McCain's Racially Tinged Negative Ads & Obama Accused of Imprecise Blackness

The week in race in politics was a wild one with John McCain accusing Barack Obama of using race as a wedge issue and Obama continuing to deal with insinuations that he is both too black and not black enough.

McCain kicked off the week by reversing his previous view of Ward Connerly backed anti-affirmative action ballot initiatives, coming out in support of Arizona's current attempt to ban affirmative action. This caused Huffington Post blogger, Seth Colter Walls, to ask: "Has John McCain started to aggressively court the white vote?" Could this be the start of McCain's southern strategy?

The twin engines of racial resentment and isolationist sentiment may exist for McCain to power up this year as well, with immigration and high gas prices both serving as hot political topics. And just because the code words of Nixon's Southern Strategy -- busing and "states' rights" -- no longer exist today, that doesn't mean there aren't still votes to be gained by finding some new ones.

Political commentators are also calling out McCain's line of attack calling Obama "presumptuous" as code for "uppity."

However, it is hard not to see in the ongoing attitude towards this presidential frontrunner, just three months before the election, something more uncomfortable that is not simply a matter of age, but one of race. Read entire post here

On Sunday, longtime Washington hand David Gergen took umbrage with John McCain's recent attack ads, charging that the Senator was using coded messaging to paint Barack Obama as "outside the mainstream" and "uppity."

"There has been a very intentional effort to paint him as somebody outside the mainstream, other, 'he's not one of us,'" said Gergen, who has worked with White Houses, both Republican and Democrat, from Nixon to Clinton. "I think the McCain campaign has been scrupulous about not directly saying it, but it's the subtext of this campaign. Everybody knows that. There are certain kinds of signals. As a native of the south, I can tell you, when you see this Charlton Heston ad, 'The One,' that's code for, 'he's uppity, he ought to stay in his place.' Everybody gets that who is from a southern background. We all understand that. When McCain comes out and starts talking about affirmative action, 'I'm against quotas,' we get what that's about." Read entire article here

McCain attempted to deflect those charges onto Obama by accusing him of "playing the 'race card'"

Jaelithe of the MOMocrats was at one of the Missouri events where Obama made comments similar to the ones McCain complained about and she shares the audience reaction:

It was that last sentence the McCain campaign took issue with: "And he doesn't look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five dollar bills."

Let me tell you how the overwhelmingly white, rural, working-class audience in Union reacted to that statement:

They laughed.

And I don't mean they twittered a little uncomfortably, or laughed politely. I mean, they laughed. From the belly. They guffawed. They applauded. If you don't believe me, watch the video I posted in my last piece. It was one of the best-received lines in Obama's whole speech.

Why?

Because the joke— it was a joke, you see— he delivered the line with a wry grin— succeeded in the way that many of the best jokes do, by sneaking up to the edge of an unspoken, considered-unspeakable controversy, and tearing away its respectable mask.... Anyone with critical thinking ability and a reasonable understanding of racial dynamics in this country who has really been paying attention to the attacks made on Obama by conservatives during the course of this campaign could tell you this:... all of these attempts by the Right and by certain members of the media to characterize Obama as somehow other and foreign— have served as a convenient, socially acceptable stand-in mode of criticism for certain people in this country who would like to say, but cannot for fear of losing all credibility in today's politically correct world:

He's black. We're not. And that scares us.

The genius of Obama's joke about the faces on American money is that it acknowledges this reality— the reality that some people are uneasy about his race, and that others are willing to exploit that uneasiness— without specifically casting blame. There he stands, in front of an audience of salt-of-the-earth, rural white folks, and he self-deprecatingly mocks his "funny name." (Which, incidentally, I've been hearing him do in speeches since, oh, pretty much since he started running for president, actually. So for the McCain campaign to act like that's something new is ridiculous.)

Other observers have pointed out the racial undertones in McCain's "Celebrity" ad comparing Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Jill Tubman at Jack & Jill politics asks:

McCain released this ad comparing Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Um, is it just me or is this a weird attempt to do a more subtle “Harold, Call Me” blond girl thing to Obama?

Melissa McEwan, writing for the Guardian UK, sees the anatomy of a dog whistle:

McCain piques Obama and his constituency, Obama responds, McCain and the rightwing accuse Obama of playing the race card, his opponents unleash their new favorite battle cry: "You can't criticize Obama without being called a racist." Clockwork.

See how that works? Wheeeee!...

Meanwhile, since when did implying a black man is uppity and entitled stop being examined for racist undertones, anyway…?

Woof.

Joe Trippi, a long-time Democratic political consultant, sees a strategy developing to use race against Obama:

Ever since McCain’s NAACP speech that seemed to me to be directed at white swing voters and not at African Americans I have believed that the McCain campaign is adept at understanding how to raise race as an issue and use it to its advantage.

McCain has successfully focused the media's attention on Obama's race once again as Joe Klein of Time Magazine points out:

we've got two wars, an energy crisis, an economy teetering on the edge of real serious trouble--and this is the campaign John McCain wants to run?

Dan Balz at the Washington Post wonders who started it:

Was it Barack Obama, who not so subtly pointed to John McCain and seemingly accused him of trying to scare voters by drawing attention to the fact that Obama doesn't look like (read: he is African American) all the other presidents? Or was it McCain's campaign, which cried foul over Obama's statements with such vehemence that race became the story of the day on all the networks, in all the papers and on all the blogs?

Regardless of who started it, the media is certainly responding:

New York Magazine has a round-up of responses

Eugene Robinson at the Washington Post says "So Much for St. John"

It's awfully early for John McCain to be running such a desperate, ugly campaign against Barack Obama. But I guess it's useful for Democrats to get a reminder that the Republican Party plays presidential politics by the same moral code that guided the bad-boy Oakland Raiders in their heyday: "Just win, baby."

Bob Herbert at the New York Times wonders about "Running While Black"

Nevertheless, it’s frustrating to watch John McCain calling out Barack Obama on race. Senator Obama has spoken more honestly and thoughtfully about race than any other politician in many years. Senator McCain is the head of a party that has viciously exploited race for political gain for decades.

He’s obviously more than willing to continue that nauseating tradition.

Obama, however, accuses McCain of distraction

"In no way do I think that John McCain's campaign was being racist," Obama said in his first meeting with reporters since predicting that McCain and other Republicans would try to scare voters because Obama looks unlike "all those other presidents on the dollar bills" — most of them older white men.

"I think they're cynical," he said. "And I think they want to distract people from talking about the real issues."

After all, Obama is in a no-win position when talking about race. While McCain was calling him out for noting that he's black, black activists were calling Obama out for allegedly not paying enough attention to issues of concern to the black community.

Robert T. Starks of N'DIGOnline asks "Mr. Obama, where is the urban agenda?" And, The Christian Progressive Liberal at Jack & Jill Politics writes "This is why there's skepticism about Obama."

Although John Heilemann at New York Magazine speculates "mudslinging will damage McCain's brand - but it may be the only way he can win," perhaps this will all change with the next media cycle since it looks like The Wall Street Journal has discovered that "maybe that 'skinny' is about to be the hot new euphemism for 'black.'"

Additional week in race and politics reading (and listening):

NPR provides an analysis of The Week In Review: Race In The Race (audio)

McCain and Obama both addressed The National Urban League this week

McCain talked about affirmative action, school vouchers and bringing a Guiliani/Iraq war style approach to urban crime.

Obama responded that "he would put his ideas up agains McCain's 'any day.'"

Jazz Shaw at The Moderate Voice says the "media largely ignores McCains's remarks on education at Urban League" and shares an unreported portion of McCain's speech.

Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars and Jack Turner at Jack & Jill Politics both follow up on McCain's claim that he is a champion of civil rights and fought for a Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday in Arizona and accuse him of lying.

Rachel L. Swarns at the New York Times says Obama walks a "delicate... path on class and race preferences."

Conservative columnist David Brooks critiques McCain and Republicans on their education policy proposals:

The G.O.P. is largely irrelevant. If you look at Barack Obama’s education proposals — especially his emphasis on early childhood — you see that they flow naturally and persuasively from this research. (It probably helps that Obama and Heckman are nearly neighbors in Chicago). McCain’s policies seem largely oblivious to these findings. There’s some vague talk about school choice, but Republicans are inept when talking about human capital policies.

McCain also criticized Obama for sending his children to private school instead of public school (as does McCain) while opposing providing vouchers for families to use at private schools. Obama responded that he supports public school choice but not using public money to fund private schools.

Critics see both class and race at work in McCain's argument:

McCain supports vouchers for schools in large part because he wants to privatize the system. That’s his right, but let’s not pretend this has anything to do with John McCain’s deep concern for the plight of families with less money than his.

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"I'm more honorable than you, I love America, our troops and God better than you." Add some brand-spankin' new, tailor-made subliminal weaponry: "I'm safe (heroic, white and Christian), you're dangerous (never a POW, black and maybe even a Muslim...). Clearly Senator Obama lacks the moral, ethical gravitas to lead the nation in troubled times...

Jack Turner throws his hands up and says "OK, Obama Needs To Have A Press Conference On All Things Black" - suggested topics include: