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
Taking the Pulse
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
Romancing The Vote
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



mackenzie180mug.jpg
The Mccain-Obama Kabuki On Race
Ross Mackenzie 8/7/2008
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It used to be that the conversation about the very difficult subject of race in America was best left to African-Americans, because only they have experienced the active or passive oppression that many whites cannot comprehend.

Let the Walter and Armstrong Williamses, the Thomas Sowells and Floyd Flakes, the Michael and Shelby Steeles, the Larry Elders and Ward Connerlys and Jay Parkers -- the theory went -- haggle it out with the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons, the Carl Rowans and Julian Bonds, the Adam Clayton Powells and (of course) the Martin Luther Kings.

Then came two realizations -- (1) the African-American community is as ideologically divided (between conservatives and liberals) as the white community, and (2) the McCain-Obama campaign is at hand. So now the discussion is open to all.

Rightly or wrongly and largely unspoken, race is a deep-running factor in American culture -- infusing much that it should not but does. Barack Obama is the first African-American with a genuine prospect of becoming president of an electorate that is 11 percent black and 77 percent white. Because of that percentage discrepancy, Obama's chances of winning depend greatly on the extent to which -- in commentator Juan Williams' words -- he can "assure undecided white voters that he shares their (conservative social) values and is worthy
of their trust."

So how seemingly odd that Obama should inject race into the campaign. Possibly he did it to build a force field around him to deflect every criticism of every kind.

During the primaries, he blasted Bill Clinton for allegedly making race an issue in the Carolinas -- implying Clinton was doing it to gin up white turnout for Hillary. Obama also perceived subtle racial undertones in John McCain's first general-election ad -- i.e., its description of McCain as "the American president Americans have been waiting for."

In late June, Obama began mentioning his race (as he frequently had) in combination with dark implications that McCain would deploy race against Obama (as McCain never has): They're going to try to make you afraid. 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?"

Finally on July 31, in Springfield, Mo., Obama dealt down and dirty:

"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. That's essentially the argument they're making."

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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

Race was always there. Barack just brought it out in the open. Before that, people talked about his middle name, said he was born in Kenya, said he was Muslim, etc.; making all kinds of subtle innuendo, pointless proxies for what they were really thinking.

But at any rate: it seems a little strange for all these white guys pretending to be concerned about offending black folk all of a sudden.

I'm curious, though: when did "Liberal college administrators impose Ivy League admission quotas on Asians and Jews"? Was that back in the days of "Jim Crow"? Can't you be a little more specific?

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