This heatwave/campaign hell is driving me to drink before noon...

McCain's ad is straight out of the same playbook that produced the Bob Corker ad that slew Harold Ford Jr.'s senatorial chances. It featured a bleached-blonde bimbo smirking and juxtaposed with the African-American candidate.

McCain is plumbing the same old archetypal depths of appealing to the worst in humanity.

Hey, kablooie @2; that bottle of scotch in the cupboard is looking better earlier and earlier during this "administration." Hell, this isn't an administration - it's a pipeline from the US Treasury to crony corporations.
McKeating = more of the McSame.

Graham: It's A "lie" To Say Obama Not Injecting Race Into Campaign
By Daniel W. Reilly
Aug 3, 2008

(The Politico) Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Barack Obama is "absolutely" injecting the issue of race into the presidential campaign on Sunday morning, and twice calling it "a lie" for the Democratic presidential nominee to claim otherwise.

“To say that Barack Obama did not intentionally inject the idea of his name and his race is a lie,” Graham said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday."

“There is no doubt in my mind that Sen. Obama is trying to suggest that he is the victim of something,”
[...]
Appearing on Fox with Graham, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) defended Obama's comments.

"What he was saying all along is that he has a different kind of resume," said Daschle. "What he was saying is that he is a different kind of candidate, a different kind of leader."
...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/03/politics/politico/thecrypt/main4317550.shtml

it's all sounding very disingenuous...

Bob Herbert (NY Times) traces the injection of race into the campaign, and places the blame squarely at the feet of the McCain campaign.

(Republished at Common Dreams - no registration required)
Running While Black

Gee, I wonder why, if you have a black man running for high public office - say, Barack Obama or Harold Ford - the opposition feels compelled to run low-life political ads featuring tacky, sexually provocative white women who have no connection whatsoever to the black male candidates.

Spare me any more drivel about the high-mindedness of John McCain.
...

We did the same thing to Hillary doing the primaries, why would McCain risk Obama taking the same low-brow tactic? We made our bed on this front by calling BC racist and HRC insensitive, now let's deal with it.

Have a look at this article by Doug Thompson at Capital Hill Blue: http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/10086
Tells you everything you need to know about McCain.

So how do we prepare for a McCain Presidency? Sure it makes me sick too, but I cannot underestimate the stupidity of American voters, and the way every "news" station is banging way at this distraction, you cannot tell me that the intellectually deficient from Ohio ect., will be smart enough to vote for their own interests this time? Please help--if you know someone building an Ark to a sail away, please direct me to them.

ag

If there's one comment that feeds into the notion that Obama's playing the race card, it's this:

"Did I mention he's black?"

But in the context of the speech, it certainly doesn't sound like he's playing victim. The tongue-in-cheek nature of the comment suggests that he's prepared for it, and that he's aware that it's bound to come up in a political context. And he didn't actually accuse of doing it - he just sees it coming.

Let me add that there is nothing inherently wrong about mentioning race, or mentioning that Obama is black or McCain is white. Where it becomes a problem is when it becomes a political weapon that's used to exploit and encourage long-held prejudices and attitudes. And I think I can say the same thing about the age thing too.

You have to remember what won the election for the GOP in Ohio. Diebold and Ken Blackwell prevented many votes from being counted. What you may not realize is there has been 3 convictions just concerning the recounts.

dennis @ 13:

MountainMan23 @ 9:

Bob Herbert (NY Times) traces the injection of race into the campaign, and places the blame squarely at the feet of the McCain campaign.

(Republished at Common Dreams - no registration required)
Running While Black

Gee, I wonder why, if you have a black man running for high public office - say, Barack Obama or Harold Ford - the opposition feels compelled to run low-life political ads featuring tacky, sexually provocative white women who have no connection whatsoever to the black male candidates.

Spare me any more drivel about the high-mindedness of John McCain.
...

Bob Herbert and the Obama campaign were successful with this tactic with the Clintons. This time it backfired.

His days depicting and exploiting himself as the post-racial candidate are about over.

Politics is funny that way.

notwithstanding the fact that what Herbert says is true ..

McCain doesn't have to raise the race card. He has an army of well paid surrogates on talk radio and cable news, and allies in Congress who will do it for him. Does any fool really believe the Southern Strategy died after Bush used it against McCain in 2000? Bush against Gore in 2000? Bush against Kerry in 2004?

The republican Party may not be a party of racistes but it a party specifically designed for racists. They are wooed, embraced, and counted on to vote against ofyen what's in their own interests to keep the White House free of welfare state policies.

Just look at the number of blacks in the Republican congress to see if they are welcome. Can it be coincidental that JC Watts was the only black in their caucus for years, until at least he found out that he was their token responder to all the racist charges. Condi? She acts whiter than most white people. Clarence Thomas? He is Antonin Scalia in black robe drag.

It's only a matter of time before it becomes THE issue, so to do it now is preferable than in October. SURPRISE! One of the candidadtes is actually black.

Maybe the DNC should counter the Britney-Paris ad with an ad showing that McCain is old, like Ruby Dee or Grandma Jefferson.

konchster @ 23:

We Obama voters shouldn't be surprised that changing the mind of a racist is like unto impossible. The mental picture of a articulate black man as president ruins their upbringing. It's hard to imagine your self superior to a man who has educated himself speaks well and has sound family values as you're getting ready to go to work at Walmart

Yeah. The only way to prevail in November is by canceling out the hard and soft bigots by bringing in a huge cohort of prejudically untainted new voters.

BobbyG @ 26:

konchster @ 23:

We Obama voters shouldn't be surprised that changing the mind of a racist is like unto impossible. The mental picture of a articulate black man as president ruins their upbringing. It's hard to imagine your self superior to a man who has educated himself speaks well and has sound family values as you're getting ready to go to work at Walmart

Yeah. The only way to prevail in November is by canceling out the hard and soft bigots by bringing in a huge cohort of prejudically untainted new voters.

I pray it every day

[...]
Whatever you think about Barack Obama, he does not want the race issue to be front and center in this campaign. Every day that the campaign is about race is a good day for John McCain. So I guess we understand Mr. McCain’s motivation.

Nevertheless, it’s frustrating to watch John McCain calling out Barack Obama on race. Senator Obama has spoken more honestly and thoughtfully about race than any other politician in many years. Senator McCain is the head of a party that has viciously exploited race for political gain for decades.

He’s obviously more than willing to continue that nauseating tradition.

from Running While Black
by Bob Herbert

i gave away the end... a must read.

What's so ugly?

A couple things interest/anger me here. First, I find it unfortunate that we can't talk about race more openly and honestly in this campaign. As soon as Obama even hints at it (i.e.-the dollar bill comment), McCain cried "race" and the initial reaction of the punditry was to pull out the adjective "ugly" without clarifying exactly what was so ugly. What was ugly, of course, was the way the McCain camp spun the issue, and Rick Davis in particular. But the talking heads referred to the entire issue as "ugly," which has the effect of smearing ANY conversation about race, no matter how honest and intelligent, as ugly. This is particularly unfortunate because as the primaries showed, the media have played an important role in reifying racial lines by constantly telling us who our racial, class, and gendered group is voting for. "Look how racially divided we are," they seem to say. "Now don't talk about the issue because it's too ugly."

And this leads me to my second point. Because the media never clarified what, exactly was so ugly, it allowed the McCain camp to pull off a particularly sinister racial smear. The McCain camp put Obama on the defensive with the "race card" accusation. Not only does this shift attention away from what have been questionably insensitive racial depictions from the McCain camp (the dollar bill ad, the white girl juxtaposition with Paris and Britney, the OJ allusion--not to mention the right-wing stuff less attached to McCain), the media also allowed it to turn the critical eye toward Obama, as if he were in the wrong.

What exactly was he in the wrong for, have the media and the McCain camp implied? I think there are 3 answers. First, for many in the media, it seems to be that he was too racially sensitive, too quick to raise the issue, and thus, perhaps a bit more like Rev. Wright than we would have liked. Second, the McCain camp reinforces their suggestion that mentioning race (dollar bill comment) is "playing the race card," and their tone of outrage suggests that Obama is the aggressor and McCain the victim, totally reversing the reality of how race has functioned in this campaign, and largely throughout history. McCain, in other words, has painted himself as the racial victim and Obama the aggressor.

Consider the way the McCain camp has used language in the last couple days. When asked about the issue, their language blurs the line between talking about race, playing the race card, and racism so successfully, that McCain seems to be implicitly accusing Obama of racism. When asked about the issue in Florida the other day, McCain said that Obama did play the race card, dodged the explanation of how Obama's comment could be considered a "race card," and then went on to say that racism has no place in this campaign. We didn't raise it, they did, let's keep it clean. Like magic, McCain has turned Obama's comment from a relatively light-hearted racial observation into "playing the race card" into racism itself. Ironic? Of course, the McCain camp has just defended their shady use of race by tagging their black victim with the smear of being the racist. If that's not ugly, I don't know what is.

katy @ 7:

Graham: It's A "lie" To Say Obama Not Injecting Race Into Campaign
By Daniel W. Reilly
Aug 3, 2008

(The Politico) Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Barack Obama is "absolutely" injecting the issue of race into the presidential campaign on Sunday morning, and twice calling it "a lie" for the Democratic presidential nominee to claim otherwise.

“To say that Barack Obama did not intentionally inject the idea of his name and his race is a lie,” Graham said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday."

“There is no doubt in my mind that Sen. Obama is trying to suggest that he is the victim of something,”
[...]
Appearing on Fox with Graham, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) defended Obama's comments.

"What he was saying all along is that he has a different kind of resume," said Daschle. "What he was saying is that he is a different kind of candidate, a different kind of leader."
...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/03/politics/politico/thecrypt/main4317550.shtml

it's all sounding very disingenuous...

I don't understand why Obama retracted his ACCURATE accusation of McCain as playing the race card??

THe martini accusation was racist
the britney add was racist.

Subliminal, but clearly racist.
So why did he retract it???????
Now McLier and the rethugs can accuse Obama all day. What gives??

The Republican Party has never run a respectable campaing in which issues are discussed. It is always about trivial non-sense, lies, dirty tricks, and personal attacks. The reason for this is that they never have anything positive to run on. If we were discussing the results of the rethuglican governance for the past eight years, there would be no reason to have a campaign. The McSame people have succeeeded, temporarily, in diverting attention. Obama needs to hit back hard on the issues with every venue he has. McSame will get angry and show us why he is not what the country needs. The MSM is guilty of playing into the hands of the sleezy thugs with (R) after their names. The next person who says they are liberal should duck because I am ready to throw a punch. It just isn't so. I heard them today on CBS talking about McSame being a war hero as if that gives him some special hall pass. Hell, I was in Vietnam forty years ago and I have 5 grown children and two divorces and a lot of stuff has happened. The same goes for the lying Keating 5, flip flopping old may yelling at the clouds. Get real people.

Ron @ 35:

mudshark @ 32:

Ron @ 26:

mudshark @ 21:
Man, there is a bunch of links here. Take you pick.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Ohio+2004&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7RNWN

Thank You Ron. For starters, I picked this one.
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen

You might want to look at some of the others too. I know it's a lot to digest but we all should be paying attention to the fact that elections are stolen.

Yeah, I know. And Thanks again Ron for digging that up for me. I just need one to remind me.
The memory ain't what it used to be.

BobbyG @ 28:

Rusty Shackleford's $520 Loafers @ 24:

Maybe the DNC should counter the Britney-Paris ad with an ad showing that McCain is old, like Ruby Dee or Grandma Jefferson.

That will be counterproductive. It'll get spun -- effectively -- as crossing the line (notwithstanding any accuracy). Disrespecting An Eminent War Hero.

Rats, I keep forgetting McCain's war heroism. Good thing we had him holding down that cot in the Hanoi Hilton or we might have lost the Vietnam War.

Just waiting for McBush to really lose his temper and show that he is just a rich, angry old man.

Hard to believe McPapen and Obama are as close as they are.

Well the difference comes down to support for renewable resources vs. support for non-renewable resources.

I'd like to see some solar panels someplace besides all the NASA spacecraft. Like on my roof.

The temp today is 105 for the second week in a row, btw.

Rusty Shackleford's $520 Loafers @ 25:

Maybe the DNC should counter the Britney-Paris ad with an ad showing that McCain is old, like Ruby Dee or Grandma Jefferson.

EXACTLY!! But, the McCain a-holes will be SCREAMING to high heaven on every media outlet if the DNC (so Obama can have plausible deniability) does this.

Johnny @ 45:

Oh please, Obama went to his one trick playbook this week to call anyone who runs against him a racist. BO got his ass handed to him by the McCain campaign. The MSM won't move on from this because Obama has never moved on from this. To this day anyone who disagrees with Obama is branded a racist. The voters are noticing this and are sick of it. That's why Obama is losing ground week by week to an absolutely pathetic McCain campaign.

Gee, den... I mean, "Johnny", I thought Obama's one trick was being "too popular."

Johnny @ 45:

Oh please, Obama went to his one trick playbook this week to call anyone who runs against him a racist. BO got his ass handed to him by the McCain campaign. The MSM won't move on from this because Obama has never moved on from this. To this day anyone who disagrees with Obama is branded a racist. The voters are noticing this and are sick of it. That's why Obama is losing ground week by week to an absolutely pathetic McCain campaign.

I totally disagree with your analysis on Obama and I don't believe that you are racist.....I just think you're a purposely misleading, disingenuous liar tying to frame Obama's point with the usual right wing bullshit.

Joe Trippi is all wet. This Democrat thinks it was Obama, not McCain, who introduced race. Obama made a mistake. It's not his first, and probably won't be his last.

BAC

No one is more aware of the crap McCain is up too then black Americans. Unlike whites in this country we are not easy to fool or play games with. He got a warm welcome, because in-spite of the knowledge, of who this man really is, it was the thing to do. Make no mistake about it though. He will get NO votes from this group, and it has nothing at all to do with the fact that he is white.

We new that in spite of the crap George Bush was selling, we were not buying it. No
matter what the cost. A huge percentage of us, took two steps back and tried to warn white Americans of the dangers Bush and the republicans pose. Not just to us, but to them also.

But because of the standing blacks have always had in the eye's of many white Americans, it was fruitless. We were the ones full of crap and just did not like the wonderful George W Bush, and it seems there is still a small percentage of them that think that way. It's them against us, period.

After eight years of the most damaging policies and legislation passed by the republicans who worship Bush, that anyone could dream of. We are still witnessing many whites, that still can't see through these people and allowing this gang of very ignorant mostly white Americans, in our national media to just play with the minds of these folk, at not be on to them. This is really sad, to say the least, but positive in the sense, most of them can see the light and know that we need to make some serious changes in this country or lose everything.

You have to wonder, what is really in the minds of these people who have not woke up yet. It can't be possible for that group of white Americans who claim to have had all the trappings of a much better education then blacks could ever dream of, to continue to buy into this kind of crap.

Like blacks and everyone else in this country, whites are losing jobs, paying $4+, for their gas, losing their homes, losing their retirement and health benefits and on and on. What exactly does it take to realize these cheap media tricks, that supports this right wing process, that is destroying everyone, do they not understand. These people have no intention of making all whites in this country rich.

It would be impossible to even be silly enough to think like that, so like most citizens in this country they need to wake up and smell the stench of these people they praise and fight so hard for. They are clearly working against their as well as all of our best interest. I say whites because they are clearly the largest group that seem to not get it.

We have a guy, who is both black and white, to save that argument, yet they want to just totally take the fact he is white away with all this stupid ass mess. He loves his white side and his black side, to the point he is working for the better interest of all people, what more could any of us ask for?

Can we get CNN to do the honor of showing the world what it really is to be White in American, and while they are at it. Tell the dame truth, especially of those that are treated as badly as they do people of color. They simply go unnoticed, for the fear, the right wing would simply lose their support. There is no need to show blacks in this country what it's like, because we are living it every dame day.

They need to wake up and smell these people for the stench and vermin, they are. I have to call it like I see it.