The "uppity Barack" meme

The MSM have been utterly complicitous in pushing the Rove talking points on Obama's uppityness. Like David Gergen said today, they don't need to mention race, as arrogant, elitist, presumptuous do the trick. I think any decent reporter should be taking their cue from this article and calling the MSM and their slavish and knee jerk parrotting of the McCain meme of the day. I defy anyone to find one evenly mildly egotistical quote from Obama that wasn't said in self-mocking jest (other than Dana Milbank's fabricated one) and what could be more beneath contempt than the false "race card" charge by McCain that allowed them to remind everyone of Obama's race one more time. This sad charade has been played out since the rise of Bush 1 and is loathsome and transparently cynical. I am hopeful that the combination of Obama's gifts, enthusiastic supporters, and some semblance of a blowback from the liberal blogosphere, readers/viewers and honest brokers like Gergen and John Weaver will keep the press a little more honest this time, though don't hold your breath for Maureen Dowd and company to come around. The day she writes a scathing dissection of McCain is the day you know the MSM has decided to play it a little more straight up. She and ABC are the canaries in the coal mine of corporate media for how they are going to spin it.

Here's some required reading on the fake "race card" McCain smear being dutifully carried by the corporate media lapdogs:

http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/65569-Leggo-my-ego/

One more political post for today

Obama haters skip this post - too many big words and ideas that can't be reduced to a 3 second soundbite. Here, I'll save you the trouble: Barack Hussein Obama is an elitist, presumptuous, arrogant, empty-suited, street-hustling Black Muslim, Messiah-type who faked his birth certificate while snorting coke and getting a ********. Did I miss any of the basic lies and smears? Hope that covers it for the haters and fools out there.

Are they gone, now? Good. For those of you of the sentient persuasion, I have seen this movie work three times now under the Bush/Atwater/Rove gang: Dukakis in 1988, Gore in 2000 and Kerry in 2004. It failed against Clinton in 1992 because Bush 1 was almost as unpopular as Bush 2 is and there was a credible 3rd party candidate to siphon votes from those who hated Bush but couldn't pull the lever for Clinton. It is CRUCIAL to remember that the "liberal" media have once again, as they did in 88, 2000 and 2004, immediately jumped on and slavishly amplified the McCain attack of the day, from presumptuous to vacuous to race card. MORE coverage does not equate to better coverage, as the survey showing far more negative coverage of OBama than McCain in the past 2 months confirms. Of course, conditions on the ground look a lot more like 1992 or 1980 - a massively unpopular incumbent and a very appealing but different and "risky" challenger.


Other different elements:

1) Clinton has already bloodied Obama up with many of the themes the Mcshames are now using whereas the GOP was lying in wait in 1988, 2000 and 2004.

2) Obama is a better, more naturally appealing candidate than any of Bush 1 and 2, Dole, Kerry, Dukakis or Gore. Only Clinton (Bill) rivaled his natural appeal.

3) McCain is an utterly past his prime pol, who comes across as increasingly short-tempered and confused, and has also severely diminished his "straight talk express" brand and replaced it with the "sour grapes" express "low road" express or "early onset" express take your pick.

4) Obama has major appeal to two underrepresented groups of voters, Af-Ams and youth. If the primaries are any indication, they will turn out in record numbers for Obama, and, like in the primaries, the wise heads will pooh pooh the turnout until it happens.

5) For the first time ever, the Dems have money parity with the GOP, allowing Obama to compete in far more states.

6) The Obama crew has more effective and larger groups of paid and volunteer staff in every state.

7) By EVERY poll, Obama voters are far more enthusiastic than are McCain voters. Even on this board, the GOPPERS are virulently anti-Obama, not pro-McCain. In EVERY presidential election since 1932, the candidate with more enthusiastic voters has won.

8) The conventions are back to back, so there is little opportunity for the kind of unchallenged month-long savaging that Kerry endured (utterly ineptly, I might add).

9) Obama is no dummy and is well aware of the vile shenanigans which have been and will be pulled by the McCain campaign, aided and abetted by the corporate media and the right wing echo chamber.

10) Despite Obama's media-created "problem with Latinos", he has more support against McCain among Latinos than any Dem has ever had against a GOPPER, and this could make a crucial difference in Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida and yes, even Texas.

11) While there is no Perot running, both Barr and Nader are mounting national campaigns, and EVERY poll has shown Obama's lead increases by 5-7 points with these two on the ballot. Georgia, Alaska and Nevada are three states where this may be of importance.

12) The nastier and more negative McCain gets, the more it turns off Independent voters who were drawn to his promise of a clean and honorable campaign. I think this may be a zero-sum game.

So with all of this, am I confident of Obama winning? Yes, but... There is an ugly underbelly of racism and fear of the other that the McCain camp is exploiting, however hamhandedly and ineptly. Estimates are that Obama's name and racial background take about 15 points from him in the polls, so that what would be a landslide if he were a white guy named Barry O'Brien has been made much much closer. I do think McCain's best pick is Sarah Palin, since some Hillary voters are looking for a reason to vote for McCain as they continue their irrational hate for Obama. Sure, it would hurt him with evangelicals, but he's not going to ever get them to love him anyway. Still, the electoral map is very favorable to Obama, and I do believe he and his crew are smart enough to defeat the right wing-generated and corporate media amplified hate and demonization. I would say 60% 300 vote Obama EV win, 25% Obama electoral landslide, 10% 2000 style nailbiter that Obama wins, and 5% McCain EV squeaker/supreme court selected win.a post for those of the sentient persuasion

Finally up for air

Well, it has been four months since my last post, and frankly, those of you who know me personally know what profound personal challenges have faced me and my family. To be honest, I do know that a fair number of souls read this blog (though with its lack of activity lately, probably far less.) However, I do not feel comfortable sharing intimate aspects of my life with a lot of strangers at this time, and if I were to write about my life, that would be a major topic. Suffice to say there are enormous challenges and a lot of beautiful moments every day, and I am grateful to friends/musicians (from very close to fairly distant) and family for providing support, laughs and love.

My son continues to astound and amaze, and will be starting his sophomore year of college in the fall at 16 (yup!). He is a poli sci major, and one area we have really bonded in is our shared love/morbid fascination for the political process. He has perhaps as good a mind as anyone I know in these areas, and is incredibly well-informed. So, since he and I email back and forth and post to many political sites, I thought I would revive the blog portion of the site as a political commentary. I do understand that some of you will take offense, that rare breed of modern jazz loving right-wing Republican, so please note that my music is a separate beast from this, and you can keep enjoying it, even if you think I am a woefully misguided lover of the "Black Muslim presumptuous, arrogant, vacuous celebrity" Barack Hussein Obama. Surveys show that 4/5 of country music, nascar and baseball fans are conservatives and 3/4 of jazz and basketball fans are progressives, but that still leaves a lot of progressive country music, nascar and baseball fans and a fair number of reactionary jazz and basketball aficionados. Anyway, with that caveat, here's a post to start off the political thoughts for this heated season:

This election is the death rattle for the ugly Nixon Southern strategy begun in 1968 and "improved on" by the Bushes and Lee Atwater/Karl Rove and their relentless character assassination. Other than Reagan, GOP have not had a candidate they feel good about since Eisenhower. The trick is to demonize and caricature the opposition, aided and abetted by the right wing echo chamber and the corporate media.

This will be the ultimate test of that, with a brilliant, young and charismatic, inspiring change agent versus an old, cranky and mentally diminished status quo agent. What makes this the stuff of novels is that Obama, for all his exceptional gifts, fights the reality of his name, appearance and background.

If you had told the Atwater/Rove/Davis crew that they would run a generic "maverick" seasoned Republican war hero against a Biracial man whose last name is one consonant from the demon Osama, whose middle name is the same as the demon Saddam, whose first name sounds like a bird call, who was raised by an atheist single mom in Hawaii and raised for a while in Indonesia, a Harvard Reviewed, inner-city Chicago law professor...

Well, the generic matchup there would have McCain up by 20 on Obama, so it speaks volumes to the strength and power of Obama and the disaster that is McCain that Obama leads. All those factors listed above should be worth 25 points to McCain, so the question should be, why is HE not doing better against "black muslim arrogant celebrity Barack Hussein Obama?"

Any dying animal will fight to the death, and with so many potential criminal cases pending against the Bush crime family, it is no wonder the GOP are fighting ugly and low road. If Obama gets in, some of them will end up prosecuted and in jail...W cannot pardon everyone, and last I checked, he cannot pardon himself.

Stay Tuned...