The politics of low expectations
Gateway Pundit has a post up about accidental New York Governor David Patterson announcing that a vote for Obama is a vote against racism (conversely, a vote for McCain would be a vote for racism, I suppose). Quoted in the New York Sun, Patterson said;
“Can America go past the crippling way that we’ve shot ourselves in the foot over and over, denying opportunity to people who are bright, to people who are qualified, to people who are able because they didn’t look like us, or they didn’t come from where we came from, or they are from a different gender, or they are from the African continent? Can America push that away and find new leadership? We’ll find out in the next few months what America can do.”
We can expect little more from an intellectually vacant organization like the NAACP who touts the qualification of people based on the amount melanin in their bodies.
Click over to Slate and watch John Dickerson lower the standards for Obama’s performance in his upcoming overseas tour when he takes Hope on the road. Dickerson claims that the only way Obama can screw this trip up and lose the presidency is if he makes a gaffe, or if he tries to look too presidential.
Dickerson also claims that just by having the media chase him around Europe, Americans perspective of whether he can be President will change.
Barack Obama has found a great new way to help voters imagine him as an occupant of the office he doesn’t have yet. He’s dropped the widely mocked faux presidential seal, but when he heads overseas Sunday, he’ll take an accessory with real power: three television network anchors.
The anchors are a big coup for Obama as he heads to Europe, the Middle East, Iraq, and Afghanistan. They confer instant legitimacy. McCain, like Hillary Clinton before him, is arguing that Obama isn’t qualified to be commander in chief, but the networks are treating him like he’s already got the job. Each one will get an interview on a different night, which means Obama stands to control at least three days of news coverage in a campaign in which candidates are lucky if they can shape a few hours.
Instant legitimacy? Just because a bunch of chowder heads from news programs that no one watches any more do interviews with him? Three times? But how about if the international press get to him?
There’s no indication that the Obama team will be letting the foreign press question him, and for good reason—they’re often tougher than the U.S. press corps, in part because they don’t have to worry about long-term access. If they do get to fire some questions, the threat of trouble goes up.
Are they going to do that for the years that he’s President, too?
Worried about a Michael Dukakis moment?
Also, in the war zones where Obama might wear a protective helmet and flak jacket, there’s the danger that a wayward picture might make him look ill at ease, shades of Michael Dukakis taking his infamous tank ride. You’ll know the Obama team played it right if you see a limited number of photographs—or perhaps none at all—of the candidate in protective gear.
What if he gets asked what he thinks of America these days?
But Obama can’t look like he agrees with Europe that only he can save America from its racist, backward ways. The Obama team is aware of this pitfall. Obama will have a chance to talk about America’s good side while he’s in Europe in a way that will appeal to Main Street back home.
Funny, I lived in Europe for nine years and I left with the impression that Europeans are racist and backwards…to a degree that we in the US haven’t seen here since the 1940s. I haven’t seen any Turks elected to head the German government, nor have there been Algerian presidents of France…I’m just sayin’….
But, the question remains, is his team going to manage him for four years for the same resulting image?
Patterson (who is tired of being called the accidental governor, by the way) says we should all vote for Obama because he’s Black. Period. And as long as he doesn’t say anything untoward about the United States while he’s on tour, Dickerson claims he’s qualified to be President. That pretty much boils his whole campaign down to what we see. Ideas don’t count, past performance doesn’t count, past associations don’t count. As long as Obama doesn’t trip coming down the stairs of the airplane, and looks good in a flak vest, he’s golden.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Politics
