Time: McCain Plays The Race Card

[cali]

When politicians interject race into a campaign, they seldom do it directly. Consider McCain's new ad, which the campaign says it will be airing nationally:



This is hardly subtle: Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman.

Let me stipulate: Obama's Fannie Mae connections are completely fair game. But this ad doesn't even mention a far more significant tie--that of Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chairman who had to resign as head of Obama's vice presidential search team after it was revealed he got a sweetheart deal on a mortgage from Countrywide Financial. Instead, it relies on a fleeting and tenuous reference in a Washington Post Style section story to suggest that Obama's principal economic adviser is former Fannie Mae Chairman Frank Raines. Why? One reason might be that Johnson is white; Raines is black.

And the image of the victim doesn't seem accidental either, given the fact that older white women are a key swing constituency in this election.

<snip>
http://time-blog.com/swampland/

The most frustrating thing about this disgusting shit is that Obama can't confront it directly.

[willing dwarf]

1. Politics of Division

I've been waiting to see how the right wingers would revive the knee -jerk Willie Horton racist campaign. -- They want to play on the subconscious fears of so many.

If Americans fall prey to this garbage it's because Americans have been divided and are reliably divisible on racial lines since the days of Dred Scott.

When will people wake up and realize that the racial divide is a political ploy, perpetuated to keep us from uniting against the oligarchic elite?

When I'm angry I think that if America doesn't elect Obama, we don't deserve him -- but then when I consider how we are manipulated with this sort of stuff, I don't think the people alone are entirely to blame.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. He's confronted it from day one.

He has primed his audiences with the expectation that the repukes, out of desperation, would pull out all the stops for dirty tricks. And of course this sort of thing already happened to Obama all during the primary, with crap like Rev. Wright, the 3 am ad, etc.

Although the hardcore bigots may thrive on such imagery, I think even the in-denial semi-racists are somewhat familiar with the "Willie Horton" or "Harold Ford prostitute" or even the "White hand crumbling up a rejection letter due to "affirmative action" (from Jesse KKK Helms' campaign)" nonsense ads and hopefully realize now that the country is in collapse and enough is enough. I say to them - if you can't vote for Obama, then vote for Biden. And if you can't do that, then stay home.

With Lobby-gate and House-gate, McPalin is still mortally wounded and is flying on vapors. One can easily counter the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac CEO and former CEO with pictures of those who were actually STILL in place AT THE TIME OF the collapse (both white). Usually the black CEO is left with the mess when the company collapses, but not this time around.

[Vinca]

3. Olbermann covered this last night that Raines is not and has not

been an Obama financial advisor according to both the campaign and Raines. Apparently he had one meeting with a staffer and was told, "thanks, but no thanks." Of course, as we know, truth has taken a holiday over at the McCain camp.

[Kind of Blue]

4. But I'm just glad Times went straight to the heart of it and

titled it correctly: McCain Plays The Race Card. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. I remember a time when, at best, it would be posed as a question or completely ignored. People who are/were aware would point it out and then the topic degenerates into a fight over whether the bastards did or did not. I say good for Times for calling it.

[jbnow]

5. He can be indirectly direct. He can say

Frank Raines is not my principal economic adviser, he is not my economic adviser, he never has been part of my campaign .
They are trying to scare you with that ad.

[H2O Man]

6. Two thoughts:

(1) Many years ago, a friend who worked down the hall from me (for a different agency) used to teach youngsters how to identify how commercials tried to manipulate them into buying & consuming their products -- alcohol and tobacco. Once the young folk learned how these commercials worked, they tend to have a very different reaction to them. Few people enjoy being manipulated.

(2) In the context of the "three groups" (those who always support you; those who always oppose you; & the undecided), the new ad suggests McCain is having to try to appeal to those who should already be in his base. The para-Willie Horton approach is not going to reach the same audience today, as it did in 1988.

[GoesTo11]

7. Still a euphamism

'Plays the race card' sounds like a little game of go-fish. More accurate to say The McCain campaign 'made a racist ad' or 'is racist'

[biggerfishsmallpond]

8. lies, lies and more lies

thank you John McCain

[olegramps]

9. Must be properly exposed as racist

If the ad is exposed as being nothing more than an appeal to people's racial prejudice, then it will resonate negatively with the younger voters. This is the group of voters that it is imperative that they actually show up to vote to counteract the entrenched racist white trash vote that dominates a large segment of the Republican constituency. I disagree to a certain extent with those who believe that the Democrats should concentrate their efforts on McCain. I am of the opinion that McCain's support is firmly entrenched and that his Achilles Heel is Sarah Palin and her dysfunctional family and their hillbilly mating practices. I would endores a Willie Horton type ad that shows a pregnant teenager with the message, is this the type of future you what for your daughters?

[theothersnippywshrub]

10. How very republican.

Reminds me of Lee Atwater's description of how the Republican Southern Strategy had to evolve away from overt bigotry and racism.

[nichomachus]

11. Did you expect him not to???? McCain is scum. Palin is worse.