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Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Is McCain running a racist campaign?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I think there’s some truth to this piece from Politico:
“John McCain is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. He could never mention Jeremiah Wright and ensure his campaign aides don’t either, and he’d still be accused of running a racist campaign.
Have his tactics against Obama in recent days gotten more personal and hard-edged? Yes. Are his top surrogates, including his running mate, suggesting that the Democrat is a terrorist sympathizer who is not a patriot? Yes.
But is McCain doing anything overtly racist? No.”
I don’t think it’s overtly OR covertly racist. It’s stupid, but not racist.
I also thought that the AP reporter was way off base in his analysis a couple of days ago claiming that Sarah Palin’s attacks “carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.”
Douglas K. Daniel went on to write:
“Palin’s words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee ‘palling around’ with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn’t see their America?
In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers’ day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.
Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as “not like us” is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.”
Republicans have been calling Democrats unAmerican for a long long time. And most of those Democrats have been white. Daniel doesn’t come close to justifying his incendiary opening thesis.
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Gallup tracking poll puts gap at 11?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Something serious is going on out there. If numbers like that hold, a lot of down-ticket Republicans are going to be washed away in the tsunami.
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Allow me a non-political vent
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last night I dumped the new bag of dry dog food into our plastic storage bin, just as I’ve done countless times before. Every other time, the bag has filled the bin to overflowing.
This time, it came a few inches short. I’d been ripped off again.
I hate these companies who pump up their bottom line by cheating their customers. The eight-oz yogurt that suddenly becomes six ounces. The 16-oz can that quietly becomes 14.5 oz. A half-gallon of ice cream that isn’t actually a half-gallon.
And the large bag of dog food that isn’t so large anymore.
The market is supposed to penalize such behavior, but I don’t think it works well in that regard. Nonetheless, I’d like to offer congratulations and encouragement to Blue Bell ice cream for its TV ad campaign pointing out that a half gallon of Blue Bell is actually a full half-gallon.
It’s good ice cream too. Go buy some. Fight the power.
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Debate polls say Obama, but as Kenny Rogers reminds us, “There’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealin’s done”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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According to CNN’s poll, 54 percent of those watching thought Barack Obama won, while 30 percent gave the nod to John McCain.
A CBS poll produced similar results — 40 percent saying Obama won, 26 percent saying McCain won.
