The Obama Code
The Obama CodeBy John J. Pitney Jr.
Easy and ridiculous.
On Friday, Senator Obama warned a cheering audience about the Republicans. “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?”
A few months ago, historian Sean Wilentz dubbed this tactic the “race-baiter card.” Smear your opponents as racists, and if there’s no evidence for the claim, accuse them of using “coded language.” There is no authoritative racial codebook, so the charge is easy to lodge. The campaign need not make such accusations directly, since sympathetic writers will do so.
Consider Senator Clinton’s “3 A.M.” television spot. The ad did not mention Obama. It merely said that if a crisis erupts while our kids are asleep, we need an experienced president to take the call. A race-neutral appeal, right? Not according to Professor Orlando Patterson. Noting that the ad’s sleeping children were white, he recalled the silent movie Birth of a Nation. This racist epic glorified the Klan, picturing black men as threatening and brutish. “The danger implicit in the phone ad — as I see it — is that the person answering the phone might be a black man, someone who could not be trusted to protect us from this threat.”
Patterson’s charge was ridiculous. The ad was a lineal descendant of a 1968 Nixon commercial, which showed a nighttime still of the White House, along with ominous music and a voiceover saying that the president’s decisions “can affect the future of your family for generations to come.” Nixon’s opponent was Hubert Humphrey, a Norwegian American.
An even more audacious accusation came after Obama spoke of “bitter” working people who “cling to guns or religion.” Critics slammed him as an elitist, and many conservatives noted that he was the latest in a long line of liberal snobs. One may think that that likening Obama to Adlai Ewing Stevenson II and John Forbes Kerry is about as un-racist as you can get. Yet journalist David K. Shipler wrote: “‘Elitist’ is another word for ‘arrogant,’ which is another word for ‘uppity,’ that old calumny applied to blacks who stood up for themselves.”And “outlandish” is another word for “absurd,” which is another word for “preposterous.”
more...
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTNmNjdmMTk3ZjNkYzQ2MjhmZDA3OGE2MDQyZmI3MmY=
posted by VerityINK at 2:39 PM
Information:
3 Comments:
Hi VerityInk! I suppose we must take some of the blame for this sorry state of affairs. We've accepted the label of racists and been guilted into overlooking, minimizing or explaining away a multitude of sins and crimes committed by minorities for a couple of decades. We are complete idiots to have gone along with that horse-pucky. Why wouldn't the Obama campaign utilize the same tactics, they WORK! But, in the privacy of the voting booth will we vote with our hearts and minds, or will be manipulated into voting for an incompetent Black candidate who would be a disaster for our country? I hope the answer to that question is NO, we won't fall for that crap!
Great post FW. The "privacy" of the voting booth will tell the story. People are ALREADY sick to death of the race card, and the thoroughly undeserving John McCain will TROUNCE this rookie Post Turtle! I don't even think this race will be close, regardless of what the opinion polls are saying. I've been skeptical of leftist opinion polls for a long time now, for good reason. When it comes to matters of race they are ALWAYS wrong because people lie to pollsters on racial matters and the questions are screwy.
My guess is that McCain wins 42 states, maybe even CA. That's one of the very few states where his dirty-ass RINO politics will actually help him.
Morgan
Morgan,
Keep saying that to yourself, maybe you will start to believe it.
Your pal,
Les
Post a Comment
<< Home