Updated!: Oh, My: Is Obama "Shuckin' And Jivin" Da Peoples?

My, my, my - is this a coincidence, or can we expect a pattern. Not just Cuomo, but Hillary, too??

In a fierce counterattack, Ms. Clinton has tried to prick the ballooning support for Mr. Obama, conceding he is "a truly inspirational speaker" but adding he has "not done the kind of spade work" to back up the promises.

According to Andrew Cuomo Obama is shucking and jiving his way to the nomination. Thank God he's a Democrat, or this might actually be racist.

I suppose there could be lots of tea leaf reading in this one, but now its AG Andrew Cuomo on Talk 1300, minutes after the governor came on. Cuomo, to be fair, has been on the radio show a few times, if memory serves me, but his take on Hillary’s win in NH is that that small-state primary with its retail politics is a good thing.

”It’s not a TV crazed race. Frankly you can’t buy your way into it,” Cuomo said. “You can’t shuck and jive at a press conference,” he added. “All those moves you can make with the press don’t work when you’re in someone’s living room.”

But, no - it was just a poor word choice, no doubt. Good thing he doesn't work as an anchor for the Golf Channel.

"It was never about Obama in the first place," Cuomo told me of the use of the phrase, which he said he was using "as a synonym for 'bob and weave.'"

Comments

[JorgXMcKie]

So, will Chris Matthews accuse Cuomo of being a bigot?

[Dr. Ellen]

Merciful Heavens, isn't 'spade' an old word for the melanin-enhanced among us? 'Spade work'? Pickin' cotton, no doubt.

There just ain't no pleasin' some folk.

[paul]

Apparently a new social phenomena is occurring.

NY pols who named their kids Andy are beginning to regret not having Susan Smith or Ted Kennedy drive their kids to daycare when they were young.

[Wahoo Willie Sez:]

Oh my. Fortunately some evil "neocon" or Howard Cosell did not utter these trigger words. My lands cities would be aflame!! NOw of course niether commemtor meant anything demeaning by thier "poor use of words". Just as the golf channel chick meant nothing. Of course, just like calling Condi Rice "Aunt Jemima", it matters whose mouth it comes from. So sad but too true.

[Adrienne]

I'm sorry but shuck and jive is not a racist term...Then again, in today's climate almost any thing can be...I'm a sister from Harlem by the way...Into my 40s at present and shuck and jive was used to discribe any two-bit, lazy hustler...What a same we cannot use our American english any more...It's just sad we cannot express ourselves in any meaningful way at all...Sad in deed!

[TheSpartan]

I would assume "spade work" refers to hard labor or work done with a shovel or "spade".

[Eilish]

If "shuck and jive" has always had a negative connotation, why can't it be used for any candidate without being offensive? I understand some to be overly sensitive, but why is this even an issue when he didn't use the phrase in reference to a particular candidate, but to all?

[BobInStamford]

"shuck and jive was used to discribe any two-bit, lazy hustler"

So, to put the term in context:

Fred Thompson should give up the shuck and jive and go home and play with his wife Misti and the kids.

[Jeffersonian]

"Pardon me, stewardess, but I speak shuck and jive."

[K]

I think 'spade' started as a reference to the color of playing cards. A related phrase is 'black as the ace of spades'. And 'he got repaid in spades'. Spades are the high suit in several card games.

'Spade work' is the tough labor of preparing the garden for planting. In the spring soil is often wet, heavy, and sticky. Turning the soil is not the fun part of gardening.

'Spade work' is also what is needed before building. Ditches, drainage, and foundations require digging.

[BumperStickerist]

How is this not one of those 'dogwhistle' phrases the Left is so fond of pointing out?

Also "Bob and Weave" is a boxing phrase - is Cuomo saying that Barack likes to beat up women or that it's necessary to beat up women?

[Woody]

The big Irish Mick radio talk show host, Mike Gallagher, is a cotton pickin m_ _ _ _ _ f _ _ _ _ r, milking the racist card to the hilt. He doesn't even know it is a gardening term. He probably doesn't know it appears 13 times in a deck of cards. This guy is even more IGNORANT than Sean or El FATSO!

[RA]

Democrats really believe blacks are inferior. That is why they "compassionately" support affirmative racism. Now they are showing their true colors. Just ask Chris Mathews!

Its wonderful, Democrats slandering Democrats. Life is good!

[CaptDMO]

BUTTHEAD:
Heh,,,huh heh...huh heh,,.he heh...hey,... Bevis, ..she said "spade",...heh huh heh....

[Joe]

K, ostensibly "spade work" is exactly what you've described, but subliminally it is a reference to work that racist whites would deem suitable for blacks. The particular form that racism takes among liberal whites is an insidious patronage that is used to foster dependency and impose obligations on blacks. That is why the left holds greater contempt for Clarence Thomas than for Antonin Scalia. Scalia is not seen as owing anything to the left, whereas Thomas is seen as an ingrate who presumably benefitted from affirmative action but then refused to subordinate himself to the demands of liberal whites. Likewise, Obama offends elements of the Democratic party because he has benefitted from the support of the party establishment to rise to a level that it deems suitable for a talented young black man, and rather than repaying loyalties by supporting the preordained candidate, he has dared to challenge that candidate. In other words, he has behaved as an "uppity n----r." Of course, Hillary can't come out and say that for two main reasons. First, it would offend so many voters across all political stripes that her campaign would be finished. Second, it would be ineffective because it would be an overt appeal to a covert sentiment. White liberals don't even consciously recognize their expectation that blacks will be beholden to them, let alone recognize the racist nature of this expectation. The expectation exists strictly on a subconscious level. Therefore, appeals to that sentiment must be made subliminally. Hence, the reference to "spade work," which draws attention to the fact that Obama is a black man who has dared to seek a white man's (or woman's) work, but in language that offers a perfect cover (yes, of course, she was using gardening as a metaphor for politics). The only problem is that "spade work" is a weird choice of words, and we all know how carefully the Clintons choose their words.