Saturday, August 2, 2008

Money

Obama took some flak for "playing the race card" after he said the following:
The only way they figure they're going to win this election is if they make you scared of me. So what they're saying is, "Well, we know we're not very good but you can't risk electing Obama. You know, he's new, he's... doesn't look like the other presidents on the currency, you know, he's got a, he's got a funny name.
Yeah, Obama was way off base there. Oh, wait, here's a new John McCain ad:

(h/t Ezra Klein)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seth -- this is called "vetting" the candidate. Do you really think "The Chosen One" should get a free walk all the way to November?

Seth Masket said...

Er, no, this isn't "vetting" the candidate. That was done some time ago. This is "campaigning against" the candidate. And there's nothing wrong with that. My point was that the McCain campaign shouldn't reach for the smelling salts when Obama says that they're claiming he doesn't look like other presidents, since that's exactly what they're doing.

Anonymous said...

Oh, that's just the campaigns huffing and puffing. Obama's camp is doing the same thing, spinning his previous pledge to do town hall meetings with McCain.

But here's a question: if Obama were to win the election, can anyone think of a president-elect with less experience before taking the office? (Someone might say Ike, but I'll take his Supreme Commander of Allied Forces experience anytime.)

Anonymous said...

Seth -- with your love of movies, I'm surprised you haven't associated Obama's celebrity rise toward the presidency with the plotline in The Omen.

Seth Masket said...

Yes, there have been presidents-elect with less experience than Obama. Lincoln, for one.

As for "The Omen," huh? Let's see, Damien was born in Rome (which disqualified him from the presidency, btw) into a wealthy, powerful family. He then used his dead father's money and political connections to mount his own run for high office. All who opposed him wound up beheaded or disemboweled by animals.

I'm hard pressed to find the Obama analogy there.

Anonymous said...

Ha, ha!

Very nice. You have to trace back to 1860 for an example!

Anonymous said...

Is this commenter the same one who consistently refuses to see race in ANYTHING? Sheesh. What would it take, dude? That ad is blatantly playing on some people's fears of a black president. They don't just do one black face on Mt. Rushmore, but four?! You have to be blind not to see it.