Ladies and Gentlemen, the National Review:
Put aside the unacknowledged booing for a moment. The other embarrassing fact is that my six-year-old throws a baseball better (far better, in fact) than Obama. Yet the media went out of its way to obscure that, too — no doubt wishing to avoid unfavorable comparisons to the strike President Bush famously fired from the mound at Yankee Stadium at the 2001 World Series. In its live broadcast, Fox (and remember, this is Fox Sports, not Fox News) covered Obama’s first pitch at a very weird angle that conveyed his spastic motion but didn’t do justice to how pathetic the toss was. But that’s nothing compared to ESPN’s laughable coverage. Here’s the clip. Besides reporting only that there was a “standing ovation for the commander-in-chief,” the announcer made a point of noting that Obama’s pitch “didn’t bounce” before reaching home-plate (though the announcer did cop to the “horrible camera work that made the trajectory of the pitch impossible to see).
Now, take a look at this clip from MLB.com, about 24 seconds in. It’s the only decent footage I’ve seen, and it shows that Obama’s first pitch did bounce. In fact, the pitch did not even reach home-plate — and they evidently knew it wouldn’t. The player who was sent out to catch Obama’s pitch (more on that in a moment) was crouching on top of home plate, not behind it where catchers always set up. And even so, he had to reach out a couple of feet in order to short-hop the ball, which otherwise might have bounced all the way to the backstop.
Now, you can watch the pitch yourself at the link, and it clearly didn’t hit the ground, but you just have to appreciate the fact that McCarthy, a birther and a former federal prosecutor, is now alleging that there is a grand liberal conspiracy at FOX and ESPN to cover-up, well, I’m not sure what.
At what point will his fellow denizens at the Corner stage an intervention?
One other thing- this notion that somehow pitching a ball is something the common manly man can relate to- it isn’t. Steve M. talked about this on Tuesday:
But this is still the right-wing formula: evidence of toughness or brawn or some other jockish virtue is the mark of a fine president, and is even more important than actually being good as president. I say that because even at Fox you’ll see Bush denounced these days for running up deficits and destroying the GOP brand. But he can do a manly thing Joe Lunchpail can relate to, which is why we thought he would be a great president, and it’s why it’s still true, dammit, that he was a great president, even though he was a terrible president.
Actually, even this is bizarre, because it assumes the average middle-forties joe can throw a baseball 60 ft to home plate with enough accuracy and velocity to get it to the catcher in any way resembling a major-league pitch. I hate to break it to you all, but this is not the case.
In fact, the “average” joe doesn’t even play baseball anymore. Hell, the average person doesn’t even watch baseball anymore. The average person didn’t even watch the All Start game his year, with ratings falling again to only around 15 million viewers.
So not only are these wingnuts extrapolating from a baseball pitch all sorts of perceptions of ability to be a leader and general machismo, but they are using flawed assumptions as the basis of their mythology.
McCarthy is welcome to prove me wrong. He and other known athletes like Jonah Goldberg, John Derbyshire, Mark Steyn, Mark Levin, Mark Hemingway, Jim Geraghty, and the rest of the manly man line-up at NRO can post a youtube of themselves throwing a strike from a MLB mound on youtube over the weekend. I assume they’ll be able to do that, because like every other Joe Lunchpail out there, they will no doubt be spending the weekend playing baseball. Just like every other average American.
And then when they are done, I’d like to see their three-point shot.
And, as I am reminded in the comments- don’t forget your bulletproof vest before your pitch, Andy.
Crashman06
What is with wingnuts’ obsession with machoness? It’s mildly homoerotic.
I’ll bet little Andy McCarthy was last picked for dodgeball in 6th grade. Also.
Punchy
Standard McCarthyism.
Max
Obama really does make them mental. I can’t imagine how far ’round the bend they will be when his reign of muslim terror ends in 90 months.
Dennis-SGMM
Considering that Obama was wearing a fairly cumbersome bulletproof vest at the time I thought that the pitch was okay.
McCarthy likely couldn’t walk with the thing on.
Quaker in a Basement
Bush? Pfaugh!
I’ll have you know that Frankin D. Roosevelt once struck out the entire linup of the ’27 Yankees from his wheelchair!
He was throwing some filthy cheese that night. Afterward, he and W.C. Fields laid a dozen chorus girls apiece.
Michael
Guys like McCarthy, Levin, Beck and Hannity would have been tripped, wedgied (or Melvined, depending on your local word), pantsed, swirlyed, noogied and wasped at least 3 times a week in my high school, just out of general principle.
JK
John,
It goes back to Obama’s bowling score. Joe Scarborough, Chris Matthews, and Pat Buchanan almost fell out of their chairs because they were laughing so hysterically over Obama’s low bowling score. The story of Obama’s bowling score lasted several news cycles and Scarborough and Matthews, et al impled that Obama was a sissy because of that low score.
cbear
McCarthy, Goldberg and company may not excel at traditional athletics, but they have lifted the sport of circle-jerking to Olympian heights.
Reginald Perrin
The point is the doughboys at NRO know that they themselves are not macho at all, and lack most virile qualities. They look at someone like W and think they would like to be the same — all cool, taking coke, drinking, womanizing, and talking tough. These are people who secretly admired the bully in their school. And they justify their homoerotic crushes by telling themselve that at least the objects of their repressed desires are macho. And, of course, their constant attempts to feminize their opponents only reveal their own utter contempt for women, because they believe being feminine is a bad thing. There used to be an old WB cartoon of a big dog (named Butch, of course), with a little dog that followed him slavishly “because he’s so big and strong!” The folks at NRO are just the same, and just as cartoonish.
MBunge
Let’s not pass over the fact that right-wingers like Andrew M. are demonstrating clinical dellusions when they say Obama didn’t get the ball to the plate. WTF?
Mike
GregB
Joseph McCarthy reporting for the Irrational Review.
-G
gil mann
Now, take a look at this clip from MLB.com, about 24 seconds in. It’s the only decent footage I’ve seen, and it shows that Obama’s first pitch did bounce. In fact, the pitch did not even reach home-plate
That is one magic loogie.
Ugh
There’s gotta be a youtube of cheney throwing out the first pitch at a nationals game and getting booed and I’m almost certain bouncing it in to the catcher.
goblue72
Its telling that the
pudgey white guyseditorial staff of NRO don’t see being good at basketball as evidence of athletic manliness.Because, I guess,
white men can’t jumpreal men don’t ball.They really don’t like our first BlackBerry President, do they?
Ash Wing League
You know the funniest thing about this ‘controversy’? Back in 1995, Jimmy Carter threw a 70+ MPH strike before Game 6 of the World Series. The crowd went wild and the Braves wound up winning the series later that night.
How many of these wingnuts’ heads would explode if they were shown this?
Brick Oven Bill
If there had been a batter, and the batter had swung, Pujols’ head would have been knocked off. This is because Pujols’ head was well in front of home plate, as were his feet. Pujols head was so far in front of home plate that it surely would have been sent flying into left field.
Obama cannot throw a ball to home plate. People have been fudging for him since 1961.
Ugh
Ah, here’s one, can’t tell if he bounced it but he doesn’t even try to stand on the mound.
Piper
Just ridiculous. I was watching the game, and if anything it looked like Fox purposely cut away from what looked like a pretty good pitch. Now the wingnuts are saying that Fox and ESPN (Disney Corp) are conspiring to keep Obama from looking BAD? Makes about as much sense as the Birther nonsense.
.
Not that Obama being able to throw a strike has jack $hit to do with anything.
A Mom Anon
Oh good lord. Why these people aren’t followed around by giggling crowds throwing rotten produce is a mystery.
Piper
Oh, just watched the true camera angle. It did hit in front of home plate, but Pujols was sitting ON the plate instead of in the usual position. Had he been sitting where the catcher normally would and the ball landed the same distance in front of him, it would have been no lower than the strikes that were called at the end of Sunday’s Cubs v Cardinals game.
.
But so be it, if they want to think the President is an effeminite pussy who can’t bowl or pitch but can clean their clock at Hoops, let them do what they can to make their pathetic selves feel better.
The Moar You Know
Bush can throw a decent baseball. He also started two wars and ran up five trillion dollars in debt.
I don’t give a fuck if Obama can throw a baseball, or if he is such a weenie that he has to underhand it and it rolls half the distance to home base. So far he hasn’t started even one war, so he’s better than the last guy, period.
Brick Oven Bill
Per MLB.com, apparently Obama bounced the pitch. Joe the Plumber would not have bounced the pitch. Joe would have practiced ahead of time and probably would have thrown a strike, just like George W. Bush did when he was like 56 years old.
George Bush was wearing body armor when he threw his strike. The catcher did not have to move in front of the plate when George Bush threw his strike to make it look like the pitch got there.
Obama throws like a goofy person. He should channel more energy into making the ball go towards home plate instead of flailing around like a cat with a balloon tied to its tail.
Sarah Palin can throw a baseball better than Barack Obama. Perhaps even Barbara Boxer.
r€nato
@Brick Oven Bill:
i love you, BOB.
John Cole
@Piper: It never hit the ground.
It would have, but Andy is saying he bounced it, when that just didn’t happen.
Emma
Jesus, BOB, you have GOT to be a spoof. Otherwise, the only Brick Oven is the one your head’s in.
r€nato
I think the GOP should pick up this controversy and run with it.
Let’s hear it for Pitchgate!
I bet they could turn this into the impeachment hearings they’ve been jonesing for since 20 January.
Common Sense
@Brick Oven Bill:
“Obama cannot throw a ball to home plate. People have been fudging for him since 1961.”
(claps slowly)
Thanks for the grade A material Bobby. Spoof or no, that’s some Colbert level satire right there.
EDIT: And they keep on coming. You are on a roll today my man. Get a spoofblog going stat!
Martin
New rule: you can’t comment on another man’s pitching until you’ve put one over the plate yourself on live TV in front of 50K people.
I can still put up low-80s fastballs in the strike zone but you stick me on the mound at Edison field and I’d be happy to not fall over after the throw, let alone get it anywhere near the catcher.
So, it’s time to kidnap some wingnuts, unhood them on the mound at Yankee Stadium during the 7th inning stretch and have them show us their skills. Then they can comment.
kth
Yglesias put this whole line of thought to bed last year, when Michael Goldfarb had some blast about liberal bloggers being Dungeons and Dragons geeks: better to be an out and proud dweeb than a jock-sniffer, the lowest form of life in the universe.
r€nato
Obama doesn’t eat manly mustard, either…
Dennis-SGMM
@Martin:
Here, here!
Ash
Considering basketball (which Obama excels at) requires more agility and quick thinking and teamwork, it’s no surprise these fuckwads care so damn much about a baseball pitch.
r€nato
@kth:
You mean this Michael Goldfarb?
yeah, he sure looks like a manly macho he-man jock.
Napoleon
I read somewhere that Obama was wearing a big bulletproof vest when he made that pitch. Why do you think he had that bulky jacket on?
PS, I see someone mentioned it already.
Dennis-SGMM
@Ash:
And if he’d thrown an 85mph fastball they’d be going on about how he can’t figure-skate worth a shit.
Tax Analyst
I guess instead of Presidential Debates we should just have the candidates perform various jock-type things – One week they could have baseball stuff – Pitching, hitting, base-running, maybe bunting – if that’s not too feminine. Then for football they could use the “Punt, Pass and Kick” format, then basketball with 3-Point shooting, free throws, the Slam-Dunk contest, fancy dribbling, and finally going one-on-one against your opponent. Then maybe Hockey to close things out – Oh, wait…Hockey is, like, Canadian. OK, then how about some REAL AMERICAN STUFF, like the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship)? In 2004 who wouldn’t have loved to see George “Mission Accomplished” Bush prove his manhood in a no-holds-barred ring match against Cowardly John Kerry? – or the Vice-Presidential match pitting Mad-Dog Dick Cheney, bare-chested and wearing shorts trying to gouge out Pretty Boy Edwards eyes?
Rush Limbaugh could be the Repub corner man, and Ann Coulter could maybe parade around the ring between rounds with that sign showing the upcoming Round number on it. Oh yeah, Scalia could be the Referee.
You betcha’
Dennis-SGMM
@r€nato:
Hey! Lay off of Goldfarb: he can throw a Cheeto into the air and catch it in his mouth – most times.
kth
@r€nato yes, exactly
Here’s
Yglesias’ money quote, which is surely relevant here:
jake 4 that 1
Shorter Andrew McBirfer: Hur, hur, Obama iz teh ghey! Give me a real, strong, manly butch man like Dubya any day! [fap fap]
Man, these people are just plain odd.
Tom Hilton
Sorry, but you can only prove your manliness in a sport white people play (baseball, bowling, hockey, e.g.). That’s the Republican rule.
Egilsson
Hey BOB, I bet I can throw harder and more accurately than you or any of those d-bags at the National Review. Does that mean I am more of a man than you?
I bet I am, but it’s not because I can throw a baseball.
Dennis-SGMM
I’ve been through Vietnam, gum surgery and raising an autistic child but, I can’t pitch worth a damn any more. Guess I’d better start wearing dresses.
Tonal Crow
Keep it up, wingnuts. Next we wanna hear about how Obama’s a terrible father because he hasn’t yet divorced Michelle and sent his daughters to a military academy.
Jay B.
@Tom Hilton:
Bzzzt. John Kerry was a hockey player. And Canadians.
DBrown
@Brick Oven Bill: You are an A/O – I am sick of your stupidity. Get a life and learn how to do something useful instead of your pointless dumb remarks here that just prove the only thing you have in life is being a troll.
Tom Q
Just for the record — I believe Bush’s pefect strike was thrown from the grass in front of the mound at Yankee Stadium, whereas Barack actually stood on the mound.
And, like all of you, I’ve now given this matter ten times the attention it deserved.
gex
@Ash: No shit. Have you seen some of the “athletes” that MLB boasts? I like baseball, don’t get me wrong, but most of the time these dudes are just standing and scratching/spitting.
bayville
You mean this Andy McCarthy guy is real? And he worked for our government?
Scary.
inkadu
@Ash Wing League: While they’re digging up that pitch by Carter, they should link Bill Clinton landing a triple lutz before the world figure skating finals in 1998.
gwangung
These bozos probably take a look at John Kruk and think that they’re athletes, too…
JGabriel
Brick Oven Bill:
Damn straight. Why, I remember back in early ’62, when Barry was about 6 months old or so, and people were helping him eat. I said, “Stop fudging for him, he’s gotta learn to eat on his own! Why I’ll bet he didn’t even have to hunt that food down or puree it for himself!”
It’s just a frickin’ shame, BOB! People fudgin’ for kids, no wonder they’re all so damned spoiled!
Fuckin’ fudgin’.
.
Froley
I don’t give a crap over who can do what athletically, but while we’re on the topic let’s remember the previous President, although adept with a baseball, hurt himself while eating a pretzel and another time while riding a Segway.
flukebucket
@Brick Oven Bill: I love you BOB. I always have and I always will.
GregB
I was hoping to get some manly conservative Republican play by play announcing from Ramesh Ponnorru and Brad Schlozman.
-G
fastandsloppy
Maybe he heard Glenn Beck shrieking like a 12 year old girl at a listener he didn’t agree with and it threw off his aim.
inkadu
Hey, BJ’ers… y’know how you were all getting upset about “You got some ‘splainin’ to do.” Check out this most blatant and obvious bit of racism that I’ve seen come out of congress in ages:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNFWRRaTL5I&feature=player_embedded
JGabriel
GregB:
Now that’s just … evil. Do you realize how many eardrums would be pierced nationwide by such a performance?
It’s terribly irresponsible to even suggest such a thing.
.
fastandsloppy
In one of his books Franken claims he can throw a baseball with amazing accuracy. Let’s make him president next.
Silver
The real questions haven’t even been addressed:
Why wasn’t Obama throwing out the first pitch at a Negro league game? What security guard let him into the park in the first place?
gex
@Froley: And while riding a bicycle. Isn’t there a saying about things being “like riding a bicycle”? Yet, Bush just couldn’t handle it. And that really is something a 6 year old can do.
dj spellchecka
that pitch didn’t bounce…..mccarthy doesn’t even know how to WATCH baseball…
someguy
McCarthy is just upset because O is so virile, that McCarthy’s wife got pregnant… without O even touching her!
And yeah, Bush couldn’t ride for shit and crashed his bike all over the place. I’m sure there’s plenty of wingers who think bike riding is macho, and that the way you ride a bike is you take it all over the world with you and crash it in all sorts of exotic locations. Because crashing your bicycle shows you’re manly as shit. And crashing it in China and Scotland shows you’re worldly as shit.
Actually, I don’t know if that’s the case but it would explain a lot about their foreign policy ideas.
Tom Hilton
@Jay B: I think they only added hockey last year, for the sake of Sarah Palin.
daryljfontaine
@r€nato:
In fact, I bet the reason he couldn’t land the pitch was he had snorted too much Dijon mustard using rolled-up arugula leaves. Makes the mind and body all faggy, drugging it up with girly little foods like that. Next thing you know he’ll be paying $400 for a hair stylist to come out to Air Force One and make everyone else’s planes wait in line. Soetoro. Also.
[/wingnut]
D
Da Bomb
Obama will be a true manly man when he can do the following:
Carry aroung glock and shoot at ducks and random humans like Cheney
Take a stick, not a golf cub and get the golf ball to the 18th hole on his first try.. similar to that other black fellow, um…
Tyrone Woods.
Pump some ‘roids and swing a bat like Jose La Raza Conseco.
Also.
ppcli
“but you can only prove your manliness in a sport white people play (baseball, bowling, hockey, e.g.). That’s the Republican rule”
.
Not a white/black thing. As somebody pointed out, Kerry and Canadians play hockey. Swedes, Russians, Finns and other søcialists too. Only pansies play foreign sports like hockey, rugby, Aussie rules football, soccer, or that (so-called) “strongman” thing Icelanders and Finns are so good at where you lift huge boulders and haul trucks with ropes clenched between your teeth, etc.
.
No, you get to prove you’re manly by redstate sports like baseball, bowling, fly-fishing, and shooting people in the face.
JenJen
I keep reading this at all the non-political sites I visit; some nutbar, no matter where I go, throws up that MLB video in the comments, apropos of nothing, and usually says something to the effect of, “My niece/son/handicapped grandmother can throw better than Obambi.”
Now, really? If Andy McCarthy wants to prove his bona fides here, I think he should put up a video not of himself, but of his six year-old, who he claims can throw a ball far better, in fact, than Obama. Because honestly, if his kid can stand on the mound and throw a change-up to the catcher that reaches the plate and doesn’t bounce, well, I would like to see that.
In the meantime, I can guarantee you that when I was six years old, I could cheer better than Michelle Malkin.
kay
@someguy:
I thought Bush spent too much time on recreational activities, myself.
Although, maybe it would have been worse had he actually been running anything. We’ll never know.
Crashman06
@JenJen: If a six year-old can do that, the Mets better sign him ASAP. I don’t care if he’s wingnut or not.
Mike P
@Brick Oven Bill:
The reason Andy McCarthy and folks like Bill are making a stink out of this is because baseball is a sport “Real Americans” play and a real American like GWB could throw a fastball, so fuck off!
Strange that McCarthy didn’t link to Obama draining the three ball. It’s well established that Obama is a hoops guy, but since he doesn’t look like a cast member from “Hoosiers”, we can’t evaluate his athletic ability as it pertains to basketball for some reason.
Any guesses as to why that is?
Jay B.
@Tom Hilton:
Oh yeah…Somehow, beyond all comprehension, I managed to forget about her.
MikeJ
I would pay good money to see Brandi Chastain kick the ass of the next person to use the phrase, “throw like a girl”.
And then she could rip off her shirt.
gex
@Jay B.: That must have been a nice reprieve for you.
ppcli
AARGH! moderation. Never mind.
r€nato
@inkadu:
I can’t decide whether that was racist or just pathetic.
(why can’t it be both?)
LD50
BOB just figured out it’s Ayers’ handwriting on Obama’s certificate of live birth. He’s all atwitter with excitement.
Mike P
@r€nato:
It’s both.
freelancer
Mildly?
It’s responsible for over half of their arcane codewords. Couple McCarthy’s pearl-clutching with Robert Stacy McCain’s BIZARRE diatribe about Meghan McCain, and you have all the repressed/macho winnut ghey vs “straight” expertise you could ever ask for.
http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2009/07/16/stacy-mccs-guide-to-hanging-with-the-homos/
???!!!!
Crashman06
@freelancer: Good Lord, there’s so much repression in that quote, I wouldn’t even know where to begin unpacking it.
SpotWeld
Anyone else get the impression that the folks over at NRO watch a lot of gladiator movies… and then watch them again listening to the commentary.. and then watch them again in slo-mo while making up thier own commentary on technique?
DJ
To speculate irresponsibly a bit, a lot of McCain’s fans seem to me to be nerds who, instead of growing up and embracing their inner dungeon master, have instead decided that hanging out with the jock will make people think they’re cool too.
No, they hang out with the jock in the pathetic hope that the jock will refrain from picking on them.
Molly
@Brick Oven Bill: BOB, bless your sweet little right-wing heart, why does it even matter if our President can pitch a baseball?
daryljfontaine
@freelancer:
RSM’s just mad (and taking it out on Meghan McSameName) ’cause none of the hot boys would take him home even though he was wearing his little black dress and best “fuck me” pumps.
D
Molly
@kth: Yes, who do they think makes the Intertubes go? The geeks have inherited the earth.
CalD
To cover up what? Well, duh. Bad pitching, obviously. How do you measure the worth of a president? Damned hippies.
TuiMel
I was hoping to get some manly conservative Republican play by play announcing from Ramesh Ponnorru and Brad Schlozman.
Egad. Two helium-breathers doing play by play. No thanks.
Frankly, as I watched Obama chatting with Buck and McCarver, I thought I could hear the sound of the heads of people like Andy McCarthy exploding all over the U.S. (Why that effing usurper!). They’ve got nothing right now, so they resort to this sort of drivel. I felt a lot of disdain for GWB, but I took a good four years for that disdain to reach the level of intensity that McCarthy and his ilk appear already feel for Obama. They must be a miserable lot.
LD50
“there is no analog in lesbian culture for the fag hag. You don’t see straight guys “hanging out” with their lesbian friends.”
Wrong: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dyke%20tyke
“Women hanging around the gay disco, however, is a very familar phenomenon.”
Now how would RSM happen to know that?
Piper
John Cole,
You’re right, Pujols grabbed it in time, my bad. I watched it on tv and was interested to see where it crossed but Fox inexplicably cut the shot. I only assumed that was because Fox hates Obama because his form looked good on the mound. The truth is the Haters hate Obama in large part because he is obviously cool.
gwangung
Even at that, Obama could still help the Mets’ bullpen…
freelancer
Erick the Red hits the gay unintentional innuendo bird and the macho athletic bird with one stone:
John Cole
Wait a minute- two quick things. One, I thought the “‘splainin” exchange, especially with Sotomayor giving a hypothetical about shooting a Senator, was pretty amusing and harmless.
Second, why the fuck do I have to take responsibility for Barbara Boxer?
White House Department of Law (fmrly Jim-Bob)
Barry can ball. Big-time. No room on the hardwood for fat, out-of-shape guys, unless they can come strong like Barkley. And I understand that Barry’s “supreme court” pick-up sessions are not for prankers. Among his regulars are former NCAA D-1 stars and other accomplished ballers.
Somewhat on-topic, but John Kerry’s a fairly decent hockey player. I played on a team with him at a charity to-do a whiles back. Proud moment**. Dude had a long, fluid stride, soft hands, and a great touch saucering the puck onto teammates’ sticks. A big guy, he stayed in the slot and crease area, and didn’t drop back on D much. (Another democrat weak on defense?) Way better athlete than W. So how come NRO didn’t report THAT?
**I have rink war/bar fight fantasies about Jonah the Whale, Andy “Mannequin II” McCartney, and the rest of the NR-Zeros. Would gladly serve a game misconduct if I could spear Jonah through the ear-loop of his helmet. I promise I’d wait till the third period to do it.
JenJen
@Piper:
This is the part I don’t get… they can’t seem to make up their minds. One minute, people like Karl Rove are saying Obama’s the guy at the country club with a beautiful date, holding a martini and making snide comments. Clearly, that didn’t fly. The next, he’s a sissy-wimp who throws like a girl. Again, fail. But really, which is it? Is he the cool popular guy you’re supposed to be jealous of, or is he the nerd you’re supposed to pick on? My bullshitometer is detecting serious meme interference here.
If I were some GOP oppo-hit guy and I wanted to take some of the air out of Obama’s sails over the All-Star Game, I’d have made a beeline for the obvious joke: his Mom Jeans, not his athletic ability.
Hey wingers… you’re not doin’ it right.
inkadu
@r€nato: Definitely both.
@John Cole: I think about 95% of the “racist” stuff we throw out against Republicans is basically harmless interaction — like you do. But read the threads, man, people get upset about it and parade it around to display how those glimmers show the true racist face of the Republican party. I wanted to put Boxer’s exchange up for two reasons:
1) What real, unequivocal racism looks like. This wasn’t a conversational slip, this was planned and executed in the face of a black man stuttering in opposition.
2) And how you treat black people doesn’t necessarily have much to do with your role in gov’t. What matters is the policies you support and the bills you vote for.
And 3) Holy shit! Can’t we make fun of Boxer for crazy racist shit, too?
Jager
If Obama fly fished he’d get shit for wearing waders!
Zifnab
@Jager: Or not wearing waders. Or casting in an improper overhand fashion. Or having too many lures in his hat. Or grandstanding for the cameras when he should be fixing the America that those evil liberals broke in ’06.
inkadu
Ok, here’s another one from Beauregard:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/16/jeff-sessions-were-going_n_236326.html
He is making a joke with a black man, who thinks its funny, and the white woman knows what he’s talking about, because she gives the thumbs up. Harmless. But wait for the overreaction.
R-Jud
@White House Department of Law (fmrly Jim-Bob):
You’re such a gentleman.
John Cole
@inkadu: I’ve said repeatedly that most of the racists I knew growing up in WV were Democrats.
Why? Because the majority of the state is Democratic.
media browski
President Obama’s mere act of participating in a baseball ritual drives wingnuts to waste hours pouring over MLB video, posting it to comments, and making what they perceive as wise comparisons (BOB).
Home-frakking-run!
Laura W
This is a very nice sentence. I was just driving home and this was on and I thought what a great post title it would make here on BJ:
When their eloquence escapes you
Their logic ties you up and rapes you.
De do do do, de da da da
inkadu
@John Cole: Nah, they’re not racist, they’re just hard-working.
media browski
John Cole, Inkadu:
1. Why assume they’re being racists? Pat Buchanan.
2. John, you might not have noticed but your dem-racist neighbors are now known as “PUMAs”
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@inkadu: Harry Alford came before the Senate to represent the opinion of an African American group. Boxer simply countered with the opinion of a different African American group.
And from the get-go, Alford was an in-your-face flaming dick. Also.
Laura W
@Brick Oven Bill:
Ah, Bill…again with the cat abuse idea sharing? I thought we put this one to bed months ago.
You’re lucky
mosta few of us here like goofy otherwise you’d be a very lonely goofball babbing to yourself all day.inkadu
@Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon): I don’t really care how much of a dick Alford was or is, you do not counter someone’s opinion by saying, “Other people that look like you disagree.”
Maybe you should go back to Commie Martyr high school.
JenJen
@Laura W: Bwaaaah!
steve s
and have voted for the GOP candidate in the last three elections.
Tsulagi
I’d go with that.
That said, after following the MLB link to see it for the first time, it was a pretty sissy pitch. Any higher arc on that thing and it would have been picked up on radar. Sorry, dude.
But, I would pay good money to watch Obama playing a full court hoops game against both Bush and Cheney. Hell, throw in McCain and Palin too for extra comedy. I’d buy the popcorn for my row.
Edit: BTW, I get an error message (using IE now) when posting a comment that I don’t have permission to access this server. I assume it’s the current site problems rather than trying to tell me something.
Brien Jackson
More appropriately, throwing a first pitch for a strike is plainly un-American.
goblue72
It never ceases to amaze the utter cluelessness of the American Middle Class White Male Conservative AKA the Jonah Goldbergs and Andy McCarthy’s of the world. John’s whole three-point snark wraps up a WHOLE lot of truth in it. Where a certain class of whites see Obama on the court and see just another Negro with a ball, a whole other group of Americans see…well, in this I think Ta-Nehisi Coates nails it:
J. A. Baker
@Michael:
Which probably explains why they are the way they are today. >:-)
The Golux
…which reveals that Andy McCarthy is a bona fide tool, and knows nothing whatsoever about baseball, not being able to recognize the man who is arguably the greatest active player.
Idjit.
MCA
@ppcli –
I think you’ve accidentally insulted the 90% of American fly fishermen who hail from New England, the upper Midwest, Colorado, California and the Pacific Northwest. Unless by red state you mean Idaho and Utah, of course. :^)
Bass fishing, on the other hand, now that has the feel of a red state pursuit.
Can we just all agree on a couple things and put this conversation to rest? 1. Obama won’t be mistaken for Johan Santana anytime soon. 2. Item 1 above is about as important to the world as what John Cole had for dinner last night.
ProudCynic
Someone before me has probably already said this, and said it better, but, imagine, just for a moment, if idiots like this man ignored all of the pointless bullshit like this and, instead, focused their investigative prowess on things that actually matter. Like, say, the Iraq war.
And really, why on earth does this merit an article? Does it really matter if my quadripelegic grandmother can throw better or worse than President Obama? Are there absolutely no other, better stories out there?
You’d think someone would have wrote a scathing editorial about Marcy Wheeler saying the word ‘blowjob’ on daytime television or something. Anything has got to be better than this.
kay
@ProudCynic:
I think it matters a lot to them. They seize on gaffes. It’s a “win” and they haven’t won much lately.
I was glad Obama got to go to New Jersey and pal around with some rabid, partisan Democrats, and then on to the NAACP.
Everyone deserves a day among friends. He probably needs firing up.
Blue Raven
@inkadu:
That was so far away from what she was doing, it’s nicely ensconced next to your grip on reality. You most certainly DO counter “I represent a lot of black people” with “someone else who represents a lot of black people” when the party of the first part is using his status as a spokesperson to attempt to give weight to his arguments. You do the same with whites, women, men, Asians, and basselopes. And Alford was clearly hoping to accuse Boxer of racism. Probably makes him feel better for kissing up to bigots.
LD50
@inkadu: You’re now reduced to calling liberals ‘commies’?
So we should take you seriously why?
LD50
@ProudCynic: “Someone before me has probably already said this, and said it better, but, imagine, just for a moment, if idiots like this man ignored all of the pointless bullshit like this and, instead, focused their investigative prowess on things that actually matter.”
Okay, your argument here is based on a big presupposition which I believe is not valid. Can you guess what it is?
(A hint, I’ve boldfaced it.)
ProudCynic
@LD50: Fair point. But you’d think if they’ve taken the time to dig up videos across two or three networks for the purpose of writing a stupid column, they could at least take the time to check up on a few basic claims that have now lead us to spending billions (or is it trillions now?) of dollars and thousands of lives (of soldiers, IIRC no one knows how many Iraqis have been killed or displaced) in a fraudulent war…
inkadu
@LD50: Heh.
All Hail Marx and Lennon! Follow that yellow rubber line to your old stash of Firesign Theater LP’s. Though, to be fair, Commie Martyr High School is in Don’t Crush That Dwarf and not How Can You Be in Two Places at Once. It was more of an invitation to some inside jokery than an insult.
@Blue Raven: I understand the concept that you are trying to get across. You can watch a more complete video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FoekBjhtWE&feature=related
It doesn’t seem like Boxer is responding particularly to anything Alford said, but I’m sure there is more context to this; unfortunately, I can’t seem to find it. But, ok, if this guy says, “I represent the black community,” I think Boxer’s move is fair. But if he didn’t, it ain’t. He is representing black business people, who might have a different set of concerns than the NAACP.
CT
@Quaker in a Basement:
LOL for realz. Total win. FDR could really bring the heat back in the day.
Irony Abounds
I have tried to think of another non-criminal that I loathe more and have less respect for more than Andy McCarthy, but at the moment, I can’t think of anyone. He is consistently stupid, paranoid, delusional and mean-spirited. How the hell Bill Clinton appointed the guy to anything other than car crash dummy is totally beyond me.
Glocksman
@inkadu:
Didn’t the Firesign Theatre guys do the ‘J-Men Forever’ movie?
I’ve seen it literally a hundred times and every once in a while I’ll still go ‘duh’ when I ‘get’ the inside joke they made.
When it finally became available on DVD, I bought 2 copies.
inkadu
@Glocksman: Jeez, Glockman, my utorrent download que is already full! Now I have to watch this. Yes, it’s by the same crew as Firesign Theater. I’d never heard of it, since I only knew about their “radio” albums (did those ever get aired? radio was a different time back then).
Tom
On a similar note, I found footage of Cesar Izturis catching the Michelin Man at Wrigley Field. There’s obviously something afoot here since it’s tradition that the first pitch is tossed to a catcher. Izturis was recently-added, popular shortstop at the time. And with so many fans of the Goodyear blimp at the game, isn’t obvious that the Michelin Man was worried he’d be booed?
ANd then there’s Adam Corrola throwing the first pitch to infielder Mark Sweeney at a 2006 Dodger game. Not sure why the catcher tradition was bucked then, but obviously it was something sinister.
And now it’s REALLY gets interesting. George W. Bush at a Nationals game throws the first pitch to… Manny Acta, THE MANAGER! Obviously the president thought he’d look weak throwing to a mere player, so ordered the manager to come out and receive the first pitch. Why else break the tradition of throwing the first pitch to a catcher?
Comrade Darkness
@Irony Abounds, Maybe Andy was tapped to give Hillary a blow job in the oval office as an equalizer and now he won’t get the chance and now is permanently stupid-bitter.
RememberNovember
@Brick Oven Bill:
Some people are good at certain sports. Baseball is barely a sport, If you count the active time on field it’s about 4 to 1. Compare it to a real active constantly in play field sport like Hockey, Basketball, Soccer, Football, Rugby, hell even water polo. I’m not knocking the sport itself, just the lack of uptime in the athleticism.
So Obama can’t pitch or bowl a strike. I can’t land a 3 pointer. BFD
BOB can’t fact check his own stuff, we’ve been fudging for him since…
Cris
Sorry to keep a thread about this nonsense alive, but does anybody else remember when George H. W. Bush threw out a pitch that actually did hit the ground? There was no need to look carefully at the replay, it was a serious grounder. Am I remembering wrong?