Ben Smith delivers:
In the primary, Obama’s campaign, with the partial exception of South Carolina, never overtly drove the cries of racism. Part of the candidate’s selling point to the white majority is that he isn’t a bearer of racial grievance, and he is very careful to preserve that impression. Meanwhile, his surrogates and the media pursued the stories, doing real damage to Clinton’s campaign and her husband’s legacy.
The audience in the general election is different. Swing voters likely have a different set of beliefs and feelings about race than Democratic primary voters. Obama’s campaign seems to be aiming to keep race out of the foreground — despite his call for a national conversation about race this spring, he’s talked about it relatively little. And his widely-viewed biographical ads depict only his white, Kansan family.
The ad in question:
Alright, Ben, honey, after watching that ad, do you want to take a stab at why only his “white” family was covered? Could it have anything to do with the fact that they raised him? Could it have anything to do with the fact that he did not have a ZOMG BLACK WIFE and OHNOES TWO BLACK KIDS when he was growing up? I mean, I suppose he could have put a picture of a black family in there, even if it wasn’t his. Maybe this one would work better for you:
***ATTENTION REPORTERS*** This is NOT Obama’s real family
The idiocy of our media has never been on more prominent display than during this election cycle.
Billy K
OMG! Is that really the group you want living in the White House?
And why isn’t Barack actually in that photo? I see Michelle and their maid, but where is Barack!?
El Cid
Barack Obama was clearly being a mean hypocrite for not including his distant Kenyan relatives he met only recently and all his Indoneso-jihadist Muslimosexual grade school friends. It’s not like John McCain leaves the wife who waited for him all those years McCain spent as a POW out of his biographical portraits.
jake
Movin’ on up!
John, I nomintate this your most LOL worthy post evar.
Elvis Elvisberg
More bonus idiocy available here.
Time’s Michael Scherer’s take on McCain’s “lie about my opponent” strategy is essentially, “it’s got a good beat and I can dance to it.” He says in comments, “it is sad that McCain cannot run on his own merits, like he has done in the past, but it is also a recognition of a reality that McCain certainly did not choose for himself.”
McCain’s just playing the hand he was dealt, people. What, did you expect him to come up with some sensible plans for the country’s future, or to hire non-psychopaths to run his campaign or something? For God’s sake, the man’s a war hero!
Notorious P.A.T.
I’m sure it would work better. To some people, they all look the same.
smiley
This is what they do with a picture of his real African family. Racists.
evie
Someone is spamming Obama ads in the RSS feeds, somehow replacing them with a video from Courtney whats-her-name. Yours had it and so did Lynn Sweet, so it can’t be a coincidence.
nightjar
Oh that’s rich. Never thought Smith was a Clinton apologist, or maybe the wingers over at Politico have their marching orders to get MCcain elected.
The coward doesn’t have the balls to come out and say what he means. That these “different set of voters” are more racist and Obama is playing to their racism.
jake
Um yeah. I’m not sure how it’s possible for the first African-American to have a serious shot at the White House can keep race out of the foreground (paper bag?) but never mind such trifles.
If this cretin is arguing that people who might be a little leery of Obama because he’s black will be SO reassured to know that he’s only half-black, he has rocketed beyond Hasn’tGotAClueVille and is headed into the utter depths of supreme obliviousness.
Brian
Who wants the over and under on that image being on John McCain’s site and read its discussion in Charles Krauthammer’s column by the beginning of next week?
Incertus
Considering that “The Jeffersons” is probably the closest many of our elite DC reporters have had to actual contact with mixed race families, I’m not surprised that they’ve bungled this so badly.
Brian
Alright, that’s what happens when you change what you are going to say and rush to hit the “submit comment” button without editing because you think you have something clever to say. That should read, “Who wants the over and under on that image being on John McCain’s site and being discussed in Charles Krauthammer’s column by the beginning of next week?”
Zifnab
You wish. He’s just hoping he can play the racism card against Obama. “Look, even the first black Presidential Nominee in US History is embarrassed of black people, so all you bigots out there shouldn’t feel so bad.”
Eric
Obama needs to tie Exxon and their record profits to McCain and Bush while asking the public are they tired of being sucked yet in his campaign ads.
Foxhunter
Golden McPenis Award
Not exactly mantle material, but you get the point.
montysano
Meanwhile, Andrea Greenspan chomps her cigar and cries “Breaking news! Stop the presses!”
jake
Lots of people will get stuck on “OMG, MIXED RACE SEXXORS!” Which is what makes Ben so excessively clueless.
Bedlam UK
I liked the advert. Quality message.
Irrelevant to me in UK, but hey, He’s a damn sight better than Brown :p
Svensker
I dunno. Seems to me that the message of this ad is: Barack Obama isn’t really as exotic as he looks. Heartland, Kansas, family values, hard work, patriotism, getting off welfare, supporting the military. It seems pretty much aimed at white voters to say, see, he’s not so scary.
montysano
From Yahoo’s front page:
Mother of jabbering Jeebus, someone please kill me now. Or at least confiscate my mouse so I can’t click to see teh stoopid. Whatever………. just please make it stop.
It sux to live in Bizarro world. In a sane world, BO would be up by 20% against the lamest candidate in recent memory. I’m starting to get The Fear that we’ll get what we deserve this fall instead of what we need.
Its me again
“The idiocy of our media has never been on more prominent display than during this election cycle.”
You give them too much credit. . .they’ve been just as or even more idiotic for for the last half century or so. It just seems so because it’s so “in your face” and current.
Davis X. Machina
It’s ‘gaining traction’ by virtue of Yahoo saying it’s gaining traction.
We’re in the world of Max Headroom, where electoral votes were distributed across networks, not states, and adjusted not after the decennial census, but after sweeps week.
John Cole
It isn’t just that, it is the notion that in his biographical commercial he chose to highlight his family because they are white, and not because, you know, THEY ARE HIS FLIPPING FAMILY.
It is like accusing Mccain of being racist because his biographical commercials of his family don’t include any black people.
It is idiocy.
myiq2xu
Um, NOT:
Ah, remember the good old days when John Cole bashed Democrats for always playing the victim-card?
Just Some Fuckhead
Did you really just call Ben Smith “honey”?
Awkward…….
1jpb
Nirvana post.
This perfectly states what is the current bizarre situation.
I’m never sure if the media’s actions are the result of being dim and lazy, or do they have some mega-brilliant algorithm and data recovery system that allows them to pinpoint the stories that will maximize their viewership/readership.
Well, maybe I’m not all that confused about this, especially now.
Here’s a telling comment from Maddow via commentator John at Ben Smith:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0708/Obama_as_Britney.html?showall
“Race to the white house (NBC)- Rachel Maddow
…that McCain can refer to himself as President, hold weekly radio addresses like a President, and talk about what the world will think after his first-term, and no one calls him presumptuous or arrogant. Yet Obama does far less than that, and he gets called those things. She said there’s obviously a lot of underlying racism to it.
She also said that Dana Milbank’s quote has been debunked…”
A lot of racism, who knows, possibly some. But the overall point is correct, this certainly is ridiculous.
Further, it’s not a good thing for BHO if he gets more coverage, but his coverage is more negative than McCain’s. This means that the media is running free hit pieces for McCain, and then McCain get’s to complain that he’s the undercovered victim. That’s some trick; as has been empirically shown (even on the more mild TV news outlets.)
http://medianation.blogspot.com/2008/07/closer-look-at-obama-and-media.html
“But hold on. More coverage doesn’t necessarily translate into favorable coverage. As it turns out, a new study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA), at George Mason University, shows that coverage of both Obama and McCain has been more negative than positive — but that Obama has clearly gotten the worst of it. (“Media Bash Barack — Not a Typo” is the headline of the center’s press release, reproduced in full below.)”
And, this review even gives Fox a break for two reasons. 1) they don’t include the real hatchet shows (essentially free 527’s for McCain) and 2) they don’t look at the second half of the Fox Report show, where the round table does an unbalanced hatchet job.
It would be interesting to see this sort of study if they looked at the hatchet shows on Fox–they should count lies and manipulations too. Maybe Fox could have some sort of disclosure like the other 527 advertisements. Sure these are opaque and meaningless, but it would be funny to see such a thing on Hannity.
Scott H
About that group on behalf of whom Ben Smith favors us with his faire la moue: Barack Obama married a black woman; Barry’s gold.
John S.
Ah, yes.
I also remember the days when you weren’t a ratfucking troll.
ThymeZone
Idiocy is letting myiq post here. That fuckstain has never had a useful thought that could be turned into a post, so far.
As for this racist stuff, it’s pretty clear that McCain is doing what he is doing in order to lower the level of the thing to that of schoolyard taunts. Once he has a taunt fight going on, he figures he can win it. The GOP specializes in taunt fights, and this is not the bottom.
We are just hours, or days at most, away from seeing the McCain campaign settle into “I’m a war hero, how dare Mister Obama accuse me of racism?” We saw the same tactic during the primary from the Clintoons. We have already seen their sockpuppets in the press doing it.
We have seen today a story floated on GOS that the McCain campaign had an ad ready to go if Obama visited the troops in Germany, accusing Obama of politicizing the injured troops. Instead, Obama canceled, and they went with an ad criticizing him for not visiting the troops.
This is a calculated and well-tested GOP strategy. It would be a little more realistic around here if some people weren’t acting surprised that this is happening.
What did you expect?
Just Some Fuckhead
I’m certain you are imagining that.
Davebo
Wow El Cid..
Reading that McCain family bio informed me that Doug McCain and I deployed together on Med Cruises on the America and Eisenhower.
Punchy
No John, this is bonus idiocy. Lunacy.
Teak111
John, if your gonna point out every right wing blog smear idiotsy, your gonna go blind and get carpal tunnel syndrome. Its the start of the smear landslide that the GOP has used successfully for the last decade. What the hell is Obama;s crew going to do about it. That is what you should be writing about, if I may be so presumptuous to make a suggestion.
PeterJ
I was reading about the Gleiwitz incident the other day.
w vincentz
Fahgit the “racism” bull shit. There will soon be released video of the guy in the other “mens room” stall, the one with the cop on the left, Larry (toe tapper) Craig in the middle, and in the far right one…some guy named McFarty.
Cumming soon to an intertube near you.
Original Lee
Spot on, John. This is “I left my brain in the shower and it washed down the drain” idiocy. I guess this explains why they ask Obama about everything not quite whitebread about the artists on his iPod playlist – by virtue of his skin color, he’s too black to be trusted (ZOMG, he’s claiming he’s just like us white folks and he probably rented himself some white geezers to say they’re his grandparents), but by virtue of his upbringing, he’s white enough that he’s supposed to dis what every random hiphop or gangsta rap artist does.
Andrew
HINT TO BEN SMITH: THERE IS A BLACK MAN IN OBAMA’S AD. HIS NAME IS BARACK OBAMA.
Jesus, people are retards about this shit. Like Ross Douthat!
The Briscoe Kid
The wingnut caption reads: “The Clintons and Rodhams were bad, but wait until this bunch starts running around the White House.” It denigrates Obama family members, identifying one of them (incorrectly) as a gay p0rn star.
A gay p0rn star!
I can’t believe these asshats would go there when NRO and Fox News employ a gay p0rn star/prostitute and after a gay hooker was working in the White House thanks to the current administration.
We also have this forgotten gay p0rn mini-scandal that’s linked directly — literally skin on skin — to George W. Bush. Here’s an NSFW URL that shows Bush shaking hands with a gay p0rn star IN THE WHITE HOUSE! …
http://blog.cubik.com/MT/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=13
And here’s the article that explains how a “friend of a friend” helped set up a meeting between Bush and the gay p0rn star. I wonder if this “friend of a friend” knows Jeff Gannon?
The p0rn star’s name is Jeff Griggs. Here’s a link to his IMDB bio. The last seven titles on his filmography are hardcore gay p0rn videos. The third title on his filmography is a role on the neocon wet dream “24.” He played the guy on the train who got killed by the Iranian terrorists because he was carrying the McGuffin.
If the Clintons had had this many ties to the gay p0rn industry it would’ve taken up another 250 pages of the Starr Report.
w vincentz
@ Punchy,
I clicked on the link you supplied above.
I’m still shaking my head.
Yikes, the puppet master is nucking futz fer sure.
kchiker
AND the wife and children are not identified on his birth certificate. Coincidence? I think not!
The Briscoe Kid
Just noticed something. Lionel and Weezy Jefferson are both dead. Two more names to add to the Obama Death List.
binzinerator
No that fits perfectly with the long-ago documented propensity for projecton by the right wing.
Neiwert also noted years ago that “projection from the right has become such a common phenomenon that it’s now a very useful gauge in guessing where the right is taking us next.”
Now you know why the putz Goldberg decided to title his magnum dopus as Liberal Fascism. They insist their enemies are doing what they’ve been doing themselves.
John S.
Sadly, no.
I wish I were making it up, but once upon a time myiq was a thoughtful and often witty commenter. But then he joined the personality cult of Hillary and when Super Tuesday came to pass he started getting unhinged about Obama and the rest is history.
roadie
Ain’t nuthin’ wrong with that!
Just Some Fuckhead
Nah, I read his stuff back when. He’s just a wiseass. Nothing more thoughtful than that.
A Hidell
Yes, but at least they are useful idiots. They are well compensated for their work, and there’s a very good reason why they are paid good money to make asses of themselves. There is a ton of real money at stake in how the next 10 years plays out. In military terms, this election cycle would be considered a rear-guard action covering a temporary retreat.
Kiril
And his widely-viewed biographical ads depict only his white, Kansan family.
Except for the black guy who’s the star of the commercial.
I don’t know why, I laugh a little whenever people hint that he’s trying to hide his blackness. Because, you know, he’s a black guy! I mean, just look at him. Every day, all day long, he just keeps on being black. Every time I see him on TV he’s black. He’s not doing a very good job of hiding it.
Chris
Dang John, the last election cycle best displayed the media’s idiocy, hands down.
Seriously–a bullcrap war, bullcrap tax policies, bullcrap everywhere, and they’re entranced with Kerry’s flip-flopping, Frenchness, and supposedly questionable Vietnam experience.
Ya can’t top it!
Ken
Dickipedia says Barack and Michelle have five children: Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy.