Tim Rutten writes today in the L.A. Times (11/5/08):
What is perhaps most remarkable about the changed America to which we woke this morning is how the president-elect’s race seems, in most ways, the least remarkable thing about him.
In large part, that’s a tribute to the fact that Barack Obama declined every opportunity to make his race a campaign centerpiece. It’s also a tribute to John McCain, who just as resolutely refused to engage in race-baiting even as his prospects dwindled in the election’s final weeks.
This marveling at McCain’s failure to race-bait Obama is a widespread theme in corporate media coverage—and a dubious one. I suppose one could make an an argument that McCain’s constant warnings that Obama wanted to redistribute Joe the Plumber’s wealth were not a coded suggestion that Obama would help blacks at the expense of whites. In the same way, you could make an argument that Ronald Reagan’s references to “welfare queens” were based on a color-blind desire to reform social services.
(Fox‘s Sean Hannity—10/28/08—had an illustration of the chain of associations that McCain’s “redistribution” line was designed to evoke: “Obviously spread the wealth, socialism, Obama’s welfare plan is not going over well with the American people.”)
But Rutten’s right about Obama and race, isn’t he? Ironic, too … in that he ran away from his heritage even as it was a major factor in his winning.
And let’s not forget class. How many times have the terms “the poor” or “working class” passed his lips?
You know, thirty years ago I very well might’ve been guzzling the Kool Aid, as so many young’uns are, as a white boy from Miss’ssippi desperate to leave behind the legacy of racism bequeathed me by my kith and kin.
I’d like to think that I’d have eventually seen past the style and been sickened by the substance of someone who is nothing more than a traditional Democratic politician … Slippery William without a paunch.
I just wonder how all these folks are gonna react when the reality of false hope comes calling. Will they answer the door … or will they ignore the knocking and blithely follow their icon down the road of ecological disaster and War on Terror Lite?
Time will tell, won’t it just?
“A steady attack on the white race, the constant recitation of black people’s brutal experience in this country served as the balast that could prevent the ideas of personal and communal responsibility from tipping into an ocean of despair. Yes, the nationalist would say, whites are responsible for your sorry state, not any inherent flaws in you. In fact, whites are so heartless and devious that we can no longer expect anything from them.” — Barack Obama, Dreams of My Father (last line left out of audiobook)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6zM5ldO35A
There are many more examples in the video. One must ask in all fairness: Did no one in the MSM read his books, or even listen to the audio versions, or was this deliberately withheld from the public? Why weren’t these provided by the MSM?
This is astounding to me.