Yep- her and Bill Cosby.

Sounds like a bunch of Lutherans to me.

Tom: Sounds like a bunch of Lutherans to me.

More like Mormons. Utah has the highest per capita Jell-O consumption of any state, and the best selling flavor is lime.

Kevin,

You should be blogging for the Corner.

Kevin wrote: "Ah, the healing balm of Jell-O. It really does bring us all together."

Except us vegans.

Ah, a little corny. Political campaigns think they gotta pour on the schlock to get the plebes interested. So, whatever.

Kevin, Obama left out the most important fact, and for good reason. It was Islamofascist Jello. You liberal bloggers, you're all the same.

Fat White Guy can't spell racist. I love it!

Cue the wingnuts to complain that Obama is throwing Grandma under the bus. Like they give a crap about the lady.

... threw under the bus ...

Is there a single original thought anywhere in your head? Or is it all stimulus-response knee-jerk RNC talking points?

Obama had better stop telling quaint little stories and start fighting or he's going to wind up like Dukakis, Gore and Kerry.

There goes the Plankton Vote.

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction; I can see Fat Ass beat me to the punch. Thanks for proving my point, assmunch.

Fat White Guy: Is this the same grandmother BHO threw under the bus for being a racisct.

Orwell: Obama just called his grandmother a racist again. Seriously, is this the best the Dems got?

Seriously, is this the only kind of stuff that you guys can bring to the table?

Do you even know the policy positions of your man McCain?

There's something odd about that story.

He doesn't mention what TYPE of jello.

Seriously, is this the only kind of stuff that you guys can bring to the table?

Not only are bogus criticisms of Obama all they have, but this one is especially bogus. You have to be astonishingly simpleminded to come up with that interpretation of what Obama has actually said about his grandmother. And you have to be even more astonishingly simpleminded to not even come up with this interpretation yourself, but have your simplemindedness spoon-fed to you by right-wing "pundits", so you even parrot the identical phraseology they do.

Seriously. Flatworm territory.

Obama had better stop telling quaint little stories and start fighting or he's going to wind up like Dukakis, Gore and Kerry.

Obama just called his grandmother a racist again.

Dudes, read the whole post. The quote is from 1995. You know, like, 13 years ago.

The Obama Grandma "threw under the bus" response - I bet there is a researcher somewhere teaching an amoeba to do that.

I bet there is a researcher somewhere teaching an amoeba to do that.

There are actually dozens of researchers, and millions of amoebae, unfortunately.

Mmmmmmmm ... succotash!
.

JM wrote: "Do you even know the policy positions of your man McCain?"

Weak-minded, ignorant, neo-brownshirt bootlicking mental slaves of the right-wing extremist propaganda machine don't need to know McCain's policy positions. All they need to know is the scripted talking points that they are supposed to regurgitate verbatim like the obedient little dittoheads they are.

And frankly, the ones who post comments here are the weakest-minded of the weak-minded, so they are regurgitating the "talking points for dummies" version.

There will be a steady stream of their drivel from now through election day.

Seriously, Kevin, is being offered up as a political punchline the best Barack Obama's grandmother can expect from his friends in the blogosphere? Why must you shamelessly perpetuate in your post her unfortunate caricature as "your typical white woman"?

This is without a doubt a special person who selflessly sheltered, nurtured and raised her grandson during his tumultuous adolescence and high school years. Further, by most all accounts, I'd say that she did a damn fine job of it. So surely, she deserves something better from all of us, like perhaps our gratitude.

I hate to announce this, but apparently this same anecdote was recounted in "Gulag Archipelago." When was the first time Obama told his Jello story?

Out & About,

I have to disagree. This is about much more than being a punchline, or a caricature. For a white woman of Obama's grandmother's generation, to be able to walk into a room where she's almost the only white person and overcome her discomfort by discovering what they have in common puts her way ahead of "typical." It only serves to reinforce your (correct, IMO) perception of her as special.

Out and About: It's Sully, for heaven's sake. This is what he does. And quoting his every third utterance is, inexplicably, what Kevin does.

My husband and I live in a community where we are in the 24% ethnic minority. I don't see anything frivolous about such an anecdote. You try to find connections and bridges in any way you can, in whatever way presents itself in a given situation.

she's feeling a little nervous and a little out of place

That must be how most Blacks must feel when they go anywhere.

OMG, fried chicken - oh jeebus, why not some watermelon too. Obama sometimes just gets plain out stupid.

Obama better shape up pretty quite are Hillary will get the nomination at Obama's convention.

Mrojo: That must be how most Blacks must feel when they go anywhere.
Exactly!

Me_again: OMG, fried chicken
What exactly is wrong with fried chicken? Yes, a lot of African-Americans like fried chicken. So do a a great number of European-Americans. And some Asian-Americans of my acquaintance don't dislike it, either.

Forget the jello and the fried chicken....it's all about the succotash.

Yeah, what Thersites said. I'm a European American who loves me some fried chicken. And sliced tomatoes in the summer, with potato salad (without unidentifiable green bits in it), corn muffins dripping with butter, and peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream for dessert. With sweet iced tea. Even watermelon if it just came out of a local field and wasn't shipped unripe from some godforsaken "farm" in California, and has seeds that you can used to teach your little nieces and nephews to spit across the yard. You can keep the succotash though. Damn, now I am hungry.

"Ah, the healing balm of Jell-Oâ„¢. It really does bring us all together."

Seems like a rather shaky relationship to me.

You try to find connections and bridges in any way you can, in whatever way presents itself in a given situation.
Posted by: Varecia

several years ago, i spent some time in cambodia and on a visit home told about the various delicacies available; one being a kind of breaded and fried chicken head. my sisters and various nieces/nephews 'ewwwwed' as expected, whereas my grandmother who lived thru the depression commented when you're poor and hungry you don't waste anything.

Heh. So long Bo-bama. Sinking in the polls like an anvil in the water.

Should have nominated Hillary.

"Ah, the healing balm of Jell-Oâ„¢. It really does bring us all together."

Seems like a rather shaky relationship to me.

This made me laugh out loud!

Ah, the healing balm of Jell-Oâ„¢. It really does bring us all together.

To heck with the Jell-O. Good old home made fried chicken, now there's a healing balm. Simple, easy, but a mess to clean up after. (But hey, ain't that the American Way?) I've lugged around my cast iron for too long... but on those rare occasions I indulge, I remember why I do it.

Some of you people are pretty cynical. It's a sweet story, get over it.

As the proprietor of the blog that Kevin has linked to, it's a bit dispiriting to read some of these comments. I agree that this is a sweet anecdote, yet every third person seems to think we are once again throwing this wonderful women "under the bus". Give me a break.

Anyone who has dated someone of the opposite race knows how uneasy it can be going to your first family gathering. Unless you've always surrounded yourself with an integrated group of friends, it's a bit weird being the "other". My last girlfriend was Nigerian, and meeting her family was a bit awkward until I started talking with her mother about the weather. Yeah, it's dumb, it's just the weather, but little things like that help break the barriers and fears we've sometimes absorbed.

Oh, and those of you who think this is a new statement by Obama need to learn to read. This is from 1995, thirteen years ago.

This is pure projection on Obama's part, since he cannot know what he grandmother thought or felt in that situation, unless she told him.

Obama's grandmother not only raised him but also his mother, a woman who was so fascinated with other cultures and people that she married into two of them and spent her life as an anthropologist (a person who studies other cultures). Anthropologists are socially adventurous.

Obama, is far from socially adventurous. He spent his life running from difference and at the first opportunity sought out people the same color as he is, via his search for his father and his search for his "identity" as an African American man. Chicago is more color segregated than many cities and he moved there on purpose, quickly acquired a family and church as similar to him in appearance as possible, and learned to be black in order to be more comfortable in his own skin. All this is by his own admission in his bio.

Clearly, it is Obama who feels uncomfortable in a room where he is the only one different in color. If trivialities like Jello could make someone feel the same, he would never have embarked on his journey to find his father but would have embraced the multiculturalism offered to him in his childhood. He attributes this story and the feelings to his grandmother but they are clearly about himself. And that's pretty sad.

Existenz - You actually expects those guys to READ?

Hell, they can't even think. You're way out of line here.

Jello is right. Experience? Nope. Accomplishments? Nope. Positions on issues? Nope. Actual plans to address problems? Nope. Pretty to look at, sweet, but with no specific flavor, not filling, zero nutritional value. Jello. Yup. I'd say that's a pretty good analogy for Obama, Kevin.

BTW, Kevin, congratulations on finally dropping all presense of being a moderate. I suspect your move to Mother Jones will be liberating, in that you will no longer have to pretend to actually approach issues with an open mind, let alone a moderate view. And since most Mother Jones readers only go to that site to read the ads for grow lights and hydroponic weed farming advice, it will matter very little what you actually post. Brilliant!!

BTW, Kevin, did you tell all those Mother Jones stoners that you were one of the biggest cheerleaders IN FAVOR of invading Iraq? You couldn't have. They would have choked on their bong water. Do you get a discount on patchouli oil and hemp products for working there at least?

Cabbage: Obama, is far from socially adventurous. ...Clearly, it is Obama who feels uncomfortable in a room where he is the only one different in color.

Project much? Or are you simply assuming because you "cannot know" unless you were "told" that "clearly, it is Obama who feels uncomfortable". You are more than "pretty sad"; you are gutter trash.

Moderates are political illiterates. They should be educated, not have their ignorance and prejudices catered to.

Being black myself, I can assure you, this quaint little yarn is more made-up rhetorical nonsense. Exactly what culture is she supposed to be sharing? Eating? What's the point of this story, let alone the logic in Drum reposting it 13 years later? The only people that fall for all this "Dreams of my Father" claptrap are silly white people too moonie over the articulate negro and too afraid to ask for, you know, specifics on issues from a guy who is running for PRESIDENT instead of this constant jocking of his personal story. You're healing the racial wounds. We get it. Now how about some freaking positions on ISSUES?

Now, I know I've been hanging around left wing web sites too much but an Obama debacle ?

Wow !

Pat: Being black myself, I can assure you, this quaint little yarn is more made-up rhetorical nonsense.

Bullshit. You can assure no such thing. Having been a minority in many parts of the world, I can attest that if there's anything that can bring people together, it's food and a shared meal.

I'd like to see what you have to say after being dumped in South Africa, Namibia or Zimbabwe 20 years ago with little common ground but a meal to break the ice.

While such Kumbaya moments are not a replacement for policy, your off-hand denigration and disbelief suggests you have little connection to the real world, and are simply angry, ignorant and mendacious.

This thread is hilarious. The faux-racially sophisticated posing of the wingnuts is awesome to behold.

Exactly what culture is she supposed to be sharing? Eating? Cooking, Pat. Cooking the same foods. Does your family include any women? Have you ever celebrated a holiday?

Jello..maybe.

I was thinking it was the fried chicken that brought people together. Or succotash.

Jello...strictly third, even with nuts and fruit and maybe Coca-Cola..

Pat -- Damn you for resurrecting those memories.

Maybe someday I can introduce you to the widow of a Zimbabwean gardener. We shared a meal, made by his own hands, at great expense to himself and his family.

He worked as a gardner in South Africa because that was the only work he could find, and he cared little about racial equality or political freedom--only that he could make enough money to send back to his family in Zimbabwe to keep them alive.

It was an epiphany for me; it is what helped me see what mattered. I counted him a friend. If you haven't experienced that sharing and understanding consummated over a simple meal, then you never will understand--although you might try, if for a moment, to imagine that it might be.

And if you can't imagine that, then I invite you to join his executioners in hell, along with the rest of you self-righteous nauseous ignorant assholes.

Does your family include any women?

It used to. But they never seem to stick around. I come home from work and all their stuff is gone.

Being black myself, I can assure you, ..

Don't tell me. And you're a Life Long Democrat But Not Anymore and it's a complete coincidence you sound like Sean Hannity.

Why, that up tight old white woman was so uncomfortble around all the blacks, until she saw the fried chicken, and then, hey, the racism evaporated and, as we munched our cornbread, we all realized how silly the slavery had been. The end.

Porter! Porter! We need a porter up front to help with has407's baggage. Better make it two. Seems like there's a lot of it!

dick tuck, that comment was mean.
You should stick with "you'll do better next time."

"Why, that up tight old white woman was so uncomfortble around all the blacks, until she saw the fried chicken, and then, hey, the racism evaporated and, as we munched our cornbread, we all realized how silly the slavery had been. The end.
Posted by: Pat"

Pat, my husband and I have been living in a community where we're in the ethnic minority, trying to make a life here and make friends. It is fraught with potential 'no win' cultural and social landmines. No matter what you do someone is probably going to view it as the wrong thing. I don't know if the Obama's grandmother story is accurate or not, but perhaps you might consider that someone's uncertainty in such situations might derive from the prospect of this sort of 'no win' dilemma, rather than being "uptight" and "racist."

About Pat claiming to be black:
When I was briefly publishing an SF fanzine (about 43 years ago, long enough that "SF fanzine" was a redundancy) I was told by a longtime civil rights advocate "Never write 'negro,' but 'Negro.' Too many lives have been lost fighting for that capital letter." Maybe it is no longer true but it set off 'lying' buttons in my head.

Pat is entitled to Pat's rage, regardless of its origins, but engaging Pat in any meaningful discourse is impossible.