Ralph Nader Calls Obama Uncle Tom after Historic Win

Poor stupid, irrelevant Ralph Nader. He just can't stop himself from exposing his ugly racist insides. One slip-up or foot-in-mouth episode might be forgiveable. But this is the second time in this year that Nader has gone on the national media and made very obvious racist statements about Obama. Back in June, Nader said that Obama was "acting white" apparently for not running around asking how he could help the poor whites of Appalachia. Now following a historic occasion when Obama became the first African-American to win the Presidency of the U.S., Nader wondered on Fox News whether Obama would be an Uncle Sam or an Uncle Tom. Here's a news flash, when even Fox News talking heads shake their head at you then you've done a really bad thing. But Ralph didn't take the chance to correct himself. He persisted in his foolishness.

Tom Molloy of TV Guide sets the scene best for us:

Dubious congratulations are in order: Ralph Nader became the first public figure to make an inflammatory public remark about our first African-American president, telling a Fox News affiliate that Barack Obama has to choose between being “Uncle Sam for the people of this country, or Uncle Tom for the giant corporations.”

Grilled by Fox’s Shepard Smith early Wednesday morning, after the election was decided, Nader declined to back down from the remark, which he made in an earlier interview on Election Day.

“Really,” Smith said after playing a clip of Nader’s remarks. “Ralph Nader, what was that?”

Nader continued to press his point - Obama is too beholden to corporate interests - without acknowledging that many find the term Uncle Tom offensive. (Taken from Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the 1852 anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, the term is used to accuse a black person of behaving subserviently.)

Smith soon cut Nader off: “You had a number of supporters out there, you were running a percentage, this year you were reduced to irrelevant and I just wonder if that’s what you want your legacy to be: the man who on the night that the first African-American president in the history of this nation was elected, you ask if he’s going to be Uncle Sam or Uncle Tom. Stunning.”

Nader’s answer: “Yeah, of course, he’s turned his back on a 100 million poor people in this country, African-Americans and Latinos and poor whites. And we’re gonna hold him to a higher standard.”

Later in the interview, Nader told Smith: “Look, I don’t like bullies like you. I can’t see you. You can pull the plug on me, I’m looking in a dark camera.”

Nader later used the word “toady” the same way he had previously used the phrase “Uncle Tom,” but said he had no regrets about the latter phrase.

Nader, a consumer advocate, has run in every election since 1996 but had a significant impact only in the 2000 race, in which many Democrats blame him for siphoning off enough votes from Al Gore in Florida to allow George Bush to win the election.

Shame on you, and [you can] go to hell, Ralph. You were once an internationally respected advocate for consumer rights and a trumpet against the excesses of corporate greed and big business manipulation of government. Since 2000, when you helped usher in the wretched Bush II era by drawing away Florida voters from Al Gore, though you haven't really been relevant in national elections. Even Democrats don't care enough to talk about you any more--especially not after earning a whopping 1% of the 2008 national vote (513,000 out of 133 million votes cast).

Ralph Nader: Barack Obama wants to 'talk white', 6/25/08


Ralph Nader calls Obama an "Uncle Tom" on Fox News, 11/5/08

Early Voting with the Family

Saturday afternoon, Shirre and I took the girls with us to the Larry R. Jackson Library in North Lakeland to early vote. It took over 1.5 hours as we arrived at 4:50pm and walked out at 6:36pm. The wait was well worth it as we were more than glad to stand in line to vote fore Change & Hope. Needless to say we happily voted for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

When we finally got inside the library, we continued in a line which snaked further into the library voting area. Upon arriving at the voting room, we had the girls sit quietly outside the room while Shirre and I stood in shorter lines at 2 of the 4 voting check-in tables all staffed by women poll workers. We presented our driver's licenses and voting IDs, then scanned the licenses into a card reader which confirmed our correct address and voting precinct. The lady who waited on me apologized for the long wait. I told her that in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a big deal for me to wait to excercise my Constitutional rights. I have been waiting for 8 years and voted for Al Gore and John Kerry in the last two elections. The poll workers then demonstrated how to fill out the voting forms which reminded me of the scantrons on which we had to bubble in answers for exams at University of South Florida. We then marched into separate booths to do the deed.

I didn't realize that there are so many candidates for President & Vice President of the U.S.! Though I already knew who I was voting for (Obama-Biden, duh!) I perused the other choices and recognized the dreadful Maverick ticket (McCain/Palin), Bob Barr/Wayne Allyn Root (Libertarian Party), Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente (Green Party), Ralph Nader/Matt Gonzalez (Independent-Ecology Party), and Alan Keyes/Brian Rohrbough (Independent). The first weekend of October, Shirre and I signed an early vote pledge for the Obama Campaign for Change, though we certainly would have voted early pledge or no. When it came to the Florida Constitutional Amendments it took me a while to read through each one at least twice to make sure I understood the spirit of each amendment before voting yes or no. I'm proud to say I voted "Yes" on #2, Florida Marriage Protection Amendment which "protects marriage as the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife". I also voted "Yes" on an Amendment #8, Local Option Community Funding which will "levy a local option sales tax to supplement community college funding"--having been a product of the community college system--and "Yes" to an amendment which provides a tax-free first year for new business owners. My wife will be starting a teen mother's home in the near future, so the latter amendment seemed like a no-brainer to me. America's lifeblood comes from it's small businesses with nearly 60% of Americans working for small businesses and those businesses creating 90% of new jobs, and according to the Small Business Administration, 66% of new businesses fail in the first two years. So certainly I think that lowering barriers to their initial success is one of the keys to their continuing sustainability especially in tough economic times.

For the complete picture album of our early voting adventures go to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41395&l=d2c95&id=512157070