ate Barack Obama, wound up strengthening his campaign by revealing just how ridiculous many of their own positions are?I’m starting to wonder if that is a very real possibility. The campaign season isn’t officially under way yet, and the hard-core campaigning won’t begin until after Labor Day (when the good people of DuPage County, Ill., will hold their annual “Back to School Parade” so they won’t have to honor the concepts of labor and workers).
YET WE’RE ALREADY getting nonsense of a level unlike anything ever seen before. Of course, we’ve never had a major political party nominate an African-American person for president, which creates a set of circumstances never before seen.
Perhaps that is why the Obama campaign has taken the unique step of putting together a new website by which he will refute the tales swirling around the rumor mill – in some cases, before they officially become stories.
First and foremost, he’s going after the notion that his wife, Michelle, was caught on videotape being a bigot, using the word “whitey” while speaking at an event sponsored by the PUSH/Rainbow Coalition. Or was it an event at the Trinity United Church of Christ with the now-retired Rev. Jeremiah Wright at her side? Or perhaps it was at a Nation of Islam event sponsored by Louis Farrakhan?
Seriously, I have had people in recent weeks try to peddle all three versions of the tale. None of them can agree on facts, perhaps because there is little in the way of fact behind this story (that’s what Obama says, at http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/notape). Or maybe these Obama critics just think all black leaders look alike, and will accuse me of being “too politically correct” for calling them out on their nonsense.
I DON’T REALLY want to rehash this issue, beyond summarizing what I wrote a week ago – if there really is such a tape, it is probably some comment so innocuous that it has to be taken grossly out of context for anyone to believe that something bigoted was said.
More than likely, it will be a bigger statement about the racial attitudes of the people peddling the garbage about Michelle Obama than it would be about the views of the potential first lady.
That’s definitely the case behind people who are trying to defend Fox News for their recent broadcast that incorporated a graphic element using the words “Obama’s baby mama” to describe Michelle.
Columnist Michelle Malkin told the (ugh) Associated Press that Fox News shouldn’t really be blamed because the words “Obama’s baby mama” were never spoken on the air – they merely existed for a few seconds on a graphic that floated under the news anchor’s face.
THE SMART ALECK in me wants to say she’s absolutely right. One would have to read the graphic, and maybe she’s implying that Fox News viewers can’t (or don’t) read.
Of course, we all have to admit that the official explanation that the “baby mama” word choice was “poor judgment” is lame.
But using this bit of rap music slang to describe a woman who actually married her man before having his two daughters (isn’t that what the social conservatives are always claiming people are supposed to do?) actually sets the tone for the type of nonsense we’re going to hear for the next few months.
I also predict that a “President Obama” is going to have to put up with four (or eight) years of similar stuff. Some people in our society have a hang-up about the whole racial thing; many are more than willing to accept black people so long as they “act white.”
MANY OF THOSE people try to divert the issue into one of “acting American,” but a close study of their words usually shows they equate “white” and “American” as being synonymous – which may have been true in the 18th Century United States, but is so ridiculous in the reality of the 21st Century.
It’s in the same context that I have to wonder about the so-called “terrorist fist jab,” the playful little fist bump that Michelle gave her husband just before he gave the speech on the day when it became apparent that any chance Hillary R. Clinton had of defeating him was gone.
That was how one Fox News commentator described the moment. I have to wonder what substances she was using, and why won’t she share?
I also wonder if conservatives are now going to make an issue out of every single cutesy moment when a presidential candidate gets a physical congratulation from his spouse. Remember in 2004 when Democrat John Kerry gave his wife Teresa a big embrace and kiss on the stage at the Democratic National Convention – only to get blasted for being too emotional in public.
NOW, MICHELLE GIVES up a little fist bump, and gets labeled a “terrorist.”
It is going to be a seriously ugly primary. I fully expect that by the time Nov. 5 rolls around, we’re going to be able to look back on Election ’08 as one of the nastiest political brawls ever in this country. I also expect the incidents I have mentioned in this commentary will barely play in the overall picture – someone out there is determined enough to say or do something worse.
I have to wonder how much the “American” people will take before they say “enough.” I do believe we are beyond the days when blatant bigotry sells, and that there will be a point where the more ridiculous charges will come to be seen as evidence of how desperate some people are to cling to an antique way of thought.
I don’t expect Republican John McCain to spew much of this personally. In fact, I wonder if his campaign is going to wind up getting bogged down this summer and autumn with having to issue denials of all the crazy poop that his so-called supporters will spew against Obama.
TAKE FORMER SECRETARY of State Lawrence Eagleburger, who this week appeared at a GOP fundraiser and introduced Cindy McCain (the other potential first lady) as someone who is, “proud of her country, not just once but always.”
The allusion to Michelle Obama’s comment earlier this year in Wisconsin that, “for the first time in my adult life, I’m really proud of my country,” because of the enthusiastic response her bi-racial husband’s presidential campaign received from white voters really is pathetic, when you think about it.
Michelle was saying she was “proud” that this country was at a point where it could look beyond race when deciding a presidential campaign. Does Eagleburger (or any McCain follower) really want to be on the opposite side of that argument – that race still ought to be an issue?
That is ridiculous, if not racist in and of itself. In many ways, it is even un-American.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: Will Michelle Obama become a burden for her husband’s (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11044.html) presidential campaign? Or will the American people become disgusted enough with cheap shots against her that he gains support?
Michelle Obama made campaign history on that day in Wisconsin when she uttered her words (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/06/michelle-obamas.html) about the state of race and politics in the United States.
English newspaper readers got to read this take on the “baby mama” controversy (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/usa/2008/06/foxs_baby_mama_booboo.html), while Barack Obama’s new website (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/13/content_8357909.htm) gained attention in China.
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