In the interest of setting the record straight about sleaziness in this presidential campaign, let's examine in detail an issue that sprang into view over the last two days: Injection of race into the presidential campaign.
This past Wednesday, Mr. Obama remarked that Republicans would try to scare voters by pointing out that he "doesn't look like those other presidents on the dollar bills." You may recall that this is not the first time he made this kind of a statement.
Referring to this remark the following day, 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."
In an interview on Friday with the St. Petersburg Times, Obama responded, "I was in Union, Mo. which is 98% white, a rural conservative, and what I said was what I think everyone knows, which is that I don't look like I came out of central casting when it comes to presidential candidates. There was nobody there who thought at all that I was trying to inject race into this."
Obama's formidable network of grass-roots activists and the campaign Web sites crafted to give them "talking points" to carry into battle against the Republicans remained uncharacteristically quiet on the matter. However the Obama campaign's chief strategist, David Axelrod, blamed the Republicans for misconstruing Mr. Obama's words as an attack.
Now it should be obvious that what Obama said Friday and what he said two days earlier were not the same words and more importantly, did not have the same context. Suggesting that your opponents will use racial bias against you is a serious charge. Pointing out the racial difference between yourself and prior presidents is, as Mr. Obama himself stated, something everyone already knows. Nevertheless, both comments inject race into the campaign.
To highlight the stark contrast between the two comments, let's put Obama's Wednesday remarks into a more familiar scenario. Let's say that you are a black employee competing with a white employee in your company for a higher level position. You sit before the person he will decide the promotion and say, "My opponent will try to win the position by scaring you about my race." Is that not an attack on the white person? Is that not an injection of race into the decision making process?
No surprise that nowhere in the article did the New York Times find it reasonable to criticize Obama for the remarks. Instead, it focused on the restraint of the Obama campaign in not "punching back". Is it any wonder that the circulation of New York Times for both their daily and Sunday editions is at the lowest point in the last ten years? It is simply no longer a legitimate source of accurate and balanced information.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
The New York Times may lean a bit toward the liberal side of the spectrum however; someone needs to balance out the fair and balanced news of the conservative right, going by the title of FOX News. Mulligans for McCain anyone??
In regards to the injection of race into the presidential election you post about in your blog;
“This past Wednesday, Mr. Obama remarked that Republicans would try to scare voters by pointing out that he "doesn't look like those other presidents on the dollar bills." You may recall that this is not the first time he made this kind of a statement.”
Being that choosing a President from sound bites is an irresponsible act, I would like it if more of the context was presented here. I could easily construe or, mis-construe just as the NYT or FOX does day in and day out however, this would get us no where in a discussion.
Also, in regards to the injection of race, your example in an application process is of course an unfair strategy taken by the applicant of color. However, Obama is at least 50% black which, is 50% blacker than anyone who has ever come this far in this country when it comes to running for President. If McCain was driving his lobbyist fueled ‘Straight Talk Express’ through the whiter than white heartland of America from the perspective of a person of color, then I can only imagine the words that would come from him….
Maybe, just maybe, Obama should stand up in front of everyone, plain as sight and yell, I’m Black and I’m proud just to get the issue out of the damn way. He’s not going to get the dumber than dirt racist white man’s vote anyhow so how does confirming for the legally blind (Gov. Paterson) that he is at least 50% black change anything? If he wants to cart around playing Captain Obvious to those that turn out for his rally’s then so be it. With that written, race is an issue in this election because both men aren’t the same and because sadly, race is still an issue in this country. Maybe its time for a change….
Barack Obama, I’m Black and I’m Proud 2008.
aeaa makes a good point about not wanting to select a president based on sound bites. There is no question that Obama is a much better speaker than McCain so why doesn't he take McCain up on his offer to meet in ten one-hour Town Hall meetings? What a gift that would be for voters like aeaa who want more than one-sided sound bites. You can't avoid the fact that Obama has kept his appearances to huge audiences, even while visiting Europe, unless he is in front of a very friendly crowd. Isn't it also dishonest when for a candidate to limit his exposure to the voters in this way?
On the one hand I agree with you Domo, a town hall meeting would be wonderful to watch.
However, if I was Obama campaign manager I would not agree to it either. These meetings are risky, unpredictable, and that is just what an underdog needs. Just what McCain did with Bush in 2000 for the nomination and it DID temporarily upset Bush's lead then.
I am sure if the role's were reversed, McCain would do the same thing: That which is necessary, legal and ethical to win.
Hey Domo,
I FINALLY found some time to doa bit of research on your acussations of Obama injecting race into the political landscape and this is what I have found:
"For those not keeping score, a quick review of the McCain campaign’s lunge for Obama’s jugular. First, its new slogan: “Country first,” with its inverse insinuation that Obama puts something else (i.e., his own ambition) ahead of the nation. Second, McCain’s accusation that Obama “would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.” Third, the McCain ad “Troops,” which claims that Obama, while in Germany, “made time to go the gym, but canceled a visit with wounded troops—seems the Pentagon wouldn’t allow him to bring cameras.” And, finally, the ad “Celeb,” with its intercut images of Obama in Berlin, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears.
The strategy behind all this isn’t hard to discern: Drive up Obama’s negatives and render him unacceptable to pivotal voting blocs. Thus the depiction of him as too young, too feckless, and too pampered to be president. (In almost every shot in the McCain ads, Obama is smiling flashily, whereas McCain is pictured as weathered, sober, staring hard into the distance—a clever bit of jujitsu, using Obama’s pretty mug against him.) Thus the portrayal of him as precious, self-infatuated, and effete: “Only celebrities like Barack Obama go to the gym three times a day, demand ‘MET-RX chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and bottles of a hard-to-find organic brew—Black Forest Berry Honest Tea’ and worry about the price of arugula,” wrote campaign manager Rick Davis in an e-mail announcing “Celeb.” And thus the emphasis on Obama’s rock-star persona, designed to engender envy and contempt among the swath of Middle America for which hipness is no virtue but a sign of pretension.
The racial undertones of this assault are subtle but undeniable, as Obama himself suggested when he asserted last week that his opponents are trying to make voters “scared” of him because he “doesn’t look like the other presidents on the currency.” They’re most glaring in “Troops,” which features footage of Obama sinking a three-pointer in Kuwait, despite the fact that the shot took place at a military base, which undermines the ad’s argument. But the spot’s deeper aim is to foster an unconscious simile: Obama as a blinged-up, camera-hungry, NBA shooting guard, Allen Iverson with a Harvard Law degree. Am I reaching? Consider this: Would the ad have featured footage of Obama on a golf course draining a hole-in-one? “No, it wouldn’t,” laughs a GOP media savant. “The racial angle is the first thing I thought of when I saw that ad. It fits into the celebrity stuff, too.” (For McCain, that impolitic, pro-Obama Ludacris track was manna from hip-hop heaven
For the full article please go here:
http://nymag.com/news/politics/powergrid/48928/
So, it seems that your good old (did someone say old??) boy McCain is actually the one injecting race via his subtle undertones and nasty attacks and Obama is simply playing defense. Its a bit early to be ugly, no?
In answer to your question, yes, you are reaching. It was Obama who at least twice injected the idea that he did not look like other president's on our currency. It was Obama who injected the line, "Oh and did I mention, he's black." Why would McCain need to insinuate anything when Obama drops race bombs himself.
As far as the 3-pointer basketball clip, it was Obama who allowed that photo op, not McCain. Are you saying that it's racially OK for Democrats to use the shots but not Republicans? Sorry, but that is illogical!
As far as I am concerned, you can interpret almost anything into either racial or age related jabs, but Obamas racial comments were directly related to his being black. As an person of Italian descent, I'm sick of all this black hypersensitivity. Other ethnic groups have been targeted too but don't over react. And in Obama's case, his reactions are in anticipation of being targeted. For a guy who claims to want to change the way campaigns are run, this sure sounds very familiar.
Domo-
I'm not really certain how to reply to your posting but here goes nothing....
Firstly, I am not the author of a great protion of my previous post. I am quoting an article from 'New York' magazine. I included a link in the post so that you could read the entire article as well. It is not I that is "reaching".
Also, you will find in this article a chronological breakdown of the injection of race into the political conversation. It shows that there is a clear yet subtle use of race by the McCain campaign, initiated by the McCain campaign. This is acknowledged by both Republicans and Democrats. Obama making comments about not looking like the other presidents on the currency was a defensive strategy and maybe used more than once. However, in this case, the chicken came after the egg....this is not an act of anticipation by Obama - it is a reaction.
In regards to the photo ops, I'm all for using them if they are used in their correct context and not a LIE. McCains smear campaign and the message it sends is a lie and it has severe racial undertones, it is completely and utterly false and it has been proven time and time again. Please go to Factcheck.org for more information.
And to the issue of hyper sensivity about race. If you went for a job interview and found that eventhough you were clearly qualified and actually a little better than the other candidate, according to the most recent polls but, the board members doing the hiring weren't interested in hiring an Italian because of the color of your skin you would say thank you very much, I understand and simply walk away? It would be a shame to appear hyper-sensitive about your race, right?
Sorry, then John Heilemann is over-reaching. When I hear "Country First" I understand it to mean that McCain has chosen to support what is best for the country rather than go along with good-ole-boy politics. He has demonstrated this with regard to pork-barrel spending, support of the Iraq War and the Surge, etc.
Obama has demonstrated that winning the election is more important than winning the war by his outright refusal to state unequivocally that the Surge has worked. Imagine how that is received by troops willing to give their lives for success in Iraq.
And the fact is that Obama did go to the gym rather than visiting wounded troops. As if that wasn't a bad enough decision, he then played word games in an attempt to conjure up an excuse.
Finally, let's face the facts, his speech to a large crowd of Germans backfired and acting like a celebrity, and may very well be a major cause of him losing the election.
Incidentally, nothing new about John Heilemann knocking McCain. He started that even before McCain was the Republican candidate. See the interview below:
http://www.charlierose.com/guests/john-heilemann
THIS IS NOT AN ATTACK....
John McCain is a by the book Republican/good ole boy on every single and last issue. Stemming from his continued support of a fradulent war, his position on nation building, his perspective on international use of force and his foreign policy, his ignorant view on both the environment and the economy (which he openly admits and then his critical of Obama!?!) his 20+ years in the DC inner circle with close ties to a number of lobbyists groups all the way down to how he is letting his campaign be run. He is an extension of the worst president of the modern era and the manifestation of good ol boy politics through and through. John McSame.....the "maverick"??
Also, Obama goes to the gym daily so its like he tossed a coin and decided to cancel a trip which had been planned for months to spend 30 minutes on a treamill....and, he has visited troops on 2 other occasions so there doesn't seem to be an aversion to that either.
Post a Comment