Posted on 03/31/2010 5:32:12 AM PDT by Zakeet
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist badly needs some help in his Senate race, as he's currently trailing fellow Republican Marco Rubio. He'd hoped to get some of that help with an endorsement from retired Col. Bud Day, a former Swift Boat Vet. Instead, Crist got a new round of controversy, thanks to some remarks by Day:
[Snip]
"You've got the black one with the reading thing. He can go as fast as the speed of light and has no idea what he's saying," Day said. "I put Rubio in that same category, except I don't know if he's using one of those readers."
This all seems to be related to the idea, inexplicably almost now taken as gospel on the right, that Obama can't speak without a teleprompter. At the New Republic, Jonathan Chait calls this a "racist trope" and suggests that this particular example is, essentially, Rubio's chickens coming home to roost, as the former Florida House speaker has used it himself.
I'm not quite as sure that the idea itself is tied to racism; clearly this example has some serious racial overtones, and that may be a part of it, but I also think it's tied to a desire on the part of some Republicans to get some intellectual vindication for former President George W. Bush. What do you all think?
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
How could it be racist: He’s half white, isn’t he? He can blend in.
Well, I don’t know - what color is the teleprompter?
LQ
I detest his caucasian half.
Obama using teleprompters at that school amazed me. He never looked the kids in the eye.
What a Fing Phony!
Obama the puppet reading someone else's speech.
As a child he watched windshield wipers at work.
I hope these fools use the term “Racist” until it loses its sting.
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