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Conservative Activist Grover Norquist: Obama Is "Kerry With A Tan"
Hmmm. Check out conservative activist Grover Norquist's less-than-tasteful description of Barack Obama:
Norquist dropped by The Times' Washington bureau today and, as part of his negative critique of Obama's liberal stances on economic issues and other matters, he termed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee "John Kerry with a tan."
Guess it could have been worse. He could have termed the Illinois Senator "John Kerry in blackface."
Such admirable restraint on Norquist's part!
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I say we put Grover in that bathtub he's always talking about putting the government into.
June 27, 2008 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
1. He won't fit.
2. The drain would clog with his filth.
June 27, 2008 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Norquist is the most odious, fey little disingenuous stinking weasel. IMHO.
June 27, 2008 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
"John Kerry with a tan"?
Why do they even try to make that comparison? Anyone who's seen Obama give a speech and Kerry give a speech are going to laugh out loud at this.
There's such stylistic differences between the two that that's going to swamp the supposed similarities between them.
June 27, 2008 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
You left out Principle and Guts; Kerry has them and Obama dosen't; just check who's flip-flopped on the FISA Bill.
June 27, 2008 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I didn't leave anything out.
I'd be careful talking about Kerry (I was for it before I was against it) and principles and guts.
June 27, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Why do they even try to make that comparison? Anyone who's seen Obama give a speech and Kerry give a speech are going to laugh out loud at this."
I agree, which is why I refered to the nominee of my party as "Kerry without the hair" in a previous post.
June 27, 2008 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now, that was funny and accurate. Excellent point.
June 27, 2008 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are hilarious sometimes. "Kerry without the hair"...
June 27, 2008 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
You think that's funny, a few months ago Ann Coulter called him Bob Dole without the personality...now that's funny!
June 27, 2008 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Much as I don't like Coulter, that description is classic.
June 27, 2008 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am not sure why it is necessary to diss Obama OR Kerry in this thread. Kerry is the one who led on an Iraq withdrawal plan in 2006, the Kerry/Feingold amendment. Only 13 voted for it. Similarly, he led an effort filibuster Alito. He has led on energy, and has one of the top environmental records in the Senate.
I mean, you can't complain about the GOP when you keep coughing up their talking points about former Democratic nominees, now can you?
June 27, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
That would be Bush I'll veto it before I sign it.
June 27, 2008 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
All it is as a big "Hey, he's Black!" Let's be real, folks.
June 27, 2008 7:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
What's wrong with John Kerry? If he were running today he'd still Whomp McCain's ass. If here were running against bush in 2006 rather then 2004 he'd have kicked bush's ass then as well. In '04 the war was only a year old (something like 18 months by the time the election rolled around). And while it seemed pretty bad to me, that hadn't really permeated the population's views yet.
Plus, Kerry's problem wasn't that he was an 'elitist' it was that he didn't fight back hard enough against the swift-boaters. Obama will have no such problem.
June 27, 2008 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
And Grover Norquist is, er, Grover Norquist (doesn't get much worse than that).
June 27, 2008 1:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm betting this just reflects wishful thinking on Grover's part. He truly wishes Obama were John Kerry with a tan.
June 27, 2008 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. That is the only really significant part of this story - that it signals Norquist's palpable unease. Other than that, "Norquist disdains democrat" is even more banal than "dog bites man."
June 27, 2008 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey! We agree on something! Unity Unity Unity!!!
: )
June 27, 2008 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, Obama has many excellent attributes as did Kerry. I believe he evened up the race overnight by decimating Bush in the debates.
Of course, Norquist wasn't referring to any of this, but the "elitist" meme with a racist twist.
June 27, 2008 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
The "with a tan" line is a smugly filthy little thing, though, isn't?
Really egregious. We may here more about squishy little Grover's freewheeling taste in humor.
June 27, 2008 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
these guys are embarrassing
June 27, 2008 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
themselves
June 27, 2008 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
What's really funny is that these buffoons can't help themselves from putting their foots in their mouths. Too funny. This will go on til November and we will all get a laugh.
June 27, 2008 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah. Maybe Kerry with a tan, and with grace, eloquence, political instinct, rhythm, and pizzazz.
June 27, 2008 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
You have to love the way these guys are oblivious to their own slimyness.
June 27, 2008 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
that's where it becomes comedy, on a faraway, not up close level.
June 27, 2008 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I totally DISAGREE. Kerry has principles and the spine to stand up for them; Kerry is voting NO on the FISA Bill.
June 27, 2008 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
How'd he vote on the war there , bucko?
And how many people have died from FISA (I assume from the massive paper cuts from reading through the thing)
June 27, 2008 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wishful thinking, douche bag. The better comparison is the Liberal Reagan. Watch out Grover, you're about to get steamrolled. Or rickrolled. Both would be sweet.
June 27, 2008 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am serious about the reeking "tan" line. It's like the next joke he was going to tell was one with "n" word in it, like he was just getting wound up, making merry with a bunch of bigots. "And then there was the time these two..."
I hope this hideous little pustule of a man becomes a bit famous over this.
June 27, 2008 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grover Norquist is a skidmark without the underwear.
June 27, 2008 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL, and I actually did. Heartily.
June 28, 2008 2:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Grover Norquist is Turdblossom with twice the stench, and none of the petals.
June 27, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Touché
June 27, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Douche
June 27, 2008 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd say expect to see more of this...and even more blatant as we approach November. I can almost see the next anti-Obama ad now:
[fade in to a typical white suburban neighborhood]
[door bell rings]
[a middle-aged, white father answers the door to reveal a gangsta-rapper type thug at the door]
"yo, is Tiffany home?"
[fade out]
[text appears on screen]: Is this the future we really want for America?
Or something along those lines.
June 27, 2008 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hope you're wrong! It was a powerful ugly visual you laid out, in any case!
Anyhow, flatulent little Grover took us a step closer to there today.
June 27, 2008 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good god. I hope we've moved forward enough that that would generate a backlash.
June 27, 2008 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have we really "progressed" more than that? Were we not seeing those interviews of the "apalachian" voters telling us that they wouldn't vote for a black man under any circumstance? You don't think that the RNC Rovian types out there aren't going to try to tap in to that?
I think that Rove's Country Club comment was a sort of riff on the whole "they're coming after our white women" meme. And it's only June! I too would like to think that we've progressed beyond this type of thing, but I'm still really doubtful.
June 27, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know.
I do think, though, that many people have seen a lot of Obama, and Michelle, and that kind of exposure would help to dispel "They're coming after our women" sort of schema. Or maybe not.
I think partly the reason that odious "Harold, call me" commercial was successful in Tennessee was because Ford wasn't married, and didn't have children. And because people are still racist, of course.
June 27, 2008 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent cite although I disagree with your interpretation. I believe that that commercial was designed specifically with the idea of planting a mental image in the viewer's mind of a black man with an attractive, white woman. Nothing more.
June 27, 2008 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
yes like the sleazoids in Tennessee did to Harold Ford in the senatorial race in 2006
venal, racist, and amoral
June 27, 2008 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
It was also an attack on Obama as an elitist.
In "Nixonland" Rick Perlstein called the "Big Man On Campus" -type in the elite social clubs "Franklins." He describes Nixon's entire career as being about organizing the "Orthogonians" (people like himself who were blackballed from the college social club for being too "unpolished") to take down the elites in the upper crust social clubs who thought they were superior to everyone else. Rick also claims that Nixon set the tone in the Republican Party in this was ever since.
Norquist seems to be proving Perlstein correct.
The "They're after our White Women" is, of course, an older racist meme That was used by the White slave-owners to explain the constant slave revolts that kept occurring. The uncivilized and inherently uncivilizable African slaves couldn't possible be objecting to their status as slaves of the clearly more civilized and benevolent white slave owners. That was a broad view in both the slave South and in much of the Northern states. It didn't go away after the Civil War when slavery was outlawed. Nor has it disappeared with the end of legal segregation.
Both Limbaugh and Norquist come from that set of traditions. They are core elements of the modern Republican Party, so we can expect them to be used frequently as Republicans speak to each other and try to identify their supporters.
June 27, 2008 7:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely malignant. No better than Goebbels.
June 27, 2008 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, you're right. Loathesome Grover's saying, "This guy's not only a nothing like that pantywaist Kerry, don't forget he's also a fucking n_____ to boot." That's the message, loud and clear. Crystal clear.
June 27, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
That sounds like a line from blazing saddles. You steal that one. These republicans really sound like hedley lamarr lately. Too funny.
June 27, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
heh heh....Blazing Saddles...a classic that absolutely could not be made today. On cable, it's reduced to 30 minutes after the cuts and bleeps.
Obama/Brookes
June 27, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hilarious movie, one of my favs. I can just see the small portion of the republicans in fundraisers yelling in shock: "The sheriff's a n____, The sheriff's a n______" and then trying to figure out what to do about it like the town's people. Hilarious.
June 27, 2008 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
then is Norquist "Hitler with a beard?"
June 28, 2008 9:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you, Grover Norquist & all other republicans making thinly-veiled, racist-charged comments like this.
PLEASE continue to reveal yourselves for who you really are for the nation to see.
June 27, 2008 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain is Bush with a....Age.
June 27, 2008 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
And Grover Norquist is an over-grown Ewok without the personality.
What an asshole. But I'm waiting for someone of his ilk to forget their public screen before November.
June 27, 2008 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grover's at the base of the landslide and he knows it. He reacts according to his Nature, and is dismissed.
He knows, for example, he can do nothing about this:
TX-SEN
June 26 Texas Lyceum
Cornyn (R) 38%, Noriega (D) 36%
38% for an incumbent is wings n' halos country.
And Grover well knows the GOP is now dead for a generation.
It must genuinely and utterly suck to be Grover.
June 27, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
It should suck; it has been duely earned. How gratifying it would be for Norquist and his Club for Greed cohorts to be relegated to obscurity. Get gone now clowns!
June 27, 2008 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, I hate the smell of racism in the morning.
June 27, 2008 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
counter coulter,
They already started that:
One of Limbaugh's ongoing jabs is that white female reporters find him sexually irresistible. "Snerdley is convinced Maureen [Dowd] wants Barack Obama," he sighs. "I don't even want to go there." He depicted Time's Ana Marie Cox as helpless before Obama's overpowering sexuality, putting the following thoughts into her head: "Well, there's no question the power is crackling through his jeans!"
June 27, 2008 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Zactly! The RNC loves dancing around their racist, sexually-charged innuendo. I commented above that Rove's Country Club comment taps in to that as well.
June 27, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Re: Micheline
Seriously? My, aren't we feeling rather, um...inadequate. Drug Rush sounds downright jealous of they very bullshit stereotypes that he dreamed up.
These wingnuts are some seriously sick puppies.
June 27, 2008 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grover Norquist is Julius Streicher with a drawl.
June 27, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about: these people?, shiftless?, and of course with Norquist we are not far from the overseer in UT'sC: bawling, praying, singing....
Some Republicans never fail to please.
June 27, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why is Grover Norquist still talking?
June 27, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
And perhaps more to the point, why are we listening to him when he does?
June 27, 2008 8:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ahhh. I'm sad that we only have a few more months of watching right wingers who really really want to talk about race, trying as hard as they can to restrain themselves from talking about race.
It leads to predictable little "slips" like this one.
You can imagine them tying themselves in knots holding in the classy thoughts they really want to throw out there.
June 27, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unless this is summary quashed for being the patently racist observation that it is, expect it to catch like wildfire and be parroted throughout the wingnut-o-sphere to then dribble down into the MSM to the likes of Matthews, Cooper et al.
"Welcome back to . So, the question to my Sunday panel is this: is Obama just Kerry after elitist-ly windsurfing without using any sunblock?"
June 27, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow ! Norquist is really a horse's ass, isn't he. I would publish this every day in every black and brown community in the country.
June 27, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I want to see smelly Grover in the newpapers over this. And I especially want him to squisshily explain how it was all out of context or some malarkey.
T h e W a s h i n g t o n P o s t
SMELLY GROVER: "I WAS MISINTERPRETED"
June 27, 2008 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grover Norquist?
Ewwww.
June 27, 2008 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Repugs always solve the great mystery, and let us know who's black abd who's white.
June 27, 2008 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grover Norquist is Adolph Hitler without the toothbrush mustache.
June 27, 2008 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am pretty sure that Grover Norquist is the blue fuzzy guy from Sesame Street. After this comment, I'm never watching that show again ... especially the episodes that are brought to you by the letter W and the number 71 (going on 72).
June 27, 2008 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone want to start a pool on who says the "n" word first?
June 27, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've got Rove on that bet, okay?
June 27, 2008 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
You mean publically or in a private fundraiser setting? I am sure the republican leadership has employed the term in private already, so that's a losing bet. Publically, they will say everything short of it from boy to uppity, to "Kerry with a tan."
June 27, 2008 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm going all in and saying McCain, at one of the debates...
June 27, 2008 2:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm putting my money on Pat Buchanan.
June 27, 2008 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nah, I can see pat using a derrogatory slur for mexican americans before him using the n word.
June 27, 2008 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grover is the Grinch with a smaller heart.
June 27, 2008 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
he has a heart?
June 27, 2008 8:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Irony here that our boy Rove was throwing filth at Obama the other day that the latter leaned up against walls making snide remarks about his peers. If so, at least not revolting, biggoted ones.
June 27, 2008 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Poor Obama has without doubt the most talented speeches of our time - but unfortunately those speeches are devoid of any meaningful leadership, a pity really, because cowardice will always separate Obama from or any capability of great leadership.
June 27, 2008 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Too bad trolls have nothing to contribute but piss away their time anyway, like lost useless wretches.
June 27, 2008 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Then you can just vote against him. And you can do it again in four years!
June 27, 2008 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
best retort to "kerry with a tan" is on americablog.
grover norquist is liberace with a wife.
June 27, 2008 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
in 04 and 06 the so called liberal media would constantly hold the Democratic candidates accountable of what someone else who was not part of the campaign would say.
Remember Wes Clark getting grilled about Michael Moore's comments at that one debate? Was Moore on the payroll of Clarks campaign? No, but for some reason he was directly associated with Moores remarks.
But when it's the reverse, dont EVER expect anyone in the press to ask Mccain if he agrees with what Grover said. Nope. Won't happen. The press loves to give McCain coffee and donuts just how he likes them. They love being invited to one of his 8 homes for BBQ. He's just like us, they think so they will give him the pass.
But Obama has to defend things he did not say.
What a complete joke.
June 27, 2008 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree that they are saying it in private - but private doesn't count politically until it leaks into public. And I have no doubt it will.
June 27, 2008 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
ahhh...it's only a matter of time before they drop the N-bomb.
i hope they do bc then the election will be a breeze.
June 27, 2008 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is the same asshat that equated estate tax with the holocaust. The only people that listen to this guy are the people in his own neocon choir.
June 27, 2008 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wish that were true, but he's actually one of the most important central figures in Conservative/Republican Washington.
June 27, 2008 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I for one can hardly wait raise his taxes!
June 27, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grover Norquist? Who cares what a Muppet thinks anyway?
June 27, 2008 3:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Statements like this one from Norquist won't resonate with anyone except people who would never vote for Obama anyway.
It just shows that Republicans don't have anything new in their bag of tricks. Comparing Obama to Kerry is an attempt to portray him as a liberal elitist, much like Rove's bizarre country club analogy. It all ties into their anti-intellectual meme, which is less effective each time they trot it out. Voters in 2008 are all too familiar with the disasters that result from letting imbeciles run the country.
June 27, 2008 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
the hilarious truth is that if the 2004 election were held today Kerry would win in a landslide.
Pale or tan or female or any shade of humanity would beat the pernicious, ignorant Republican Party in 2008.
Hopefully for a lot longer also.
June 27, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
God there is just no excuse for Grover Norquist's continued existence.
A big fat male Ayn Rand.
June 27, 2008 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is the same guy who compared progressive taxation with the Nazis persecution of Jews, so the hyperbole is no surprise.
This odious smug little racist troll should be in prison with his pal Jack Abramoff for ripping off Indian casinos to help the GOP.
June 27, 2008 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course you know that if HRC had prevailed, Grover would have called her "John Kerry in a pantsuit." Just as we call GW Bush, "Bonzo in a cowboy hat."
June 27, 2008 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a microphallic comment.
June 27, 2008 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
And McStain is his own man, with Bush's ass attached to his lips.
June 27, 2008 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's a dandy. A good laugh here.
June 27, 2008 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grover is Strom Thurmond in a sheet.
June 27, 2008 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe it's a good thing he bowled a 37 back in PA. Just imagine if the same attention had been paid to his size 13 1/2 bowling shoes.
June 27, 2008 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Aargh, that was supposed to be a reply to Micheline upthread at 2:19.
June 27, 2008 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
It really is hilarious. The republican establishment is starting to sound like a bad blazing saddles remake. Too funny.
June 27, 2008 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's really time for the media to start ignoring these people. Even if he drops by the newspaper office. He represents a single-digit percentage of radical Laffer-curve idiots.
June 27, 2008 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought John Kerry with a tan was.. John Kerry. Ok, maybe it's a spray-on tan.
The GOP have simply lost all opportunity to define Obama. He's now a tanned snob at a country club with a beautiful woman, and a radical priest but he's also Muslim and yet the most liberal senator in office but he hates America because he doesn't wear a flag pin and it just gets sillier from there.
Please, right-wingers, keep defining Obama in as many ways as you can. It shows you have no idea...
June 27, 2008 4:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
And isn't it odd how Harry Reid wouldn't give into the lesser angels of Nancy Pelosi?
It is shocking really.
Because you know that Reid got so many damn phone calls and so much hate mail on this FISA bill that he selfed the damn thing instead of lying outright to American citizens, unlike Pelosi, (I mean, Harry Reid, the VERY first guy that usually caves in on anything Bush wants, decided NOT to vote for the FISA bill - despite all pics of him hugging everyone else in the Senate that did vote it) so it is amazing that somehow Obama doesn't pick up the crux of how, in the political world, ONLY self-serving agendas are best and that Obama does not owe anybody in congress ANYTHNG, Doesn't own anybody anything other than loyalty to his voters. It certainly would have paid off in money from the netroots alot better.
And here we have Dems and bloggers that are cannibalizing themselves with acts of hatred for NOT letting Obama lead us into his divine plan of non-leadership, Jeebus, people. Yeah, it is a regular Garden of Eden all right, one in which the snake flourishes and hands off apples that the ever witless Obama is always willing to partake of. It's like Firedoglake warnes those silly lefty liberals of MoveOn.org that Obama really is a Republican and we somehow just need to get use to it.
June 27, 2008 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grover Norquist is George Wallace in a white sheet.
June 27, 2008 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
...besides, John Boehner is the tan John Kerry, but without the sophistication or scruples.
June 27, 2008 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
ISN'T GROVER A MUPPET NAME?
June 27, 2008 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
John McCain is George W. Bush with wrinkles.
June 27, 2008 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grover Norquist is Alan Keyes in whiteface.
June 27, 2008 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is all looking like 30 years ago when the first non-wasps could afford and wanted to move into their neighborhoods.
These comments are so transparent and out of touch with the rest world today. They can't understand that everyone has seen this stuff before in movies from the 70s. They actually think that we don't see what they are implying.
We have passed them by and the are obsolete, but they decided to wreak the place before moving out.
June 27, 2008 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, hey, hey!!
Obama has put a HURT on ole Grover!
You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
June 27, 2008 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
AAAAARGH!!! I am getting sick of the knee-jerk cries of racism! Being a racist, and mentioning race are different things.
Am I really going to be the only one to mention here that he is riffing off of Michelle Obama's OWN joke about being "Camelot with a tan"?
It's ok when she mentions race, but not when he does?
It's ok when the "Good guys" harp on race and gender incessantly, but not when the "Bad guys mention it?
Let's decide right now. do we want race to never, ever be mentioned or hinted at, and treated like a sin that should never be discussed in public, or do we want everybody to be able to speak freely about it?
Then let's be consistent. Either John McCain AND Obama can both discuss Obama's Race, or Neither of them can.
(Grover Norquist may STILL be an insufferable little turd, but not just for using the "with a tan" line. Pick a different reason.)
We all need to lighten up about these things.
June 27, 2008 6:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed--I believe we should judge Obama and his wife by their character*
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2008/06/24/tomo/
June 27, 2008 10:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I almost never post here - but I can't help myself. I don't think anyone is denying that there's a boatload of racism implicit in a lot of media coverage of both the Obamas, nor is anyone denying that Grover Norquist is a total douchebag. That said, I think Phrankygee is right: it might be a good idea to keep some righteous indignation on reserve instead of busting it out at every turn.
June 27, 2008 11:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
This might be a good point. It might be an even better one if Mrs. Obama had really said what phrankygee wrongly attributes to her.
June 28, 2008 6:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
that would be boring. and what the hell, the GOP is so over the top, butt-ugly bad that we'll never run out of indignation.
June 28, 2008 12:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, Grover, let's go over to Sesame Street, shall we?
Republican electoral chances in 2008: FARRRR
Democratic electoral prospects in 2008: NEEEAR
June 28, 2008 2:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Am I really going to be the only one to mention here that he is riffing off of Michelle Obama's OWN joke about being "Camelot with a tan"?"
I really hope so, because Mrs. Obama didn't say that or joke it! It was the Washington Post's fashion editor, who wrote on May 18, "Obama's photos seemed crafted specifically to help the viewer imagine her in the role of first lady. She is a study in little black dresses, conservative pearls, preppy hair and restraint. Again, the implied message is unmistakable: I am neither subversive nor threatening. I am not some scary "other." I am Camelot with a tan."
Beause of this, conservative commenators are now mis-attributing this comment to Mrs. Obama, as now has also been done here. The difference is that their misattributation is gleefully deceitful, yours is just very careless.
June 28, 2008 4:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
oh. oops. egg on my face, then.
Well-- the rest of my post still applies. Barack will be the first to point out to you that he is, in fact, black. Just As John McCain has a good sense of humor about his oldness. We should all, even those of us who disagree, be allowed to mention these facts.
When the bad guys make a mention of our candidate's blackness, it should be our job to say, "So?" and move on to policy, experience, judgment and intellect. You know, the stuff that matters. Norquist's comments are not going to sway anyone into not voting for Obama. Racists are ALREADY not going to vote for Obama, and they already know about his "tan".
June 28, 2008 6:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Race is not age in the United States, though, race is a third-rail topic, whether any of us likes that, or wishes it were that way or not.
Now I see this has a history to it, which I didn't know and now I do, so that gives *some* perspective. Norquist's remark is what it is, though, history or no. Barack acknowleding that he is black is neither here nor there. "Kerry with a tan" is an offensive statement, indeed meant to be offensive (or you think NOT?!), and it is very offensive to me. You say I shouldn't be offended? I say you can't tell me my feelings. Race is tough in the United States, no question. Very tough.
June 29, 2008 8:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why is this guy not in jail after laundering money for Abramoff? Why is Karl Rove still a free man, let alone "political commentator"? Scott Fitzgerald was certainly wrong when he said "there are no second acts in American lives."
June 28, 2008 7:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
'Scott Fitzgerald was certainly wrong when he said "there are no second acts in American lives."'
Yeah, what a fuckup, eh?
How about Reagan's (convicted) Senior NSC Director, Elliot Abrams? Wikidpedia says, "At the start of Bush's second term, Abrams was promoted to be his Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy, responsible for advancing Bush's strategy of advancing democracy abroad ... his appointment by Bush was controversial due to his conviction in 1991 on two misdemeanor counts of unlawfully withholding information from Congress during the Iran-Contra Affair investigation.
June 29, 2008 9:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Norquist's coinage is barely a disguise: Barack you are a "nigger"; there are millions like me to paint you as such and oppose you because your father was my father's slave.
The implication is lager. Not only Limbaugh, O'reilly, and Hannity, to name a few prominent in the right wing media, but also Wolfe Blitzer, Charlie Gibson and many others do the same under very imperceptible disguises (in the latter group, if not always, occasionally).
Are all journalists (of certain variety) "inherently and essentially" dumb in the intellectual community of thinkers? Yes, they are. Some are dumber like Norquist.
Here is a theory, or at least a pattern: if you realize that you are a dumbest in Grad school, you either end up as a high school teacher or a politician. If you rate yourself a little better among the dumbest, you aim to become a journalist (news or political or even entertainment). There is one caveat here: If you are a failed politician with good communicative skills, you expect to be recruited in the media (P. Buchanan, A. Keys, M. Huckabee are recent examples) ; if they are a successful journalist of some sort, they could be a candidate to be hired in a semi political position (e.g. Tony Snow). Sometimes, they use their media platform to launch their political career. Politicians and journalist seem to exchange roles more than professional groups.
Some will reject this theory as too generalized and stereotypical. But journalists either already are dumb or self-persuaded to abandon their intellectuality to appeal the mass. They further train to be intellectually deficient to eventually become a politician or journalist.
We, readers, encourage this culture of dumb-o-cracy; we help it flourish. What are we?
June 28, 2008 8:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
And McCain is "George W. Bush with skin cancer."
- FTF
June 28, 2008 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
CT Voter --
Deal with the facts, instead of lying like a Republican:
There were TWO bills:
1. Kerry was against one, and
2. For the other.
It is the lie that he "flip-flopped" when in fact he misspoke: he was for one, and against the other.
It is no defnese of Obama to adopt a Republican lie against Kerry; it is, rather, intellectually dishonest.
June 30, 2008 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grover Norquist a racist?
Gee: who would ever have suspected that of him.
June 30, 2008 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink