Some of the Democrat rhetoric on the stump leaves me scratching my head. It's obvious that the Left smells defeat and is trying to find a message to cover their asses when they lose in November. We've known for a long time than an Obama loss would be couched as racism, but now, Joe Biden is saying that people won't vote for Obama because everybody in their neighborhoods are stupid.
All this stuff about how different Barack Obama is, they're just not used to somebody really smart. (Cheers, applause.) They're just not used to somebody who's really well educated. They just don't know quite how to handle it. Because if he's as smart as Barack is, he mustn't be from my neighborhood.
So, Obama is the first well-educated person to run for the White House? That would come as a surprise to George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, both educated at Ivy League schools. And it comes as a surprise to me that I must live in a stupid neighborhood because a lot of us don't want Obama to be president.
Of course, the flip side to the "they must be stupid" argument is that everyone not voting for Obama must be racist.
Race is arguably the biggest issue in this election, and it's one that nobody's talking about.
Excuse my language, but wtf is he talking about?! Nobody's talking about race? I guess if you define Barack Obama as nobody, then this statement is true. Barack Obama's been talking about race all over the place.
"So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy towards people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
"The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, there's a reaction that's been bred into our experiences that don't go away, and that sometimes comes out in the wrong way, and that's just the nature of race in our society."
"We've got a tragic history when it comes to race in this country. We've got a lot of pent-up anger and bitterness and misunderstanding"
"They're going to try to make you afraid of me. He's young and inexperienced and he's got a funny name. And did I mention he's black?"
"Nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so what they're going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He's risky."
Obama talks about race. A lot. Because he knows it makes white people uncomfortable and defensive and, somehow, that will make them vote for him. At least, I think that's the point.
But Jack Cafferty--who made the "nobody's talking abour race" point--went on to make the most ludicrous comparison between Barack Obama and John McCain that I've seen lately.
The differences between Barack Obama and John McCain couldn't be more well-defined. Obama wants to change Washington. McCain is a part of Washington and a part of the Bush legacy. Yet the polls remain close. Doesn't make sense…unless it's race.
What is Cafferty smoking? It's true that Obama hasn't been in Washington long, but he's an old-time Chicago machine politician as David Freddoso explains in his excellent book The Case Against Barack Obama. Obama has always campaigned on reform, but he never delivers any. And when given the opportunity to shake things up in Chicago, he backed the machine candidates.
OTOH, John McCain has earned his reputation as a maverick because he's perfectly willing to stick his finger in the eye of the GOP when it suits him (which is part of the reason his support from the base has been so lackluster until his pick of Sarah Palin). He's supported campaign finance reform, taxing tobacco, eliminating earmarks, preserving the senate filibuster by leading the Gang of 14. He's constantly reached across the aisle to join Democrats on a variety of issues. And as we learned yesterday, he introduced a bill in 2005 that might have prevented the meltdown of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It's simply nonsense to say McCain is Washington and Obama is the reformer when the facts tell us the opposite.
Worse yet, Cafferty jumps to the conclusion that the only reason anyone would vote for John McCain is because of race. This is despicable, because there are plenty of reasons to vote for John McCain and/or vote against Barack Obama without race being one of them. John McCain's record of service to this country alone puts him head and shoulders above Obama.
But most of all, the "it can only be race" meme is an outrageous slur that is designed to stop all debate on the issues of Obama's fitness for office. I've mentioned previously that I voted for Jesse Jackson back in 1988 when I was young and foolish. I sort of look at that as proof that I vote for the person I want to win, not based on race, but on other qualifications. To state that the only reason people wouldn't vote for Obama is his race allows Dems some face-saving, but at the expense of the country.
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