In the thread just below this one, Commenter JPL (update: and Rikrayh) pointed to this story at TPM* in which Ronald Kessler, writing at Politico, declares:
Agents tell me it’s a miracle an assassination has not already occurred. Sadly, given Obama’s colossal lack of management judgment, that calamity may be the only catalyst that will reform the Secret Service.
Give him credit (sic). With this, Kessler hits the daily double. He blames President Obama for something no other — and for “other,” read, I’m afraid, white — President would be expected to do: get involved in the day to day management of his protective detail. And then Kessler adds that in imagining a fix for the problem, he regrets the necessity of the president’s death.
I’m gobsmacked. Completely. On the one hand, there’s nothing new here. It is just one more instance in the long-running guerrilla propaganda war to delegitimize and disempower a twice elected president. Its impulse is profoundly anti-democratic, deeply committed to the control of government by any means available. It’s part and parcel of the series of incidents large and small that run from heckling during a State of the Union (imagine the reaction if someone had done that to C+ Augustus!) to a claim that somehow this President mustn’t appoint anyone to be approved by the current sitting Senate.
And yet, this ain’t just the eternal return of the same. You have here a writer openly near-predicting the murder of the first African American president; accusing him of the basic failures that make that murder likely, and consoling himself that after that murder, things may get better. It’s as near to cheerleading an assassination as I can imagine, while steering just clear of an explicit call for that event.
In a civilized society, advertisers and readers would flee Politico as if it suffered from the combined effects of Ebola, the bubonic plague and rabies. And they would spit on the sidewalk anytime Mr. Kessler dared show his face. In this one…
*No link to Politico; no rewarding the sewage rakers.
Image: Jean-Léon Gérôme, The Death of Caesar, betw. 1859 and 1867.
Scott S.
And they would spit on the sidewalk anytime Mr. Kessler dared show his face.
Spit, hell. Punch his teeth down his throat. Or more likely, through the back of his head.
JPL
Actually someone earlier this morning pointed to the article but thanks anyhow. Rikyrah, mentioned it before I so deserves some credit.
cleek
put me in the “thinks this is a crazy interpretation of what is just a badly-expressed thought” column.
Tom Levenson
@cleek: OK. Duly affixed to that column. I think you’re wrong, but that’s why they run horse races.
Which is to say that someone had to write that, and someone had to edit that, and it very clearly fixes on Obama responsibility for the problem, and it asserts that Obama is so incompetent that he will likely die for that failure. Again, editors at Politico (this was in the Politico “magazine” btw) had to read that and let it pass. This is how at least two people thought they should express this claim. Not so easy to excuse, in my never humble opinion.
JPL
Kessler will be asked to promote his swill and mainstream media. I often point out to a friend that those who wanted to rid the country of political correctness, rid the country of common decency. We live in sick times and Kessler won’t even get a mention on the View
I’m sickened that this is the nation that next generation has to live.
Suzanne
Presidential victim-blaming AHOY! Pre-emptive edition.
schrodinger's cat
The MSM is racist, their behavior during the Obama years provides ample evidence for this claim. The men of the MSM (it is mostly men after all in positions of power) cannot stand it that a black man is better than they are.
JPL
@cleek: I’ve heard Kessler during his last book promotion and I disagree.
I mentioned below maybe he’s auditioning for a job at the NFL since he blames the victim.
Gypsy Howell
Did these critics react the same way— assigning blame to the President’s lack of managerial ability – when Hinckley got through the Secret service detail and actually shot Reagan? Or when shots were fired at Ford?
No?
Do say.
I wonder what the difference is.
Xantar
The one person who can’t criticize, micro-manage, and antagonize the Secret Service is the President. He has to be on good terms with the agents. Yes, they have a job to do and they are supposed to be professionals, but they are also humans. I wouldn’t dream of doing anything to annoy them if my life were in their hands every day.
This is a job for Congress. Unfortunately.
D58826
Rachel Maddow went over a long list of Secret Service screw-up since early 2009. Whoever was running the agency at that point was not an Obama appointee so not really sure how you blame Obama for this. (yes yes I know Obama is a fault for the volcano Krakatoa erupting in 1883, it was in Indonesia after all).
And Tweety is already working up a full head of steam of Obama being wrong about Ebola and we are all going to DIE!!!!!!!
Mnemosyne
@Gypsy Howell:
They didn’t even say it about Bush when a guy threw a shoe at Bush’s head.
IOKIYAWhiteR
muddy
@D58826:
This is perfection.
cleek
@Tom Levenson:
there isn’t a hint of racism in the actual column. you inserted race into this. the column itself is an exasperated “WTF!” about how badly the SS does its job, with a jab at Obama for not having fixed it which may or may not be fair, but it has nothing to do with Obama ‘legitimacy’ or race or anything other than his management style.
and Kessler is not ‘predicting’ Obama’s murder. he’s lamenting that the combination of Obama’s management style and the critical mission the SS performs might have a tragic outcome.
you and TPM have invented a wild tale with little basis in reality.
Mnemosyne
There’s also the companion article in the Washington Post arguing that the only possible candidate for the new head of the Secret Service is … Allen West. Yes, that Allen West.
Here’s the TPM story about it so I don’t have to give WaPo the link.
Lady Bug
Maybe I don’t understand exactly how the Secret Service works, but how exactly is the President to blame for the Secret Service F-ups?
Belafon
@cleek: How do you think:
is misinterpreted? That really is blaming Obama for the Secret Service not doing its job properly. And I personally think that there’s only so much they can do, and the way Republicans have screwed with their funding they can’t even do that much.
Scamp Dog
@Gypsy Howell: I’ll differ a bit from the BJ conventional wisdom. I’m not sure racism is the only thing going on. I see the Republican Party and the conservative movement getting crazier with every administration, and at least some of the racial subtext may be only the manifestation of the underlying craziness.
We’ll see what happens with the next Democrat in the White House. Hopefully that will be in 2017.
Mnemosyne
@cleek:
Why should Obama’s management style have anything to do with the Secret Service failing their mission? I honestly don’t understand what you’re saying here. How did Obama’s management style force the Secret Service to think that rifle shots close to the White House were just a car backfiring?
Chyron HR
@Lady Bug:
It’s all about the tone at the top.
The lazy, shiftless tone at the top. (wink, wink)
Bobby B.
Politico’s hard-hitting astrology team is second to none.
Frankensteinbeck
@schrodinger’s cat:
Rich white older males who talk fondly of the Reagan years, and thought Brokaw’s foam-spitting rant about how the middle class should learn to live without ‘entitlements’ was the wisdom of an elder sage.
D58826
@Mnemosyne: Oh mercy.
He also got drummed out of the service one step ahead of a court martial for trying to kill Iraqi civilians. Great leadership there.
Matt McIrvin
@Scamp Dog: If the next Democrat is in 2017, it’s quite likely to be a woman (a well-known one who’s been a hate-target for decades), which will raise a whole other explosion of specialized crazy.
The thing about Presidential administrations is that there aren’t that many in a historical era they’re all to some extent sui generis; you can’t do controlled experiments.
Shakezula
Kessler is merely observing that from time to time the tree of presidential security detail must be watered with the blood of presidents. Apparently the watering it got from St. Ron wasn’t sufficient.
DanF
It’s always the black person’s fault for their own death at the hands of others for these assholes. Don’t think there is a racial dog whistle to hear? Just look a the comments on Politico. It was heard loud and clear.
? Martin
So, if everyone wants the Secret Service to immediately shoot anyone who breaches the fence, should they have opened fire in this case?
There’s no telling what the toddler might have been up to, and my wife had a hell of a time catching my daughter when she was 3 – so women agents are obviously useless even in these cases.
? Martin
@D58826: Hey, nobody can threaten the president if West shoots them all prophylactically, right?
shelley
Tweety needs a tranquilizer the size of a horse’s patoot. (Channeling Col. Henry Blake.)
Always amazed how the Right, on the one hand accuses Obama of being some kind of over-reaching dictator and then blast him for not micro-managing everything in Washington.
schrodinger's cat
@Frankensteinbeck: I can’t stand Brokaw, the last time I saw him was on Jon Stewart’s program where they were both heh indeeding each other about how both sides do it.
JPL
@DanF: Maybe Cleek will comment on what Kessler really meant to say.
Lady Bug
@? Martin:
What? No one in this thread is talking about immediately shooting everyone who makes it to the WH fence, especially not a toddler. (If there’s a sarcasm fail on my part, reading your post-my apologies!)
At the same time, there have been some COLOSSAL screw ups when it comes to protecting POTUS & family recently. From not noticing that bullets entered the White House (oops!), to failing apprehend an armed intruder in the WH, to allowing Obama to ride in an elevator with an armed felon (oppsie daisy!) there have been some major, major mistakes made.
Now I don’t know what the solution is, maybe they need more agents, more training/better training, more funding. Heck, maybe they do need to turn the WH into an armed fortress. I have no F-ing idea. What I don know is that all of these security breaches are worrying.
cleek
@Mnemosyne:
Kessler’s point is that for whatever reason, Obama has refused to replace SS leadership despite a long list of incidents. Kessler thinks that’s a problem. he doesn’t blame Obama for the SS fuckups, he blames Obama for not replacing the SS leadership while the incidents continue.
some people think making that point is racist.
obviously, he doesn’t.
have you actually read the Politico article?
drkrick
Any Democratic President is going to be the target of spittle flecked opposition since a significant portion of the GOP electorate became convinced sometime in the ’80’s that no Dem can be legitimate. The fact the Obama is not white means that some of the spittle is racist. If Hillary Clinton is the next President, the spittle will be sexist, as the spittle directed at her husband was aimed at his “white trash” origins. They’ll use whatever hook is available, but the root of it is purely partisan.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t sincere racism and sexism and elitism in there, but it’s aimed at all Dem office holders anyway since they’re seen as too sympathetic and responsive to those kinds of people even if they aren’t one of them personally.
Butch
I have to admit I have wondered if some of these “lapses” don’t result because there are some SS agents who wouldn’t mind if the Kenyan usurper had a little accident?
Tom Levenson
@cleek: I know I have Barney Frank’s problem here, but what the hell: To go back to racism kindergarten: it’s not just a matter of shouting N’Clang! when you see the new president getting near. The one “conversation” about race we’ve had during Obama’s presidency has come through the wild diversity of ways in which we’ve learned our country sees the world in Tri-X — to the great harm of those rendered in darker tones.
So when you see this president being criticized for sorts of things that aroused no comment when they happened to and around his predecessors, you have to ask: what distinguishes these differences? To some extent, sure, there’s the presidenting-while-democrat problem, but here Bill Clinton provides a baseline. The rest (most of it)? Meaning comes not just from the simplest reading of words in isolation, but from their context. And in this case, the sustained narrative has been that this first African American President is somehow illegitimate, not a real American, not actually competent to be President. You see here that thought taken to its larger conclusion: he is at fault in the Secret Service’s failure, and that failure cannot be remedied until he’s gone.
Maybe you think that’s a neutral statement of fact. If so, you haven’t been paying attention to the last six years.
One last thing: talk like this offers a kind of excuse for, and hence acquiescence in the murder of a President this writer sees as likely to occur. This is how unthinkable events become thinkable…and is the real reason I find this both disgusting and dangerous.
cleek
@JPL:
i have no idea what he meant to say, since i’m not in the mind-reading biz. but there’s plenty of mind-reading at the top of this page, and on the TPM page. knock yourself out.
but what Kessler actually said is pretty easy to understand. no mind-reading required.
Roger Moore
@shelley:
This is easy to understand. The core point is that Obama is wrong about everything, and any piece of evidence that can be found to support that point must be valid. That’s true even if the evidence appears not to be self-consistent, e.g. Obama is under the sway of Jeremiah Wright and a secret Muslim, he’s too weak to do anything and a ruthless dictator, etc. Any evidence is valuable as long as it supports the basic point that Obama is wrong.
Bobby Thomson
Fixed.
Also, too, those five racists on the SCOTUS.
schrodinger's cat
@drkrick: AFAIK no one questioned Bill Clinton’s citizenship.
JPL
@cleek: The Secret Service head was changed after that incident. They might think Director Pierson isn’t doing enough to change the secret service but she hasn’t been there that long and funding has been cut.
SatanicPanic
@cleek:
That’s really asking a lot of anyone.
Sherparick
@cleek: In other words we liberals should not be hearing the “dog whistles” in this pile of shit.
For a reporter, Kessler fails to inform the reader of a couple of facts. The Secret Service is now part of Homeland Security and that several management layers exist between the President and the Secret Service. He fails to note that Pierson’s predecessor was Mark Sullivan, who took the job in 2006 (I know the beltway elite media and the Conservative Movement like to pretend President Obama has been in office since 2004, but actually it was someone else whose last name rhymes with “Rush.”). It is not the President’s job to oversee the management the Secret Service, but rather to choose the Secretary of Homeland Security (also known as the worse job in Government) who will oversee it (along with six other agencies, all politically sensitive, and all variously underfunded for the humongous mission that Congress and the American people hand them).
Marc
@Scamp Dog: Depending on who’s president, I expect racism to take a break and let misogyny do the driving for a while.
cleek
@JPL:
for the record, i’m not trying to make Kessler’s point, i’m simply restating what he actually wrote. i have no idea what it would take to fix the SS.
@Sherparick:
no, i’m saying the description given is at odds with what Kessler actually wrote.
schrodinger's cat
@Tom Levenson: Forget it Tom, you are not going to wake up those who are only pretending to be asleep.
Roger Moore
@Sherparick:
No, it doesn’t. It’s spelled like “Rush”, but the u is pronounced differently./pedant
JPL
@cleek: Kessler obviously doesn’t have a clue either, or his conclusion would have been different. IMO
Waynski
@schrodinger’s cat:
I think it’s more a generational thing. Many older people in the MSM grew up in a world of white supremacy where black people were tolerated but clearly in their minds beneath them. A fair amount of them can’t get over Mr. Blackity, Black as President, so they attempt to delegitimize him every chance they get. Thankfully, they’re not the only voices out there and there are plenty of older folks who support the Presnit. When we have another African-American President, I think he or she will have an easier time of it. It’s always tough being the first, just ask Jackie Robinson.
Amir Khalid
@Roger Moore:
Maybe Sherparick says it “Roosh Limbaugh”.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Gypsy Howell: Beat me to it.
Betty Cracker
@schrodinger’s cat: What do you mean?
RaflW
@cleek: “colossal lack of management judgment” is a bit more than criticising Obama’s management style, IMO.
ira-NY
No racism?
Look at this this cartoon from the Boston Herald!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/01/1333588/-Boston-Herald-spices-up-White-House-intruder-comic-with-racism
Almost unbelievable!
RaflW
@? Martin: Oh, you liberals and your condom guns. It’s disgusting.
karen
Isn’t the real outrage for the GOP and media that the Secret Service HAS managed to stop attempts on President Obama’s life? They’ve all but demanded an assassination without actually saying the words “KILL HIM!” They don’t want to get their own hands dirty after all.
So bravo to Kessler.He’s been the only one with the balls to outright blame Obama for his own murder.
Kind of like Walmart blaming Tracy Morgan for not having his seatbelt on.
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: I mean Tom cannot convince those who believe that racism does not at all animate many of the criticisms against the President by either the GOP or the MSM.
ETA: The impossibly high standard of behavior expected from Obama is a good example of this.
? Martin
@Lady Bug: Not here. But most of the Republicans in the hearing yesterday were calling for some variation of that.
Birthmarker
@muddy: Agree. It’s almost poetry.
schrodinger's cat
@Waynski: True there definitely seems to be a generational component.
David in NY
@Roger Moore: Thanks tor that, anyway.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
The secret service should be fired and replaced by the New Black Panthers.
Crusty Dem
More shocked by how poorly the entire article is written.. It’s completely insane, though the Time version of the same article (WTF^2) goes completely off the rails, peaking with this awesome quote: “In Gonzalez’ case, no one knew if he was concealing a bomb or weapons of mass destruction”. Seriously? WMD?
of course, politico is just going all-in on fearmongering now…
Bill Arnold
@RaflW:
Yup. Sounds like it was written in a right-wingnut opinion mill, the same mill that gave us the teleprompter nonsense.
Bill Arnold
@Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937:
That thought crossed my mind too. :-)
Barbara
@Tom Levenson: Translated into Vietnam War speak: “We have to kill the president in order to save him.”
It’s disgusting.
rlrr
@Bobby B.:
Reagan was into astrology, therefore it’s true and infallible.
El Caganer
I only gave the article a quick read, but I didn’t see anything about the much larger number of threats against the President than his predecessors (including claims that he’s received 4X as many as Bush). Since the reason for such an increase is rather blindingly obvious, failure to mention it – and the pressure it’s bound to put on the SS staff – makes me question Mr. Kessler’s honesty a bit.
SatanicPanic
@Crusty Dem: I know I shouldn’t laugh because people are getting sick and dying, but few things in the world are more amusing to me than watching people freak-out over the latest scary thing
Citizen_X
@D58826: WTFF???
West was found unworthy to be a US Army officer. Then he was found unworthy to be a Florida Congressman. Oh, make that guy head of the SS, stat!
cleek
@Tom Levenson:
some criticisms of Obama have been racist (a.k.a., your ‘context’). this is a criticism of Obama. this one must be racist too. is that the logic here?
the column itself isn’t racist, and as far as i know, Kessler isn’t known for being a racist or one of those who gets into birther-type ‘legitimacy’ issues. but you say that the column must be read in a context where racism and questions of ‘legitimacy’ are everywhere. and then you conclude that, if you read it in that context where everything is racist, that this must be racist, too. QED?
seems a little iffy.
schrodinger's cat
How many MSM hacks have even mentioned the budget cuts due to sequestration?
cleek
@RaflW:
fair enough.
that doesn’t make it racist, though. right?
scav
@Waynski: There a hint of ‘it’s not racism if enough people share the feeling of superiority but a few don’t” in that oh it’s just a generational explanation. Generations may differ in the proportional and overt expression of n trait, but it’s still the trait in question.
JustRuss
@Chyron HR:
Indeed. I hear he’s even been seen in the Oval Office in just his shirt sleeves! Unlike any other President ever, except most of them.
Aimai
@Shakezula: well done.
schrodinger's cat
@cleek: Being held to an impossible standard that no other President has been, is racist. This Kessler person is blaming Obama for the day to day management of the SS. Was Reagan blamed for being shot, what about Kennedy?
The tests that MSM hacks insist that Obama must clear, seem a bit like all those poll tests that voters of a certain hue had to endure, which were rigged from the start.
scav
@schrodinger’s cat: I brought up examples of those tests, they do rather spring to mind in this instance.
Eta, mean I went to find a few to read myself, the discussion here seems a bit pointless along the blind as they do not wish to see lines.
Penus
@Sherparick: I can’t let that rhyme fail slide. Think of USC, Matt Leinart and the Bush Push!
El Caganer
@Shakezula: In his case, I’m not sure it was blood.
Aimai
@cleek: thats a pretty narrow view of the way racist attitudes towards obama have manifested themselves in the popular press. The main issue is always that ibama is unsuited to his job-even if they have to rewrite the job description to require him to perform a function no other president has been required to perform. The other image of obama–that he is a terrifyingly malignant supervillain style mastermind and chess player has been dropped in favor of the old ” community organizer who never held a real job” nudge nudge wink. — i agree that they said the same shit about clinton and about carter but the nature of racism in this country is such that no one ever drew the lesson that we could/should never have another white man as president– do you seriously not grasp that this is the not do hidden conclusion of. “Obama is to be blamed for the SS letting him get killed by a right wing lunatic?” See also the boston herald “watermelon” joke about it today. You cant separate race from coverage of obama. Its built in.
Betty Cracker
@schrodinger’s cat:
I don’t think a single person who has commented in this thread would make that argument, though — to a person, AFAIK, we all agree that racism animates many of the criticisms of the president. The question is whether or not it animates THIS one, and it seems to me that’s an issue on which reasonable people can disagree.
schrodinger's cat
@scav:
That’s what I meant when I said that you can’t wake someone up who is just pretending to be asleep. Its not like they don’t know, it that they would rather not know because the truth is too ugly to contemplate.
srv
@cleek: When Obama kicks Julia Pierson to the curb, it will be seen as a good management decision.
Great leaders are reactive, not proactive.
John M. Burt
@Mnemosyne: Allen West? Not even Adam West?
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: I think it does animate this one, see my comment at 77 and nowhere have I said that all criticism of the President is racist.
Crusty Dem
@SatanicPanic:
I just love the complete inanity of it all. We need 500 million doses of Ebola vaccine NOW!!! I can only imagine the response from the scientific community:
Idiot columnist “We need a half billion vaccine doses TODAY!!!”
Scientist “We can’t do that. We’ve barely had any funding for the last 20 years. There is no vaccine”
Idiot columnist “I SAID WE NEED A HALF A BILLION EBOLA VACCINE DOSES TODAY!!!”
As a scientist, I get a little peeved when morons treat us like Scotty on Star Trek – “We need warp factor 9 in 5 minutes or we’re all dead!” – And this is still better than reading anything by Chuck Johnson, amateur ebola idiot savant (without the savant)…
john b
@schrodinger’s cat:
who hears about sequestration at all anymore? it’s like it never happened. I can tell you that my family is one job down and one move under our belt because of that garbage.
Mnemosyne
@cleek:
Does replacing the SS leadership require Congress’s approval?
If so, we’ve circled back around to How is this Obama’s fault, again?
kindness
Guillotine. And it won’t be the Lawyers that lead it off this time. It’ll be the media dickheads.
Belafon
In an earlier thread, Jim, Foolish Literalist posted about the Boston Herald running a cartoon with someone in the bathtub telling the president “Have you tried the watermelon toothpaste yet?” It seems that this was an edit to the cartoon before publishing (via DailyKos):
Tenar Darell
@Waynski: I almost wish that was believable for me. I no longer buy the “when they were young things were different excuse.” If you’re 65 years old today, retirement age, you were born in 1949. Basically that means that the Civil Rights era was in full swing while you were still growing up. In other words, there’s been plenty of time to learn better. This is part and parcel of the willful blindness that allows racism, all the explicit, dog whistles, and structures of supremacy, to survive. The guys writing and editing (and owning too) Politico are not in their 70s, they are not entitled to that excuse.
The Other Chuck
I’m taking cleek’s interpretation, that this is just a poor way to say “what is it going to take, an assassination?”
The fact that Politico apparently has no editors or anyone at all proofing columns and saying “dude, that’s really messed up, did you mean to say that?” … well, not surprising really. Politico is really just a blog — no offense to this blog, but it doesn’t pretend at being part of the fourth estate.
Cacti
I propose the President appoint the Nation of Islam as his new security detail.
rea
@cleek: “Kessler is not ‘predicting’ Obama’s murder.”
Kessler: “it’s a miracle an assassination has not already occurred.”
Tom Levenson
@Betty Cracker: Without going into a huge exegesis — “the president made us kill him” edge has a nasty ring, especially in light of the way killings of young black men are often justified — and as noted above Obama’s “colossal management failures” smells like the shiftless meme all dressed up to go calling.
When you place this in the mosaic of all the different ways that the right wing or right-tinged media have used to try to define Obama out of the possible class of “real” presidents…yeah I see a race tinge to this. If Kessler and Politico don’t want to appear (or be) racist, then they have to pay attention to how their words play in that larger context. These play very badly, IMHO.
Mnemosyne
@cleek:
Did journalists say that Bush showed a “colossal lack of management judgement” when a guy threw a shoe at Bush’s head at a press conference? Hell, did they say it about anything Bush did?
But for Obama to not have a tight rein on the Secret Service is a “colossal lack of management judgement” on Obama’s part.
The dog whistle is blowing right next to your ear, but you just can’t seem to hear it.
cleek
@schrodinger’s cat:
i don’t know. maybe someone did. we didn’t have the 24/7-to-the-second across 10,000 different outlets of news then that we did now. it’s a completely different media universe today. if some op-ed somewhere said something like that about Reagan it might never been seen outside the paper’s local area. there was no outrage industry to promote it. there has never been a time in the world’s history with media coverage like this.
is Obama held to a high standard? sure. but part of that is because everything he does is visible and everyone who sees it can put their own spin on it. the next President will have the same problem (probably worse). does Obama get a lot of criticism founded in racism? of course. and the former problem exacerbates the latter. that doesn’t mean every criticism is, or must be read as, racism. right?
Cacti
Also too, nice to see the cocoon of white privilege wrap itself around Ronald Kessler in the comment section of Brogressive-Juice, and that his stunningly offensive comments should be given every possible benefit of the doubt.
cleek
@Mnemosyne:
no.
and again, i’m not making/agreeing with Kessler’s point. i’m repeating his point because the representation of it as racist is wrong.
@Mnemosyne:
alternately, what you think is a dog whistle is your own tinnitus.
schrodinger's cat
@cleek: Bush Presidency was not in the days of yore, the MSM handled Bush with kid gloves compared to Obama. They blame everything from what Putin does to SS failures on Obama and you are telling me that there is no double standard. Believe that if you must but I can’t pretend to close my eyes because what is I see is unbelievably nasty.
catclub
@karen:
And the unintended consequences of such an event are to make a saint and martyr. So much for the long view.
Tom Levenson
@The Other Chuck: Kessler’s piece ran in the Politico Magazine; they have site-specific editors.
Looks like we’re back to the incompetent/evil dichotomy…a distinction that suffers from the fallacy of the excluded middle.
Cacti
Four Presidents of the United States have been assassinated.
20 others have had serious attempts made on their lives.
And yet, only the current one would bear responsibility for his own murder if someone succeeded at it.
Nope, no racial component to that analysis. None at all.
Mnemosyne
@cleek:
And yet Bush was not held to the same standard, despite having the same level of visibility. Why do you think that is?
Josie
@cleek: It certainly sounds racist to me, since no other president has been blamed for poor secret service performance. If an old white woman like me can hear the dog whistle, it should be fairly apparent. Further, why should Obama be the one to jerk things around straight? If there are several layers of management between the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secret Service, why isn’t Kessler putting one of these management types on the hot seat? Our president has a few other things to tend to. This is someone else’s job.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OT, looks like Stephen Colbert made Bobby Jindal cry
The Other Chuck
@Tom Levenson: They have people with the job title, yes. I’m not sure they have anyone actually doing their job.
gian
@schrodinger’s cat:
I seem to recall the right wing theory that Clinton renounced citizenship when protesting the Vietnam nam war in the UK or the USSR
askew
@Waynski:
Unfortunately, the racism towards Obama in the media isn’t just by the older generation. Too many times I’ve seen Chris Hayes, Ezra Klein, and Jon Stewart imply that Obama is hopelessly naive and needs their brilliant white minds to explain to him how politics work. For all the attacks that Bill Clinton suffered through, the liberal media never treated Bill like he was a bumbling moron who couldn’t do the job without their sage advice. The racism on the right I expected, but the amount of white privilege and racism from the left has been a real eye-opener for me.
askew
@Mnemosyne:
Bill Clinton wasn’t held to that standard either. Too many on the left try to equate the criticism Bill and Obama got to prove that there isn’t racism in the media. It’s not even close. Obama has been held to an impossible standard since 2009 and even when he succeeds at something Bill failed at, the media and left groups try to give Bill (or Hillary) credit for it instead. Hell, Tom Harkin even tried to give credit to Hillary for Obamacare last month.
Mnemosyne
@cleek:
Right, because people of color are never held to a higher standard of behavior than white people are, which is why Michael Brown is dead and Sarah Culhane is alive.
gian
@gian:
Yep
Ripley
@Betty Cracker:
White people, anyway.
Cacti
@askew:
This.
The “if only the black POTUS was as smart as every white liberal with a TV show or a blog” phenomenon has been present from the moment he took office.
“Democratic Underground” is a cesspool of soft racism.
Tenar Darell
@Waynski: Huh, I’m quite wrong about Kessler’s age. He was born in 1943 so he’s in his 70’s. Looks like I’m getting old enough that a well preserved 70 doesn’t look “old” anymore. /Le sigh
CONGRATULATIONS!
@gian: It was the UK, when he was over there on his Rhodes scholarship. Glad someone else remembers that. I was going to post, but thought this might be a senior moment/thing I’d hallucinated.
We can never be legitimate. At least not until we find the modern General Sherman and beat them into abject defeat for real this time.
Archon
@cleek:
That’s the problem Cleek, the President is being held to a standard that no President before him has been held to and it isn’t close. Holding a President accountable for potentially getting assassinated in the White House falls into that category.
Maybe when Hillary Clinton is President or even a Republican they will get the same type of abuse Obama has got and I will stand corrected, until that happens however I gotta assume that “first black President” and “held to higher standard then any President in history”, go hand-in hand.
cleek
@Josie:
the director of SS is appointed directly by the President – no confirmation needed. if there’s a problem, the President can replace him/her at will. Kessler’s point is that since there’s a problem (which he blames on SS management) Obama should replace the director (because it’s entirely his prerogative to do so) before something tragic happens.
Cacti
@Ripley:
Bull’s eye.
Karen in GA
This is just nasty. I don’t remember it being this okay to speculate on a President’s assassination before. People have done it, sure — was it Strom Thurmond who suggested Clinton would be shot visiting his state, or Jesse Helms? — but with Obama, people seem to think talking about him being killed is within the bounds of civil discourse. Almost like his life isn’t worth as much as the lives of his predecessors. For some reason.
If someone said this about Bush, he’d be fired. If this is even noticed by the MSM, they’ll frame it as “Is this okay to say? Views differ.”
Calouste
@Citizen_X:
The bottom, it has been reached.
amk
@Ripley: Score
Lady Bug
@Karen in GA:
I’m not even sure it will get that much of a push back in the media.
The Thin Black Duke
What white people call “paranoia”, African-Americans call “common sense”.
Jamey
To some, twice elected. But to others, only 3/5 of a “real” president.
scav
Would grandstandy public head-rolling even actually work to fix the real issues? It’s got an easy symbolic PR value, granted, but practically speaking, it’s no magic wand of instant functionality and competence, especially for problems of unknown, probably systemic and to a degree economic in nature.
Calouste
@Karen in GA: Just saying you’re “ashamed” of Bush already got you a shitstorm, see the Dixie Chicks.
Eric U.
@Scamp Dog: they will be batshit crazy next time around as well. Granted, there is a special resonance with Obama because the republicans are a single issue party, and that issue is the promotion of racism. But the crazy level will be the same. Maybe not as racist, but you will see some compensating nuttiness. Just as one example of that, the Clinton body list. Mena is another. I would say Obama’s critics haven’t been quite that out there with nuttiness.
Kerry Reid
Hell, Liz Trotta of Fox News was cheerleading for Obama’s assassination when he was running in 2008. Racist scumbags are very seldom punished for their scumbaggery once they reach a certain level, contra to the “political correctness is fascism!” line of bullshit. Trotta apologized but didn’t lose her job.
Jeremy
No one is saying that all criticism against the president is based on race, but a lot of this crap is about race and anyone who says otherwise is clearly a racist or delusional. The media and the GOP hate this president and his family. That’s been abundantly clear since day one, and they have tried everything in order to break Obama. Yes Clinton was attacked and the media was after him but the attacks against Obama are clearly on another level. “Food stamp president, Shucking and Jiving, Giving free stuff to minorities, Lazy, feckless and incompetent, never held a real job”. All of these things have been said about this man and more. Let’s not forget the racist pictures depicting the president and his wife as monkeys or gorillas. Another picture with the president looking like a witch doctor, or the other one with Obama looking like a pimp and Michelle looking like a hooker. I can go on and on so I’m tired of hearing “It’s not about race” from certain people.
Calouste
@scav: Depends on how many Cheney moles have been embedded in the Secret Service at intermediate levels to f’ things up intentionally, by sheer incompetence, or by just doing nothing.
askew
@Cacti:
So is Daily Kos and it drove off a lot of the minority posters there. And instead of dealing with the problem, they just made it against the rules to call out racism unless it is blatant because telling someone they’ve posted something racist is more offensive than being racist.
Archon
@Mnemosyne:
A story like this would have been a sign of Bush derangement syndrome. The left’s irrational anger towards Bush caused a potential assassination attempt, the idea that Bush would have been held accountable for this in any way is laughable.
It took a city completely underwater while FEMA was standing around playing circle jerk for the media to start questioning Bush’s management ability.
Roger Moore
@cleek:
And the President already did replace the head of the Secret Service about a year and a half ago. There are reasonable questions about whether that’s long enough to fix the problems with the Secret Service, if there are signs of improvement, and whether the current situation is a leadership problem or a funding problem, but Obama has made changes in response to problems with the Service.
rikyrah
Kessler’s racist piece of trash is no shock. Politico not having an editor who went ‘ hmmmm , maybe we ought not publish this’ is no shock.
Just another insult and threat towards this President, part of the racial animus shown towards him since he became a serious candidate for President.
As for those who would even purport to defend Kessler…
uh huh
uh huh
sure.
right.
whatever, mofos.
Josie
@cleek: Then he should have made that point more strongly and left out that last paragraph which was goulish and, if nothing else, has detracted from the message he intended to send. If he was unable to see his error, an editor should have pointed it out to him. The fact that no one did is an indictment of him and the media that published his piece.
Roger Moore
@Eric U.:
That’s totally unfair. The have multiple issues: racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and advancing Christianist theocracy. Not to mention dismantling the regulatory state.
Gvg
just to be fair Bush was so criticized by the media for incompetent management. not as much or soon enough Imo but he was, so much so that the Cheney puppet meme is mainstream conventional. bill Clinton was criticized by the media to a weird degree too unjustly and starting the day after the first election.
everyone gets too full of themselves at times and says what the president should be doing. we all do it constantly here so of course a paid pundit is going to.
I am not certain its racism. it has been plenty of times, I am getting kind of numb. how do we fix the Ss before something happens? Fixing is more important than a stupid journalist.
Bill Arnold
@Cacti:
OK, but do you ever question other people’s similar accusations, e.g. accusations of anti-semitism triggered by displaying less than over-the-top support for Israel, or even saying non-positive things about bankers?
(In Kessler’s case, the assertion about a “colossal lack of management judgment” was offensive and weird, and probably had it’s roots in racism even if Kessler just thoughtlessly repeated the thought.)
Kathleen
@schrodinger’s cat: I’m so with you on that. One of the reasons I don’t watch Daily Show.
Belafon
@Bill Arnold: So maybe it’s not so much racism as white privilege?
Amir Khalid
@Belafon:
The difference being?
schrodinger's cat
@Belafon: Two sides of the same coin.
Bill Arnold
@Roger Moore:
You overlooked #1, Tax Cuts for the Rich
Matt McIrvin
@Karen in GA: Not to mention, Obama has many more people trying these things than the typical President, and that started when he was just a candidate. Part of the problem is probably that the Secret Service is simply overwhelmed with threats.
And for that reason, they’ve likely had to keep him under a tighter physical cordon than was previously typical, which probably chafes on him and his family after six years, causing some of the pushback.
schrodinger's cat
@Amir Khalid: Being racist and unaware of it.
cleek
@Archon:
up until last week, the idea that someone could just hop the fence and stroll deep into the WH unimpeded was kindof ludicrous. right? could it be that the standard has been raised at least partially because what we thought was impossible was actually completely possible, and apparently pretty easy? there’s a bit of panic in the air over this and the other SS failures that we’ve learned about this past week.
i think Kessler’s last two sentences are in bad taste, but i don’t think racism is the reason they’re written that way.
yes, there is racism. but not everything is racism.
Suzanne
@Roger Moore: Word.
The thing is….they’re okay with blackness, if the person is a member of the tribe. They’re okay with women, if they’re in the tribe. They’re okay with lower-class people, if they’re in the tribe. They’re NOT okay with any of those things if the person isn’t in the tribe. They use racism against Obama, sexism against HRC, and they used classism against Clinton. Because none of those people are part of the tribe. This tribe being the tribe of Give Rich White Dudes More Money And Power.
Then they wonder why racial minorities, women, and the poor don’t want to join the tribe.
Jeremy
People need to stop comparing Clinton’s situation to Obama’s. Even though Clinton had it bad he never had it as bad as Obama, and I bet if you asked him in private he would agree. Even Carter said this back in 2009. Pew did a research study a few years ago showing Obama getting 90 % negative coverage from the media. That number is astounding and it’s amazing that Obama’s approval numbers aren’t lower. Luckily Obama has a base of support that is behind him. Let’s also not forget that all of the racial attacks against Obama whether it was Rev. Wright, the birther stuff, new black panther party, etc. were all hyped by the media, and all about race. Anyone who compares this to the fake Clinton scandals can’t say with a straight face that these both are the same.
Mnemosyne
@Archon:
Yep. And yet the Secret Service’s fuckups are proof of Obama’s “colossal lack of management judgement.”
A sense of proportion, Politico lacks it.
Belafon
@Amir Khalid:
@schrodinger’s cat:
Yep.
cleek
@Josie:
i completely agree.
schrodinger's cat
@Gvg: Really? What push back did he get during the run up to Iraq war?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
THe only point I’d disagree with. Clinton’s ego and sense of being unappreciated by an unworthy country are, IMneverHO, rivaled only by McCain’s.
JPL
@Bill Arnold:
Bigots have come out of the closet and are now getting a forum. First they mocked political correctness, then they let the crazies out of the closet. Murdoch must be so proud of his empire.
MomSense
Setting aside that this is more not only hold responsible the black guy who is held to a standard that is impossible and unprecedented, there is also the idea that sometimes people have to die to make a point. Let’s let Kessler volunteer to fulfill that role. I also hear the if a black guy is shot it must be his fault no matter the facts.
There is also the dynamic that a person whose life and the lives of his loved ones are under the care of the very agency Kessler would like to have him “manage” should probably not be the one to crack heads or do the firing and reprimanding. Um. No. That is a fucking idiotic suggestion and Kessler knows the workings of secret service well enough to know that. Can you imagine? Should POTUS pound the bully pulpit about the Secret Service, fire a bunch of people, call them morons and then put his daughters in an SUV with Secret Service agents and just hope they didn’t take offense at what he said about them?? WTF?
ETA: And this whole management judgment thing is a crock. Didn’t we all just barely survive C+Augustus where practically everything was mismanaged/neglected/fucked up?
Bill Arnold
@Belafon:
That’s my reading of it, but I’m not at all sure, and the difference between the two is blurry.The teleprompter/empty suit thing early on was a nasty eye opener. Does anyone know who was responsible for pushing that idea?
Jeremy
So now Kessler is not a racist ? I guess you have to come out and say a racial slur to be considered a racist for some people. The media is full of idiotic right wing shills that have been after Obama and Michelle since he announced his candidacy. They hate Obama more than they love this country, and they have called for his assassination in subtle ways. This guy Kessler has hated Obama since day one and I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted to see the president die.
Cacti
@cleek:
And thank goodness for the white people who are there to explain the difference.
Roger Moore
@Bill Arnold:
I think that falls under “classism”.
cleek
@Roger Moore:
sure.
i’m not saying i agree with Kessler on all of his points. the SS needs fixing? agreed! replacing management will fix it? beats me. Obama will be responsible if someone gets to him because of SS failures? in the org-chart, captain-of-the-ship and woulda-should-coulda sense, i guess. but morally or cosmically or ultimately? no!
but Kessler saying that Obama is incompetent because he’s not doing what Kessler recommends isn’t necessarily racist. that’s my beef.
Betty Cracker
@Cacti & @Josie: : I grew up hearing about how if only JFK hadn’t overrode his Secret Service detail’s concerns about riding in an open car, Oswald wouldn’t have had a clear shot at him. It’s not unprecedented for presidents to be blamed for lax security.
@Tom Levenson: You might be right. I’m just saying that isn’t the ONLY possible interpretation that a person of good faith could have. I’m not giving the Politico hack the benefit of the doubt, but I’ll give it to Cleek, who has earned it, in my book anyway.
schrodinger's cat
@Jeremy: He has Cleek’s certificate, so there is that.
Cacti
@Betty Cracker:
And right on cue, here comes the lady called Cracker for some whitesplainin’.
cleek
@Cacti:
“white people”
wait. are you trolling?
Joey Maloney
@? Martin: Hey, nobody can threaten the president if West shoots
them allhim prophylactically, right?FTFY
cleek
@Tom Levenson:
then it’s a good thing nobody said that!
SFAW
@Aimai:
I may have missed it, but when did that happen? Because, as best as I can tell, the Rethugs keep trying to portray him as both, and just trot out one or the other, depending on the situation.
Cacti
I guess the willingness of some to go to the mat for the apalling commentary of Kessler shouldn’t surprise me much.
This is the same comment section where I’ve seen multiple “progressives” defend the character of Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Suzanne
@Jeremy: I think the whole environment is more hostile, partisan, and personally nasty, though. I think a woman would experience sexist nastiness and a gay man would experience homophobic nastiness as severe as the racism Obama is experiencing, if they were Democrats.
SFAW
@? Martin:
Interesting choice of words. Did you pick that one because West is a major-league prick? (Asshole, too, but the word choice doesn’t quite fit that one.)
cleek
@rea:
is not actually a prediction. and, why did you leave off the first three words?
the sentence is “Agents tell me it’s a miracle an assassination has not already occurred.”
so even if it is a prediction, it isn’t Kessler’s prediction.
(is that nitpicky? if it was just the one sentence, then yes. but i wasn’t talking about that one sentence in the comment you excised that from.)
TooManyJens
Have we all forgotten Hillary Clinton saying she was staying in the race until the end in 2008 because, after all, Bobby Kennedy was leading in the primaries and look what happened to him. I don’t think she was trying to say “Hey, you never know, Obama might get killed!” but she was just so blasé about evoking something that 1) had a real chance of happening and 2) would be horribly, horribly traumatic to the country and especially to black Americans. I have the same problem with Kessler. Tossing around that maybe Obama will be killed and it would be his fault, with no apparent understanding of the gravity of what he’s saying is, at absolute best, grossly insensitive. This just isn’t something people should toss around for cheap political points.
Another Holocene Human
Good choice of art, Tom. Unlike most depictions of the death of Caesar, this time the artist is at a remove, viewing the events blocked by bodies and grainily, like a Youtube video watched by the millions over and over who weren’t there. Most deaths of Caesar show his closest friends betraying him and the bloody knife. Very good choice for Politico here and this article in particular.
Anyway, this whole issue makes my blood boil.
Jeremy
Look I just saw an interview on CNBC with Steve Wynn who used the Obama has no experience, and never really held a serious job line. Now you have an old rich white man who says that he was always a democrat but Obama drove him away. Now explain to me how Obama is out of the mainstream ? Obama is a moderate pragmatic democrat but a guy like Wynn says that the reason why he hates the President is because he is different. My guess is that it’s mainly based on race, and what we have seen in this country since 2009 is that a sizeable percentage of white America can’t handle non-whites in positions of authority.
schrodinger's cat
Kessler, the paragon of non-racist virtue is a regular Newsmax contributor according to his Wikipedia page.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: I think racism permeates this one as well.
Trollhattan
@Tom Levenson: In case it’s not noted among the zillion comments above, you’ve used the words “edit” and “Politico” in a single paragraph. A gentle reminder that this may not, shall not occur, lest the English language lose whatever meaning it still holds.
Cacti
@TooManyJens:
No, I haven’t forgotten the calculated racial dog whistles that were blown by the Clinton campaign.
Suzanne
@TooManyJens: I agree with everything you just wrote.
I think this is definitely racism at work on Kessler’s part, but I don’t think racism is the Rethugs’ only affliction. They serve up shit sandwiches in a dizzying array of varieties for us all. How generous.
Another Holocene Human
@Tom Levenson: Just like the inflammatory video, likely bankrolled in the US by some conservative names who wanted to be well out of it, was that which may not be mentioned after Benghazi, now we have the sequester, which cut back so many USSS personnel, leading the rump to be overworked and morale to plummet (hey, I’ve seen this happen in civilian life, you can’t tell me this doesn’t happen on Feddy Lane as well), as that which may not be uttered.
Point at the president, don’t look at the dude over there in the corner with the mysterious powder on his hands, odd dark spatter stains on his shirt, mumbling “somebody had ta DIE, somebody had ta DIE” with sweat rolling off his forehead.
TooManyJens
@Jeremy: I wonder what he thinks constitutes a “serious” job? Presumably those positions where you screw as many people as possible out of as much money as possible qualify, but being a college professor? Organizing people to make their lives better? Eh. Unserious.
aimai
@Jeremy: I agree that gthe press treatment of Clinton and Obama are, in a personal sense, qualitatively different and that the treatment of Obama is worse–its worse for the entire country and for minorities in this country as well. But you don’t really remember the kind of attacks that were leveled at Clinton if you think that the treatment of Obama is at all that much different from the treatment of Clinton. Clinton was accused–inter alia of drug running, executing a retarded man for political gain (which he did), rape, molestation, and murder. Hillary was accused of lesbianism and murder. And this went on throughout his entire presidency.**
What I mean by this, in case it isn’t clear, is that its worse because when Clinton is attacked/was attacked it was salacious, cruel, and sick but it didn’t affect the way every other white person in the country thought about himself or his community. It didn’t resonate historically and culturally the way the shit that is lobbed at President Obama and Mrs Obama does.
schrodinger's cat
@Jeremy: But don’t you know that unless he actually uses the N-word he deserves the benefit of the doubt, that’s what Kessler’s white knights in this comment section will say, anyway.
Gravenstone
If this is a sign of managerial incompetence, what sort of hack was Reagan? I mean, that fucker went and got himself shot after all.
The Thin Black Duke
Thing is, African-Americans already fucking know what that stupid motherfucker was saying because living in White American means learning to read between the lines because your survival depends on it. The only people engaging in this useless debate about what Kessler was trying to say are white people.
dance around in your bones
That’s just SO fucked up. I would say that I am gobsmacked, but frankly – I am Not.
Ok, Now the definition of keeping a President and his family safe(ish) falls upon the President’s shoulders?
Fuck that noise.
John N
I think we all have prejudices, some more justified than others. White people think “racists” are people who explicitly organize their worldview around race, like white supremacists. Which most of us don’t. So, we think we aren’t racist. But, it is impossible for a white person to grow up in this country without being exposed to all sorts of racist and prejudicial notions. You don’t even realize that you’re internalizing them until it’s too late. So many of us feel very guilty over these prejudices, but we don’t really know how to escape them. A frank discussion about this would be helpful, because we are FAR from perfect, but we’d at least like to be seen as trying to move forward in a racially conscious way. But I realize that we have a distinct lack of credibility in this area.
White people hate being called racist because it rings true, and it cuts to the core of who we are as a people. We can’t escape our racist history, and we can’t ignore our racist present. But we are only human beings, after all. Many of us aren’t really equipped to deal with such big issues, and certainly none of us can ever truly understand what it is to be a black American. So how do we move forward? I’d like to believe the best way is to acknowledge that we ARE prejudiced, and that a little prejudice is normal for everyone, because putting things into categories is how the human brain works. But also acknowledge that prejudice can be harmful and insofar as it is harmful, it is wrong. None of us are perfect, and no one exists who does not have prejudice.
With that said, most white people don’t think like this at all, and are incredibly racist.
Jeremy
@Suzanne: It would be bad but If Clinton becomes president it won’t be as bad as the way Obama has been treated. Obama is getting the Jackie Robinson treatment.
Paul in KY
@Calouste: It is (IMO) the current administrations job to ferret them out & get rid of them or neutralize them. Not Pres. Obama’s job, but a job of some flunky.
Cacti
@schrodinger’s cat:
Reminds me of Chris Rock’s observation that we’ve gotten to the point where a white person practicaly has to shoot Medgar Evers before anyone will agree that s/he is racist.
The context was Michael Richards spewing N-bombs at a black heckler during a stand up routine.
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: I know you’re really pissed when you hand out the ‘mofo’. Keep on telling it like it is!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@aimai: all true, but I think the fact that Obama is black makes a lot of white people that much more receptive to the rightwing histrionics. Other things have changed too. Laura Ingram was an obnoxious crank on Bill Maher’s show in the 90s, now I gather she’s a fairly regular panelist on ABC’s sunday show. The model of “moderate Republican” has shifted from William Roth and John Chaffee to Dick Lugar.
Trollhattan
The Secret Service needs to fix itself, and pronto. This ain’t the president’s fault and since he’s not given to dishing out punishment in public, I presume he’s done so privately, with vigor. The SS needs to stop, evaluate, redesign and implement change. Now. It’s basically a safety standdown, and there’s plenty of precedent should they need advice on how to conduct one.
Now.
TooManyJens
Bottom line, Kessler’s more concerned about how to blame Obama for his own potential assassination than about the fact that there are 3-4 times as many more people threatening to kill Obama than there were threatening to kill his predecessor. You don’t have priorities that fucked up for any benign reason, IMO.
LAC
@rikyrah: amen! What, we are giving weight to ” tiger beat on the Potomac”? Stenographers of wingnut talking points neatly disguised as “some on the hill say…”?
Mnemosyne
@cleek:
Incompetent Secret Service agents are trying to cover their asses in the press and blame the victim(s) after their incompetence is revealed? Color me shocked!
Apparently the Secret Service’s fee-fees were hurt because the President and First Lady yelled at them when they found out that the Secret Service didn’t realize that someone had shot at the White House while Mrs. Robinson and Sasha were in the house. I guess that’s another example of Obama’s incompetent management — getting mad just because his mother-in-law and daughter were endangered by the Secret Service’s incompetence.
Another Holocene Human
@schrodinger’s cat:
The question is, what are we gonna do about it?
Ben Jealous was talking about this at NAACP (love to know why he stepped down, I was a big fan of his work) and there’s been a very, very grassroots movement since Trayvon Martin was killed, pushing back against the racist depiction of African-Americans, especially young Black men, in the media. Back in the 1980s, the ADL and B’Nai B’rith were very effective at cornering Anti-Semitism in the media. GLAAD did the same for the GLBT community. In both cases, though, these communities had a lot of tacit support in Hollywood even if there was heavy lifting to be done in local newspapers and local news channels. But Hollywood is one of the biggest purveyors of completely distorted images of Black Americans. They perpetuate racial attitudes in this country while hiding behind supposed money concerns. Even if everything they said about Black leads and race movies were true, why does TV show after TV show only cast Black men as “Street thug #2” and “Corey the drug addict living under the bridge”? This is the poison every white American is raised with as soon as they’re weened. It enters the nebulous zone of stuff people “just know”. The only channel that bucks this trend is PBS. Okay, so MSNBC did put Uncle Al and MHP on cable but then puts a bunch of racist, insular white guys on the whole spectrum from Morning Joe Cracker to Tingles Tweety and his white lunchpail real (white male) voter laments.
kc
Of course if Obama did somehow micromanage the Secret Service, we’d be reading media complaints about his arrogant interference with the Secret Service is impeding agents, blahblahblah.
SatanicPanic
Here’s my thing- maybe this criticism is based on racism, maybe it wasn’t, but I just hate to go down the road of “let’s establish beyond a reasonable doubt that it’s racism, because calling something racist is the worst thing that you can possibly do.”
The fact is, people say and do racist things all the time, and it’s important to note that even if someone doesn’t have racist intent, something is still racist if people listening take it that way.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@ira-NY: Curious cartoon, it can also be read as saying the intruder was a racist.
Paul in KY
@Jeremy: Steve Wynn was never a Democrat. He may have given money to the Democratic Party (and now doesn’t), but guys like him give money to both & I’m pretty sure the Repubs would always get more.
askew
@Cacti:
I haven’t forgotten either. One of the many reasons I won’t be backing Hillary during the primaries.
geg6
@Cacti:
This, this, this.
I read the TPM article this morning and then held my nose and read Kessler’s article. I really don’t see how anyone can’t see what he wrote as anything other than racist dog whistling and a wink-wink-nod-nod to any rightwing fuckwit who wants to exercise a Second Amendment solution to the problem of the near guy in the White House.
Cacti
@Paul in KY:
Ronald Reagan was a Democrat too, but the party “moved away from him” when it decided that black Americans ought to have the full rights of citizenship.
Another Holocene Human
@Scamp Dog: Not crazier–more pure.
The Religious Right has already peaked. They sowed the seeds of their own destruction at their moment of greatest triumph.
What you’re hearing out of these goons now is pure Bircherism.
They are relying on racism and xenophobia now to keep their suckers headed to the polls because at this point, they got nothin’.
scav
@Cacti: There’s a similar dynamic in the generational arguement trotted out earlier: It’s only racism if it’s more obvious and overt than the generational norm (also loaded with the generation is as a whole absolved if there are a few less egregious practitioners Get Out of Definition card). The We don’t know what’s in his heart justification makes me snort at the thought of “It’s not adultery if he’s worshipping his wife’s body in his mind! while actively cavorting with someone else’s physically well-worshipped body.”
Trollhattan
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Given it’s the Boston Herald–a cesspool of a paper–and given the cartoonist’s comment, he certainly wasn’t working the sly dig at racism angle–at best it was subconscious gaffe on his part (which Chait seems to be granting here).
Another Holocene Human
@Frankensteinbeck: They still hate the youth for “losing” Vietnam, they had more entitlements than anyone between granny getting more SSI than she ever paid in, dad and mom buying the house with the GI bill, huge government investment in highways and the MIC jobs program, a Fed that kept employment high, and a favorable union law environment that meant you didn’t have to put yourself in the line of a Pinkerton’s bullet to get a few positive changes on the job.
Bill Arnold
FWIW, the politico piece has been revised, and now ends with:
kc
@schrodinger’s cat:
I don’t remember anyone blaming St. Reagan, blessed be His name, but some people did blame Kennedy, no?
LAC
@rikyrah: @rikyrah: amen! What, we are giving weight to ” tiger beat on the Potomac”? Stenographers of wingnut talking points neatly disguised as “some on the hill say…”?
The whitesplaining needs a rest …
Another Holocene Human
@Lady Bug:
No, but since the scandal broke the usual gross suspects on the right, included a lot of elected officials have been calling for a hail of suppressive fire any time a member of “the public” (which as Congress knows, is the enemy) so much as blinks at the WH.
Calouste
@TooManyJens: State Senator in one of the most populous states in the union, apparently also not a serious job.
Being in prison for 6 years, parts of it in solitary confinement, in contrast really adds to the experience relevant to being president
Another Holocene Human
@cleek:
Then Kessler is being disingenuous at best because Obama DID replace the head of the Secret Service. SATSQ.
Cacti
@Bill Arnold:
Yeah, misinterpreted.
Jeremy
@TooManyJens: I never understood that attack. The guy was a lawyer, law professor, community organizer, state senator, and U.S. Senator. I guess those things are not considered real jobs.
The Dangerman
I think I’m with Cleek on this one; a poorly written column…
…that was intended to satisfy the “needs” of those who figuratively (some literally) do the 5 knuckle shuffle to the thought of this President getting shot.
Paul in KY
@Cacti I hear & agree.
Gravenstone
@Belafon: Or an edit after the fact in Holbert’s archives.
schrodinger's cat
@kc: That’s what Betty Cracker said.
Suzanne
@Jeremy: I don’t buy that for a minute. The first woman President, if she’s a Democrat, will be called old and ugly and shrill and bossy and lesbian and a baby murderer. It’ll be awesome. Snark.
SatanicPanic
@John N: This. Well said.
kc
@Tom Levenson:
I read it as more wishful thinking than a firm prediction . . .
Mnemosyne
@Trollhattan:
Since it seems as though the cartoonist did two versions of the gag (watermelon vs. raspberry), it seems like maybe there was something in the back of his mind that said, Maybe a watermelon reference is a bad idea. Not sure who decided to run the “watermelon” version, the cartoonist or his editor.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Holocene Human: And there were commenters here who suggested it.
cckids
@Scamp Dog:
Yes, we will. Earlier this week I came across some Time/Newsweek magazines from Clinton’s inaugurations. (just moved, still unpacking & winnowing out). The vitriol & disrespect was pretty high then, too. Was it Gingrich or Norquist who said that if they can’t prevent the election of a Democrat, they’ll make it impossible for them to govern? Mission accomplished. Of course, destroying the country in the process, but hey, they’re winners, right? Right?
Mnemosyne
@Bill Arnold:
Man, if even Politico’s readers saw a problem with the last graf …
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@cleek: Sigh, perhaps you should read the Poltical article too’
While Kessler goes on to claim Obama’s management style is the cause Kessler makers statements like this:
Which basically says the SS is underfunded and demoralized because of it.
Congress sets the funding, so Kessler is just carrying water for the Repubicans.
Paul in KY
@Bill Arnold: The fucking Republicans (a lot of them anyway) wouldn’t consider it a ‘tragedy’ if the Pres. was murdered. Or the only ‘tragedy’ would be Pres. Joe Biden (and not Pres. John Boner).
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@kc: Even though the shooters family was friends of GH Bush. I remember there was a lot head scratching about that.
kc
@Jeremy:
Well, of course not. That’s cause he and Hillary assassinated so many of their detractors.
Suzanne
@Suzanne: Let’s not forget she’ll be called a bad mother, unserious, unaccomplished (or a coattail-rider), “obsessed” with rape, beholden to her menstrual cycle, unfunny, unfriendly, imperious, threatening. Need I go on?
TooManyJens
@Suzanne: Or, if too old to be beholden to her menstrual cycle, a dried-up old hag who’s unfuckable and therefore worthless.
Or, hell, both. It’s not like logic and reality matter to these people.
Jeremy
@Suzanne: Well I think it’s a guarantee that the media and the GOP will be saying those things. We will see how bad it gets.
StringOnAStick
@Another Holocene Human:
The word “polls” is the big point right now, and the volume knob is really getting turned up now because there is a significant election right around the corner. Am I the only one who has noted how much noisier it has gotten lately? It isn’t random; it’s calculated and this article was part of that.
Jeremy
@The Dangerman: Look at Kessler’s background and then you will see that it was not poorly written. I don’t know why it’s hard for some people to realize that a right winger wants to see the president get killed. I can’t recall the amount of times right wingers called for the assassination of the president.
Jack the Second
@Roger Moore:
Rhymes with “tush”?
Suzanne
@TooManyJens: It’s not like they even know how it WORKS, FFS.
RaflW
@Cacti:
Ding. Ding. Ding! Thank you for naming it. White privilege means never having to say I’m sorry … since so many other people will assume your good intentions right off the starting block.
Jeremy
@Paul in KY: Kind of like Donald Trump who portrayed himself as a middle of the road guy. The guy donated to a few democratic candidates and even called for Single Payer health care and once Obama came into the picture he was a right wing republican.
Trollhattan
@Mnemosyne: Yup, something clicked that maybe it wasn’t such a great idea, and ironically it sure deflates an otherwise modestly funny sight gag. Heck, “Love the tub!” would have worked.
JPL
@Bill Arnold: hahahahahahahahhahahahahahhahahaha
The statement is not even close to the original statement.
I am amazed that was the original intent.
Another Holocene Human
@Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937:
Great minds think alike.
I’d love the temper tantrum if Obama were accompanied by a Fruit of Islam coterie in a stylishly understated ensemble designed by Kanye West and Spike Lee.
Bobby Thomson
@cleek:
Some say that’s a copout worthy of Fox.
cleek
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
i’m not sure how that proves Kessler’s column is based in racism.
@Mnemosyne:
take it up with Kessler. it’s his argument, not mine.
@Another Holocene Human:
yes, 18 months ago. maybe he’s thinking that 18 months is plenty of time to change things and if Julia Pierson hasn’t fixed things by now that she should go? beats me.
Another Holocene Human
@schrodinger’s cat:
This.
You’ll have to visualize the rainbow colors and the groovy music as the word This floats across the screen.
Suzanne
@Suzanne: Maybe I’ll make a bingo game full of sexist comments in the event a woman gets elected in my lifetime. It’ll be so awesome! Winner gets makeup. Or Spanx.
cleek
@Bobby Thomson:
my argument remains, as always, that reading Kessler’s column as racism is mistaken. whether or not Kessler was predicting or the SS agents were predicting has fuck-all to do with my point.
dww44
@cleek: Yes, imo, it does. That’s pretty powerfully coded racism, don’t you think? I live in the South and always have; that’s how I read that particular criticism.
Omnes Omnibus
Perhaps the solution to all of this would be to bring in S1W.
Mnemosyne
@cleek:
And people are pointing out to you that you seem to think racism only occurs when someone is wearing a pointy white hood. There is such a thing as unconscious and subconscious racism, you know.
Since Politico decided to have Kessler re-write the end of his article, it seems like us whiners at B-J aren’t the only ones who had a problem with it.
Tommy
If you have lived in DC, as I have, the local police are not that stellar. But a lot of other law enforcement in the town. Two you don’t mess around with are the Capital Hill Police and the Secret Service. I know the Secret Service is getting pounded into the ground, and what I know now ain’t pretty, but if my life was in danger I’d like to call them.
Another Holocene Human
This whole routine of whitesplaining around obvious racism reminds me of when people on the street used to ask if my wife and I were sisters. It’s the whole impulse to skirt around a taboo subject by “not thinking ill” of another person and inventing a superficially plausible out. The scary undercurrent is that when you’re on the receiving end of this you never know how they’re going to react when you correct them because it’s obviously something that makes them super uncomfortable.
People are defending Holbert calling it an innocent mistake, yadda yadda. It’s not, but calling another white person who you might theoretically have other social intercourse with is scary and taboo so you find this way to excuse it to make the fear go away.
But it doesn’t make it go away. It just twists the knife further in the hapless target of the racist/homophobic/sexist comment.
Archon
@cleek:
I guess the question is, do you think the virulent and irrational criticism of Obama is mainly based on his race?
If you don’t then your gonna be prepared to give articles like this the benefit of the doubt.
cckids
@Jeremy:
I may be able to translate it into RichManRepublicanese: “The man went to Columbia & Harvard! Was president of the Harvard Law Review! He had a ticket to the most prestigious, well-paying law firms in the country, and he went back to Chicago & took jobs where he tried to help people. Must be a loser, obviously not one of US.”
schrodinger's cat
@cleek:
Why? Because you say so? Do you know something about Kessler that we don’t?
cckids
@Suzanne:
Well, yes. See Limbaugh & “you slutty sluts need so many birth control pills because you’re having so much sex”. Women are icky and somehow foreign to them.
Mandalay
@Trollhattan:
Right. I have no idea why Chait is defending the cartoonist, who made this unlikely claim:
Well I guess a 58 year old man might “find” watermelon flavored kids toothpaste in his home. It’s possible, if unlikely.
But he also said this:
WTF??? The guy is either totally dumb, or a lying fucker who got called on his shit. I’m going with option #2.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Lotta whitesplaining going on in this thread. Most of it from white people who should know better.
We all know what Kessler meant. Stop trying to turn it into something innocuous. It isn’t.
schrodinger's cat
Kessler is the chief Washington correspondent for the bastion of journalistic excellence that is NewMax, enough said.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Jeremy: Not when held by a black man. The mere invocation of the possibility of affirmative action at work trumps any accomplishment any person of color could ever make.
Clarence Thomas is quite familiar with this.
Mnemosyne
@Another Holocene Human:
Heh. When looking for an apartment in Beaumont, Texas, about 20 years ago, my best friend and her (actual) sister were denied one apartment because the landlord was afraid that someone might think they were lesbians. Opposite side, same coin.
Kathleen
@Another Holocene Human: That’s an excellent question I ask myself all the time. The only immediate thing I can think of is an organized Twitter movement which relentlessly pushes back (I’ve often thought those of us who support Obama need to also engage in this) not only at Fox but the Mainslime Media, print and broadcast.
Most of the mainslime shows feature “Twitter Trends” and I’ve read that African Americans have a powerful presence on Twitter and use it very effectively. Articles like this, what guests say on the Sunday morning talk shows, how events like Ferguson are handled – I think there needs to be organized efforts to combat the lies.
Just my two cents. I doubt that we will “change” the Mainslimers, but at least we can let them know what they’re doing is unacceptable.
Another Holocene Human
@askew:
So true. They just don’t trust him to get it right, for some reason. No idea what that could be. So odd.
I don’t remember Bill Clinton being such an object for the left. They all loved him but hated him for sucking all the energy of their fundraising and organizing because the liberal squishes were having such a good old time yukking it up with good wages, job offers, cheap crap from China, and local domestic partnership ordnances and gay straight alliances. For those who were genuinely concerned about Latin America I can only presume those were deeply depressing times.
Jeremy
@cckids: Yep !
cleek
@Archon:
some people make racist attacks against Obama. that doesn’t mean all attacks against Obama are racist.
why is that difficult for people to accept?
@schrodinger’s cat:
no, do you? is he a Klansman or something? is there something about Kessler himself that makes it impossible to deny the racism inherent in the things he writes? if so, spit it out – i’d love to know! otherwise, his words in that article show no racism.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Holocene Human:
You should read some issues of The Nation from the ’90s. Yeah, Obama is getting it much worse, but the Left was not enamored of Bill.
Another Holocene Human
@askew:
THIS! My god. The Clintons were horribly naive when they went to Washington and blew their chance to make any real changes from 1992-1994. (The 1% wanted NAFTA so no big deal.) Obama was a state senator, then a US Senator, before he became President. He had very good relationships with some VERY powerful Senators. He was very realistic about what he could and couldn’t accomplish. He, Pelosi, and Reid worked miracles getting some major change effected in a short period of time against a headwind of a slight and contingent majority.
Just look at DADT. Some GLBT activists threw screaming, throw-yourself-to-the-ground-and-pound-your-fists tantrums because Barack Obama wouldn’t sign an executive order to end DADT. Then Obama gets the fucking establishment to do it, to make it really permanent, and the NEXT DAY the white media talking heads all act like DADT was inevitable.
They will never, ever, ever give Obama credit for anything, least of all his intelligence and political savvy.
I expect stupidity to come out of the mouths of GOP political operatives when speaking of Democratic leaders but what comes out of the liberal coalition sometimes is just unbearably shocking.
Mnemosyne
@cleek:
We’re saying that this specific attack on Obama was racist, or at least racially based. The fact that non-racist attacks exist doesn’t magically make this one non-racist.
geg6
@cleek:
I tend to go with the idea that, since I’m a white person, I really don’t get to judge that.
hoodie
@cleek: You’re pushing this argument too far. Kessler’s writing at least supports a reasonable inference of a bias towards Obama and that the bias has racial overtones. “Obama’s colossal lack of management judgment” is pretty strong for simply not firing Pierson (who resigned today) with sufficient alacrity for Kessler. “Colossal lack of management judgment” would be more fitting for something like, say, the Iraq War, Katrina, etc. Now, that’s a fuckup that cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars. This asshole has no basis for concluding that Obama has a “colossal lack of management judgment” based on the failing of one agency.
There may be some gender bias at work as well. Attributing judgments about the service to nameless agents sounds like a guy passing along the bitter gripes of his old fart bar buddies who resent some fuckin’ broad running the agency. I would bet there is still a lot of macho cultural baggage from the old guard in the service, hence the problems with hookers and booze. This is probably even more the case among retired agents. Kessler may be tight with that crowd and they may specifically resent Pierson, even if this shit was beyond her ability to fix. If you have a pervasive shitty attitude among the troops, the leader can’t just wave a magic wand to make everything better. Pierson wasn’t in the job that long and probably would have caught a ration of shit if she had been too eager to drop the hammer on the boys. This is a fuckup and needs to be addressed, but it ain’t the first fuckup by a long shot. Remember, there was a big one in Dallas back in the good old days when guys like Obama new their place and didn’t have the temerity to think they’re better than Kessler’s buddies.
Suzanne
@Another Holocene Human: Concur. The left is not as bad as the right, but the left is certainly far from blameless on issues of race, gender, sex, orientation, class, etc.
@Mnemosyne: I think calling the attack “racially based” is spot-on. I don’t know this Kessler dude’s work well enough to know if he specifically feels animus toward black people, or other racial minorities, but he sure was willing to make an offensive statement that, understandably, black Americans would be more sensitive to. He took advantage of the social system of racism to make his point, and that is racist regardless of his personal feelings about black people.
Kathleen
Somewhat OT, but according to NBC News Pierson has resigned as head of Secret Service.
cleek
@Mnemosyne:
of course there is.
but i’m skeptical about the efficacy of long-distance subconscious mind-reading.
and if Kessler’s history doesn’t show any racism (does it? i haven’t heard of any), and there’s nothing obvious in this piece…
i’ve noted several times here that i thought his ending was terrible. i just don’t think it was racist.
Mnemosyne
@cleek:
Kessler is a contributor to NewsMax. To me, that says he has a strong right-wing bias, which generally includes racism, but maybe he just didn’t realize that NewsMax is a right-wing propaganda machine when he started writing for them.
I’m pretty sure that if you asked Kessler, he would deny any racial bias. But, then, so did David Duke.
Mnemosyne
@cleek:
Also, what do you consider the difference between “racist” and “coming from a place of racial bias”? I think Kessler came to the conclusion that he did because of his racial bias against Obama (aka racism). You seem to think that racism requires deliberate thought and planning and if Kessler didn’t specifically craft it to come across as racist, it wasn’t racist.
cleek
@hoodie:
he dislikes Obama very much, no doubt. but i disagree about the racial overtones. and, after reading you comment about sexism, i read the piece two more times. but i don’t see any sexism in there, either. he says she wasn’t good at her job, a few different ways. but i don’t see how any of that is sexist.
@Mnemosyne:
no ‘you’ aren’t. from Tom’s original post all the way through these hundreds of comments, there’s been nothing but “you must see it in the overall context!” and “given the history of…” and “you have to read between the lines!” and “part of a larger pattern!” and “compared to other Presidents”. but there’s apparently nothing racist about the piece in question unless you bring in all kinds of stuff that is racist and then link them because some racists have also criticized Obama’s competency and ‘style’.
Cervantes
@Another Holocene Human:
You might want to talk to, among others, the ghost of Chris Hitchens.
schrodinger's cat
@cleek: I can’t show you what you refuse to see. Please carry on.
ruemara
@cleek: I respect you, but you’re completely wrong in this.
I’m gonna stop at 100 or I’ll get to hear other people I respect ‘splain things to me and I may get sprain an eyeball with the rolls those orbs are about to do.
deep
@schrodinger’s cat: Jeez man, it seems to me like you’re the blind one here.
Every post I’ve seen here is “All Republicans are racist therefore Kessler is racist!”
Really are you guys that bad at deductive reasoning? Or just insane? It’s clear Kessler thinks Obama is incompetent, but it’s a really big stretch to say that’s a racist sentiment.
Mnemosyne
@cleek:
Look, you’re almost there. What we’re telling you is that this essay is part of a recognizable pattern that we have seen over and over and over again since 2008 and even before, of Obama and other people of color being held to a higher standard than white people. It is not just a stand-alone article, any more than the “watermelon” gag in the political cartoon is a stand-alone gag.
It’s part of a pattern. You’re defending a single leaf on a single tree but the rest of us are trying to point out that you’re standing in the middle of a forest that’s filled with the same trees that have the same leaves.
Cervantes
@schrodinger’s cat:
Could you explain in a few lines where you see racism in Kessler’s article?
(Special thanks — because I imagine you must have already explained it above.)
cleek
@schrodinger’s cat:
whew. thanks!
@Mnemosyne:
again with the composition fallacy. not all conservatives are racist. not all Newsmax writers are racist. Newsmax is a shitty place and Kessler’s probably a shitty guy with a lot of shitty ideas. but racism is a serious charge, IMO, and i’d like to see some evidence before i get out my axe. mind-reading and hand-waving and broken logic don’t do it for me. you have a lower threshold, i guess.
cleek
@Mnemosyne:
and i’m telling you that you are making a fundamental error in logic. several, in fact, but one in particular stands out:
some conservatives are racist. that doesn’t mean all conservatives are racist. some racists have criticized Obama’s competency and style. that doesn’t mean that all criticisms of Obama’s competency and style are based in racism. you’re saying they must be – that they’re all the same. but you’re wrong. that’s not how it works.
schrodinger's cat
@Cervantes: See my comment 77
Another Holocene Human
@Jack the Second:
Lol, my mind went there too.
@Calouste: Ouch, that’s really below the belt. I’d stick with crashing planes or crashing companies as my point of comparison.
Another Holocene Human
@cleek: Conservative ideology perpetuates structural racism so if you are anti-racist and want to end structures of oppression there’s no way you can honestly sign onto that shit. So the best you can say is not that conservatives are not all racist but that some of them are willfully blind to the consequences of what they advocate 24/7. The rest know and since they buy into white supremacy, don’t care.
It’s that invisible backpack of privilege again.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Holocene Human: In the thread above, I just noted this:
I see no reason to give Kessler the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Another Holocene Human
@Omnes Omnibus: Er, Omnes, sorry for being unclear. I don’t mean that the Left loved Clinton, they did not. I mean that they didn’t go out there and talk about how naive he is and all that condescending jazz. (The Village called him naive and a hillbilly and so on because they hated him from day one.) The Left pretty much felt that he meant to do what he did, after all he was shilling for NAFTA in the campaign so not much room for debate about his intentions.
I don’t recall the Left saying Bill Clinton didn’t know how to lead. When Clinton was pulling all kinds of shit at State while liberals cheered him on they cursed him for so effectively marginalizing them and pushing through the third way/big business/illiberal agenda.
I don’t recall anyone saying on the Left that Bill needed stuff ‘splained to him or that he lacked “leadership” skills.
Another Holocene Human
@Omnes Omnibus: Well said. And none so blind as those who will not see.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Holocene Human: Okay, I would agree with that take on it.
RaflW
@cleek: You are mistaking the analysis of racist content for racist intent, a common fallacy. Who care’s if Kessler is or isn’t “a racist.” What he said in his piece has a strong racist overtone and advances the dangerous idea that Obama somehow deserves this impending death because he’s a “colossal mismanager.”
Another Holocene Human
@deep:
So there is this thing. It is called unconscious bias. A lot of research has been done on this thing. It is very real.
Let’s take a bunch of characteristics of presidents, the accomplishments, the scandals, and stack them up without mentioning names or (hrrm) ethnicity.
Would Obama be on the bottom third? Even for the last 100 years?
Of course not. So why is he called “incompetent”? That’s a pretty heavy charge.
Keith G
@cleek: Forget it, Cleek. Folks will continue to read into your (rather clear) statements what they wish. Doing so gives them comfort, I guess. You may be right in your assessment of Kessler’s meaning. Maybe you are not, but that is what makes debate and discussion fun and enlightening – the open exchange of considered ideas which are given voice without demeaning the intentions of the participants. That can happen here.
The racist-based attacks hurled at Obama have been at the same time both maddening and disheartening. One such attack would be too many, but there have been thousands.
Be that as it may, not every criticism of Obama is based on race. Not every uncomfortable statement, either concise or sloppy, is a dog whistle.
On second thought Cleek, don’t “forget it”. As deep mentions above, some of the reasoning typed out above deserves to be challenged.
Mnemosyne
@RaflW:
Thank you — you have successfully summed up the majority of my arguments in this thread in less than 20 words. My work is done here.
/walks away with building exploding in background
Gvg
@schrodinger’s cat: Vee there wasn’t a lot of pushback against the Iraq war but there was some. I was actually referring to later when people commonly realized how bad Bush was about 2006 or so.
I had forgotten how unnoticed the Iraq invasion pushback was. well read people like my parents said why didn’t anyone point out how weak the evidence was or how bad the planning was? my answer was people DID! In the NYTimes even at the same time there were 5 prowar stories, there were a few articles that laid out how flimsy the evidence was, that the Bush and Cheney and Rumsfield were ordering the evidence cooked and were ignoring planning needs etc. It was there, but it seemed like it just wasn’t being noticed. I was lead to those articles by posters on a Gators sports board who mostly leaned conservative but the articles were in mainstream publications”….I can’t explain why no one seemed to tell other people to read them. I was not that political then and I think I was just lucky that a chance met group of posters pointed me at those stories
it amazed me to realize my family who liked reading hard news far more than I did apparently really didn’t get that news.
I remember the Clinton years as an explosion of nasty sexism against Hillary and now having seen the Obama years plus the shocking sexism in birth control issues I am expecting a switch to be just as nuts with sexism when Hillary runs. Obama has received worse than Bill but a lot of th Clinton years nuttiness was racist with Bill the democrat being a kind of proxy for attacks on blacks, meaning they attacked him because they saw him as a defender and pretty much all democrats. the same people also hate women and it’s going to stay bad which is not heartening when I think of the next decade.
I wish I thought as well of Hillary’s judgement as I do Obama’s.
Gvg
shrodinger’s cat there wasn’t a lot of pushback against the Iraq war but there was some. I was actually referring to later when people commonly realized how bad Bush was about 2006 or so.
I had forgotten how unnoticed the Iraq invasion pushback was. well read people like my parents said why didn’t anyone point out how weak the evidence was or how bad the planning was? my answer was people DID! In the NYTimes even at the same time there were 5 prowar stories, there were a few articles that laid out how flimsy the evidence was, that the Bush and Cheney and Rumsfield were ordering the evidence cooked and were ignoring planning needs etc. It was there, but it seemed like it just wasn’t being noticed. I was lead to those articles by posters on a Gators sports board who mostly leaned conservative but the articles were in mainstream publications”….I can’t explain why no one seemed to tell other people to read them. I was not that political then and I think I was just lucky that a chance met group of posters pointed me at those stories
it amazed me to realize my family who liked reading hard news far more than I did apparently really didn’t get that news.
I remember the Clinton years as an explosion of nasty sexism against Hillary and now having seen the Obama years plus the shocking sexism in birth control issues I am expecting a switch to be just as nuts with sexism when Hillary runs. Obama has received worse than Bill but a lot of th Clinton years nuttiness was racist with Bill the democrat being a kind of proxy for attacks on blacks, meaning they attacked him because they saw him as a defender and pretty much all democrats. the same people also hate women and it’s going to stay bad which is not heartening when I think of the next decade.
I wish I thought as well of Hillary’s judgement as I do Obama’s.
Cervantes
@schrodinger’s cat: Saw it, thanks.
Not convinced — but I would agree that Kessler’s commentary there is inane.
Ripley
Denying that overt racism doesn’t demean either the intentions or the participants themselves has a label. Starts with an R.
Stay dim and carry on.
JR in WV
Why does Cleek support this guy Kessler’s obvious racist hatred of the most competent president of our lifetimes?
Over and over people on this blog tell Cleek that he’s defending racist claptrap; people specify how Kessler’s trash is racially noxious, and over and over Cleek’s saying “IS NOT, IS NOT, IS NOT, IS NOT, IS NOT, IS NOT, Not racist, is not…..!”
This Cleek guy has obviously been around B-J for a while, I finally discovered what Cleek’s Law is by going to his blog… it doesn’t look that racist or odd ball at first glance. He’s in Thailand right now, nice vacation. Rich, or at least well off guy. But why insist that a column that practically cries out for the killing of our President isn’t racist?
So strange. No one is so hard to convince of something as those who’s income depends upon not seeing it. Cleek, why are you so convinced that Kessler isn’t a racist KKK suckbunny? Because I think it is obvious that he hates President Obama because President Obama is a successful Black man, indeed, a Black President. Most powerful man in the world.
Hates him, he does. Maybe Cleek is too?
Cervantes
@JR in WV:
At first glance — but you’ve taken a closer look now, I gather.
SWMBO
@Roger Moore: You forgot taking care of the 1%.
Betty Cracker
We’ve got to investigate this “Cleek” character’s countertops. I strongly suspect granite!
Paul in KY
@Keith G: Took you long enough to get into this one. I thought Cleek was going to have to make excuses all by his lonesome.
Cervantes
@Paul in KY:
Whereas I saw nothing he or she need make excuses for.
Paul in KY
@Cervantes: I did. So we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
xian
@Mnemosyne: he was all “hey, let’s turn off the security cameras, smoke some choom, and play some hoops!”