He may be the world's foremost mixed-race leader, but when it came to the official government head count, President Barack Obama gave only one answer to the question about his ethnic background: African-American.
The White House confirmed on Friday that Obama did not check multiple boxes on his U.S. Census form, or choose the option that allows him to elaborate on his racial heritage. He ticked the box that says "Black, African Am., or Negro."
To White America (I'm looking at you, Rush Limbaugh), this is a revelation. For the African-American Community, it's Saturday.
In this week of Easter, Passover, and faithful celebration, the President uses his address to offer his holiday greeting and to call on people of all faiths and nonbelievers to remember our shared spirit of humanity.
I am still amazed, sometimes, at how short my fellow Liberals memories can be.
A lot of them are decrying, howling in protest, and just plain ol' pissed off with President Obama's decision to allow some Offshore Drilling for Oil. (Not everyone got it wrong, though). My fellow Liberals are claiming that this was a betrayal of a promise he made on the campaign trail.
Except for the part where...you know...it wasn't.
Below is the video from a speech that Senator Barack Obama gave on August 4, 2008, on Energy in Lansing, Michigan.
The money part is about 11:54 into the video.
But to be complete, I have the relevant portion of the text right here. Please tell me where this statement diverges from what was said on Wednesday:
Last week, Washington finally made some progress on [make a serious, nationwide commitment to developing new sources of energy]. A group of Democrat and Republican Senators sat down and came up with a compromise on energy that includes many of the proposals I've worked on as a Senator and many of the steps I've been calling for on this campaign. It's a plan that would invest in renewable fuels and batteries for fuel-efficient cars, help automakers re-tool, and make a real investment in renewable sources of energy.
Like all compromises, this one has its drawbacks. It includes a limited amount of new offshore drilling, and while I still don't believe that's a particularly meaningful short-term or long-term solution, I am willing to consider it if it's necessary to actually pass a comprehensive plan. I am not interested in making the perfect the enemy of the good -- particularly since there is so much good in this compromise that would actually reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
I don't want to sit here and say I'm not a little disappointed by what happened, but I knew there was a reason this wasn't a kick in gut. This wasn't a freakin' surprise. Pretending otherwise is just getting sad.
This is a mixed bag. This is something he clearly decried during the campaign in 2008, saying (rightly) that expanding offshore drilling won't do anything to help with falling gas prices. With Gas Prices set to spike again this summer, this move will do nothing to address that.
At the same time, with Gas Prices set to spike again this summer, the President just undercut the principal GOP talking point going into the Midterms.
