They're just hopeless, aren't they? Hopeless, hapless and clueless.

Hmm. Given your discussion regarding how the usage of expressions like "rule of thumb" and "great white hope" has changed over time, maybe you should begin your post with "sometimes a dick changes into a cigar and those who smoke it later don't realize it was ever anything other than a cigar."

Just to be consistent.

Damn!!! I read that and immediatly thought only a effing repig fundie son of a bitch could think of something like that... After all, they have already had decades of stupid, evil white dopes who ran this country off the road and over the cliff...

Anyone who is a member of the shit eating repiglican party deserves any crap karma it gets.... I despise everything they stand for...

Just this old Chief's 2 cents

As usual the 'know nothings' claim to know not what they refer to, and instead, fervently cling to their 'belief' that it really means something else, not racist at all, of course. However, on this planet:

The term, "the great white hope," reflects the racism and segregation of the era in which Jack Johnson fought. It could be argued that Johnson, the first African American to hold the World Heavyweight Championship title, was the best fighter of his generation. Yet, white reaction against Johnson's win and his very public relationships with white women was so strong that, in 1912, the United States Congress, concerned that scenes of Johnson pummeling white boxers would cause race riots, passed a law making it illegal to transport prizefight films across state lines.[5] "The great white hope" is a reference to the boxer whom whites hoped would finally defeat Johnson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_White_Hope

//

Anybody remember Gerry Cooney? Didn't think so.

To conceptually frame the direction of the republican party in this way emphasizes the extent to which republicans are unmindful of how this nation has and is changing. Nothing is forever and the very fact that the party is having such a difficult time with the idea of a black president is sounding a very loud message in the ears of party leaders.

Unfortunately, what they are hearing is at odds with the rest of the country. This is problematic because if republican leaders are hearing impaired, their party and a lot of Americans will remain so. We can only hope their hearing starts to improve. Until that happens republicans will be an impediment to this nation, the citizens and to our place in the world.

Which means, just as we are witnessing right now on several major issues, the country isn't going to be able to sensibly solve any of them and in the global sense, we will be a nation in decline.

The path we take has to enable all citizens to prosper individually and then as a unit. Republicans and congress in general have to figure out that path is surely the one to success. That is not the path they are taking right now. It has to be reversed, and quickly. It would also be helpful if they would honestly observe the separation of church and state as our constitution specifies. This has unquestionably been violated and is in no small measure a contributor to some of the problems we are confronting.

In all the above it is really stupefying how willingly our national leadership has violated our constitutional principles. Even more so in that they don't have any recognition of having done so.

Maybe Sylvester Stallone is available.

When I was in Viet Nam, my batallion commander was advising the assembled troops about the dangers of prostitutes. "But hey" he growled "I can't tell you what to do. You're all free, white, and 21." It didn't go over well, even with those of us who were.

Idiom or not, it's totally tone deaf.

So many explanations and descriptions of meanings....
All I can say is that I have used that pharase on many occassions in which I wished to convey a message to somebody that I perceived as a racist, and I wanted to call them on it. In planer words, sarcasm.
And every time, despite many a clueless mind, the message was heard. To me it says that, in general, everybody knows exacly what it means.
EOS.

These kind of racial overtures is systemic in the GOP. For decades they've adopted a white nationalist agenda which continues to be ignored by our media. Blacks & Latinos who are not of the conservative persuasion are often subjected to racial insults by conservatives. This GOP congressGIRL is has shown her true colors.

There is no non-racial meaning to the expression "great white hope." None.

Clue is the word "white."

Sarah Palin's recommendation of Glen Beck's coming hard hitting investigation into who's "actually running the White House" comes from the same fully internalized racism shown by this woman. The birther/deather/teabagger faction has been obsessed with the notion that Obama can't really be the one running things because, well, you know, those people, oh now don't make me go and say it, okay well, they're just not as smart as normal people, since before he was elected. It's part and parcel of the "telemprompter" smear, the idea that he's just this clueless dolt who talks good like a white person who's being used as a puppet by mysterious unknown others.

Michael Steele...uhm, maybe not. Although I'm sure he would find some way to agree with her.

Here's the "cultural idiom" for all of the apologists here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Jeffries#Comeback

Six years after retiring, Jeffries made a comeback on July 4, 1910 at Reno, Nevada. He fought champion Jack Johnson, who had staked his claim to the heavyweight championship by defeating Tommy Burns at Rushcutters Bay in Australia in 1908.

The fight, which was promoted and refereed by legendary fight promoter Tex Rickard, and became known as "The Fight of the Century", soon became a symbolic battleground of the races. The media, eager for a "Great White Hope", found a champion for their racism in Jeffries. He said, "I am going into this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro."[1] A furor was created at the fight, as a ringside band played, "All coons look alike to me".[2]

No question that the connotation is racial. The phrase is best remembered from the 1967 Howard Sackler play which was exactly about the desire to find a white man to beat Jack Johnson. There was a strone undertone of sexual fear as well, since Johnson had a reputation for having affairs with white women.

Of course, in her defense, that GOP dingbat has probably never heard of Jack Johnson or of the play.

This shows again how hung up the GOP is on Obama's race. Even if she wasn't making a conscious racial statement, we have a pretty good idea where her head is at.

(pssst, He's black)

I for one do not believe that people like Jenkins, Palin, and Bachmann are so stupid that they don't understand the racist remarks that they make. These people cut their teeth on how to communicate with dog whistle talk, to pull in the looney!

PS; and as for Cantor and the rest of those "future stars" of the GOP, I remember the same accolades being laid upon to the likes of George Allen, Bill Frist, Trent Lott, Rick Santorum and a few others during the Bush junta years.

So where are they now?

If history is any guide, more than one great white GOP hope has been revealed for the dark-hearted bullies they really are.

Apart from the ugliness of the "great white hope" phrase, the statement is self-serving. When she calls Cantor, McCarthy, and Ryan great young Republican minds, she's prompting the audience to think, "Oh, and you too, Lynn."

And to be sure, they are all great young Republican minds. Why, there may even be a new Spiro Agnew among them. Or James Inhofe, or Dick Cheney, or his sidekick What's His Name, or Duke, or ...

Consider the source;

a Republican from Kansas, then get in her mind and see what's rolling around inside there.

I cannot believe some of you folks are for giving this Congresswoman a pass on this. She knew exactly what she was saying. Forget "great," if you want. Forget,"hope," is you must. The word "white," in this context can stand alone as proof of her racist feelings. The 'Southern Strategy," (of which she is a daughter) has turned into a racist strategy and we should start fighting it now. The nutty right has taken off the "white" kid gloves and proceeded to use every possible cue word as to what they want: Obama's death! Quit giving them support - just quit it. They are serious, deliberate, and will keep it up. If Cantor, et alii were any kind of decent citizens they would condemn this woman, her talk, and aspirations. As it is they are just as bad. Quit calling Cantor a Jew. He lost that honor when he, like Lieberman sided with the far right. The fascists were Italy's right. The neo nazi movement in Germany and here is to the far right. There is no room in historic Judaism for that kind of thinking - and they have suffered the most from it. First these nutters are going after Obama, then the blacks, then the Jews, then the rest of us open thinkers. I just can't believe readers of TPM don't realize all of this. If we don't, what hope for the rest of the country?

...wow. This just made my day.

If the GOP needs a great white hope they need look no further than Representative Virginia Foxx (R - NC). She represents them perfectly.

Has anyone noticed that Jenkins has "crazy eyes"?

It's actually hilarious to see them struggle. They're just so clueless! Yes, they've watered down health care, but on the whole, these people are completely clueless with wha Americans want.

I was poking around the internet on Teddy today and I have to say that debate he had with Romney when they asked Romney what his greatest personal failing was -- that was priceless. He just went on an on about how great he was and how committed he was to the poor and down-trodden. Whoever told him to use that as a way to explain personal failings was completely idiotic.