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I trust most of you have heard McCain’s claim that Obama has unfairly raised the issue of race in the campaign with his comment that he "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills." Anyone think it’s a fair line of attack?
As a Missourian, I thought it might be helpful to add a little context to this. As far as I’m aware, the first time he made this statement was in Springfield, Missouri. My first experience in Springfield came in high school when I traveled to Springfield for a basketball game. There were two buses, one for players, and one for fans.
My school was predominantly black, and with the exception of one dude, all the players were black, as were most of the fans. The game itself was uneventful, although I remember our guys lighting it up when during warm-ups between the JV and varsity games, they put on a slam dunk exhibition while the home team did the normal drills. These guys could flat out sky, and it seemed like everyone – our fans and the home team’s fans – were having a lot of fun.
When we left, though, the mood was decidedly different. Police had set up saw-horses to create a path for the team and fans to get to our buses. On either side, there were people with signs, etc. yelling things like, “N--- go home” and other racial slurs. No white robes, no hoods, just people openly shouting this garbage. I subsequently learned that the KKK had a huge presence in Springfield. It was astonishing, troubling, and I can still remember it vividly.
Now this incident I described was quite some time ago – 1990 – but Democratic candidates for president do not normally campaign in this part of the country, normally sticking with Kansas City, St. Louis, and Columbia. I have no question that Obama is well aware that a crowd in Springfield is not exactly accustomed to seeing a black guy running for President and talking to them in person. It’s the proverbial elephant in the room. I view the comment through that prism, and with that being the context, I thought it was an obvious attempt to lighten the mood and just get it out there.
I didn’t actually see him in Springfield, but I did see him 2 stops later in Union, MO, which is a rural community like 50 miles SW of St. Louis. I don’t have any personal experience with Union akin to that I experienced in Springfield, but it’s still a lily-white rural area in the Ozarks, so while it would be wholly unfair to attach Klan activity to it, it probably isn’t completely off the mark to figure that there might be some folks there that might look askance at a black dude talking to them about being president, so I get why he made the comment there, too.
At the time, though, it was a complete non-event. He was smiling at the time, and it was clearly designed to get a laugh, which it did. I think it’s interesting to see the attention it’s gotten since then.
I do have a theory on why McCain has pounced on it, though. During the primary season, Bill Clinton was accused of being the first to play the race card, and it had serious negative ramifications for Hillary’s campaign. I’m fairly certain that McCain didn’t want to have some comment, rightly or wrongly, be construed as being racial in nature, and is well aware that a blood-thirsty press corps will try to read that into just about anything that he or any of his surrogates say because it makes for interesting coverage. By latching onto the first thing he can and getting the press talking about it, he can always maintain that he didn’t play the race card first, even if it wasn’t played in the first place. Pretty smart politics, IMO. We’ll see if it backfires, though, should people perceive it as being overly ticky-tack or unfair.
As a Missourian, I thought it might be helpful to add a little context to this. As far as I’m aware, the first time he made this statement was in Springfield, Missouri. My first experience in Springfield came in high school when I traveled to Springfield for a basketball game. There were two buses, one for players, and one for fans.
My school was predominantly black, and with the exception of one dude, all the players were black, as were most of the fans. The game itself was uneventful, although I remember our guys lighting it up when during warm-ups between the JV and varsity games, they put on a slam dunk exhibition while the home team did the normal drills. These guys could flat out sky, and it seemed like everyone – our fans and the home team’s fans – were having a lot of fun.
When we left, though, the mood was decidedly different. Police had set up saw-horses to create a path for the team and fans to get to our buses. On either side, there were people with signs, etc. yelling things like, “N--- go home” and other racial slurs. No white robes, no hoods, just people openly shouting this garbage. I subsequently learned that the KKK had a huge presence in Springfield. It was astonishing, troubling, and I can still remember it vividly.
Now this incident I described was quite some time ago – 1990 – but Democratic candidates for president do not normally campaign in this part of the country, normally sticking with Kansas City, St. Louis, and Columbia. I have no question that Obama is well aware that a crowd in Springfield is not exactly accustomed to seeing a black guy running for President and talking to them in person. It’s the proverbial elephant in the room. I view the comment through that prism, and with that being the context, I thought it was an obvious attempt to lighten the mood and just get it out there.
I didn’t actually see him in Springfield, but I did see him 2 stops later in Union, MO, which is a rural community like 50 miles SW of St. Louis. I don’t have any personal experience with Union akin to that I experienced in Springfield, but it’s still a lily-white rural area in the Ozarks, so while it would be wholly unfair to attach Klan activity to it, it probably isn’t completely off the mark to figure that there might be some folks there that might look askance at a black dude talking to them about being president, so I get why he made the comment there, too.
At the time, though, it was a complete non-event. He was smiling at the time, and it was clearly designed to get a laugh, which it did. I think it’s interesting to see the attention it’s gotten since then.
I do have a theory on why McCain has pounced on it, though. During the primary season, Bill Clinton was accused of being the first to play the race card, and it had serious negative ramifications for Hillary’s campaign. I’m fairly certain that McCain didn’t want to have some comment, rightly or wrongly, be construed as being racial in nature, and is well aware that a blood-thirsty press corps will try to read that into just about anything that he or any of his surrogates say because it makes for interesting coverage. By latching onto the first thing he can and getting the press talking about it, he can always maintain that he didn’t play the race card first, even if it wasn’t played in the first place. Pretty smart politics, IMO. We’ll see if it backfires, though, should people perceive it as being overly ticky-tack or unfair.
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