Take a look at McCain’s new ad, entitled “Celeb,” poking fun at Obama’s “rock star” status:
I thought it was pretty clever and spot on. Thus, I should have expected this. Whenever Obama’s opponents hit a nerve, the race card will undoubtedly be played, this time by Josh Marshall.
Jake Tapper, at ABC, gives us the story:
“I note with interest today, John McCain’s new tactic of associating Barack Obama with oversexed and/or promiscuous young white women,” writes liberal blogger Josh Marshall. “Presumably, a la Harold Ford 2006, this will be one of those strategies that will be a matter of deep dispute during the campaign and later treated as transparent and obvious once the campaign is concluded.”
Continues Marshall: “the McCain campaign is now pushing the caricature of Obama as a uppity young black man whose presumptuousness is displayed not only in taking on airs above his station but also in a taste for young white women.”
Others pushing this meme note that the notorious Harold Ford ad — which featured an attractive young white woman looking at the camera and asking Ford to call her — was put together by a group once headed by Terry Nelson, who was McCain’s campaign manager for a time, though he left in the Summer 2007 purge.
The McCain campaign says that Nelson had nothing to do with this Britney/Paris ad, that it was put together by their normal team of Mike Hudome, Fred Davis, and Chris Mottolla.
And they say this interpretation is “ridiculous.”
What say you?
I say this ad is in no way shape or form racist, nor does it imply that Obama has “a taste for young white women.” And if he did, what would be the damn problem? This was exactly my reaction to the supposedly racist Harold Ford video. As an African American woman who “has a taste for young white men,” what I found truly offensive was that people implied that somehow insinuating that interracial relationships are occurring is racist. Umm, no. The people who get upset about interracial dating are the racists!
The late Tim Russert apparently believed the ad was racist, while addressing the Harold Ford ad, he had this to say (click here to see the entire exchange):
The whole idea of having a blond white woman winking at a black congressman, the notion of interracial sex is not in your mind racist?
I can hear them arguing now that the ground breaking Star Trek episode with the first interracial kiss between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura was meant to gin up racial hatred. When what was actually racist was that some stations in the South initially refused to air it. The “notion of interracial sex” should not be racist in anyone’s mind. In fact, if it’s an issue for you, then you’re a racist.
Can Obama’s campaign and his supporters please start answering attacks instead of creating distraction arguments about whether it’s racist to have white women and black men in campaign ads together? It would be greatly appreciated.
DONE (Democrats Over Nominating Elitists) 
I agree with your conclusion that it is racist to become upset at the notion of interracial dating. But do you truly believe that the Republican party is above race-baiting to get votes? Sure the analysis you criticized is a stretch, but there are racist voters out there. If it can be shown that the ad did intend to associate Obama with young, promiscuous white women, a la Harold Ford, then this would be another prime example of race-baiting. For a racist, the construction of Obama as an “otherly” person, not of the American, WASP “kind”, is only accelerated if accompanied by the fear that acceptance of him may entail the acceptance of racial mixing. Which, again, would be a very racist way of thinking. Perhaps the larger question you intend to ask is, why does the media legitimize these racist thought processes by bringing them up? My answer is that given the Republican’s history of campaigning on fear, it is something that needs to be exposed. I certainly appreciate it. I predict from the picture next to me, that you might attribute it to an elitist media cabal of professors, intellectuals, and champagne socialists for Obama. Racism is real. By insisting on a colorblind perspective you only serve to reify the assumptions which keep racist institutions in place.
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Racism certainly is real (duh). However, John McCain has not used racist tactics against Obama. The ad in question bears no resemblance to the Harold Ford ad.
By playing the race card where there is no racism, Obama and his minions diminish actual cases of REAL racism everywhere. Funny how an ad gets Obama all riled up, but he was nowhere to be found when Hillary was out denouncing the racists involved in the Jena 6 case or in the Sean Bell murder. I am amazed how short peoples’ memories are.
By: I'd prefer an elite president. I mean have you BEEN to a mall lately? I dont want anyone like that in charge. on September 7, 2008
at 4:18 pm
Gee, when I see Britney Spears and Paris Hilton I don’t think of interracial sex.
I think of under-talented, over-hyped, famous-for-being-famous pseudo-celebrities.
Guess I missed the point.
By: josgirl on August 1, 2008
at 3:18 pm