GOP Strategist: Barack Obama Seems "Softer" Than Michelle
Keep an eye out for this one, because it's a none-too-subtle GOP smear we'll be hearing a lot of before long.
Here is GOP strategist Alex Castellanos -- the same worthy fellow who made that 1990 Jesse Helms ad showing white hands crumpling up a resume -- on CNN yesterday evening, discussing Michelle Obama's appearance on The View...
CASTELLANOS: For example, on "The View" today, she said, look, I didn't want my husband to be -- get involved in politics. It's too mean. And he's such a sweet and either -- and empathetic guy.(CROSSTALK)
CASTELLANOS: She has often made him sound like the softer side of that relationship, and that she is the strength of it. It's important to know in that case. Hey, a lot of relationships are like that.
It's "important" to know that Barack is "softer" than Michelle if it's true, eh? Why is that?
This trick of feminizing Dems is hardly confined to the GOP, of course. Some pundits -- in particular, certain high-profile female columnists -- love to help the GOP do this on a regular basis, as we've already seen.
Here, though, it's a kind of double-smear, hitting both Michelle and Barack in one shot.
Late Update: Here's video...
My favorite part:
The disingenuous strategist pretending like, "hey, I'm not criticizing them, it's totally fine!" So transparent.
June 19, 2008 9:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
yeah. that is pretty sleazy
June 19, 2008 9:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Pretty much exactly what he did when he called Hillary a bitch last month. How he survived that and managed to keep his gig with CNN Wis a complete mystery to me. It's not like there's any shortage of Republican consultant asshats in the CNN stable already.
June 19, 2008 10:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Usually husbands are sweeter/nicer to their wives than they are to other men/colleagues. It would be a problem if he wasn't.
June 19, 2008 9:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. My boyfriend's very sweet on me. God, I miss him right now.
June 19, 2008 9:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is the same Alex Castellanos who said it's okay to call a woman a bitch if it's accurate.
I wouldn't exactly place him at the vanguard of gender theory.
June 19, 2008 9:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
What is shocking is that Castellanos is even granted any credence on a major new network. However, this is not confined to Mr Castellanos. Greg's tacit reference to Maureen Dowd touches on another example of the sort of specious, schoolyard analysis that goes on in the upper echelons of our media.
June 19, 2008 10:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh brother, next they will have a body language expert going through their interaction. Pathetic.
By the way, strength comes from inside, not how you project yourself. I always thought based on the way obama projected himself and was unflappable, that he has incredible inner-strength and fortitude. Much more than say mcbush. People who show excessive anger or excessively appear hostile are usually compensating for lack of inner-strength. Just my opinion.
June 19, 2008 9:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Aaaaack!!!
(Grrr... Gotta get dat electrifryed fence fixed. Damm urchins.)
Phbbbt!
June 19, 2008 10:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
To borrow from Bill Clinton, Castellanos is a scum bag, and he's working hard to find something to reverse the trend. I don't know why anyone would put him on tv, let alone repeat his stupid comments.
June 19, 2008 10:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Matriarchal society
Welfare mothers
Big social problem
June 19, 2008 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yep. They're trying to reposition Michelle Obama as the stereotypical immasculating black woman and Barack Obama as the "typical mama's boy" product of a single mother.
June 19, 2008 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's exactly what is happening. But don't forget that HRC's campaign started this with the "Hillary has more cajones than Obama, and perhaps she can lend him a set" b.s..
June 19, 2008 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
how surprising. What an original line of attack. I'm surprised they would stoop to something like thiZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
June 19, 2008 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Greg, please stop highlighting every sleazy innuendo against our nominee -- that kind of stuff is dime a dozen on the corporate media circuit. These few places we congregate at could at least function as no-sleaze zones. Why give them more precious real estate?
June 19, 2008 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
I see your point, but I have to respectfully disagree.
I put this in the category of a "Greg suffers through watching this crap so we don't have to" sort of thing. I think it's important to see what the right-wing smear machine is throwing out and I enjoy seeing everyone's responses and refutations....I think it helps me shoot down this sort of crap when people bring it up on a day to day basis.
June 19, 2008 11:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Tell me one new attack they threw at him, and I will concede your premise: "Greg watches, so we don't have to [I gotta say even on that count, that Greg could watch it, but post only when there is an entirely new line of attack: girly man, most liberal senator, soft on crime/terrorism/patriotism, tax-raiser, latte-sipper, volvo-driver, elitist are nothing new -- they will keep using that play book until we just swat them down when we hear them first hand and stop bemoaning it second hand and belatedly.]".
Until they learn to stop characterizing a position and argue the position, we should just swat them like flies and move on and make our positions clear: watch Obama in action, that is the way to go...
June 19, 2008 11:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Personally, I'd rather not have my favorite political news outlets "protect" me and the other readers from stuff like this. I'd just as soon know what the other side is doing and I would not have if Greg hadn't posted this.
Toxic memes cannot be ignored to death--we've run that experiment and it didn't work for us. Ask President Kerry. And there is zero chance than someone who comes across it here will be persuaded by it given the context.
June 19, 2008 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Please see my response to someone else above and let me know what you think...
June 19, 2008 12:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Also, this is what they say and to every one of our nominees, these "emasculating" words. It is neither news nor new. Just the tired old recycling of tired old memes from tired old men...
June 19, 2008 10:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oops, "...say and do to...".
June 19, 2008 10:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
SO, let me see if I understand the situation.
Barack is femme, Michelle is butch, and polls show that the American public prefer Barack to John and Michelle to Cindy.
I guess the Republicans shoulda picked cross-dressing Rudy after all.
June 19, 2008 10:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, good one, nicely done!
June 19, 2008 10:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
;-)
June 19, 2008 10:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
I just noticed the cnn reference. I should have guessed. CNN has been trying to out do fox entertainment for the last year or so. I really have a hard time watching cnn lately. They are getting sooooo pathetic. It's such a shame. I actually think that fox may be at providing some modicum of news than cnn. At least I know that I have to sift through the bs to get some info. CNN is a total con.
The worst is the one trick pony lou dobkins. The guy is a total a** every 5 minutes its illegal immigration and he is soooooo f*cking arrogant. I'd rather watch spongebob than listen to that putz.
June 19, 2008 10:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Obama is p-whipped, don't vote for him"? Wow, the GOP really is grabbing for straws here.
June 19, 2008 10:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Continuing on my its-not-news meme, may be all netroots sites should have a pinned "Republican Garbage of the Day" diaries, and all of us who want to, can vent into that one diary and not occupy premium space...
June 19, 2008 10:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
How does this compare to when James Carville said that Hillary could give Senator Obama one of her testicles so that they both then would have two?
How did TPM cover that? It appears to me that Carville laid the ground work for these types of Republican attacks.
June 19, 2008 10:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ahh, the republicans were going to be doing these things anyway. Maybe the clintons did him a favor by doing it for almost a year now. People are getting insulated to this crap and he keeps winning anyway.
June 19, 2008 10:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yep - and that's part of the reason why the "MSM, and in particular MSNBC, is sooooo sexist & degrades all women" pisses me off no end. There is culpability on almost everyone's part in this campaign.
June 19, 2008 11:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
obama is just nicer then conservatives
http://sensico.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/sexist-radio-show-hosts-and-low-class-wife-attacks-michelle/
June 19, 2008 10:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh whatever. People are angry because she is a strong woman. Just like they were angry that Hillary was a strong woman. This is two sides of the same coin.
June 19, 2008 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just a reminder folk:
If the Republicans continue with this line of attack, they are living in a Glass House. There great hero, Ronald Reagan, usually referred to Nancy Reagan as "Mommy". She also called the shots on much of his decisions. Remember Nancy was the one who brought in an Astrologer to set the President's public schedule, and it was Nancy that decided to fire Chief of Staff Donald Regan. It was also Nancy who called Howard Baker and asked him to be the new Chief of Staff.
Keep that in mind, if you hear any more guff from Republicans about this subject.
June 19, 2008 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
She had to. The b-movie actor was sleeping most of the time that he was in the white house. Someone had to make decisions.
June 19, 2008 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Edit; their great hero
June 19, 2008 10:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Uh oh, not only is Michelle due for a faux makeover, now
girly man Barack is too?
June 19, 2008 11:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Seems like a scattershot attack. (And I still think they are playing with fire by smearing Michelle -- it often sounds racist the way they do it.)
But I guess McC*nt won't have this problem. He knows how to keep his "trollop" in her place.
June 19, 2008 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Cindy McCain OWNS John Sidney. He is a kept man - though not for his sexual appeal, but rather for his political pull. That he calls her names and acts tough is nothing more than a pretense. WE KNOW who wears the pants in that family, and it isn't little hotheaded Sidney. But Hey, lots of relationships are like that.
June 19, 2008 11:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Castellanos just rewrote the '04 catch-all..."some people say..." to "hey, a lot of relationships are like that"...
Doesn't say anything, doesn't mean anything. Works every time.
June 19, 2008 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
How many husbands do you know in this day and age who are domineering towards their wives? The husband/father's clout in the house is defintely reduced nowadays versus the 1950s.
Obama's schtick about being a hapless husband/father is something that most guys -- outside of the Stepford Wives alternate reality of the GOP -- will relate to.
June 19, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Those with puerile schoolyard brains necessarily have a limited repertoire of perceptions and topics. The notion of forming an opinion of a guy based on an adolescent evaluation of his "softness" demonstrates again that these people are juvenile morons...and that they have more issues about their own self-confidence as manly-men than Democrats generally seem to.
June 19, 2008 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink