Something I don't understand about the racist Corker ad.

[Marr]

All the coverage I've seen references the white woman with the bare shoulders saying "call me!". It seemed to me that the really racist part of that ad was that the one black woman said, "Ford *looks* nice... isn't that enough?".

It was like they were saying, "Ford is the candidate black people will vote for!". Do you know what I mean? It was like there was this implication that blacks would vote for Ford because he's black and- I don't know- ignore white people or something. I remember hearing similar sentiments when I was just a little kid about Jesse Jackson- that he'd 'only care about the blacks' and such. It also had the same scent that Bush's stealth evangelical comments have. You know something was just communicated, but you're not exactly sure what it was.

Anyone else read it that way?

[Olney Blue]

1. I think you are onto something...

[texasleo]

2. nah

[PCIntern]

3. Every aspect of that ad was

carefully put into place. There was not one frame which was not carefully managed, including the dress (or lack of) facial expressions, lighting, camera position, the nature of each of the paraticipants...

Too clever by half...may have caused a big problem for them nationally...including many House races, as well as Senate.

[Shakespeare]

4. Just curious--are you from the south?

I noticed Stephanopoulos this morning had an "I don't get it" take on the white girl in the Corker ad, too. Unfortunately, in the south (where I'm from but ultimately fled, thank you very much), that strikes an immediate and ugly chord with a lot of white people (most of whom would probably hate to actually admit it). It's something that goes all the way back to Othello (character wakes Desdemona's father to tell him there's a "black ram tupping your white ewe"), and was capitalized upon by republicans most notably during the Nixon era. The threat of the sexual dominance of white women by black men, the horror (oh, the horror) of the mixing of the races....well, it never quite went away in the south. That brief, brief part of the commercial with the white girl gushing over Harold is all they needed to make that point. Where you come from, I think, will determine whether you find that point subtly made or not.

They called it the "southern strategy." Karl Rove, as you may know, was mentored by Chuck Colsen and others in the Nixon gang during this time. He learned well, and still uses those lessons today.

[TahitiNut]

5. Yep. The image of OJ-Nicole still raises the hackles of closet racists,

... even so-called 'lihbruls.'

[Flirtus]

6. I think the ad stinks because it pictures Ford voters

as Aw Shucks types, whereas it's the corker voters who aren't thinking about who's qualified for the job, or which candidate is more likely to 'stay the course' with the pretendsident.

All those underbelly of the beast currents about white girls thinking Harold is a dish (Well? He is.) and having to protect our little steel magnolias, only a Damm Yankee would think that wouldn't offend me.

So There.

And I'm a native Chattanoogan, and I know Corker personally, and he's too greasy (in that southern way) for me to pay any mind.