Thread: Breitbart’s Obama college video turns out to be a dud, sparks race debate

Breitbart’s Obama college video turns out to be a dud, sparks race debate

By Dylan Stableford | The Ticket – 1 hr 19 mins ago.. .

Andrew Breitbart's promised video of Barack Obama's college days at Harvard University was released in full on Sean Hannity's Fox News show on Wednesday night—and unlike the late conservative provacateur's other video hits, this one appears to be a bit of a dud.

The video—which sent some conservatives into a frenzy when Breitbart told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last month that he had the footage—shows Obama, then a Harvard law student, introducing former Harvard Law Professor Derrick Bell, who Breitbart.com editor-in-chief Joel Pollak called the "Jeremiah Wright of academia."

Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree had the footage from 1990 and is shown presenting it to an audience after the 2008 election. "I hid this during the 2008 campaign," Ogletree can be heard saying. "I don't care if they find it now."

Pollak and conservatives contend that the video is another example of Obama's history of chumminess with radicals, and the proof of the left's continuing efforts to cover it up.

But as PBS' Andrew Golis noted, "there's nothing new about the clip or Obama's role in the controversy at Harvard Law School."

"In 2008, as a part of our quadrennial election special The Choice 2008," Golis wrote, "Frontline ran the same footage of the speech as a part of an exploration of Obama's time at Harvard Law School, where he graduated in 1991. It's been online at our site and on YouTube since then." Golis added that Frontline obtained the footage from the archives of WGBH, PBS' Boston affiliate. (More on the back story.)

"Is that it?" Soledad O'Brien asked Pollak in an interview on Thursday morning. "What part of that was the bombshell? Because I missed it."

Pollack responded: "The bombshell is the revelation of the relationship between Obama and Derrick Bell ... [Derrick Bell] passed away last year, but during his lifetime he developed a theory called critical race theory, which holds that the Civil Rights movement was a sham and that white supremacy is the order and it must be overthrown."

The interview quickly devolved into an argument over the definition of critical race theory, with Jay Thomas, a Sirius radio host and a panelist on O'Brien's show, jumping into the fray.

"Can I say something as a white person?" Thomas asked Pollak. "What are you frightened of? Are you frightened that some black people are going to do something to you? ... What do you think Barack Obama's going to do? Is there a secret black movement that's going to start killing white people?"

The conversation got worse from there. "I'm glad you played the racism card," Pollak fired back. "You've accused me of being a racist. You've accused me of being afraid of black people. And it doesn't deserve a response. But let me respond anyway. I'm not afraid black people are going to be violent and take over the country. What I'm pointing out is that there's a pattern in Barack Obama's associations with Derrick Bell, with Reverend Wright, and it carries over into his governance because his Justice Department won't treat black civil rights violators the same way it treats white civil rights violators."

Journalists took to Twitter to poke fun at the controversy. "Breitbart's CPAC speech = Lana Del Ray's 'Video Games' video," Slate's Dave Weigel wrote on Twitter. "Actual Obama tape = Lana Del Ray on 'SNL.'"

On CNN, Pollak promised more footage and more bombshells from Breitbart's archives. "This is the beginning of a vetting process that begins with Andrew Breitbart's probe into Barack Obama's time in Chicago and will continue," he said.

Breitbart

I can't say the video was a 'dud', but if it didn't get the over the top response some perhaps expected, the reason may lie in the fact that half the country knows he's a racist, socialist radical and simply don't care. The other half of the country knows he's a racist, socialist radical who is slowly but surely being exposed as such, yet nothing is EVER done about it. He's still occupying our house and moving ahead with his nation killing policies.

The racist crap is a broken record that has been playing too long.

Derrick A. Bell Visited the White House Twice in 2010


Lachlan Markay
March 8, 2012 at 3:16 pm
(0)


Visitor logs show that Derrick A. Bell visited the White House twice since President Obama took office. The logs show two visits by an individual of that name on January 29 and 31, 2010.



Derrick Albert Bell, the late Harvard professor and controversial scholar in the field of Critical Race Theory has been thrust into national headlines after conservative bloggers at Breitbart.com posted video of Obama lauding his work at a 1991 rally at Harvard.

Heritage could not independently confirm that the Derrick A. Bell listed is the same individual who spoke at the rally. The White House did not return a request for comment.
In the video, Obama tells the crowd to “Open your hearts and open your minds to the words of professor Derrick Bell.”
Those words tended to be quite controversial. Bell is widely credited with pioneering the field of Critical Race Theory, a radical school of legal thought that holds that the American legal and political systems are inherently racist.

Heritage Foundation - The Foundry