the man he is- nothing would keep the public from voting him out. The public knows what and who they want- and I don't think his name is Romney. Ms. Melissa, you can spank old Will George anytime he opens his mouth and garbage comes out, and you have my delighted permission to do so.
Romney is losing and what else does Mr. Will have to turn to but race. it is crude, but what the hell, Mr. Will believes that white people will pay attention to him and heed his warning. After all Mr. Romney gave the president a walloping, Mr. Will and the republicans cannot believe that more people did not turn away from the president. He seems to have forgotten how many lies Mr. Romney told, these people really do not think much of Americans. This country is so outrageous, hopefully Mr. Will will realize that there need to be a discussion on race in this country and use his column towards that end instead of showing us what a racists he is.
Well said and on point! Nothing to add! Thank you, Melissa
TEA Partiers don't care about the Truth.
They simply want to see Obama fall.
Don't care about his birthplace or his youth;
They hate the fact that he exists at all.
They think the poor are filthy, lazy blighters
Who don't deserve to live upon the dole,
And unions - teachers, cops and firefighters -
Have picking rich men's pockets as their goal.
Their propaganda machine, known as FOX,
Thrives on the fuel of lies and innuendo.
They'd love to open up Pandora's Box,
And watch the world collapse in cruel crescendo.
The Golden Rule they live by is for fools.
"Whoever has the Gold, he makes the Rules."
You have to believe in your President,
Believe he has your best interests at heart,
Believe he's aware where the economy went,
Believe he would give you a good start.
Barack makes you feel he can give you hope,
He can help to better your station in life.
He would offer a drowning man a rope,
He would rid the world of fear and strife.
Mitt Romney puts forth a false face as friend,
Yet you feel if you'd turn, he'd plunge the knife,
He does not care for the people he'd 'defend',
Only the rich and church where he yields his tithe.
Mitt's a liar, thief, scoundrel, bottomfeeder...
He hasn't the Hope to be our nation's Leader.
Thank you Melissa,
The greatest thing that has happened to America is the new, although few, progressive media. Before Air America now gone, there were very few progressive media outlets to point out the lies and intentional misrepresentation of the Democratic Party by the conservative news media, print as well as radio and television. Now with MSNBA, CURRENT, Media Matters these Republican lies are being exposed. This is what the Republicans hate most of all. They are now getting their lies and misinformation exposed and they are not accustomed to this. This is why they are panicking. Keep up the good work. Also, Nielson is rating FOX as the number one cable station watched for political commentary however I talk to many, many Republicans in Glendora, Arcadia and San Dimas California and they are all watching and talking about the Rachael Maddow and Ed Schultz Shows although they disagree with them, therefore can Nielson be trusted? Hummmm
Melissa, You always look soooo fresh! Tell the campaign ad people to put the one where the flip-flopper is in the wall street photo with other guys and he has money all over his body. People need to see this photo again. your friend sylvia flores in Texas!
Melissa, I admire you as a smart, beautiful black woman. Please keep up the good work and it is people like you that are going to end racism. I grew up in Kenya in the colonial times and left as a 15 year old. When I returned 20 years later I saw the country in a different light being run by smart and elegantly presented black men and women. I was amazed and there are also many smart and beautiful black men and women in America. I want to see the day in America when every person in the US is treated as a human being worthy of being called our brother or sister and we behave in a civil manner with each other meeting each others needs in education, healthcare, and yes I want to see every person having a shelter and food. Mr. Obama's election has been a phenomenal change in this country but it is people like you that carry the heavy burden of educating the bigots in this country. I am so glad that the younger generation in this country is different and the future is brighter for all of us. Keep up the good work and I love what you and others at MSNBC are doing.