More Political Gib-Gab
Thank (or blame) our old neighbor Ed for directing me to this Op-Ed piece by Frank Rich from the New York Times.
[...] Aligning herself with “a young farmer and a haberdasher from Missouri” who “followed an unlikely path to the vice presidency,” [Palin] read a quote from an unidentified writer who, she claimed, had praised Truman: “We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity.” Then Palin added a snide observation of her own: Such small-town Americans, she said, “run our factories” and “fight our wars” and are “always proud” of their country. As opposed to those lazy, shiftless, unproud Americans — she didn’t have to name names — who are none of the above.
You know… the lazy, shiftless, unproud Americans in so-called Blue states who actually provide the lion’s share of the tax revenues to pay for government policies? And what happened to that basic tenet of American democracy that says you can and should criticize your government when it goes astray–that, in fact, it’s your responsibility to do so?
While I am hesitant to get into the issue of racism with regard to the election, this bit from the Op-Ed is worth noting:
[At the Republican convention in St. Paul,] Americans saw a virtually all-white audience yuk it up when Giuliani ridiculed Barack Obama’s “only in America” success as an affirmative-action fairy tale — and when he and Palin mocked Obama’s history as a community organizer in Chicago. Neither party has had so few black delegates (1.5 percent) in the 40 years since the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies started keeping a record.
And…
Byron York of National Review, a [...] conservative who acknowledges the double standard, captured it best: “If the Obamas had a 17-year-old daughter who was unmarried and pregnant by a tough-talking black kid, my guess is if they all appeared onstage at a Democratic convention and the delegates were cheering wildly, a number of conservatives might be discussing the issue of dysfunctional black families.”
Rich addresses Obama’s response to the recent surge of activity from the McCain-Palin camp, and this is maybe the most important part.
Obama’s one break last week was the McCain camp’s indication that it’s likely to minimize its candidate’s solo appearances by joining him at the hip with Palin. There’s a political price to be paid for this blatant admission that he needs her to draw crowds.
And finally…
This election is still about the fierce urgency of change before it’s too late. But in framing this debate, it isn’t enough for Obama to keep presenting McCain as simply a third Bush term. Any invocation of the despised president — like Iraq — invites voters to stop listening. Meanwhile, before our eyes, McCain is turning over the keys to his administration to ideologues and a running mate to Bush’s right.
