John McCain: Just a bleached-out Alan Keyes?

Grover Norquist has a label for Barack Obama

Funny thing, David and JTM keep telling me that it’s those lousy Lefties who are “obsessed with race.” Guess we better sign up Grover Norquist for the ACLU.

I’ve said it here several times, but it’s worth repeating. Obama supporters, please stop seeing Obama as just a black candidate, and start looking at him as the Democratic candidate for President.

I’ll do my best on that, David. You wanna clue in Grover?

Update: Will Ed Morrissey apologize?

Trackbacks & Pings

  1. Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator on 27 Jun 2008 at 6:03 pm

    Plan for Obama-McCain town hall meetings falls through…

    Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday rejected Republican rival John McCain’s pro…

Comments

  1. Pigilito wrote:

    Followed the link, but I must be blind as I couldn’t find the quote. Although there was another one you could substitute.

    Posted 27 Jun 2008 at 4:50 pm

  2. ben wrote:

    it’s those lousy Lefties who are “obsessed with race.”

    Well, you’ve had two posts in a month attempting to equate the word elitism with racism. I guess it all depends on whether you’re a “lousy Leftie” yet, or just a pissed-off Republican. Either way, you’re proving someone’s point.

    Posted 27 Jun 2008 at 6:33 pm

  3. Stephen wrote:

    Pigilito,

    3rd graf - “Kerry with a tan.”

    Posted 27 Jun 2008 at 7:39 pm

  4. Pigilito wrote:

    That’s the one I referred to. I thought blocked quote in your post was from the linked article. I guess it was from a comment left by either JTM or David?

    In any case, I thought the Kerry with a tan remark was funny. After all is there anybody that doesn’t know Obama is black? And it’s purpose isn’t to make you imagine Obama with a white woman at the country club, but rather to link him with whatever negative opinions folks have of Kerry (especially his flip flopping reputation, I imagine).

    Now, on to the more important: who do you favor in the Euro 2008? Spain are picked to win, but it’s hard for me to bet against the Germans.

    Posted 27 Jun 2008 at 10:38 pm

  5. Alon Levy wrote:

    I don’t know how racist this is. Rove has used racist innuendo in the past for his own political ends; Norquist as far as I’m concerned is just a nut.

    However, I will note that if I wanted to tar Obama by referencing Kerry, I’d probably say something like “He’s a younger version of Kerry,” or “he’s like Kerry with charisma.” That way I’d neutralize his selling points, by portraying them as just a cover for Kerryesque politics. I’d also drive home the message that Obama is a very vapid candidate.

    Posted 28 Jun 2008 at 7:37 am

  6. Stephen wrote:

    Pigilito,

    When Obama predicted:

    “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?”

    Ed Morrisey at Hot Air got the vapors, and called it “McCarthyism … and Obama should apologize.”

    So now, prominent Republicans are doing exactly that (I suppose David C will try to find some distinction between ‘did i mention that hes black?’ and ‘kerry with a tan’) .. but now it’s all “Aw c’mon, just a little good-natured ribbing between friends. Everyone knows he’s black.”

    Is there any limit to this that you’d find offensive? “Kerry in blackface?” “Kerry who can shoot hoops?”

    Posted 28 Jun 2008 at 8:41 am

  7. canuckistani wrote:

    Euro2008:
    Best comment comes from a German newspaper: “Last time we beat Poland in the early rounds, it was Russia that came out on top.” Not so much this time, but since Franco outlasted Hitler, I’ll go with Spain :-)

    Posted 28 Jun 2008 at 9:09 am

  8. John the Marine wrote:

    Stephen, I may be a ruthless Conservative and no fan of Obama, however I’m a fair man. “Kerry with a tan” seems like a pretty overt reference to race.

    Reading the article I did find this interesting;

    Since Norquist isn’t running for anything, he can get away with such remarks; we doubt McCain will be incorporating the line into his speeches anytime soon.

    It would seem that even the LA times doesn’t think McCain is dumb enough to try and play race inuendo games.

    Now, I have to point out to you that your tortured arguement of elitist = N****R is in no way vindicated by Norquist’s remarks. Also, Democrats are indeed obsessed with race and indentity politics. So, nothing has really changed.

    Posted 29 Jun 2008 at 6:35 am

  9. Pigilito wrote:

    Stephen,

    Obama’s warning wasn’t to warn America about forthcoming racial attacks, it was to make it more difficult for his opponents to criticize him. Standard politics.

    As I noted above, the Kerry joke was funny (in the same way jokes about Bush’s intelligence are funny). It was to link him to Kerry’s weaknesses as a candidate. Doubtless Norquist should have used Alon’s formulations, but was it racist? No. It doesn’t rise to that level. I would find your two examples offensive.

    C-stani, that is hilarious. Having become interested in soccer during the 70s, I always find it hard to imagine Germany losing. So, I’ll pick the big German bruisers over the finesse Spaniards (how’s that for national stereotyping?) in a penalty shoot-out.

    Posted 29 Jun 2008 at 9:23 am

  10. Stephen wrote:

    I gotta go with Germany too.

    Posted 29 Jun 2008 at 9:24 am

  11. Stephen wrote:

    Re: racist comments

    I’ll try to explain the game that’s going on here, with simplified numerical equivalents. Using the N-word is, on my scale of “Obviously Offensive,” a 10. In an earlier comment thread David C. offered some examples that would cross the boundary, e.g. “affirmative action candidate.” I’ll call those, achieving an overt level that we all admit, 7.0. (Just as a number.)

    So here’s the game. GOP operatives like Rove and Norquist have been, and will continue, putting up 6.8’s and 6.9s for the next five months. Just “close enough” so that sometimes JTM will begrudgingly admit it’s racist and others will say “aw c’mon, that’s not so bad.”

    On and on it will go. “Oh, did I mention that he’s scary brown guy?” And, as long as such a comment is, in my formulation, only a 6.8 or 6.9, pushing right up to, but not over the 7.0 offensiveness limit, it will draw plenty of defenders.

    As a personal aside, I think it’s revealing to see how many 6.8s people will want to rationalize away.

    Posted 29 Jun 2008 at 9:33 am

  12. John the Marine wrote:

    Stephen,

    Elitest = 4.0, at best.
    Kerry with a tan = 7.0 in my book because it is a direct reference to skin color.

    The Democrats and Liberals having crying wolf in respect to race so long that I will almost always give the GOP the benefit of the doubt.

    Posted 29 Jun 2008 at 10:18 pm

  13. Alon Levy wrote:

    On the same scale:

    Elitist in a general context could be a 2 at worst, but in a country club contest, I’d make it a 6.

    “Kerry with a tan” is 6-7.

    Ferraro’s “He wouldn’t be in this race if he weren’t black” is about an 8.

    I’m not sure where to place Shelby Steele’s contention that Obama’s success is based on his convincing whites of their innocence.

    Posted 30 Jun 2008 at 12:53 am

  14. Pigilito wrote:

    Stephen,

    Your continued focus on mentions of Obama’s race (wait, is that a 6.8, a 6.85, or a 6.89 on the outrage meter? I look forward to your post when something rates a 7.01 :)) is missing the point. Everyone knows Obama is black. Everyone who will vote based on that has already decided. No matter how often Obama’s race is mentioned, it won’t change that fact. Given that, what some Repubs are doing is only counterproductive; any mention of Obama’s race works against them in the minds of most voters.

    Once Republicans associated with McCain’s campaign or the RNC begin linking Obama with negative stereotypes of blacks, then you’ll have reason for outrage. In addition, linking Obama to folks such as the Reverends Sharpton, Jackson, and people like Rep. Waters will show the Repubs are getting down to business. However, I have yet to see anything half so egregious as Clinton’s remark about hardworking whites voting for her. That was truly beyond the pale, and killed whatever respect I had for her. What is disgusting now are the continued mentions of Obama’s middle name in the hope of linking him to Muslims. To my mind this is far worse than the crime of merely noting his race.

    On the other hand this article notes that it is the Dems who are doing the most (effective, at least) smearing

    Posted 02 Jul 2008 at 10:39 am

  15. Pigilito wrote:

    ****. Sorry, here is the link.

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11463.html

    Posted 02 Jul 2008 at 10:41 am

  16. Stephen wrote:

    “My continued focus on …”

    Yep, that Grover Norquist is my puppet. “Hey, Grove! Toss out a 6.8 for me will ya? I need something borderline egregious to blog about.”

    Posted 02 Jul 2008 at 3:02 pm

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