Category: The Dish

Another former Reaganite shifts.

Much, much milder than Obama on Farrakhan. And Farrakhan didn’t hold a rally for BHO. Can you imagine the vapid outcry if such a thing happened? And yet the GOP parades its bigots in the open. Just like Huckabee and the Reconstructionists. There really are double standards for white fundamentalists, aren’t there?

Paul Burka senses an earthquake of sorts.

One reader response:

Why bother coming here (getting a visa, the travel, feeling out-of-place) to attack Americans, when one frustrated youth with jihadist tendencies from wherever can simply wander into Iraq or Afghanistan and do his best to take out US military personnel in uniform? There, you can at least blend into the local population, target not unarmed US civilians in shopping malls, -but uniformed, patriotic, heavily-armed Americans (who are light-years away from home and family, and all that’s familiar) – and be regarded as a hero to millions … all at the same time.

The flypaper theory works, in other words.

A reader proposes:

Recall how football players shave their heads in solidarity with a teammate who’s going through chemo? What the Democrats need to do, should Obama become the nominee, is to use Hussein as their adopted middle names. Ted Hussein Kennedy. Nancy Hussein Pelosi. Hillary Hussein Clinton. (Well, maybe not.) And his supporters, too. This is something that can easily go viral and backfire on the far right big-time.

PETA or ASH?

Gay voters really need to reject the politics of Clintonism and see the opportunity in front of us. My take on gays and Obama here. These breakthrough moments do not come often in the history of civil rights movements. Gay Democrats, Independents and Republicans in Ohio and Texas need to get out and vote for Obama next Tuesday. This opportunity to defeat the politics of fear, cronyism and deception may not come again. A reader writes:

Previous candidates (Democratic, natch; Republicans are still in thrall to the so-called religious right elements that dominate their party processes) have shied away from open support of the GLBT community for fear of offending folks in the primary or general election. They fear that any support they offer will be used against them. This is not so with Obama. Why?

Does he recognize that his base considers this a non-issue? Is it generational? And why hasn’t the loony right attacked him on this point?

Are they too busy re-orienting themselves to a race without Hillary? I fully expect them to hit him on this issue later, once he’s the nominee (I can’t wait for next Tuesday!), but he seems unconcerned and non-anxious about his views on this issue. Is this further evidence of a coming post-gay reality? Is the Republican right not screaming "Obama loves fags!" because they sense they can’t for some reason? How does this guy seem to be able to transcend so much of the divisive identity-politics bullshit we’ve had to endure for the last few decades?

Readers know that my admiration for Obama is not rooted in gay issues. But as this campaign has progressed, my belief that this candidate is a game-changer for us has deepened. It is unimaginable to me why a gay voter would turn against easily the most honest, candid and courageous straight national politician on gay rights in recent history. To vote for Clinton at this moment is to fail, in my judgment, to understand the unique opportunity we have. Those of us who have long struggled as Christians and as gay people have a particular reason to embrace a man whose evocation of the Gospels on our behalf has not been replicated anywhere else in American politics. If we do not reciprocate with our support the courage of this man on this subject, we will ultimately be betraying ourselves.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. But he can help.

A generation reclaims its country.

A reader channels my own mixed feelings:

Those videos make me, an ardent Obama supporter, much LESS inclined to like him or his campaign.  I am past needing cheesy songs and celebrities to confirm my political beliefs or philosophy.  I don’t think I’m the only one that finds them mildly offensive.  "Oh Jessica Alba is a Barack supporter?  The Fantastic Four was so good.  I’m definitely going to vote for him." 

I think it tarnishes his image as a uniter since it once again seems to be a statement about privilege, about power, access and fame. 

I liken it in my head to the Radiohead phenomena.  Part of what made their gambit so brilliant was that for once every fan regardless of affiliation (famous celebrity, promoter, reporter, record label guy) was treated the same way and on equal footing: as a fan.  Nobody was a ‘bigger’ fan than anybody else.  It was a direct connection with the artist and I didn’t feel excluded or penciled into a caste system for not having the right credentials.  It felt so refreshing.

That’s the same way I think about the Obama campaign.  We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.  The community.

Besides being awful music, these videos sully that notion and seek to separate the tiers of Obama supporters into the masses and the beautiful celebrities.  They strike exactly the wrong note for me.  And it’s annoying.  They feel, in fact, Clinton-esque in their self-satisfied, pseudo-hip cloying preening.

Gets to the nub of Clinton’s privilege, and inability to actually persuade anyone of anything:

Is there a single member of the U.S. Senate besides Hillary Clinton for whom it was the FIRST elected office?

Maybe Liddy Dole, another marital nepotist?
  

Puke-worthy self-pity:

"Every so often I just wish that it were a little more of an even playing field but, you know, I play on whatever field is out there."

Is she fucking kidding me? You think it was a level playing field for Nita Lowey as she was bigfooted out of a New York Senate seat for the carpet-bagging former president’s wife? You think it was a level playing field when Clinton bullied and cajoled and intimidated every Democrat to back her a year ago? You think it’s a level playing field when you deploy a former president to tear down your opponent?

Clinton has more privilege, more clout, more intrinsic unearned advantages in this race than any non-incumbent Democrat in living memory. And still she failed. And still she whines. There are moments when you almost feel pity; and then you realize what a petty shameless narcissist she is.