Stephanopoulos: "You have a very cool style . . . How much of that is tied to your race?"

[EffieBlack]

This Week with George Stephanopoulos, May 13, 2007:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You have a very cool style when you're doing those town meetings where you're out on the campaign trail, and I wonder, how much of that is tied to your race?

SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: That's interesting.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: One of your friends told "The New Yorker" magazine that the mainstream is just not ready for a fire-breathing black man so do you turn down the temperature on purpose?

SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: You know, I don't think it has to do with race. I think it has to do with when I'm campaigning I'm in a conversation, and what I don't do when I'm campaigning is to try to press a lot of hot buttons and use a lot of cheap applause lines because I want people to get a sense of how I think about this process, I want them to have some ability to walk through with me the difficult choices that we face.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2007/05/obama_on_abcs_t ...

Anyone who has been watching Stephanopoulos over the years should not be surprised by his performance during Wednesday's debate. This was not the first time he allowed his rather bizarre views - such as that Obama "turned down" his temperature because, otherwise, he would be a "fire-breathing black man" - to slip through.

He's a real piece of work.