By Gene Clark
I have seen the Democratic Party lose Presidential elections against Nixon twice, Reagan twice, Daddy Bush once, and Dubya twice. It is one thing we Democrats do very well.
We sure can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
As the summer has gone by, John McCain has been running a negative, rambling (at times incoherent), say-anything-for-votes campaign.
Barack Obama has run a truthful, issues-based, respectful campaign in which he has traveled abroad and gained the respect of many of the world’s citizens and heads of state.
Over the course of the pre-convention campaigns Barack Obama’s double-digit lead in the polls has evaporated down to dead even or below.
Many of my fellow Democrats think this election is in the bag. It is not.
I am damn tired of the talking heads yakking about why Barack Obama can’t get separation from John McCain. “Why can’t he put him away? Obama does everything right, and McCain does everything wrong, but McCain has caught him and climbed over Obama in many polls; why is this happening?”
No one can figure it out.
Really?
McCain is old and Obama is young. McCain is short and Obama is tall. McCain is thick in the middle and Obama is thin. McCain has a comb-over and Obama has good hair. McCain babbles and Obama speaks with purpose. McCain squeaks like an old woman and Obama speaks with a deep, comforting voice. McCain says what ain’t broke don’t need fixing and Obama says we can do better. McCain says stay in Iraq for as long as we want and Obama says we should get our guys out and turn Iraq over to Iraq. McCain is white and Obama sure is black enough now.
“Oh, Gene, I’m shocked. Race has nothing to do with this race. There is no racism in America. That’s the trouble with you liberals, you see racism everywhere. It takes liberals about 5 minutes before they say the R word.”
Sorry, folks, you don’t get off the hook that easily. Barack Obama is losing ground because he is “not like you and me.” It’s McCain’s campaign mantra, and it means, “Barack Obama is black.”
What, are the Democrats scared of? Are they afraid that if they object to this campaign tactic people will notice that Barack Obama is black?
Dubya didn’t have a lick of experience when he took office, but suddenly “lack of experience” is a major problem.
Dubya and Vice President Dick were both draft dodgers, but suddenly “lack of military service” is a big deal.
McCain wears $500 shoes and has more than 10 homes, but Obama is the celebrity that’s elitist…read that “Uppity.”
The Republican message is that Barack Obama is an uppity black man that doesn’t know his place. They say, “Barack is uppity and Michelle is angry; you should be very afraid.”
Daddy Bush ran a television ad back in 1988 that prominently displayed the very black face of Willie Horton with the words “Kidnapping, Stabbing, Raping” appearing under the Horton mug shot. The message was clear “Black killers will roam the streets if you vote for Dukakis.
The second of Daddy Bush’s “black criminals will be everywhere if Dukakis wins” commercials showed an unbroken line of black and brown criminal types going in and then right out of a revolving cell door…”vote Dukakis and you will be up to your armpits in brown people before you know it.”
I have a two-point plan to maximize Barack Obama’s chances to win this election.
Barack Obama, you are in a street fight. These Republicans have forgotten more about dirty politics than you will ever learn. Swing for the fences, Senator.
Mr. Obama, you are from Chicago, so I will use the words of Sean Connery as Sergeant Malone in the Untouchables;
“He pulls a knife; you pull a gun.
He puts one of yours in the hospital; you put one of his in the morgue.
It’s the Chicago way.”
Democrats in general, quit complaining that your person didn’t win. For god’s sake, back Barack. If you have to, pretend that you love him until you love him. How will you be better off if you stay home or, worse yet, vote for McCain?
If McCain wins, I don’t want to hear anything about, “Well, we did the best we could, but they played dirty, and my candidate could have beat McCain if she had been the nominee.”
I will leave you with a few more words from a Sean Connery character. As John Mason in The Rock, he pointed out that:
“Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and *&%# the prom queen.”
If Obama wins, don’t forget to pick up condoms on the way home.
2 Comments
August 25, 2008 at 4:26 pm
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August 28, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Once again, you make the obvious hillarious. Of course it’s racism. Only idiots, Re-thug-lican Koolaid drinkers and closet racists deny it. With every passing generation racism dies a little bit. The big question is will the youth vote–less racist than their parents–turn out an hand this thing to Obama?