DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Did Santorum Call Obama the N-Word?

Did Rick Santorum really just come within a few micro-seconds of calling America's first ever black president a "."?

Of course not, comes the rational response. Apart from the fact that it would instantly be a campaign-killing gaffe, it would be in direct opposition to the Santorum image we have seen now for months. This is the man who is almost two goody-two-shoes to be real. He has a large and loving family. He may be ultra-conservative, but he also appears to be the sort of suburban dad who would be more likely to say "Aw, shucks" and "Jeepers creepers" rather than deploy the most offensive word in the English language. He wears sweater vests!

But about that video. What is going on there?

Santorum was speaking at a rally in Janesville, Wisconsin, still locked in the ferocious nomination battle with Mitt Romney and still desperate to become the true conservative standard-bearer of the Republican party.

"We know the candidate Barack Obama, what he was like – the anti-war government nig …" he seems to say, then suddenly stopping, and changing tack to add: "America was a source for division around the world, that what we were doing was wrong."

It is hard to think of exactly what word Santorum was about to use. What word beginning with "nig-" comes naturally after government? It has been suggested he was trying to say "-nik", as in peacenik or beatnik. That is possible. Or perhaps, it was some non-specific verbal tic: a random vowel-consonent flub.

Here, Santorum has previous form. In Iowa, he stumbled when discussing conservative opposition to welfare programmes:

"I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money."

In the face of later outrage at singling out black Americans, he insisted that he had not said "black", but instead vocalised "bleugh", as his mind became confused over his own train of thought. Believe that? Judge for yourself here.

Santorum and his campaign have continued to vociferously deny he said "black" in Iowa. Personally, I don't believe him. The video seems clear enough to me.

Santorum's team have also denied that he intended to say "." in Wisconsin. In this case, I am much more inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. The video is odd: his exact meaning, and even the nature of his stumble, is unclear. For a candidate who frequently makes a great play of the fact that, unlike President Obama, he does not use a teleprompter for his stump speeches, his slips-of-the-tongue are becoming a liability that should make him think twice about extemporizing.

But giving Santorum a pass in this instance masks a larger point. The GOP nomination race has seen Barack Obama consistently painted as a radical, a danger to the American way of life and someone out to fundamentally transform the country. And that is just by the candidates. Among the audiences at Republican rallies, the overheated rhetoric and demonisation have been more lurid still.

Just as he has been since the summer of 2008, Obama is consistently accused by some GOP supporters and Tea Party fans of being a Muslim, a communist or a terrorist (or sometimes, all three). The argument over the place of his birth still burns brightly on the right, despite the proven fact it was Hawaii.

It does not take a great leap of imagination or sophisticated academic insight to see a racial fear of "the other" in all of this stuff when it is said about the history-making figure of a black president in the White House. Nor is this limited to the people who attend rallies. There is a long list of minor Republicans and conservative figures who get caught out for staggeringly crass racial comments around Obama. To name a few:

The head of the college Republicans at University of Texas who tweeted: "My president is black, he snorts a lot of crack. Holla."

Or the blogger for the conservative John Locke Foundation who posted a picture of Obama in drag with a bucket of fried chicken on the group's website.

Or the Orange County Republican official who circulated an email that featured Obama as the child of chimpanzees.

Or the Republican city mayor in California who circulated an email with a picture of the White House lawn turned in to a watermelon patch.

There is simply a lot of this stuff about. Now, I am willing to believe that Santorum had no intention of saying "." when he stumbled in Janesville. Perhaps he did mean to say "government-nik". Perhaps his brain just froze. It happens.

But it is no surprise to me that others will think the worst of him. After all, plenty of Santorum's fellow Republicans and conservatives have given people ample reason to do so.
link






http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=egtaV6Pj8yI

Full video here: http://www.youtube.com/v/nzyvo8SKa0M&feature=related

Start watching around 34 minutes. To me it certainly sounds like that's what he was going to say and caught himself. What other word could he possibly have used there?

certainly possible, although I doubt it.
(I am in NO WAY a Santorum fan either)

I cannot imagine that a politician would commit career suicide by using that word ........ but I suppose it could be possible.

I have heard so many incredibly stupid things coming from candidates' mouths in this election cycle ..... but certainly none as crass and disgusting as something like that. He sounded like he just went completely off track and stumbled over his words badly.

Dang,, sure sounds like it was possible.. but,,, I just don't know. have a hard time believeing it out of Santorum...

I've listened to it 5 times....I can't imagine what else he was going to say. Maybe "negotiator"?

sounds more like something beginning with nic or nik than nig.. The other reason I don't think it was the N word.. he barely skipped a beat getting back on track... I imagine if a candidate caught himself in the middle of the N word there would have been at least a couple seconds of "Oh my god I can't believe I almost did that" as he recomposed himself... But he acted like nothing happened...

Oh well, I guess it was just a matter of time since we have gone from dissecting ideas, to dissecting statements, to dissecting words.. dissecting incomplete syllables was the next logical step.

I don't like Santorum, but like others have said, I have a hard time believing he'd say this. Then again, there are probably a number of his supporters who would like him even more if he did.

But, no, I don't think he was going to say that.

The "anti-war government negotiator" would sort of make sense in that context. But he does sort of do a bit of a Porky Pig there.

Maybe he was going to say anti-war nagger (as in constantly harping on the war, but doing little about it), and realized it just wouldn't sound right, or could get misconstrued by the microphone and misheard.

Listening to it I didn't think he was going that way, the other n-word, but possible.


The first line in my post could be purple, but it could be just as reasonable an explanation.

Government nincompoop...

Just watched the video ... wow, that doesn't look good.

With that said, I just can't see a seasoned politician, even one as dumb as Santorum, even coming close to that line. I guess a slip of the tongue is possible, but highly unlikely.

Beyond the racial stuff ... are they still calling a guy who's presiding over two wars, went into a country to kill a terror kingpin, attacked another somewhat illegally and has steadily increased drone attacks 'anti-war'?

I'm pretty dead-set against Obama's military actions, but it seems those who were so fearful of his incoming presidency should be loving the fact that the guy took the cowboy act they so loved and cranked up it a notch.

j/c

I think he's a buffoon, a cartoon caricature of the neoconservatives. Even still, I'll give the benefit of the doubt that day after day, week after week of talking and speaking, and talking and speaking it is quite well within the realm of possibility he was melding parts of other speeches he gave before and slipped. I watched some of it and he cut himself short on some sentences, changed mid sentence and pronounced Obama-- Ovama.

I'd give him a pass on this one

Yeah, I think the fact that the guy is still in the running speaks volumes about how bad it's looking for the GOP right now.

I don't really care one way or the other who wins between Romney or Obama. It won't change very much. I would certainly be fearful of a Gingrich or Santorum presidency, though again, I think a lot of day-to-day would remain the same. But that's sort of like fearing the Godzilla monster emerging from Lake Erie ... not going to happen.

But I feel a bit for folks who are now looking at Romney or Santorum as their horses.

And, yeah, you can't really pin anything to the guy on this. It certainly seems odd, but there's a thousand possible logical explanations.

In the end, Santorum has embarrassed himself far worse than this. This is much ado about nothing, IMO.

These candidates have been campaigning non-stop for months now. It has to be grueling, and exhausting. This is not unlike Obama's "57 states" quote ... a simple mis-speak, nothing more.

Quote:

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"We know the candidate Barack Obama, what he was like – the anti-war government nig …"

---

The anti-war government neg-otiating type who would rather float BS while a good part of the nation JOBS the system for everything possible.




That's what I think he was going to say

Wouldn't it be weird if one of the other campaigns slipped that word into his speech ........ and he was reading along and went "Whoa, that's not what I wrote! I can't say that. Good thing I caught myself."

Nope. He definitely caught himself just as he said "NIG"... wow.

j/c

After 50+ years of hearing "the N-Bomb" dropped around me (albeit much less in the past 25 or so years), it's very easy to detect it (and all of its 'coded' versions).

To my ears, it sounded like he came dangerously close. I also saw a protracted 1.5 - 2.5 second stumble just afterward that was just painful to watch. As an American "Blah" person who was raised to wait for definitive proof, I'll let it slide.... but not without saying this:

This isn't the first time he's sailed dangerously close to "taboo waters"... and he's now done it enough for me to smell smoke.

When I heard that moment in his speech, I was hard-pressed to find ANY other word (or semi-word) that could have been substituted.... and still complete a coherent sentence. A few possibilities have been offered up in this thread... but even they seem like a "reach."

If he almost "dropped the bomb," and caught himself halfway, it only makes him slightly less reprehensible than those who would drop the "-ger" with no sense of shame. The word (or even parts of it) comes from the same dark place in a Human Being's soul. If he was a victim of fatigue, and tried to say somethiing that just wouldn't come out right in the moment... he now has a chance to explain it. (And it had better be more convincing than his "Blah People" excuse from just a few weeks ago).

Dude is repeatedly showing himself to be a guppie, trying to swim in a political shark tank..... and the more he flits his tail, the more he is exposed. All questionable comments and malaprops aside, does anyone really think he is 'Presidential material' any more?

I think he almost dropped The Bomb... but stopped short at dropping an M-80.

.02

and at 33:53 he says "Barack Ovamas vision", I think the dude wasn't going to say that word and he's just rummy from all the speeches and stumbling around a bit.

That said, he's not going to be the nominee and I doubt Romney's going to pick him as a running mate, so whether he stumbled over that word or he didn't, does it really matter?

j/c

I hear african americans drop the n word all the time.

No doubt that the context/meaning is different...but regularly using an offensive word in a playful fashion is just as annoying to me as when the word is used in a derogatory fashion.

No doubt the left in all their infinate stupidity is going to be all over this.

Quote:

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All questionable comments and malaprops aside, does anyone really think he is 'Presidential material' any more?

---

I NEVER thought once he was even close to "presidential material."

I have seen the debates and heard some speeches and his rhetoric is about as lifeless and cliched as they come. And his and Newts' continued presence in the primary speaks volumes about Mitt and the GOP.

I certainly wished Gary Johnson got more playing time in the debates but I wonder if Ron Paul would not have gotten in and threw his support behind Gary how far he would have gotten.

The trouble is, Mitt Romney isn't presidential timber either...

The republican party has a problem, they don't have a candidate in contention that can beat Obama...

you'd have thought that the brain trust would have gotten together and said,,, we gotta stop shooting each other in the foot, pick a horse to back and run with it.

Rand Paul would absolutely be the wrong choice, Rubio on the other hand is young, good looking and the GOP's next generation of leaders and more than certainly will be floated as veep.

Now take Newt and promise him a cabinet slot (though I think Chief of Staff would be a best fit) and kick Santorum as far to the curb as you can and now you're talking about a credible challenge.

Lol. That looked like an episode of "unnecessary censorship" from Jimmy Kimmel. Santorum's toast.

Obviously, you completely missed what I was saying..

To beat Obama, the republicans are gonna have to put someone up that is no limp wristed weenie like Romney.

What VP candidate would suddenly transform Romney to a winner?

I'm pretty much on record letting the world know I've voted Republican more often than not over the years.. and I want the republican party to step up and give me a candidate that can actually be a good president.. A REAL consenses builder, one that unite the country instead of divide it.

Romney is NO BETTER THAN OBAMA.. I want better.

So far, they've failed me with this years crop. I'm completely unimpressed..

I admit to being wrong about Obama,, But I wasn't wrong about McCain. I don't think he'd have done any better in the last four years.

Obamas done a average to below average job in a bad economy not of his making,,, and I really believe that republicans feel as if they can run a piece a bacon against him and win..

Big mistake.. Where is my reagan, where is my nixon, where is my eisenhower... Where is my kinda republican that has a brain and isn't just trying to be a media darling..

I want Chris Christie,, he's not going to run but I want him.

One disappointment I have is that this should have been the year for a really strong conservative candidate. This should have been the year to have a really good candidate enter the race. With this President, and his track record, this race should be a slam dunk.

Instead we got ..... this .......

I like Newt, but he seems to have gone off the deep end along with Santorum. I greatly dislike Romney as a candidate, but regardless, I will vote for whomever the Republicans nominate because I feel that the Democrats in general have been negligent in their duty over the past 3 years ..... and that President Obama, in particular, has been a horrible President.

I do have to give him credit .... he wanted to get things passed, and he did. That makes him successful, to a point ....... but the things that he passed are things that the people don't want. Now they may not even be Constitutional. How does he explain burning up every bit of political capital, and burning every bridge with every Republican on something that will be discarded?

One other thing that should greatly concern Democrats is that Republicans are, more and more, being seen as the party that fixes things, especially on a statewide basis, when the Democrats can't. Look at how many states were in fiscal emergency only a year or so ago ..... and who now have balanced budgets, and didn't have to raise taxes. To me, that would be the biggest concern if I were a Democrat ....... that the Republicans are increasingly being seen, maybe as "mean" in certain instances ....... but also as the adults in the room.

I would love to see the Republican Party move to a more fiscally responsible platform ... and mean it .... on a national level. I would love to have a guy who stands up and fights for the things he believes in. Unfortunately, we get compromisers and centrists who try to get along rather than trying to get this country back on the right path.

Sure it was just a slip of the tongue. But that doesn't mean any harm or foul regardless of the candidate.

I don't like Santorum. I think it's entirely plausible he may be AT LEAST a little racist.. But I don't at all think he was almost going to say the N-word. I do agree that it was probably the suffix "-nik." As in beat-nik, peace-nik, etc.. First off, to my "trained ear", it sounds much more like an unvoiced "k" than a voiced "g." On top of that, it makes sense grammatically (or at least as rhetoric) by painting a picture of Obama as that peace-nik "government is the answer" "america is the main cause of the world's problems" type person that MANY conservative commentators have tried to paint him.

As much as some racists throw around the n word.. It just doesn't really sound like a normal place to put it in a phrase.. "an anti-war government n****" Not that there is any GOOD place to use the word..

Again, not entirely happy about being seen as defending the guy.. but I also think people hurt their cause by focusing on the wrong things.