On Chris Matthews' show Friday night, Matthews and his guest pundits did their after-debate quarterbacking. Matthews' guests were Eugene Robinson, a columnist for the Washington Post, and, I believe, Pat Buchanan, who does whatever he does, when he's not on one TV show after another. Matthews, in his usual annoying manner, yapped away saying, "Why didn't Obama emphasize this? Why didn't Obama say that? Why didn't Obama hammer away about poor people more? Why? Why? Why?" Finally, Robinson, who is African-American, in case you didn't know, spoke a stark truth. "If Obama is going to have any chance of being elected, he's got to look like the least aggrieved black man in America."
Exactly right. Let Obama show any hint of the "angry black man", and he's out of the running. A friend emailed me that she had read a criticism of Obama for calling McCain "John", thereby not showing proper respect. Imagine! He called a Senate colleague by his first name. How uppity! Should Obama have shuffled his feet, kept his head down, and called him "Mistah John"?
Eugene Robinson is one of our sharpest DC-based columnists in The Post. It's always worth a trip over to the Post site to read his editorials on Tuesdays and Fridays.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course - Robinson was right, The bigotry is getting louder these days when people think others "aren't listening."
Yes, we can read him in the SF Chronicle too. He's great.
ReplyDeleteThe code words for 'he's black' are going to get faster and furiouser the closer we get to Nov. 4.
The fact that McCain wouldn't look at Obama once during the debate is so telling.
I love Robinson's columns, and I like his appearances on TV, too. I don't even know if Matthews heard what Robinson said. He seemed in a bit of a hurry to get his next words in.
ReplyDeleteI find all of this astonishing.
ReplyDeleteIf your house is on fire, should it matter if the firefighter with the hose is black (or white or brown)?
Our national house is on fire right now. We're not in a position to quibble over the race of the fire department.
This makes me so very angry, because it is so very "on the mark". I understand why Barack is reigning himself in, because I have done it my whole life. Every once in a while, I can see him "going there", and then I see him knowing what will happen if he does, and then his wisdom empowers him. Whenever I have failed, I have encountered the backlash, and I pray God's wisdom-power for Barack. It's so very difficult - and so unfair (and yeah, for the lurkers, I know, life is unfair, so just don't go there). Thanks, grandmere.
ReplyDeleteCounterlight, I can't really say that I'm surprised that Obama must reign himself in, but when a truth hits between the eyes as Robinson's did, it leaves a mark. It nearly took my breath away.
ReplyDeleteScott, I hear you. You're pressured to be the example of the "nice gay man" 24/7, or folks may think all gay men are bitchy and angry. No, life isn't fair, and it's a damn shame, and knowing that makes me bitchy and angry.
The post-debate polls, which are starting to come in, indicate that Obama's lead is widening. We'll see over the next couple of days.
ReplyDeleteThan you for posting this Grandmere. There were editorials here in California that said Obama lost the debate because he said so many times that McCain was right. Never mind that he may have truly agreed on a point and saw no reason to dispute it. But, I think it is so important to see that he must be concerned about being portrayed as the "angry black man." What a corner to be painted in.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much good about Obama, his intelligence, his ability to keep his cool, his compassion, that he is a man who does not believe there are easy answers for everything. I only have one vote, but it will be cast for Obama.
Pat is a commentator for both CNN and Fox. I think he still has a syndicated column. He was a senior advisor to three presidents, ran three times himself, started a magazine and a foundation... something about America... don't really remember that. He's a good Catholic and a nice guy.
ReplyDeleteI know, I know, the homophobia stuff.
Lapin, that's good news about the polls, but the only one that counts is on election day.
ReplyDeleteBeryl, they say Obama lost the debate because he said he agreed with McCain a few times? Really? How silly can they get?
Lindy, I was only pretending that I didn't know who Pat Buchanan is. I'm sick of seeing him on TV, and I don't think he's a nice guy, at all. Nothing personal, because I'm not acquainted with him, but some of his views are appalling.
Maybe Obama and his campaign had just done their homework here and figured out that the people that they needed to convince were voters and not pundits, and that the voters who needed convincing did not want to see angry people.
ReplyDeleteCheck out E.J. Dionne's column in the Post. He talks about one of those focus groups where undecided voters were asked to turn dials up and down as they watched the debate. It turned out that whenever McCain went on the attack his negative rating shot up. The attacking and the intentionally condescending tone were the reason, Dionne thinks, that the instant polls all gave the debate to Obama.
Obama not only demonstrated that he knew the difference between strategy and tactics, I think he rather brilliantly demonstrated both during the debate.
Lindy...what? Are we talking about THE Pat Buchanan? Because THE Pat Buchanan is a racist, an anti-semite, a homophobe, and he probably hates kittens and puppies too. He's written books about the decline of the west (meaning not enough white babies being born.)
ReplyDeleteAnyone have a link to his keynote speech from the 1992 Republican convention? It was pure exploitation about the L.A. riots. It would make your flesh crawl. The Repugs knew they'd made a big mistake by letting him speak.
Sorry, I got distracted from the topic at hand.
Yes, Obama has to walk a bit of a fine line, unfortunately. I think he did very well in the debate and his poll numbers have been looking good. :knocking wood:
Sorry Mimi, I can't let this go. It galls me that cable news has allowed Pat Buchanan to become some kind of cleaned-up elder statesman. Talk about lipstick on a pig.
ReplyDeleteHere's the real Pat. (1992.)
"Like many of you last month, I watched that giant masquerade ball at Madison Square Garden--where 20,000 radicals and liberals came dressed up as moderates and centrists--in the greatest single exhibition of cross-dressing in American political history."
"Yet a militant leader of the homosexual rights movement could rise at that convention and exult: "Bill Clinton and Al Gore represent the most pro-lesbian and pro-gay ticket in history." And so they do."
"They had come into LA late on the 2nd day, and they walked up a dark street, where the mob had looted and burned every building but one, a convalescent home for the aged. The mob was heading in, to ransack and loot the apartments of the terrified old men and women. When the troopers arrived, M-16s at the ready, the mob threatened and cursed, but the mob retreated. It had met the one thing that could stop it: force, rooted in justice, backed by courage."
Sorry to spam your comments, Mimi. Sorry.
John, I thought McCain's demeanor was rather frightening. He looked angry and stiff, and he appeared to be struggling mightily to retain control. That he did not even glance at Obama once in the debate was beyond weird. Perhaps, he was trying to convey to us that the whole exercise was beneath him. Very scary, I'd say, but I don't know if others read him that way.
ReplyDeleteObama looked cool and dignified - at what cost, I can't say. I doubt that many minds were changed by the debate, but I hope that undecideds were persuaded into the Obama camp.
PJ, don't apologize and please feel free to spend the rest of the day ranting and spamming about Pat Buchanan. His thinking, speaking, and writing are beneath contempt.
ReplyDeleteDamned if you do, damned if you don't. That's the position in which Obama finds himself.
ReplyDeleteSadly, racism is alive and well. That is what is so amazing about lily white Vermont voting 70%+ in the March primaries for Obama (even as we're probably going re-elect an idiot repugnican for governor).
Don't knock Buchanan's 1992 convention speech - many credit it with tipping the presidency to Bill Clinton. And as the Blessed Molly Ivins wrote at the time, "it probably sounded better in the original German".
ReplyDeleteBuchanan does seem to have mellowed in recent years. When he doesn't have a dog in the fight his analyses and observations can be informative.
I am very much afraid of what will happen to this country if McCain is elected. The irrationality of so many is truly dangerous.
ReplyDeleteCaminate, be grateful for small favors. At least the voters in Vermont will get it right one time. Here in Louisiana, we have our Gov. Jindal (R), and the state will vote for McCain by a wide margin.
ReplyDeleteAnd as the Blessed Molly Ivins wrote at the time, "it probably sounded better in the original German".
Lapin, Blessed Molly, indeed! She's greatly missed.
Ormonde, preach it, brother!
McCain's demeanor was intentionally condescending and disrespectful of his Senate colleague. The man positively oozes disregard for Obama.
ReplyDeleteAnd while McCain just sounded pissy and angry, Obama, on the other hand, sounded presidential. He had that gravitas thing happening for sure. Obama also stayed "on topic" quite a bit more than McCain.
I hear "the pundits" (ba-ba-ba-BUM) called it a tie, while most polls of regular American voters called it an Obama win (well OK, except for the Fox News Republican propaganda machine ;)
David, we can never overestimate the tee vee pundits' propensity to say stupid things.
ReplyDeleteSometimes ordinary folks see beyond the flimflam; sometimes they don't.
I'm one of those who things Obama has run just about the most brilliant campaign in years. I thought Clinton's was masterful, but this one has be nearly perfect. He is doing things exactly right, and the polls are now reflecting that. They are telling McCain to become really vicious now, and that will be another mistake, but he will do so, because it fits so nicely with his personality.
ReplyDeleteAFeather, I believe he's done very well. He's cool, and I like cool.
ReplyDelete