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Posted on 09/14/2008 12:44:26 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
So we wake up this morning to a Web ad from the McCain-Palin campaign accusing Barack Obama of sexism. It is a swift and superb effort and, from what we know about these things and the political climate in which we live, likely to be effective. It is a quick and dirty piece of television remarkable for the jaw-dropping, breath-taking, head-shaking dishonesty on which is it based.
The basic charge is that Obama called Sarah Palin a pig, and that is sexist. Nevermind that it never happened. It is now clear that the Republicans' strategy for victory is not to discredit Obama's views or his policy positions but to destroy the man himself.
Based on the current trajectory, what Obama may have coming will make the swift-boating of John Kerry look like a campfire song. And if Democrats are nervous and a little dispirited today it is because they have seen the effectiveness of this approach before. More importantly, they have seen it in combination with the complete inability of their own candidate to effectively respond. Obama's speech on charter schools and the importance of education in Dayton, Ohio yesterday did nothing to advance his candidacy. Instead, all the energy and resources of his campaign were spent explaining that the phrase "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," is an old English axiom meant to convey that deception has limits. Even McCain has used the phrase on occasion.
With undecided white women moving to McCain, the sexism ad will further monopolize Obama camp resources.
Obama's counterpunches so far, have sounded a little bit naïve, almost idiotic:
"…The American people aren't stupid. They are going to get it," he told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann early this week. "But we've got to make sure that we are being clear, not only that they [the Republicans] will not bring about change, but the very specific kinds of changes we want to bring, in terms of green technology jobs in America, investing in our education system, making college more affordable, making health care accessible to every American."
This is not a civics seminar; it's a knife fight, and the McCain camp is bringing automatic rifles.
Right now it is not about the American people getting it. It is about Obama getting it. He's getting hit over the head with a baseball bat and looking like he wants to file an amicus brief about it.
It would be silly to count out the Obama strategists; they have defied every prediction and surpassed every expectation thus far. But watching the Obama response to the Sarah Palin frenzy, conjures up sad images of John Kerry, Al Gore, or, dare we say it, Michael Dukakis.
Once again, we have Democratic dignity on display. They are taking the high road, constantly acknowledging John McCain's honorable service to the nation and saying that Sarah Palin is a tough and talented politician.
Meanwhile, on the low road and on their high horse, Republicans are making minced moose meat out of Obama. In 30 brutal minutes during the Republican Convention last week, Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin took Obama's anti-elitist, street cred and turned it against him.
Need a reminder? Here's Giuliani: "…You have a resume from a gifted man with an Ivy League education. He worked as a community organizer. What? He worked—I said—I said, OK, OK, maybe this is the first problem on the resume. He worked as a community organizer."
The sense of fun and sneering condescension that Giuliani brought to the conversation was matched only by the patronizing and dismissive tone of Palin herself.
"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities," she said.
Maybe it would have been better for Obama to have called Sarah Palin a pig, rather than to have spent a day explaining why he didn't. Voters actually respond to that kind of jibe, if they think you're fighting the good fight against people who don't have their interests at heart. And that is the genius behind the last week of the McCain campaign; they have posited Sarah Palin as the fighter against people who are "not quite like you."
"We don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening," Palin told a rapt crowd at the convention.
Disqualification by derision—the exquisitely effective brand of GOP identity politics.
John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning in Virginia today, then she will go home to Alaska to a hero's welcome. She has put John McCain ahead in the polls, and the Republicans are so happy they are like pigs in …. well, you know.
Obama will campaign in Norfolk, Va. where he will "discuss his plan to reform and strengthen America's schools for the 21st century." Yada yada!
Then, he will tape an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.
My suggestion for a Top 10 List: "Ten Reasons I'm Not Going to Get Punked by John McCain."
That's Obama for you ...monkey see monkey do!
Right now it is not about the American people getting it. It is about Obama getting it. He’s getting hit over the head with a baseball bat and looking like he wants to file an amicus brief about it.
It would be silly to count out the Obama strategists; they have defied every prediction and surpassed every expectation thus far. But watching the Obama response to the Sarah Palin frenzy, conjures up sad images of John Kerry, Al Gore, or, dare we say it, Michael Dukakis.
I JUST love it when Dems cannot seem to figure out what happened or is happening. 7 more weeks.....it’s looking good!!!
``
December 16, 2007
Better off adrift, than Bushed
Terence Samuel of the liberal American Prospect has penned an editorial in defense of congressional Democrats, the penning of which one assumes required numerous pauses for some serious gastrointestinal heaving. I’ll give him credit for pluckiness, though, since defending the indefensible requires a real chin-out, stiff-upper-lip sort of damn-the-torpedoes paralogism that few with good reputation would be willing to dangle for public consumption and inexorable ridicule.
Will GOP Pay The Price For Foley? Oct 14, 2006
American Prospect: Scandal Could Bury Republicans In Midterm Elections - CBS News ... American Prospect: Scandal Could Bury Republicans In Midterm Elections ... (The American Prospect) This column was written by Terence Samuel. (CBS News)
Apparently, the Obamanuts sitting right next to the Messiah when he uttered the lipstick line got the joke and knew it was a knife in the back of Sarah Palin. Yet, we are supposed to pretend that the people whom The Messiah was speaking to understood something that doesn’t exist to the members of the media who watched it on TV. Maybe The Messiah has the ability to telepathically communicate with his cult and his words are merely a distraction for the rest of us.
Deputy Editor of TheRoot.com
Terence Samuel is deputy editor of TheRoot.com, an online magazine aimed at African-American readers. Samuel is a former senior editor at U.S. News and World Report and was once a New York-based national correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has been the director of news programming at AOL Black Voices and is a political columnist for the online edition of The American Prospect, where he has written mostly about Congress.
From 2000 to 2005, he was the chief congressional correspondent for U.S. News, where he covered the historic 50-50 Senate of 2000, the Jim Jeffords defection, the demise of Trent Lott and the dissolution of the Republican Revolution. He has appeared on PBS’s Washington Week, “Hardball” on MSNBC, CNN International and Fox News, as well as on international media outlets including the BBC and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
For Obama to win, the country needs to be mature enough to get past some age-old stereotypes and divisions. The recent McCain surge is a reminder of how difficult that may be. There is simply no denying that race is an issue. But if Obama is defeated in November, it may have less to do with overt racism than another obvious issue in this race: class, and a striking inability for a majority of white, working class Americans to connect with Obama and his vision for the country.
Obama's unique task is to introduce Americans to the concept of change—change that is about far more than policy issues. He has to convince Americans that, regardless of the color of his skin, his vision and his plans for the country are superior to those proposed by John McCain.
He also has to connect with working class and rural white Americans, many of whom, believe it or not, have not ever really had an intimate friendship or dialogue with a black person, especially one whose education, career and life prospects far outpace their own.
It may work. It may not. But black people, particularly those of us of Obama's generation and younger, who have been blessed with great educations, opportunities, jobs and incomes, need to come to grips with the fact that we cannot have it both ways. We cannot both see ourselves and our success reflected in Obama's rise, and at the same time blame racism as the only explanation if he loses. That rationale simply won't wash anymore.
Much can and will happen over the next eight weeks to challenge all of our perceptions about what is possible. But we have advanced the ball too far down the field to claim racism as our principal national weakness. Regardless of the outcome, we have drawn closer to fulfilling this nation's great promise and America's political landscape has changed forever, whether people actually vote for change or not.
Sophia A. Nelson is a media commentator and political analyst.
Small correction. The collective IQ is actually rising. The guys at the top are not getting any smarter but the guys at the bottom are gaining IQ points at the rate of about 10-20 points every 30 years.
It's called the Flynn Effect after the guy that discovered it.
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“ut the very specific kinds of changes we want to bring, in terms of green technology jobs in America,”
Govt doesnt create jobs, Mr obama!
He will destroy traditional jobs in America in the process of have govt subsidies for these so-called gree jobs. Its the same old socialists govt industrial policy that has failed before.
” investing in our education system, making college more affordable”
Ream the taxpayers for even more $$$, to overfund the over=expensive and extravagant college educations that few can afford because ... the govt is interfering too much.
” making health care accessible to every American.”
It already is accessible, the issue is cost and affordability. The Democrats keep insisting on making health care LESS affordable, by opposing tort reform, adding mandates to health insurance, and adding more and more govt funding, which drives up costs more.
The first rule:
NEVER bring a community organizer to a Moose Hunt.
Cheers!
[Hes been nasty but every time he has it has backfired.
Thats their problem. ]
Conservatives, more or less, are constrained by telling the truth. The reason this seems so nasty sometimes is that the truth is often nasty and filled with ugly consequences.
Calling Obama a communist is both nasty and truthful.
I agree. When they accuse McCain of using it with Hillary they forget that he pointedly used it referring to one of her policies, not her.
It’s even less wise to slap a pit bull - or a barracude!
It’s called cognitive dissonance, and it is rampant on the left...
THAT's what is really disturbing (though never surprising) -- leftists like Terence Samuel and Helen Thomas go along for years within the MSM shaping coverage, sometimes blatantly, sometimes subtly, but always with partisan bias. Then if they finally strike out on their own or for more openly ideological entities, we suddenly see much more blatantly what they have been about all along.
AND, of course, much of the upper ranks of the MSM editorial cadres comprise people much like Helen Thomas and Terence Samuel who happened to get promoted further.
You’re right, it is called cognitive dissonance.
But blind, insane rage is what it is.
And a hoot to watch.
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