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Saturday, January 05, 2008

Obama Derangement Syndrome
Posted by Jill | 5:04 PM
It has begun.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still an Edwards girl, but after reading Glenn Greenwald today I'm reminded of the Mark Alan Stamaty cartoon that ran in the Village Voice during the 1988 campaign that depicted a hysterical George H.W. Bush jumping up and down and waving his arms frantically, screaming "Killer negroes (sic) are coming to get you! Liberals want to take all your money! Read my lips! Read my lips!"

The "killer negroes" meme worked in 1988 because of the infamous Willie Horton ad, and the concept hasn't gone away. Conservatives aren't relying exclusively into turning Barack Obama into a cocaine-addicted Muslim terrorist (though I expect that to play an important role in their general election strategy if Obama is the nominee). Instead, they're trotting out the "killer negroes" meme again, as Greenwald notes:

Over at National Review, Jonah Goldberg has a "theory" about what might help Obama win in the general election. After noting that Obama will be "the first serious mainstream black contender for the White House," Goldberg warns (emphasis added):
I think it's worth imagining a certain scenario. Imagine the Democrats do rally around Obama. Imagine the media invests as heavily in him as I think we all know they will if he's the nominee -- and then imagine he loses. I seriously think certain segments of American political life will become completely unhinged. I can imagine the fear of this social unraveling actually aiding Obama enormously in 2008.
I wonder: in Jonah Goldberg's "imagination," which (ahem) "certain segments" of the American population exactly will "become completely unhinged" if Obama loses and thereby spawn "social unraveling"? And who are the people who are going so deeply to fear this "social unraveling" that they vote for Obama just in order to keep those "certain segments" in line and well-behaved?


Goldberg, of course, doesn't have the courage to say explicitly who he means -- he just implies it with ugly innuendo -- but Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds helpfully fills in the gap, approvingly quoting and praising Goldberg's warning ("He's right"), and then adding that if Hillary "outmaneuvers" Obama to win, "that'll probably alienate a lot of people and cause them to stay home in November." Just to make sure the meaning is clear, he then links to one of his own prior posts warning that a Hillary win might anger "black voters" and cause them to abandon the Democrats.




My reservations about Obama have nothing to do with his race. They have to do with the fact that while he does a great job talking the talk, I have yet to see him walk the progressive walk. In the few days since the Iowa caucuses, he's appropriated more of John Edwards' language (which makes Edwards' continued presence in the race important even if he is not the nominee); even topping Edwards' 9-month timeframe for troop withdrawal. At this point I'm wondering which Obama are we going to get – the one appropriating John Edwards' courageous progressive populism, or the safe, don't-rock-the-boat Joe Lieberman protegé we've seen in the Senate. But whichever we get, Obama's pan-racial, indeed, I would say post-racial candidacy is something new. It's exciting to Democrats, even those of us currently supporting other candidates. But it scares the living daylights out of Republicans, whose bread and butter has been fanning the flames of racial fears since the early 1960's. That the first thought out of the fetid, rotting cesspool that is the Conservative Brain is race riots if "THEY" don't get what "THEY" want, it tells you far more about conservatives than it does about black voters.

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2 Comments:
Blogger Distributorcap said...
boy did you hit some excellent points ---- i am also for Edwards --- i like what he says and how he says it --- but i dont have the Obama skittishness that a lot of people have (tho i will say the Lieberman thing is extremely alarming)..

as for Jonah Goldberg -- it is amazing how dangerous this guy has become in the last few weeks (with the release of his vomit inducing book).

the fact that anyone other than Fox News gives him a platform is scary. and what else is scary is how awful the republican machine will be if either Obama or Hillary are the nominee. can we hope some sanity has seeped back in to the populace and away from the lies of the GOP?
1/6/08, 6:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
This was only to be expected. Whoever the frontrunner was, you could guarantee a case of ___ Derangement Syndrome from the right. But have you seen the ugliness over at "Democrat" Taylor Marsh's blog? She and her merry band have crossed the line from valid criticisms of Obama (and there are plenty to be made -- I'd like to hear more about the lobbyists he has working for him) into outright hate.

Seriously, it's like they see him as worse than any of the Republicans. One commenter even threatened to vote Republican if Obama was the candidate. In the case of Marsh, the charge of being a shrill lefty really is true.
1/7/08, 12:48 AM  
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