Bob Herbert: Running While Black (Lays the Smackdown on McCain)

[redstate_democrat]

Running While Black

By BOB HERBERT
Published: August 2, 2008

Gee, I wonder why, if you have a black man running for high public office — say, Barack Obama or Harold Ford — the opposition feels compelled to run low-life political ads featuring tacky, sexually provocative white women who have no connection whatsoever to the black male candidates.

Spare me any more drivel about the high-mindedness of John McCain. You knew something was up back in March when, in his first ad of the general campaign, Mr. McCain had himself touted as “the American president Americans have been waiting for.”

There was nothing subtle about that attempt to position Senator Obama as the Other, a candidate who might technically be American but who remained in some sense foreign, not sufficiently patriotic and certainly not one of us — the “us” being the genuine red-white-and-blue Americans who the ad was aimed at.

more at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/opinion/02herbert.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[BlooInBloo]

1. Obviously Herbert is another oversensitive negro.

[redstate_democrat]

2. The article was fantastic.

But obviously he is just hypersensitive like all Negroes are. Why don't they just get over it already. Oh and did you know that John McCain was a war hero?

[spag68]

4. And the surge worked

further He invented offshore drilling to help the average man.

[BlooInBloo]

6. ... my friends.

[otohara]

3. Must Recommend

thank you Bob Herbert

[silverweb]

5. K&R

Nails it!

:kick:

[NYC_SKP]

7. Wow..."American" is code for "White"

We heard it in the primaries, too, "working, hard-working Americans, white Americans".

I feel really naive about this now that I see it for what it is.

sigh.

OK, here's our challenge: We've had black mayors and a couple black governors, (in pretty liberal states).

Now we're talking about the president, of all 50 states, and there are powerful people and everyday citizens that are scared shitless about it.

To them, if we let a black man become president, "there will be no end to what they'll think they can do next."

Don't think for a minute that this mindset is limited to "hard-working white Americans".

I'm thinking the predatory "top of the food chain" corporate bastards are feeling the same way.

So, we've really got to win this thing and create a new paradigm.

:kick:

[redstate_democrat]

8. Exactly.

When you think about it, Obama's candidacy is really remarkable considering this country's history. Just 45 years ago, segregation was outlawed ... and it still took a couple more lawsuits to straighten things out ... on purely legal terms. 45 years ago, during the prime of my parents lives, they had to live under a caste system right here in America. We had fewer than 10 black senators in this country's entire history. Most of them served during the Reconstruction period. We've had, what, two black governors? The first post-Reconstruction black congressman (William Clay Sr.) from a confederate state came in what, the late 70s? It's a difficult jump for some white people. It's hard to actually visualize a black person being the most powerful person in the world. The images they see of black people in the media don't easily jibe with presidential qualities. If all you see about black people is the negatives, then it is hard for some folks to see a black person sitting in the Oval office and be comfortable with it. I can imagine some white folks, just socially ignorant and perhaps not at all racist, imagining Obama sitting in the Oval office watching the basketball game and shooting craps.


Then you just have some racist MFs, too. A lot of them.

[NYC_SKP]

9. And these McCain ads, like the latest one with Moses..

really do play to the fear that a black man will become that powerful.

I can't imagine that they'd have conceived of the same ad to fight a white candidate if all other things were equal.

Well, we can wait a few more generations for "Americans" to be ready for this, or we can just win this thing now.

Ready or not, here we come!

:kick:

[pnwmom]

10. The Moses ad also plays to the Anti-Christ fear.

Which is still huge in the fundamentalist community.

[FrenchieCat]

11. Was Moses really White?

I somehow don't think so.

[NYC_SKP]

12. I don't know what they were thinking...

But, that Moses part of the ad played off the clip where Obama was speaking to climate change and sea level rise reversing, so tied it to the parting of the Red Sea.

The whole ad springs upon the notion that Obama thinks he's all high and mighty.

I don't think Moses' race entered into it.

:shrug:

[FrenchieCat]

13. Honest Editorial. John McCain has been playing every card in the book

for some time. He is a sleazy dirty little man.

[my2sense]

14. Excellent - n/t

[flpoljunkie]

15. Sen.McCain is the head of a party that has viciously exploited race for political gain for decades.

He’s obviously more than willing to continue that nauseating tradition.

Thank you, Bob Herbert, for speaking the truth.

[FloridaJudy]

16. I think it's ironic

That my niece - who is black - is probably more "American" than the rest of my family, including me. The rest of our ancestors came over during the last century: hers have been here many, many generations.

McSame and his followers have a really warped view of what an American is. I'll clue them in: they're more than the small slice of country club and stock show attendees that make up the bulk of the Republican party. We're all kinds of colors, and we belong to all kinds of religions. Some of us weren't even born here, and we speak other languages besides English. But we're all in this leaky boat together, and I don't care what color a person is or what God he or she worships (or doesn't) or which gender they're attracted to, as long as they keep bailing out the bilge along with me.

The guys sitting in the Captain's chair and giving orders have been there too long. We're lost at sea, and we're foundering. It's time to turn over the helm to someone competent, and the Republicans are anything but.