The Media Play The Race Card For Obama

National Review Online: The Press Is Fueling The Idea That Obama Isn't Polling Better Because Of Racism

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Jonah Goldberg.

The news media have been shamefully stoking the idea that the only way Barack Obama could possibly lose the presidential election is if American racists have their way. Indeed, the fact that Obama isn’t leading in polls by a wide margin “doesn’t make sense ... unless it’s race,” says CNN’s Jack Cafferty.

Slate’s Jacob Weisberg says Obama is losing among older white voters because of the “color of his skin.”

Many journalists are so committed to the racism-explains-everything line they are labeling any effective anti-Obama ad as an attempt by John McCain to “viciously exacerbate” America’s “race-fueled angst,” in the words of one New York magazine writer.

For example, a McCain ad noted that Franklin Raines, the Clinton-appointed former head of Fannie Mae who helped bring about the current Wall Street meltdown, advised the Obama campaign. Time’s Karen Tumulty gasped that because Raines is black, McCain is playing the race card.

Why, she wants to know, didn’t McCain attack Obama’s even stronger ties to the even more culpable former Fannie Mae chairman, Jim Johnson, who had to resign from Obama’s vice presidential search team because of his sketchy dealings with mortgage giant Countrywide Financial? “One reason might be that Johnson is white; Raines is black,” Tumulty suggests.

Or another reason might be that the McCain campaign was saving that attack for its next ad, which is what happened.

According to critics, McCain’s “celebrity” ads featuring Paris Hilton and Britney Spears were nothing but tawdry race-baiting because they subliminally played on white America’s fear of black men violating the delicate flowers of white American womanhood. You’d think a cognitive warning bell would have gone off the moment anyone started suggesting that Paris Hilton and Britney Spears are icons of chastity.

This spectacle is grotesque. It reveals how little the supposedly objective press corps thinks of the American people - and how highly they think of themselves ... and Obama. Obama’s lack of experience, his doctrinaire liberalism, his record, his known associations with Weatherman radical William Ayers and the hate-mongering Rev. Jeremiah Wright: These cannot possibly be legitimate motivations to vote against Obama, in this view.

Similarly, McCain’s experience, his record of bipartisanship, his heroism: These too count for nothing.

Racism is all there is. Obama wins, and America sheds its racial past. Obama loses, and we’re a nation of “Bull” Connors.

Much of the argument for the centrality of race in this election hinges on the so-called Bradley effect. In 1982, Tom Bradley, Los Angeles’ black mayor, was polling well among white voters in the race for California governor. Bradley lost, suggesting that large numbers of whites had lied to pollsters about their intention to vote for him.

I have no doubt that the Bradley effect is real. But the Bradley effect does not reflect racism; it captures voters’ fear of appearing racist. There’s no reason to assume those who lie to pollsters are racists. But for Obama supporters and the media, poll results are some kind of sacred, binding covenant. If voters don’t keep their promise, the media have no problem seeing racism at work.

The media’s obsession with race in this election is probably fueling the Bradley effect. Repeating over and over that voting against Obama is racist only makes non-racist people embarrassed to admit that they plan to vote for McCain.

Another rich irony is that the only racists who matter in this election are the ones in the Democratic Party. News flash: Republicans aren’t voting for the Democratic nominee because they’re Republicans. A new AP-Yahoo News poll claims that racial prejudice is a significant factor among the independents and Democrats Obama needs to win, specifically among Hillary Clinton’s primary voters. According to the pollsters’ statistical modeling, support for Obama may be as much as 6 percentage points lower than it would be if there were no white racism.

I’m skeptical about those findings, as well as the overemphasis on race generally. But to the extent that race is a factor, here’s the richest irony of all: Obama’s problem is with precisely those voters the Democratic Party claims to fight for, working- and middle-class white folks. Of course, Democrats can’t openly complain that their own vital constituency is racist.

If the media were more objective, we’d be hearing a lot more about the racism at the heart of the Democratic Party. (Imagine if the black nominee this year were a Republican!) But such objectivity would cause too much cognitive dissonance for a press corps that defines “racist” as shorthand for Republican and sees itself as the publicity arm of the Obama campaign.

[rightvswrong]

Jonah - the mere fact that your NRO piece appeared on a CBS News "Opinion" website says to me that the MainStreamMedia has got a REAL problem.
They can''t say too often that race is an issue without exposing their own misgivings about the Democratic base - yet what they''re essentially trying to do is help the Democrat candidate by using GUILT on the blue color, rural white democrat voter to pull the lever for a black guy, that (whether his skin color is black, yellow, red, purple or green)DOESN''T HAVE THE EXPERIENCE OR GRAVITAS to lead this country!
Their goal of getting BHO elected is part of the MSM secular idealistic effort to denude American leadership into some utopian, socialistic fantasy that naively castrates our global leadership.
Your closing statement: "...a press corps that defines %u201Cracist%u201D as shorthand for Republican and sees itself as the publicity arm of the Obama campaign." is essentially a FACT of the 2008 presidential election.
What the media won''t say is that RACE ISN''T THE PROBLEM with this candidate - his qualifications (or lack thereof) are!

[texbestest]

Mr. Goldberg,

You are dead wrong. I lived the segregated society experience as a child and young adult. I have lived the more subltle racial bigorty expeerience since then. As a white male, I have seen Dixiecrates/neoconservatives in operation in several southern states in which I have lived and worked. Racial bigotry is alive and well in the good ol'' USA and will have an impact on the coming eclection.

[texbestest]

Mr. Goldberg,

As a recovering racists, who is acquainted with many former Dixiecrats/neoconcervatives, I believe you are dead wrong. Racism is rampant and will have a major impact on the coming election. I lived the overt segregated experience in my childhood and early adulthood. Subsequently, I have lived a more subtle racial bigotry experience. I have travelled in professional circles and in blue collar circles. racial bigotry is a live and well in both.

[talkingham]

is all NRO has? with a 24-hour a day international news network empire sometimes called Fox but better known as the RNN, the Republican News Network, these whines about the liberal media ring increasingly hollow, shrill and out of touch.

is this all they got?

[roger3815]

I''m not sure which is growing faster the conservative persecution complex or the right''s desperation.

[primilioneah]

It worked for Odinga, Obama''s cousin in Kenya I mean calling your opponents names and still ask votes from the same people. Even America got involved when Odinga alleged that he was not being voted for because he was not circumsized. Actually most voters would not vote for him because he is a socialist. He is now the prime minister. It would work for Obama too.

[greeneyes222]

I''m so over the media''s "if Obama loses it must be race." The media''s fixated on the idea far more than most of us who are trying to choose based on a number of factors, and members like Cafferty who push the idea are more prejudiced than any of us ever thought of being.

If I vote for Obama it will be based on merit - and if I don''t it won''t be because I felt the need to "prove" I''m not prejudiced.

Note to Mr. Cafferty: I gave up watching CNN long ago (with a few exceptions) over exactly this kind of stupidity.

[nwarky1]

Who is polling the Black population of America to find out the extent of Black racism that will be exhibited in this election? Or is white racism the only valid racism?If a white person votes for a white man instead of a black man it is called racism, but if a black man votes for a black man, it is just due to his quietly thinking through the choices, and making a good decision...

[binhatin]

Jonah GOLDGERG wrote this ehh?? Figures.

[kemetorigin]

About 10% percent of whites dislike blacks.
Posted by runningralph at 08:11 AM : Sep 25, 2008

Where, pretell, did you get these numbers? Did you know that 95% of all statistics are made up on the spot? This reads like one within the 95. The statement is empirically false as "like/dislike" has no standard basis of measure. Also, it is not so much about overt racism as it is fear. So many whites will say, "I have black/Hispanic/Indian friends", and yet ask if they would be elated to have their offspring marry one and a significant number would lose it.

[bluestardad]

NRO

TAKE YOU AND YOUR AIPAC MEMBERS OUT OF THIS COUNTRY!

JOHN MCCAIN KEATING 5

[runningralph]

Obama should try to keep race out of the picture. He can''t win that argument. Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans are all competing for a piece of the pie. They work hard and struggle to get something and keep it. About 10% percent of whites dislike blacks. About 70% of whites don''t care one way or the other, about 20% really favor them. That 20% is mostly white women who won''t vote because the whole concept of politics is beyond their understanding. The US is about 10 to 12% black, 60% white, 30% others. Obama can''t win on race.

[juwboy]

Several weeks ago, I watched a black commentator criticizing a McCain campaign ad that showed clips of Barack Obama near the Washington Monument and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Clearly, he was claiming, this was a racist allusion to the alleged enormous size of an African-American''s erect p-e-n-i-s, so there was a hidden message to all white "folks" that they`d have to lock up their daughters if Obama is elected President.

UNBELIEVABLE!!!

[billthinx]

Let me try to be intellectually honest here... this article is a bunch of ***.

And BTW, regarding McCain: there is a difference between bravery and heroism.

[ajmarine111]

Posted by ainttaken at 07:16 PM : Sep 24, 2008



Thank you.

IF Obama loses, I think it will be because of other things then race.

If he does lose, I hope it is not a close race or else I fear there will be he*l to pay.

[ajmarine111]

As the National Review knows full well any discussion of race hurts Obama.


Posted by CBS_Oliver at 04:14 PM : Sep 24, 2008



Obama could come out and sing Garritt Morris'' song, "I''m going to get me a shot gun and kill all the whiteys I see", and still get elected.

[elz523]

This spectacle is grotesque. It reveals how little the supposedly objective press corps thinks of the American people - and how highly they think of themselves ... and Obama. Obama%u2019s lack of experience, his doctrinaire liberalism, his record, his known associations with Weatherman radical William Ayers and the hate-mongering Rev. Jeremiah Wright: These cannot possibly be legitimate motivations to vote against Obama, in this view.


Goldberg, you ***, you wrote the ugliness above. To link Obama with Ayers is hardly fair. That is resorting to the worst distortions of this campaign and you know it. If you had any credibility to lose you would definitaly have lost it here.

[talkingham]

AND THE MEDIA PLAYS THE BEE-ACTCH CARD FOR THE DOG WITH LIPSTICK.

[xlib]

lawyertom-Oh, so Bush is a coke snorter. And your messiah is WHAT???? Guess it''s ok for the messiah to do blow, drink and Lord knows what but, that''s ok.
So, lawyer, you need to explain, and you can use lawyerese double speak as to what the difference is. Come on, closing arguments.

[xlib]

So far the only people using race are your msm and the messiah. Gotta love those little sound bites "they want you fear me because I have a funny name and I don''t look like those guys on money, yada, yada, yada". Point to ONE time the Republican''s pulled out your race card, just one time. During the primaries the clinton camp used race all the time.
Race Card, race card, race card.