Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin, what if things were switched around?
Would the country's collective point of view be different? Ponder the following:
What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage...including an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?
What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?
What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident?
What if Obama had met his second 2nd wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?
What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?
(The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)
What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?
What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?
What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?
What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?
What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?
You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?
This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.
From Doug, with minor editing.
A powerful catalogue.
ReplyDeleteWowser! How can people miss this so easily?
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the Mob connections behind that beer distributorship.
ReplyDeleteVery well-stated. Thank you for posting it. I think I'll copy it and send it on the next "reply all" I do in response to some of the right wing email lists I'm on.
ReplyDeleteBubs, that's a great idea. I may do that, too.
ReplyDeleteExcellent points - so obvious to anyone other than the right-wingers.
ReplyDeleteI think there's a lot of racism involved in the treatment of Obama. OTOH, to have a man with such a "funny name" (as he himself has said) come so far so fast, puts the racism that is still present in some kind of context.
ReplyDeleteWhich is to say, I can't quite separate the racism from IOKIYAR. I can't tell, IOW, which is responsible here. McCain's past, including the crashed planes and discipline problems, is papered over by POW, and by the fact he's been a friend of the press for so long. Clinton faced similar scrutiny before and forever after 1992, largely because (as Gene Lyons pointed out), he was from Arkansas.
There is a lot McCain is forgiven, or which is ignored; but I'm not sure it's only because McCain is white, and Obama black.
My kingdom for an editor!
ReplyDeleteClinton's scrutiny was similar to Obama's, I meant to say, not to McCain's.
AAAARRGHHH!!!!!!
Here from FranIAm, with a big congratulations to you for the Huff Post acknowledgement. You are doing good work. Adding you to my blogroll.
ReplyDeleteAll right Rmj, (aka Contrary Mary) the point is that the election would not be close, even if McCain's middle name was Hussein. I believe that is true. No black man or woman with McCain's creds would have a chance at being the nominee of the Democratic Party, much less president. To succeed in the mainstream, African-Americans must be far above average, examples to us all, etc., etc., etc. Obviously, that is not true for white folks.
ReplyDeleteHi, Diva. Welcome and thank you.
PS: I like Contrary Marys - just so you'll know.
ReplyDeleteWho says white male privilege is not alive and well!!!
ReplyDeleteHow does the Republican Party just shrug these things off and we allow them to do it?
Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteAs I said about a week ago on a different blog, if the Democratic candidate was a white guy named Barry O'Bannon, instead of a biracial guy named Barack Obama, and he was saying all the same things, he would be leading by a landslide.
Excellent, Mimi. This just reminds us that we still have so much work to do. Selma isn't over yet.
ReplyDeleteThis is so very true! If all these situations were reversed Obama wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of even getting the nomination, much less winning the presidency. There is such a double standard simply because of his race. It's totally unfair, and it proves just how far we as a country have NOT come. I pray for his election, and for his continued safety.
ReplyDeleteMerci beau coup for posting this, Grandmere Mimi!
I confess that the words were an eye-opener for me. The full extent of the prejudice in favor of white males became clearer to me in these words. So long as the white male isn't gay.
ReplyDeleteMimi--Oh, I see that, and there's no doubt Obama himself has played down anything that would make him look like "Scary Black Man," just to reassure people he's not a kinder, gentler Black Panther.
ReplyDeleteBut I think the difference in treatment between McCain and Obama is more attributable to IOKIYAR. Obama has not been a politician that long. If he were white and had McCain's baggage, he'd need many more years to prove himself before he'd be fit for the Presidency. Part of Obama's meteoric rise is who he is.
That he is where he is despite being black is, I don't deny, amazing. But if he weren't who he is, he wouldn't be here right now, even if he was the love child of Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.
So I'm not sure racism is the only reasonable explanation.
So I'm not sure racism is the only reasonable explanation.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not. The stars were aligned.
His chief opponent in the primaries was a woman.
The Republican maladministration is a huge albatross around McCain's neck.
Sarah Palin.
The economy.
There are probably others.
I wonder what the right-wing whack jobs would do if the race was between a black man and a gay man. Doesn't matter which is in which party. They'd be positively apoplectic. I'd love to see it.
ReplyDeleteOh ouch ouch ouch. good grief....
ReplyDeletesigh.
oh, and now, trying not to be angry!
sigh.
What an eye opener. Thanks Grandmere.
Rmj, I see that I did not read your last comment closely enough before I responded. Even after reading it, I don't quite know if I agree or not. I'm sure that Obama's charisma and inspirational speaking style were great helps. A black man or woman with a lackluster personality, with similar credentials to Obama, may not have made the cut. Is that what you mean?
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I don't get the IOKIYAR part. What's OK if you're a Republican?
Reading the post over, I get angry all over again at the double standards.
Very powerful. But who on the "other side" cares?
ReplyDeleteDP, they don't, and if Obama is elected, he'll have a tough time governing, because there will be a goodly number of angry people in the country.
ReplyDeleteLook at those folks at your place.
I'm afraid I don't get the IOKIYAR part. What's OK if you're a Republican?
ReplyDeleteI don't want to take away from who Obama is by saying he did, or did not, achieve what he has done because of, or even in spite of, his race.
His is a remarkable personal story. If he'd had the baggage of McCain (who is, after all, a lackluster politician, a man who heads the GOP ticket only by default, not by overwhelming merit), and been white, he'd need McCain's years in politics to head any major party ticket. Like Dole, I think of this nomination more as McCain's gold watch, not his brass ring. What Obama has achived, IMHO, is a testament to how "post-racial" American society is. Which is not to say we've achieved Dr. King's "dream." But what has been achieved is due to changes in America, and to the outstanding qualities of Barack Obama.
As for IOKIYAR, I always use that sarcastically. It isn't OK if you are GOP, but that's the general treatment. GOP politicians say and do things no Democrat could ever get away with. LBJ sank us deeply into Vietnam, just as W. would have done, yet LBJ is still derided as either corrupt, or for the failure of the "Great Society." Nixon is only similarly derided because of Watergate, not for Vietnam. LBJ's expansion of that war was an error, Nixon's horrific expansion of it (into Cambodia, Laos, Thailand), is papered over and Kissinger (the butcher of Southeast Asia) honored as a statesman.
So, no, it's never OKIYAR. But it's played that way in the press.
I have commented on the many places this list has been posted. Although I think the facts presented are important, I question that race is the be all and end all here, I think the comparison is more one of Republican (read Rovian tactics) vs. Democratic tactics. Absolutely if the shoe was on the other foot and Obama carried the baggage that McCain/Palin does, Rove et al would have a field day. Democratics tend to use class in a similar fashion. I think race plays a part, but I could just as easily see that list emphasing Republican dirty campaign trix against other previous contenders for the White House.
ReplyDeletePS - Grandmere - hope you liked the touch up I did of MP's photo. It was a fun spirited attempt to defend you after the infamous cigar photo.
Damn! Blogger "disappeared" my long comment. Red-assin'!
ReplyDeleteRmj, I understand that your use of IOKIYAR is sarcasm. What else could it be? It appears that the Republican rope may have an end, and that the end may be in view.
It seems that we have drifted away from what I took to be the main point of the post which is:
If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?
Maybe I should have highlighted those words. Star alignments, notwithstanding, I believe that the race would not have been close.
We've moved to a time of less intense racism in this country, but it's still very much alive and kicking where I live. Perhaps my surroundings influence my opinions about the reality of the post-racist society in most other places in the US.
That Obama, a black man with a funny name, is in the position he is seems not much short of a miracle to me.
Renz, I agree that the slimy tactics of the McCain campaign backfired. They hurt more than they help, but they don't change tactics. The latest label is "share the wealth", meaning communist, from Sarah Palin, no less, who is governor of the state where the citizens really do share the wealth from oil and gas royalties.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the photoShopped picture? I don't get the cigar business from MP. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but in the case of his placement of it in my pictures, I doubt that's the case.
Go to his page and check out the latest version of the "Newman" photo - I e-mailed it to him as a rib in response to the cigar pic that kind of looked George Burns in drag and he posted it!
ReplyDeletePS- It's not photoshoppe, just "paint" by the by. I guess my point relates to those statistics out there about "not voting for a black man for president." The wise commentary afterwards was that those same individuals probably would never vote for ANY liberal candidate. The Republicans get it - there is a large swath of the country that is stupid - the GOP has learned that all they need do is put up a superficially likeable pseudo "folk hero" (read brave POW or feisty soccer mom)and then play the fear game. The democrats don't get it - they still believe in America the "noble experiement" and it's only due to complete devastation we face in the wake of Bush & Co. that Barak has gotten to where he is. (Thank God for that at least). That is why WE see an incredibly brillian, eloquent, educated man and say "YES!" and they (the stupid minions) by into "Elitist" That is how John Kerry, the war hero, was able to be Swift Boated into history. We look at Sarah Palin's education and scoff - we offer up Barak and Michelle Obama's Harvard Education - the big stupid mob just wants someone to make them feel good, safe, someone they can have a beer with. It's telling that that beer and a football game thing is being won by Obama. Well, enought rambling - go to OCICBW and scroll down the right column till you see my "Make Over" of MP. Peace
ReplyDeleteRenz, I saw your work. It's a masterpiece of primitive "Paint". I did not know it was yours.
ReplyDeleteThat folks preferred a deserter to someone who actually served in Vietnam is still incredible to me. Obama understands the all-important place of image in campaigns and plays into that.
As for charisma and eloquence, you can't buy that. He has it, thanks be to God. I'm actively praying that Obama wins. I don't normally do that, as I'm not sure about the theology.
Mrs. Obama made the point on Leno that Gov. Palin has been subject to some sexism. What is amazing is that her backers do not get it!
ReplyDeleteFWIW
jimB
Jim, do you mean all the talk of Palin's clothes?
ReplyDelete