“Even if you never met [Obama], you know this guy,” Rove said, per Christianne Klein. “He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.”
It’s classic Rove: Plaster over the racist truth (that many country clubs in the U.S. still won’t admit blacks) by doubling down on the lie: not only is Obama elite, but he is right now at the country club you could never have gotten into, with a woman you could never hope to even approach. And he’s laughing at you.
It’s a twofer for Rove: not only does he give crackers an excuse not to feel bad about their bigotry, but he gives them an acceptable reason to hate Obama that they can wedge into their bigotry’s place. TA-DA!
Because Rove wants you to forget, first and foremost, that this is the country we live in:
And to remember that being black gives Obama an unfair advantage. He’s one lucky Negro!
It’s putting the Swift Boat in reverse. Instead of stripping Kerry’s military service of meaning and then doubling down on that lie by calling him effete, elite and French – the equivalent of calling him a decadent gay traitor – this new lie takes away an actual societal impediment (racism) and replaces it with the kind of affirmative action which only men like George W. Bush actually get to take advantage of.
I can only hope that (1) this is too obvious to succeed; (2) voters are too smart to fall for it; (3) that the 24-26 percent of voters that voted for Bush in 2004 but hate him now are in too much economic pain to vote against their interests again, even if a racist appeal does work on them; (4) that the 24 percent who still love Bush but hate McCain will stay home in November; and (5) that Dems bring enough new voters into the process to overwhelm this and any other dirty tricks the likes of Rove and Roger Stone have up their fetid sleeves.
But given that Bush was actually re-elected in 2004, I’ll have to pin my hopes on (4) and (5).
Current Comments