ADDED: More here:
The furor started on Thursday when Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager, said, “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck.” Mr. Davis was alluding to Mr. Obama’s remarks on Wednesday that Republicans would try to scare voters by pointing out that he “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”...Fighting back? He brought it up. He can't use his race as a factor and disqualify it simultaneously. Pick a position and stick to it. Obviously, the better position for Obama is transcending race, and obviously, if he thinks he can dip gracefully into the subject whenever it works for him, he's wrong.
For Mr. Obama, the risks of fighting back are that anything that calls attention to the racial dynamics of the contest would potentially polarize voters and stir unease about his candidacy, particularly among white voters in swing states. He is, after all, a candidate who has sought to transcend his own racial heritage in appealing to the broad electorate.
Meanwhile:
[A]t one of his rallies on Friday, where seven self-styled African revolutionaries began shouting and pointing at him, accusing him of undermining revolutionary struggle.Some people will try to lure him into talking much more about race. Friday's hecklers were easy to resist, but the same demand will be made in other, more subtle forms. He needs to stay race-transcendent. Lefties tend to revile race transcendence — to regard it as a kind of racism. I've heard that point of view many times, from very intelligent individuals who express themselves quite rationally and persuasively. They don't shout and point and interrupt. Obama has to resist them too.
Posts
79 comments:
What else could it have meant? Does anything that transparent even deserve the name "lie"? "Denial," maybe.
Quoting from article:
"He's new to Washington. Yes, he's African-American."
From Wikipedia:
In 1870, Joseph Rainey of South Carolina became the first black member of the United States House of Representatives and thereby the first directly elected black member of Congress. Blacks were also elected from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia.
Yes, African-Americans are new to Washington D.C. and Congress, aren't they.
Cheers,
Victoria
"He's not from central casting when it comes to candidates for president of the United States. He's new to Washington. Yes, he's African-American."
Nice quote selection.
By the way, BHO said this same thing himself, on npr. Yawn.
I'm with Amba. Is it really a lie if no mentally normal adult would believe it for an instant?
I'm bummed that he backpedaled so fast, though. I was kind of looking forward to his supporters here trying to pretend that they believed him. Now I'm denied that opportunity. Damn you, Mr. Obama.
My favorite part of the article is "the tension between the campaigns was escalated".
And here I was hoping those crazy kids could work things out.
Revenant and others,
Think 'bait' or 'fodder.'
This post a little earlier would have been fun to fall for, but this one is ready for a fork, imh-completelyBiasedAndUnthoughtful-o.
But the thing is, he has a funny sounding name, and plus, he doesn't look like those other guys on the dollar bills.
Hey, he's right. I do think that. Everybody knows you have to have a non-funny sounding name and you simply must resemble all those other guys on the dollar bills.
His awesome abilities of projection have caused me to seek refuge in the completely unrelated activity of making a pop-up card for my brother.
I call it a lie because there is no way to argue it was true and no way the campaign could have believed it was true. It's important to call lies lies and if you have to be stupid to believe it, that just means that on top of lying, they think we are stupid. It doesn't get him off the hook. It gets him on a second hook.
Wow, Chip, that's really cute.
And here I was hoping those crazy kids could work things out.
And it's Rev FTW.
Black, white, or mixed, Obama is and will continue to be the most under-qualified candidate of a major party ever to run for President of the United States.
Except that McCain did have Obama had a 100 dollar bill in one of their ads and they made him look sinister.
And the McCain supporters constantly say Barrack HUSSEIN Obama whenever they mention him.
And McCain just released his second racist ad of the week.
It's obvious Ann will vote for McCain. I guess she likes recessions and wars.
Hey, he's right. I do think that. Everybody knows you have to have a non-funny sounding name
The real pity here is that Obama isn't running against Huckabee.
Except that McCain did have Obama had a 100 dollar bill in one of their ads and they made him look sinister.
The ad is here (it is the one mocking Obama for his personalized "Presidential Seal"). McCain didn't make him look sinister; he made him look like a dork. He looks about as sinister as Urkel.
And McCain just released his second racist ad of the week.
But what we really want to know is -- was the ad homophobic?
The notion that Barack Obama is a devious trickster who was caught trying to tar the Honorable John McCain only makes sense in a world in which you ignore that all of McCain's advisers safeguarding his honor fled the campaign to be replaced by Rovian hacks, that McCain has actually played the race card against Obama by insinuating he is more foreign, that McCain has actually run a web-ad placing Obama's face on Mount Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty, and the currency as a joke, that Rick Davis is a hack who planned to run a smear campaign from the start, and that white elder statesmen from the South -- exactly who you'd expect to take McCain's side were Obama truly race-baiting -- have told McCain to watch it with his backwards-logic race smears. It seems the fairest conclusion is that McCain probably played the race card, as Matt Lauer noted in the interview that was taken out of context by the ABC News article that Ann cites. Not to mention that McCain's whole frat-boy negativity schtick? It ain't workin'.
I call it a lie because there is no way to argue it was true and no way the campaign could have believed it was true.
What exactly is the lie?
Bob Herbert nails it..
Well, I meant to link to this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/opinion/02herbert.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
MB-
The lie? Read Ann's first link.
The Obama Heckle audio, with additional heckling by John and Ken (KFI) here (real audio).
John and Ken tend to represent the ordinary male's take on Obama. No estrogen at work.
Rich B,
I have. That link is the ABC News article that Ann is citing to that takes Axelrod's comments on the Today show out of context and claims they are a concession. They are not. That is why I provided a link to the video clip that the ABC News article that Ann is citing to purports to accurately describe. Perhaps you should watch the video and listen to Axelrod's comments for yourself.
It wasn't a single lie, either. It's a pattern of trying to brand opponents, and the McCain campaign itself, as racists, and of trying to tar all criticism of Obama as essentially racist in character.
From an Obama speech in June:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/06/21/obama-theyre-going-to-try-to-make-you-afraid-of-me/
"It is going to be very difficult for Republicans to run on their stewardship of the economy or their outstanding foreign policy. We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. ‘He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?’"
Republicans have been doing that to Obama.
Whether McCain's campaign had been doing that was unclear until this week.
Obama is what results from anthropomorphizing lefty college professor beliefs like 'all whites are racists'.
Don't vote for him? Racist.
Don't support his policies? Racist.
Sounds like he took some of Rev. Wright's teachings to heart.
I call it a lie because there is no way to argue it was true and no way the campaign could have believed it was true. It's important to call lies lies and if you have to be stupid to believe it, that just means that on top of lying, they think we are stupid. It doesn't get him off the hook. It gets him on a second hook.
From now on when asked to state some lies that the Bush administration has told (as I am constantly called on to do), I will use Ann's definition of "lie".
"Nobody anticipated the breach of the levees" and "we know exactly where the WMDs are" are baldfaced lies under this standard.
It's obvious Ann will vote for McCain. I guess she likes recessions and wars.
No, no, Ann is still leaning towards Obama. God only knows why since like the McCain campaign she has just been negative on him. Maybe because, like the McCain campaign, she realizes that although she can think of reasons not to vote for Obama (after all her buddies Instapundit and Amba and the McCain campaign are spoonfeeding her reasons), she can't think of any reason at all to vote for McCain.
Freder Frederson said... "ignore the liar behind the curtain ...look over THERE instead!"
I don't think anyone should be surprised when the McCain campaign hits the Obama campaign for playing the race card. Some at the Obama campaign called the add showing him along with Paris and Brittany racist because they saw putting a black man with white women as inciting racist fears, being code words, etc. But much more likely, the McCain campaign was doing exactly as they said they were doing, calling Obama a vacuous media sensation, and the best examples of that are those white women. (Try to come up with some black women who would bring up that association as well).
Some at the Obama campaign called the add showing him along with Paris and Brittany racist because they saw putting a black man with white women as inciting racist fears, being code words, etc
No one from the Obama campaign said that. John Marshall of TPM and Atrios from DailyKos said that.
But much more likely, the McCain campaign was doing exactly as they said they were doing, calling Obama a vacuous media sensation, and the best examples of that are those white women. (Try to come up with some black women who would bring up that association as well).
Oprah and Halle Berry.
Obama is an unusual candidate in more ways than race. And he has been saying that for a long time.
To all of a sudden make a charge that this oft-repeated comment is just plain silly. And desperate.
Its interesting that you are quick to call out that Obama lied but i do not see you blog about the lie the McCain campaign put out that falsely insinuates that Obama canceled his visit because "the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras." (http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/snubbing_wounded_troops.html). Hey its your blog.
And was not McCain the first to put out an ad saying "The American president for the American people" in March (http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/03/28/the-american-president.aspx). To this immigrant it insinuated that if you are not white how much you try the Republican party will never consider you American. And people wonder why a majority of immigrants support the Democratic party.
"To this immigrant it insinuated that..."
Then you are clearly too impaired to vote.
Chip- you prove that some of Ann's regulars have talent. That is a really nice card!
I agree with you Ann. There is true or false, errors and miscues, mistakes and omissions and then there is downright lying (some call it being careless with the truth).
I still defend Bush for WMD after his CIA director said it was a "slam dunk"! He got bad intel and I call that erroneous but not an out and out lie.
Obama is trying to have it both ways.
Mort: You can count on one hand the number of faithful readers Bob Herbert has. I don't think he has written an original Oped in many many years.
"And people wonder why a majority of immigrants support the Democratic party."
No they don't.
It's called 'entitlements'.
It's encouraging to see that, while BO was travelling abroad, acting like he was already president, McCain was preparing to knock him off his pedestal, and call him out, as Bill C did too, for playing the race card.
I didn't think he had it in him.
Hey Chip that was a really cool card.
Do you think you could make a pop- up race card?
You could make a lot of dough.
I don't think the Bush administration was lying about WMD. I think they believed something that was wrong. So did a lot of people. Colin Powell wasn't lying.
Obama's dollar bill statement came out of his own head. He knew what he meant when he said it. There wasn't some unknown information outside of his possession. The sum total of what one needed to know to know if it was a lie was in his head. Hence, he had to know it. The only argument out of that is that he's programmed to say words he doesn't understand. Can't use that one.
Ann: "programmed to use words he does not understand".
That appears to be what occurred when he told Americans to inflate your tires. He obviously did not understand what he was saying there! Or he is dense about math and basic science.
Did you notice how quiet his audience was when he said that? Even they knew he was full of soup.
Obama's dollar bill statement came out of his own head. He knew what he meant when he said it. There wasn't some unknown information outside of his possession. The sum total of what one needed to know to know if it was a lie was in his head. Hence, he had to know it.
It may be that I just had some wine, but I honestly don't understand this.
MB, you'd better be careful calling Oprah vacuous. She has spies everywhere.
obama has fallen into a trap with his playing of the race card. for any other elective office (other than president) it might have worked, given the political correctness that holds sway on domestic matters. but for the presidency, all mccain has to do is say "is obama going to whine and complain about the russians and chinese being mean to him?". obama has revealed himself to be the momma's boy he has been all along.
"the McCain campaign was [...] calling Obama a vacuous media sensation, and the best examples of that are those white women. (Try to come up with some black women who would bring up that association as well)."
Oprah and Halle Berry.
Those are your examples of vacuous black celebrity? The first is the most successful black woman in the history of American media and the second is an Academy Award winner. That's a pretty dippy suggestion.
It is obvious that had McCain packed his commercial full of vacuous black celebrities he'd have been accused of racism for that, too. We'd be hearing how he "singled out blacks for criticism" and ignored obvious white examples like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.
Really, though, why complain? Every time Obama pulls out the race card he alienates more of the vote. The only people who like listening to blacks make phony accusations of racism are left-wing whites and self-involved blacks, both of which groups are already completely in the tank for Obama. Normal Americans of all races are sick of hearing it.
I, for one, am glad that no Republican president or presidential candidate has ever had a funny middle name that his opponents used frequently in an effort to, well, do whatever it is that repeating someone's real middle name does.
You know. For instance, suppose, just suppose, that Richard Nixon had had a funny middle name. (It's a stretch, but play along here.) Surely Democrats and generic Lefties would *never* have used such a middle name in an effort to do, well, whatever it is that repeating real but funny-sounding middle names does.
I mean, really! Suppose Richard Nixon's middle name had been somthing weird, like, say, 'Milhous'. (I know, I know. No one would believe that one for a second, but play along with me here a bit longer.) Can you for one moment believe that Democrats and generic Lefties would *ever* go around saying "Richard *MILHOUS* Nixon" as if it had some odd meaning (dog whistle)? I mean, REALLY!!
"To this immigrant it insinuated that..."
Then you are clearly too impaired to vote.
You're missing the point, Pogo. Can't you see that McCain was white in that TV ad? He was white -- and he said he was the best choice for President. That's code telling you "white people make the best Presidents".
Obviously you totally didn't read this month's VRWC newsletter. Jeez.
Oh, and considering the number of times the lie "Bush lied, millions died" has been repeated, it scarcely behooves Lefties to get all huffy about the meaning of 'lie' now.
Really. It obviously depends on what the meaning of 'is' is.
In it's strongest form, lie means deliberately and knowingly offering information the presenter *knows* (or seriously believes) to be false as if it were true in order to cause the receiver of he information to take a different stance than she would have absent to presentation of the false information.
Thus, presenting untrue information that one truly *believes* to be true (you know, like when you use the intelligence that the previous administration proffered as the best available) is a mistake, but not a lie.
Obama's utterances too frequently fall into the first category, as in the present case.
The second worst form of lie is the half-truth, in which the presenter offers only part of the necessary information, but the information offered is true. However, by leaving out something important the presenter still induces the receiver to take a faulty stance. This is the "lie by omission."
There are many other forms, but all 'true' lies require the knowledge by the presenter that he is causing the recipient to take a wrong stance based on the information proffered by the presenter.
Politicians in general are experts at various forms of lies but usually try to avoid the first case due to the consequences when they're caught out. When they are, they usually try to argue (as some have here) that the event was actually a lesser form of lie, and thus unimportant, or they try (like so many here) to change the subject or conflate it with other, off-topic) matters.
Federson is good at trying these tactics, not so good at actually convincing.
I think "Rutherford B. Hayes" is a pretty funny name.
TO: Althouse, et al.
RE: History Lessons
"He brought it up. He can't use his race as a factor and disqualify it simultaneously. Pick a position and stick to it." -- Althouse
I doubt if he's paying attention. Let alone 'listening'.
As some wag put it....
You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time. But you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. -- Abraham Lincoln
The important point here, and in November, is whether or not the majority of voters can be fooled all of the time.
We'll have to ponder what the vaunted American public education system has done for US these last 30 years.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Education, v., Replacing an empty mind with an open one.]
P.S. I don't think that has been their objective all this time.
The first is the most successful black woman in the history of American media and the second is an Academy Award winner. That's a pretty dippy suggestion.
Oprah makes her cash promoting vacuous self-help mishmash to fawning, insecure housewives and Halle Berry won an Oscar for faking an extended orgasm with Bill Bob Thornton. Not so dippy.
Millard Fillmore.
I know that victorious generals get a pass and all that, but isn't Ulysses a funny-sounding name?
And Polk isn't exactly normal, either.
Garfield.
Grover.
Hell, Zachary.
Grover Cleveland!
Estes Kefauver! Well, okay, he didn't win, but he might have if not for...
Adlai Stevenson!
This race seems to be turning into a "better the devil you know than the devil you don't know."
McCain is not exciting, period, end of paragraph.
Obama is exciting but completely untested and unknown in a crisis.
And the more Obama has to refresh his impromptu statements with the calculated revisions of his staff, the less he seems ready.
But I really do wish Obama presented a good case for me to not vote for McCain because I really don't get excited by McCain, and don't really like him all that much.
But I just can't place it all on a rookie at this point. I honestly would probably vote for Hillary over McCain, but that option seems gone.
One person's take.
"‘He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name."
He can correct that situation quite easily. Just change his name to Barrack X.
Quayle --
That's how 41 beat Dukakis...
Want To Read Liberals Bashing Obama? "The Fairy Tale Revisited" on Talkleft is great on this issue.
Most of the commenters appear to be Hillary supporters who did not appreciate Obama's race baiting of their candidate.
If I'm reading the subscript correctly, if you call Obama a shallow celebrity, YOU'RE A RACIST.
If you criticize his lack of foreign policy experience, YOU'RE A RACIST.
If you criticize his wife's "for the first time I'm proud to be an American" comment, YOU'RE A RACIST.
If you criticize his 20-year affiliation with a leftwing, anti-American, racist spiritual advisor, YOU'RE A RACIST.
If you criticize him for characterizing rural whites as narrow-minded, churchgoing gun nuts, YOU'RE A RACIST.
If you criticize him for affiliating with Chicago crooks and Weatherman terrorists, YOU'RE A RACIST.
If you criticize his flip-flop on campaign financing, YOU'RE A RACIST.
Maybe this would be easier if someone could tell me what topics about him ARE fair game for discussion.
Does he have a stamp collection, maybe?
Obviously, the better position for Obama is transcending race, and obviously, if he thinks he can dip gracefully into the subject whenever it works for him, he's wrong.
I think this captures Barack's problem. He's spent his adult life so far in environments where he can dip into and out of the subject at will -- the obsequious pc worlds of academe, community activism, and lower level Democrat politics -- and few if any would call him on it. He cannot do that in the race for president, and he hasn't adapted to this new reality yet. The double and triple standard environment of his past has left him unprepared for the video saturated campaign of today, where he will be expected to be somewhat consistent day-to-day.
Y'all are funny, and now boxed in too.
Anyone who said that BHO played the race card with the dollar comment must agree that McCain played the race card first.
Or, is it not racism when McCain literally evicts founding fathers and replaces them with the face of BHO in his ads.
And, you McCain defenders must find it hard to explain that the McCain folks went out of their way to freeze the BHO-on-money image as the image that would show before you click play on Youtube.
http://www.jedreport.com/2008/08/setting-the-rec.html
But, McCain would never try and call attention to BHO not looking like founding fathers on the currency, because that's racist. Except he did. Oops.
Revenant, who's laughing now.
TO: All
RE: I Wonder If....
"Y'all are funny, and now boxed in too." -- 1jpb
...all Dimmicrats are as dense as 1jb.
He seems to have missed the point of Althouse's initial entry, altogether.
Here he/she/it is talking about McCain and a picture of Obama on a dollar bill, and Althouse is talking about how Obama shifts his args about his race, one way and then the opposite, depending on what suits him.
Sheesh....I wonder if 1jpb and Obama have the same drug supplier and/or preferences.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Cocaine isn't what it is cracked up to be.]
1jpb,
I fail to apprehend the "gotcha" here. Are you saying that BHO did play the race card and that by aping him (wait, is that racist?), therefore JSM did, too?
Or is it only that those who believe BHO played the race card must apply the same standard to JSM, and your position is that neither is racist, but if you believe one is, you must believe both are?
Anyone who said that BHO played the race card with the dollar comment must agree that McCain played the race card first.
Why on earth would anyone agree to that? The most recent prior instance of Obama doing the same thing was in a speech before 200,000 people in Berlin. That pre-dates McCain's ad. You protest too much, at too great a length, and do great damage to your candidate in the process.
Chuck,
I was clearly addressing folks who accused BHO of playing the race card.
Blake,
I think that Herbert has some things right.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/opinion/02herbert.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
We've seen that McCain has no problem lying (repeatedly and without hesitation or remorse) about his opponents, but we're suppose to believe that he would never use racism.
This purposeful Youtube freeze frame with BHO replacing Ben is in addition to the hyperventilation of playing reverse race victim.
The question is this: We know McCain wants to win. We know he's willing to repeatedly (even after being caught) lie to win. Why exactly are we suppose to believe that he wouldn't use racism? I wouldn't use racism, you wouldn't use racism, so we maybe predisposed to assume that others wouldn't use racism. I have less faith* in McCain than you do.
*Less faith now, that is. In 2000 I campaigned for him in the primary. Real campaigning, e.g. hitting the streets. That remains the only time I've been that active in my support of a politician.
Randy,
The ad in question is from June.
1jpb,
Can't agree. Anyone who could write this:
Senator Obama has spoken more honestly and thoughtfully about race than any other politician in many years.
Is already in the tank. Obama's been as evasive and tone-deaf as anyone could be. "Typical white person" indeed.
And then there's this:
Senator McCain is the head of a party that has viciously exploited race for political gain for decades.
Which makes it pretty clear that Herbert is a died-in-the-wool Democrat. (Or at least anti-Republican.)
“doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”
Am I missing something? Isn't there only one President on the dollar bill, George Washington? Who were all the other Presidents on the "dollar bills"? I mean, there are other presidents on other notes, like the five dollar bill and the twenty dollar bill.
And, come to think of it, John McCain doesn't look much like George Washington either. even if you put a powdered periwig on McCain, he wouldn't look much like George Washington.
Has Obama ever seen a dollar bill? Or has someone else always been there to pick up the check and pay the highway tolls? Someone should ask him what's on the back of a nickel. No, not the hideous new nickels, the old-style nickels.
Oh, and as far as why McCain wouldn't use racism, the answer is: It wouldn't work. It would backfire.
You'd have to think awfully little of the citizenry of the USA to believe otherwise.
The argument seems to be that he's speaking in code words. That there are vast reservoirs of votes to be gained by slurring Obama that could make up for the votes he would lose the instant the average joe got a whiff of racism from him.
Or that he's playing on people's unconscious racism, maybe. Assuming that unconscious racism exists, and is powerful enough to override conscious revulsion toward racism, it still has to result in enough net votes for the seas of votes he'd lose if it got out.
To say nothing of how low you think McCain would have to be to do something like this. This is not impossible--the 2000 Confederate flag flip-flop showed considerable willingness to pander--I guess, but it's not something I would suggest to his face.
And it would get out.
I really think Obama guys are going about this the wrong way. I don't like McCain at all. I think he's arrogant and pig-headed, and even when I agree with him (like on immigration), he puts me off. McCain-Feingold all but guarantees I won't vote for the guy.
But I don't think he's running a particularly dirty campaign, and I don't think he's a particularly dirty guy. Trying to convince that he is is probably going to fail.
Ask yourself this, too: How many white people have been accused falsely of being racists? How many of them are going to empathize with McCain?
Regarding Herbert; I wasn't explicit enough. When I write that he got "some" things right I'm carefully avoiding an approval of "everything" he wrote.
"Ask yourself this, too: How many white people have been accused falsely of being racists? How many of them are going to empathize with McCain?"
Nobody I know has ever complained to me about being called a racist. I don't know the answers to your questions, nobody does. Sometimes I avoid reading the minds of the my fellow citizens, this must be the situation here.
Rather than read minds, I stick to more knowable facts. Racism exists. Dems, Indies, and Repubs all have racists within their ranks. racist sentiments differ in intensities for different folks.
For these reasons I agree with Herbert:
"Every day that the campaign is about race is a good day for" McCain.
Surely the McCain folks realize this too. Hence, the theatrics as they loudly played the victim.
As an aside:
In my little world I do know of racist folks who aren't voting for BHO because he's black. I know some folks working in a hospital, and they've encountered fellow staff, but at the lower income levels, who think it's amusing that they (and people they know in their communities: Indian and Chinese) won't vote for black people, including BHO. Apparently, they share their racist views with joviality and zero guilt, even when they are confronted.
This anecdote isn't really relevant, but it's on my mind, I just heard it a day ago.
I know you didn't agree with everything, didn't mean to imply that you had.
Well, yeah, I think the issue of race, as long as it consists of vague subtexts, hurts Obama. If he can't fight the perception that any and all criticism against him is going to be labeled "racist", he's going to suffer for it.
But the issue Herbert doesn't mention is the 90% link between black voters and Obama. Is that racist?
Nobody I know has ever complained to me about being called a racist.
That guy who had to resign for using the word "niggardly" might complain.
I guess you don't have to read minds. Just read the paper. (WARNING: Not actual advice. No one should read the paper.)
Well, lookie here, Penn & Teller is all about it. Yeah, I think it's common.
I'm not really paying attention to McCain's campaign (is anyone?), so if they overdid it, I dunno.
But I did see the recent Barack-as-Prophet ad, and don't see it as racist. People claiming it is--whether BHO or supporters--are hurting him by doing so.
Or, is it not racism when McCain literally evicts founding fathers and replaces them with the face of BHO in his ads.
Who else reacted to the above sentence by thinking "I must have read that wrong or something"? Just curious. Racist... to put someone's face on money?
But I did see the recent Barack-as-Prophet ad, and don't see it as racist.
Well, all criticism of black people is racist... Barack is half black... ergo criticizing Barack is at least 50% racist.
It's mathematical! :)
TO: 1jpb
RE: Obviously....
"I was clearly addressing folks who accused BHO of playing the race card." -- 1jpb
....not as clearly as you would like to think. And now I see that you have begun to address your comments to specific individuals instead of that shotgun blast that looked like it was directed at the initial entry of this thread.
You're learning....
Regards,
Chuck(le)
I disagree with the "stay transcendent" part of this post here:
http://www.discriminations.us/2008/08/althouse_half_right.html
By the way, here's a McCain campaign commercial where they replace George Washington's face on the dollar bill with Barack Obama's.
AHEM! So now Obama is not allowed to respond to McCain commercials?!?!?!?!?!
What complete and utter horseshit.
TO: [Brave New World] AlphaLiberal
RE: Sorry....
"So now Obama is not allowed to respond to McCain commercials?!?!?!?!?!" -- [Brave New World] AlphaLiberal
...but your projection is too late and too little.
Back to Bravo status for you.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[It's easy to be brave from a safe distance.]
Every now and then Bob Herbert really nails it. He captures the farce of McCain accusing Obama of playing the "race card":
"The racial fantasy factor in this presidential campaign is out of control. It was at work in that New Yorker cover that caused such a stir. (Mr. Obama in Muslim garb with the American flag burning in the fireplace.) It’s driving the idea that Barack Obama is somehow presumptuous, too arrogant, too big for his britches — a man who obviously does not know his place.
Mr. Obama has to endure these grotesque insults with a smile and heroic levels of equanimity. The reason he has to do this — the sole reason — is that he is black."
Link to a good read, "Running While Black".
TO: All
RE: Speaking of Lies
"Anyone who said that BHO played the race card with the dollar comment must agree that McCain played the race card first." -- 1jbp
Looks like 1jbp is a liar as well....
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/only_22_say_mccain_ad_racist_but_over_half_53_see_obama_dollar_bill_comment_that_way
Enjoy,
Chuck(le)
P.S. If not a liar, he/she/it is certainly grossly in error.
TO: All
RE: A Better Link
Let's see if this works better....
Most think Obama's the REAL Racist
Enjoy,
Chuck(le)
Chuck Pelto sez:
"...but your projection is too late and too little."
Didn't watch the McCain campaign video, did you?
McCain put Obama's face on a dollar bill in the commercial. Get it?
TO: AlphaLiberal
RE: Television
"Didn't watch the McCain campaign video, did you?" -- AlphaLiberal
I don't watch that waste of my valuable time. Gave up on it 11 years ago.
RE: Who Did What First
"McCain put Obama's face on a dollar bill in the commercial. Get it?" -- AlphaLiberal
I seem to recall that Obama mentioned it first.
If I'm mistaken, please show me a reliable source that will prove me so.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
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