The line in the thread title was spoken by somebody named David Bellavia who was introducing McCain at a small rally of pro-Iraq veterans today. Keith Olbermann and some folks on the internets think Bellavia had some kind of racist intent. I’m not entirely convinced of that, but I can’t quite figure out what he did mean. Other than (for lack of a better term) “mixed race,” what do Barack Obama and Tiger Woods have in common and why did Mr. Bellavia think it was disparaging to compare Obama to Woods? I think most people would take it as a compliment.
Does anyone have any ideas or insights into what Bellavia was trying to say that does not involve any kind of veiled racial insinuation?
He might have been comparing Woods’ skill at golf with Obama’s widespread popularity and subtly saying that neither of them is as good as McCain’s experience. Or not. That statement is really awfully confusing.
I thought I invented this. In the movie Born in East LA Cheech Martin is asked who the US President is. “That dude from Death Valley Days; John Wayne.” He gets deported.
My innovation, “That thin Black guy, you know TIger Woods.”
On the plus side, the Obama campaign has just made it clear that it will not stand for any even slightly-seeming racist remark, no matter what the context or what the connection is to the Obama campaign, and will quickly drum that person out for even the most innocuous remark, even if the person is a private citizen and not even part of Obama’s team! Anything that could even be slightly construed by even a few people as maybe possibly offensive will not be tolerated!
Yeah, that’s extreme and ridiculous but from a political perspective, everyone Barack Obama has the slightest acquaintance with is being put under a microscope, and every utterance by anyone even tangentially connected with the campaign is being parsed and sifted for gotchya yas. Right, wrong or indifferent, the campaign has to take some measures to keep from getting hijacked by these stupid, contrived little “controversies” every 15 seconds.
A couple of days ago, Obama had to apologize because some radio talk show host in Fargo called John McCain a “warmonger” at a Democratic fundraiser in North Dakota.
The facts don’t matter. If the campaign hadn’t taken some action, we’d have seen a solid week of Sean Hannity expressing sanctimonious outrage about an Obama’s “racist” staffer.
I thnk he was saying that Obama was was young, charismatic and superficial - all flash, no substance. A celebrity, not a leader. Myabe, Maybe he was implying that all the attention Obama received was because he was the first black man do to well in a traditionally white sport.
Personally, instead of Tiger Woods I would have said Will Smith. I mean, because of the ears.
But Tiger is not just flash. He delivers the goods. He is all substance, at least in his chosen field. As for Obama breaking a color barriers, what’s wrong with that?
I guess it’s possible he might have only been making comparison of a war hero to a sports hero, but it’s hard for me to believe he didn’t intend any allusion to Obama at all.
Oddly enough, Obama has actually joked publicly that Will Smith would be his choice to play him in a movie because “he’s got the ears.”
My own take (since you all clamoring to hear) is that its a tragic result of a young Republican trying to be hip, with it, and a copacetic cat.
There is a new variety of “racist” humor, jokes that upon depend cultural differences but are not intended malignantly, like jokes about black people talking out loud at the movies. I think that’s a healthy development. I think.
The lame delivery, the robot-like imitation of timing, the way the joke was lofted into the air like a bowling ball, and the dreadful expectation of appreciative laughter. Classic of the syndrome.
(Way back in darker ages, there was a picture of Newt Gangrene with muttonchop whiskers, the archetype of the desperate cry “Conservatives are cool! No, really!” The picture seems to have vanished down the Memory Hole…)
I agree with that - but disagreeing with it isn’t neccessarily racist.
The guy in the OP didn’t compare Obama to Shaq or Tyson or Michael Lawrence, did he? Those would have been racist comparisons, because other than their race, they have nothing in common with Obama. It’s perfectly legitimate to compare a politician you don’t like to a specific sports star or movie star, so long as the two have some sort of superficial resemblance.
I could see that putting Woods in the front of someone’s mind, but I still don’t quite get the comparsion to Obama.
I think my most charitable reading was that he was comparing “real” heroes to celebrity/sports heroes, that Tiger jumped into his mind as the first example and that no comparison to Obama was intended at all.
There’s really no way to read this without race as an element. It sounds like the guy compared Obama to Woods because they’re both (to use Alessan’s apt word) charismatic, and dark-skinned guys of mixed ancestry.
I think this is pretty innocent. I think we’ll get enough racial slurs out of McCain supporters this summer that we’ll be able to pick better ones than this to get all worked up about.