skippy the bush kangaroo

Sunday, April 13, 2008

bitter in blogtopia

we have avoided not only writing about obama's supposed mis-step with his "bitter" remarks, but also avoided reading about it.

as brilliant at breakfast pointed out, what obama actually said, taken in context, is accurate. and, we maintain, not even open to the interpretation of bigotry. certainly there are those, perhaps a majority, of people who have religion as a foundation in their lives that would define that analyzing of their faith as a denial of their faith.

so obama's remark could be open to debate, but it's no macaca moment. which, of course, is what the repubbblicans are desperate to find.

but they can't, at least not in this case. you have to, at the very minimum, infer denigration into what obama said. but you don't have to for what sen. allen said. "macaca" is french north african for "nigger." there's no inference necessary.

obama's was a moment of political analysis, and the gop doesn't like the results of the analysis, and so they are ramping up the faux indignation, hoping to spur those being analyzed into anger at being analyzed.

we think those being analyzed are, as obama said, too bitter to care what the elites of the pundit class are telling them to feel.

ezra klein expresses our feelings for us, so we don't have to:

we reporters have to cover it, of course, because it's really important, and matters more than the housing plans of all the candidates put together. but it matters in a completely self-referential way, it matters only because it matters, not because it means anything about obama, or illuminates anything about his potential presidency. it's a hollow scandal. those housing plans, by contrast, don't "matter" in a way that convinces the media to cover them, or to relentlessly hound mccain about the inadequacy of his proposal. they don't "matter," but they are meaningful. and this is why i don't like writing about the campaign. it's full of hollow scandals and ignored travesties. but you have to cover the hollow scandals, because they're are blown up until they're definitional in the campaign. and that leaves me writing about high-profile non-events in a way that helps cement their importance, even if i'm writing to deride their legitimacy.

if you're ever interested in really getting to the bottom of what's wrong with political journalism, incidentally, spend some time thinking about the fact that most of its leading practitioners came up through campaign reporting, and writing about verbal gaffes and off-the-cuff comments is what they trained to do. the tone of political journalism is set by people who are thrilled -- on a professional level -- that obama said this thing, and now we can cover this story.
we are of the mind that this will be another ineffectual spitball rolling off of obama's coat. as the moderate voice says:

the reality, of course, as we have seen repeatedly this year, is that obama’s campaign has been “over” multiple times. it was “over” when news of his friendship with tony rezko came to public attention. it was “over” when videos of his former pastor making controversial remarks showed up on youtube. and it was “over” every time he failed to win the primary in a particular state, or even failed to win by enough. but each and every time, following a brief dip, the poll numbers would settle out and drift back up to pretty much where they were before. while the expiration date for senator obama’s free pass from the media has clearly come and gone, the pass which the public is willing to give him looks to be a season ticket. it is more than likely that his growing army of supporters will look at those comments, give a collective shrug, and say, “yeah, so? lots of people are bitter about the way things are going. what’s your point?” and then they will continue to pick up those phones when the pollsters call and register their support for the illinois wunderkind of politics.
we have delibrately avoided the brou-ha-ha of the past weekend, because we know it's just a tempest in a teapot, being beaten to death by the drama queens of the right wing.

and we're just sick of the all the hyperbole in lieu of actual analysis.

addendum: wouldn't you know it, there's even a blog for it...bitter voters for obama

Labels: , ,

posted by skippy at 11:17 AM |

9 Comments:

I like you but ccorrection: You and Ezra and the "others" are not reporters. You are bloggers.
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 1:59 PM PDT  
Macaca is actually used in north Africa as a derogatory name for black Africans, it's not a term the French generally use.

I was at the fundraiser in which Obama made the comment about the middle and working class being bitter. It was not at all condescending and in context was a very good, and well reasoned, respectful comment.

It isn't Republicans, unfortunately, who are using this out of context snippet in an attempt to stain Mr. Obama's reputation, it is a fellow Democrat.
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 4:54 PM PDT  
The problem with Obama's comment is that, like all Democrats (and of course Republicans), he identifies problems without identifying the real, underlying cause of those problems - capitalism. Unless you're willing to identify the real problem, all the talk about factories shutting down and jobs going overseas is just a lot of hot air. Until you're willing to say that we need an economic system that runs on people's needs, not on profits, you're just a charlatan.
commented by Blogger Left I on the News, 5:14 PM PDT  
It was not just the GOP and the Repugs that wanted to Bite into this Bitter Battle- it was Hillary and Bill, today Bill Clinton said "that People are NOT Bitter - they are Proud".....

Tonight on the So Called Compassion Forum Obama spoke to WHAT he MEANT- and even apologized for being clumsy in speaking , but he reexplained it and the audience even applauded- they GOT IT....

People are bitter...I know I am....maybe even Proud of Being Bitter- it means I have Been paying attention...and feel empathy for my fellow man...I like many I know have seen it all ....job loss, Insurance cancelled due to family history, one of the places I rented was Forclosed...I could go on and on..my point is that MOST Americans I know have really suffered in the last 15 years- I don't Know ANY that have "prospered".....and yes, I know many that are hurting - "bitter".....they are Still Good Americans....just they have lived a Different Reality.....than many at the Top....and that is the Truth.
commented by Blogger enigma4ever, 10:40 PM PDT  
Toronto is the problem. The empire, the money, was built of forcing seeing and hearing. That is all they do there. Obama's mouth funny?
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 12:02 AM PDT  
It's big city versus small town. I don't know why the macaca stuff is playing into this, and frankly I don't want to know.

But since we're going there, look at it this way. What if Bill Clinton said the exact same thing about blacks?

"you go into these ghetto areas in the cities and, like a lot of black communities, the jobs have been gone now ... and it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-white sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."


You don't think some might not find that offensive? There are a good many who would see this as at least as true as Obama's blanket statement.
commented by Anonymous sean, 6:56 AM PDT  
well, sean, you actually just proved my point. the difference is that the macaca statement was racial and born of bigotry.

you posit a hypothetical in which bill clinton injects race into the argument, specifically with your "anti-white sentiment" remark.

obama said nothing like that. nothing racial. he was talking about economics.
commented by Blogger skippy, 10:13 AM PDT  
This is actually Enigma4ever of Watergate Summer.....but my comments are being filtered /blocked .....( if I have offended or hurt feelings here I apologize- I am also being filtered at C& L..... if I use Watergate Summer in my ID...makes me very sad)

so here goes-
it was not just Right Wing People giving Obama a hard time about the Bitter comment - also so was Hillary....
I think we should be allowed to be bitter- we all have been through Hell.....
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 7:11 PM PDT  
skip,

This dog has had it's day, but...

As you've often been the one to equate anti-illegal immigrant policy with racism, -- something I don't remotely agree with, btw -- I didn't think there was much of a leap to understand the point I was trying to make.

And like I said, I don't see this as rivaling with the Macaca remark -- why you brought it up, I don't care. But Obama does accuse other people of being racist in his comments. Being racist and slandering other people as being racist are two very different things. But neither are good.


And the word "cling" when referring to religion, past-times, and political beliefs as well as outrightly referring to them as bigots as if all of these enormous issues can be explained away as some sort of mental crutch or childlike safety blanket was an absolutely stunningly idiotic move by a politician viewed as gifted speaker.

Look, people like you and me can get away with name-calling and stereo-typing generalizations all we want. We're not running for office.

But if Obama gets the DNC nod, and it's looking more and more like it unfortunately, he better win this fucking thing. IMO, he and the DNC have already lost us Florida. He cannot afford to alienate anymore voters.


And truthfully, because he is so inexperienced, there is very little out there of him for voters to examine. So some stupid remark like this that might have been tossed aside by the media and the voters had it been McCain is going to be blown up into a huge item.
commented by Anonymous sean on li, 8:20 AM PDT  

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