May 8, 2008

“Eggheads and African-Americans."

A memorable phrase, a classic encounter:



Man, if my head looked like Paul Begala's, I would not use the term "eggheads." But anyway, isn't he right? Donna Brazile does an excellent job of getting mad on camera, but it's pure pretense. Everyone knows a political strategist has to analyze the various demographic groups.

38 comments:

vbspurs said...

What's up with the clapping when Bazile gets in her zinger about 'hey, don't stop me now'?

The NAACP and the National Press Club get around.

Cheers,
Victoria

Blue Moon said...

He's right that you can't win with only those two groups -- he's wrong that Obama is not going to court blue collar white people. I think Obama is going to go after them so hard that some black people are going to complain.

Roger J. said...

Blue Moon is right on--Obama may be an empty suit, but he isnt stupid--I suspect we will see him with a gun in one hand and a boilermaker in another, followed by a visit to a NASCAR race before this thing is over in November.

Laura Reynolds said...

I've never seen the egghead, only the asshole, next time I see him I'll take a closer look.

Blue Moon said...

"I'll have the mayonaise sandwich please."

ricpic said...

But what about the dreaded white male? What self-respecting Democrat could possibly be for that benighted demographic?

Richard Dolan said...

"Donna Brazile does an excellent job of getting mad on camera, but it's pure pretense."

She stated her views forcefully but didn't seem all that mad to me.

George M. Spencer said...

I'd like to see photos of Begala 10 years ago and today. Looks like he dyes his hair, gets Botox in the forehead, and has had eye lifts.

I'd also like to see photos of Donna Brazille knocking back PBRs with a buncha white construction workers.

vbspurs said...

"Politics is showbiz for ugly people"

~ Paul Begala


Must be awesome to enter the history books with an unassailable truism.

I'll get there yet!

Cheers,
Victoria

Bender R said...

Isn't he right?

Yes -- what Dems don't want to admit to themselves is that a good proportion of whites in the Democratic Party will never vote for the black guy.

ricpic said...

Begala got to smile. Brazile don't. She got the powah.

Blue Moon said...

Why do we americans have a love affair with crappy beer?

Obama should just park the campaign bus in some town in the Florida panhandle for 60 hours and just "be." Visit the high school, get a haircut, eat at the local Applebees, go to a church (or two), play bingo at the KoC. Repeat this about 8 times throughout FL, OH, and CO. Then, in January 09, give innaugural address and laugh about Floyd in Panama City cutting your sideburns too close...

Original Mike said...

Why do we americans have a love affair with crappy beer?

I wish I knew. I've been asking myself that my whole adult life.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

So what I gather from this exchange is that white blue collar people drink a lot of beer. The way to their votes is through the keg tapper? They didn't mention NASCAR, but probably because they ran out of time.

And that the Republican party is a monolithic white party. That might come as a surprise to Condoleza Rice and quite a few others.

We all look just like Rich Uncle Pennybags.

Kind of two competing ideas isn't it? Tobacco spitting, beer swilling, Nascar loving, wealthy, white, cigar and scotch sipping, investment bankers. It gives me a headache. There is a monolitic group if I ever saw one.

Thank goodness the Democrats aren't into stereotyping people or anything.

Blue Moon said...

DBQ:

I agree with you. I went on a rant last week about this. The media is lazy. If CNN did a story about me, I would be called "black" for the purposes of talking about voting blocks, even though Blue Moon is a born again evangelical who lives in the suburbs, drives and SUV, loves the Police and the police, drinks lattes, has a graduate degree, and is pro-life. Nope, Blue Moon is black and only black, just like the black guy 10 miles away who would call me a "sellout." But hey, we're all the same.

vbspurs said...

DBQ, you're on fire today, woo!

We all look just like Rich Uncle Pennybags.

Or the female equivalent, Margaret Dumont.

You know, the lorgnette-holding society broad who tolerates the antics of the crazies around her, but never quite gets it because she's loaded (with both money and booze).

BTW, Monopoly is retiring some tokens and overhauling the look of the board by Fall of 2008.

I'm guessing they're updating the JP Morgan character to resemble a computer wizard in dorky glasses.

Cheers,
Victoria

Dust Bunny Queen said...

DBQ, you're on fire today, woo

/bow

Thanks, but probably just that time of the month...you know how ALL of us women get bitchy, can't think and crave chocolate.....where's my god-damned Baby Ruth bar?!?!? (joking...but not about the candy bar)

Too bad about the Monopoly tokens. My brother and I would fight over who got the hat or the shoe. No one wanted the iron...it reminded us of work.

vbspurs said...

Holy TMI, Batman! ;)

...I like the iron and the hunter best.

Back to Brazile -- she's a more practised professional at hiding her anger, than Michelle Obama. It comes out as sarcasm, but it's just as seething and dismissive inside.

Cheers,
Victoria

Ann Althouse said...

I like the shoe.

reader_iam said...

George: This article, though from 2005, includes a reprint of a 1998 picture of Paul Begala.

Here's another, same vintage.

Your wish is my command (in this case, anyway).

; )

reader_iam said...

Well, I was going to ask, "Althouse, haven't you blogged about Monopoly before"? But then when I Googled it, I see that I was thinking of a comments section of yours back in November 2005, in which we commenters ended up talking about what board games caused the most fights, with Monopoly being right up there, it seems.

(That was the comment section in which Ruth Anne good-humouredly called Victoria "squismoid" and wished her "beers," by the way.

Gosh, time flies.. .)

reader_iam said...

I think was actually originally thinking of the game-pieces references in Althouse's Christmas Day 2005 post about board games, though. She was a coffee cup, but the shoe fits, too.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The shoe or the race car. I could stomp the dog (my little brother) with the shoe or run over his dog with the race car. I still have the old pieces made out of pot metal, most of the houses and a few of the cards from the game we had over 40 years ago. I made a 3D collage to put on the wall. GOD I'm an old packrat.

vbspurs said...

Squismoid?? What rare chicanery is this?

(And have I really been on Althouse almost 3 years, on and off? More off than on though)

Trooper York said...

Paul Begala is an evil evil man. He looks like a super villian from Marvel Comics. Like the Red Skull from Captain America or Mephisto from the Silver Surfer.

jeff said...

"Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Pretty cool."

Wonder what his thoughts are about that now?

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Actually he looks more like this

Anonymous said...

Tobacco spitting, beer swilling, Nascar loving, wealthy, white, cigar and scotch sipping, investment bankers.

Now that's the high life.

A brilliant insight also.

reader_iam said...

DBQ: I thought that had already been assigned to Chris Matthews? At least by one side of the blogosphere .. .

reader_iam said...

And have I really been on Althouse almost 3 years, on and off?

E-yep. You can look it up.

Trooper York said...

Jeeez, that's a long time to be on anyone.

It's almost a John and Yoko thing.

Very impressive.

Trooper York said...

The more I think about it, Begala looks like Loki the way Jack Kirby drew it in the early Thor God of Thunder strips.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

"DBQ: I thought that had already been assigned to Chris Matthews? At least by one side of the blogosphere .. ."


Maybe, except without the drool.

More like EvilCharlie Brown

vbspurs said...

Dibs on being John.

Mortimer Brezny said...

Everyone knows a political strategist has to analyze the various demographic groups.

Yes, but as micro-targeting teaches, traditional political market segments may not be actual segments that correspond to political behavior. You may be better off tracking "Wal-Mart shoppers" than race and "frequency of Internet usage" than gender. So Begala, carving up the political market into race and gender categories is being divisive because those are emotive appeals to female chauvinism and racism. I think Brazile was right to call him on it, and so do most people in the blogosphere commenting on the video.

blake said...

If I can't be the shoe, I don't wanna play.

rhhardin said...

Peggy Noonan at the WSJ sees Begala as the insincere one

Paul Begala wore the smile of the 1990s, the one in which there is no connection between the shape of the mouth and what the mouth says. All is mask. Donna Brazile was having none of it.

But she also wrote

Party elders should be coming out on the balcony in full array, in full regalia, and telling the crowd, "Habemus nominatum": "We have a nominee." And the crowd below should be cheering, "Viva Obamus! Viva nominatum!"

It's always dangerous to correct sombody's Latin, high school having been so long ago, but I'm pretty sure it's vivat.

rhhardin said...

Oooo!

Somebody suggests the ``I Like Ike'' button for Obama

Obamam amabo

a palindrome. That wins the November election hands down. McCain doesn't have a chance.