Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

I was listening to Geraldine Ferraro and wondering…

…why is it no one else sees the Karl Rove connection here?

Amongst the swill and the sludge of the daily campaigns, are we sufficiently tired yet of hearing about “surrogates” and, “she/he should know better” and all the accusations based on race, the rising “sexist” comments and…

Yawn.

I think the more important question is…

“Has America learned the wrong lesson from Karl Rove?”

I probably don’t need to give a history lesson here about the Swifties and how George was allowed to distance himself… or how the dynamic became that making any accusation about Kerry was acceptable but that challenging Bush’s Guard service wasn’t… or that Bush bashing was a mental disease but bashing anyone who disagreed with them was tolerable behavior…

Risking national security just to have a little fun flaming the Plame? Why it’s just as wholesome as marshmallows. Just toast another Wilson over the fire.

We have one person above all who worked for George we can either applaud or jeer for setting this meme’: Karl Rove. He’s come a long way from carrying empty cases of “notes” to debates to today.

Maybe not. His tactics are still empty of the slightest modicum of morality.

Now that 08 is upon us, we’ve learned our lesson, right? After all; the candidate in the lead claims he wants to change all this.

…except when what could very well be called surrogates; in the same way the Swifties were, flood liberal talk shows every time Barack gets criticized with accusations of racism. A comment on the historical nature of Barack’s candidacy becomes “racist.” Calling Barack’s candidacy a “fairy tale” or Barack “a kid” is supposedly “racist mud throwing.” And, in probably one of the most outrageous claims, the Clintons are accused of using Rove like tactics.

Oh, really? Please wake me up when Barack gets a push poll thrown at him accusing the him of adopting a white baby. Or maybe when Clinton’s people claim he said…

“Where’s the white women at?”

Now, before you shake your head in disgust over some supposed “pro-Hillary” rant, I also think accusing others of being like Ken Starr is about as off base as most “like Adolph Hitler” accusations. Wait, did I just type the same name twice? Guess I did. I also think Barack certainly has more than “one good speech.” And I doubt have no doubt surrogate “sexist” accusations are being considered to counter surrogate “racist” accusations.

So, once again I ask, did we learn absolutely nothing from Karl Rove? Yes, such tactics work: using a similar form of logic to what the Germans probably used when they decided to drastically lower the Jewish population. Don’t just disagree with those you object to: obliterate. Or, as mind numbingly idiotic Jocks used to say about sports during the 70s…

“Winning is the only thing.”

We aren’t Rove yet, but our candidates… and those who work for them, sure seem to have learned the wrong message from the master of lies and sleaze.

These kind of tactics also help drive a wedge down the middle of a party so big, so wide, at least one side will walk away in disgust unless they get something. This is why, and the only reason why, I think an O’Bama/Clinton ticket may be necessary.

I always wondered: considering how bad the past eight years have been… just what might the Democrats have to do to lose the White House in 08? Now I know. By the time we’ve really learned our lesson we might be in the middle of President McCain’s second term.

-30-

Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over thirty years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks and into the unseen cracks and crevasses that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.

By Ken Carman

Retired entertainer, provider of educational services, columnist, homebrewer, collie lover, writer of songs, poetry and prose... humorist, mediocre motorcyclist, very bad carpenter, horrid handyman and quirky eccentric deluxe.

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RS Janes
16 years ago

Ken, I usually agree with you, but I think you’re a little off-base here. No one in Obama’s campaign called Ferraro a ‘racist’ that I know of — that’s Geraldine’s spin in asking for an apology. This is the Rovian tactic of ‘never apologize, even if you’re wrong, and instead turn it on your opponent.’ In fact, it has been the media that is questioning whether Ferraro made a racist remark, not Obama.

Obama has also gone out of his way to say that he wasn’t accusing Bill or Hillary Clinton, or Geraldine Ferraro, of being racists, but he did object to the comment. What would you have him do? The remark was ridiculous — it was essentially an upper class white woman who was a vice president candidate because of her sex, as she admits, projecting onto Obama that he is leading Hillary just because he’s black and this is nomination some kind of affirmative action program. A black man with a funny foreign-sounding name has an ADVANTAGE in a US election? Since when.

What was insulting about Ferraro’s remark was her complete dismissal of his achievements, including carefully building an organization from scratch that has outdone Hillary’s well-funded and ‘professional’ campaign. It sounds like sour grapes to me.

Unfortunately, I have talked to people who are going to vote, or have voted, for Hillary just because she’s a woman, one even saying “A woman first, the blacks get it next.” They don’t care about issues, nor anything else, just that a woman wins the White House. I think Ferraro is in that group.

Conversely, I have yet to talk with an Obama voter who is voting for him strictly because he’s black. I have no doubt they exist, but I have yet to meet them.

Contrary to the media depiction of the typical Obama voter, they are not blinded by his ‘rock star’ status — many, like me, have simply read about him and his positions, and read about Hillary and what she thinks, and determined that he would make a better president. In fact, most of the Obama supporters I know were previously backing Edwards, as I did, or Kucinich. They are under no illusions that Obama is the perfect progressive, just a little better than the other viable candidates.

JT Davis
JT Davis
16 years ago

I get to reuse this comment!

This is a good thing. It’s painful, like birth. It’s not the death of the Democratic party. I’m secretly pulling for Obama but will vote for either of them. We all will, and some Republicans, too.

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