Crazy Haters Should be Treated Like Crazy Haters

As @Verucablue on Twitter said, Obama is the PRESIDENT, not the leader of Heaven's Gate. Jim Greer is an arse. No question about it. Any adult in power should not be talking about our president as if he's a cult leader or the leader of a socialist country.

Anderson Cooper doesn't realize it, but wingnuts aren't just opposing Obama's education speech.

They perceive the "indoctrination" as PART of Obama's larger socialist plot. They have it all mapped out. They've been talking about this for at least two years now on fringe sites. Every move Obama makes is an indoctrination of sorts. I've concluded that these wingnuts are simply racist.

Obama's presidency has triggered a kind hate and idiocy that I've never seen before. The racism in this country is both overt and subtle. These wingnuts in power could never be overtly racist, so they deem Obama a cult leader. It's wingnut code. On the fringe sites, where people are anonymous, they don't hold back on the overt racism. They say exactly what they mean.

This is what they believe: Obama is a black radical leader, who's going to destroy "white culture," take away guns, indocrinate the youth into socialism and put all the black people in power. Deep down, that's what these people are afraid of--black people in power. Obama's presidency is a signal to them that the world is changing and they don't like it one bit.

What really offends me is the media validation of these people, treating people like Jim Greer as if he isn't a nutjob. He's a crazy hater. Treat him like one. Don't make it seem like any point he has to make is legitimate. We live in a country with 300 million people and you'd think that lunatics rule the country. Their voices are heard above everyone else's.

Obama's Interview With Anderson Cooper July 13

Anderson lets Obama skate through the second stimulus question, but Obama has already said he wants to let the first one work. I think the republicans would break out in hives have a collective cow if there was another stimulus.

On don't ask don't tell, Obama says it's not appropriate for the executive branch to simply not enforce a law. But we can change how the laws are being enforced (see this video), he said. He would like to see the law changed sooner rather than later. Obama's a law stickler.

There is a 15 second ad and then the interview and Obama dances:

City With Notorious Racist Past Elects First Black Mayor

James Young won only by 46 votes and is now Mayor of Philadelphia, Mississippi, the inspiration for Mississippi Burning. The town has a 55% white population. Young is overcome with emotions:

Contrast with the former mayor, KKK defender, interviewed in 2005 by Anderson Cooper. Hopefully, he's out of power and fishing or resting.

Ed Henry Explains His AIG Question

Huh? This guy's ego is obviously large enough to think that anyone really cares about his behind the scenes thinking strategy. It was a nice shut down by Obama. End of story. But this guy felt the need to explain:

CNN: The pressure was on now because the president had called on me. Someone handed me a microphone, millions were watching, and it's scary to think about changing topic in a split second because you might get flustered and screw up.

But it's fun to gamble and like any good quarterback (though I was never athletic enough to actually play the position), I decided to call an audible.

So I went hard on the AIG question, and took Wolf's advice and followed on a couple of colleagues who got pushback from the president when they asked about how his budget numbers do not seem to add up.

The president, like any good politician, decided to pick and choose what to answer. So he swatted away the budget question and ignored the AIG stuff.

So I waited patiently and then decided to pounce with a sharp follow-up. From just a few feet away, I could see in his body language that the normally calm and cool president was perturbed.

But it's in moments like that we sometimes find out what's really on a president's mind. In this case, he's not happy about the scrutiny on AIG. So he did slap me down a bit.

Anderson Cooper said later half-jokingly that yours truly was "nursing his wounds."

Even more comical to me was the flood of e-mail I got from Democratic and Republican sources.

Invariably, my Democratic friends tweaked along the lines of "how'd you like the smackdown" because they were pleased the president pushed back.

But my Republican friends hailed me by saying essentially, "Thanks for doing your job -- he never answered the question."

Ed Henry's ego is bruised, says Obama had a "flash of anger." Hardly. Irritation would better characterize the moment: