The Battle of The Party Themes
It's Still The Economy, Stupid
Poll: Obama Faring Poorly Among Racists
Palin's No Shrinking Violet
Danger Signals
Change vs. Change
Obama Off-Balance from Palin Flip-Flops on O'Reilly
Distant Drums At Sarah's Party
Martha's Big Adventure - Enquiring Minds Want to Know
Game Changer
The Unexamined Life
The Grand Old Party Line
JFK: Democrats' Role Model?
Palin, Pregnancy And The Pulpit
The Big 5-0
What Do Women Want Now?
Farewell To An American Hero
Palin-Bashing Press Keeps Swinging And Missing
Want Real Change? Quit Nominating Lawyers!
Harper's Index
Don't They Have Birth Control Up In Alaska?
Professor Bush's Economic Nostrum
Saving The GOP And The Unbearable Lightness of Being Sarah Palin
Building The Bridge
Married Liberals With Children
Mosdirection In Minnesota
Logical Consequencse
Which Ticket Really Will Deliver Change Voters Want?
Palin's Problem
Game On: Let The Race Begin
The Rush Is On For Palin, GOP
The Role of A Lifetime
What's So Terrific About Mccain's Palin Pick?
Why Obama's "Community Organizer" Days Are A Joke
A.S.P. -- After Sarah Palin
Democrats In Trouble
McCain-Palin Will Flush Big-Spending GOP Ways
Most Sarcastic Campaign Ever
Report From A Forgotten War (5th and Last in a Series)
My Brain Tumor
Don't 'Misunderestimate' Palin's Power
Words On Words: How Do You Say 'Hypocrisy' In Romney-Speak?
On Shooting Taggers: Why Conservatives And Liberals Differ
Mccain Wants Moose Hunter In White House
Me For President
Welcome Back Dad
A Human-Resources Handbook
Palin's Gender Alone Won't Sway Women Voters
The Old John McCain
Palin's State Reaps The Windfall Profits McCain Decries
Finally, We Care About A Teen Pregnancy
McCain's Best Way
Media To Republicans: We're Sorry
Executive Experience Is a Joke -- Opinion
What Standards?
Blind Defense of Koran Abrogates Reality
We've Come A Long Way, Baby
Are You Better Off ?
The Invisible President



No Name For The River
Robert Koehler 8/7/2008
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What astounds me about the "race card" -- which either did or didn't get played in the presidential race recently -- is its thinness.

Racial politics, and racism itself, used to be a way of life, as pervasive as hatred, as far-reaching as ignorance. Large institutions were devoted to it, politicians reveled in it, history is permeated with it. And now all that's left of the phenomenon, apparently -- or so it would seem, to anyone whose 24/7 mind-control machine (once known as the boob tube) is hooked up -- is that single card, the playing of which not only queers the game but forces a moment of freaked-out media attention on the fact that a game is being played at all, and all of us are in some vague way participants.

An examination of the incident might be illuminating not so we can cast a verdict on it one way or the other, necessarily, but so we can get a glimpse of the contours of the game itself, and the larger context in which it hovers uneasily. That context, of course, is America, past, present and future. Presidential elections have, over the years, it seems to me, become more and more about the game and less and less about the context.

So what
happened, of course, is that last week Barack Obama said: "Nobody thinks that Bush and McCain have a real answer to 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 the dollar bills.'"

And a day earlier, in the wake of Obama's high-five world tour that generated enormous media attention, John McCain's campaign released an ad that noted sourly: "He's the biggest celebrity in the world, but is he ready to lead?" Mixed with images of Obama in Europe were America's two favorite airheads, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Maybe their presence in the ad is completely innocent, but to angry critics, the operative inference is that they're sexy, young white women "notorious for displaying themselves to the paparazzi while not wearing underwear," as New York Times columnist Bob Herbert noted.

And this is the state of America's racial awareness in the 21st century, as manifested in our quadrennial ritual of power transfer, the process that's supposed to make us the world's greatest democracy. How embarrassing.

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Radioactive Racial Politics COLOR
By Nate Beeler - The Washington Examiner * Posted 08/01/2008
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Radioactive Racial Politics COLOR
© Copyright 2008  Nate Beeler - All Rights Reserved.

Posted By: geoff  on Saturday, August 09, 2008

Well, we'll see. Don't forget, the "bad old days" weren't so long ago, given that there are still rumours going around that Obama's gay, a Muslim, wasn't born in the USA, etc. And what else does McCain have to campaign on, really?

All the Democrats need to do is show more photos of McCain hugging Bush, singing "Bomb Iran," being unable to answer the question about why health insurance covers Viagra but not contraception, and McCain will be toast.

Unless they steal another election, of course.

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