I must be in bizarroland.  That video is attempting to use a series of statements that range from obviously true to reasonably argued as some kind of attack on Obama?

Since it appears in text in the video, he had to have heard the part where Obama says “... that my individual salvation is not going to come without a collective salvation for the country…” which is pretty much the prevailing theme of everything Obama says in that video.  I remember when conservatives quoting sources dishonestly would excise the part of the quote that undermines their point (like Darwin’s next sentence after “To suppose that the eye… could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree”).

What happened?

THanks for the update on Gateway Pundit! I’ll sure never listen to him ever again!

I must be in bizarroland.  That video is attempting to use a series of statements that range from obviously true to reasonably argued as some kind of attack on Obama?

I posted a comment to that effect on the Gateway pundit website.

The problem is, I should not say this. The stupider the conservatives get, the more likely we are to defeat them. The crazier they sound the general public, the more chance we have to utterly wreck them. Instead, perhaps I should be posting encouraging comments suggesting that they continue with this line of attack.

If you haven’t read George Lakoff’s “Don’t think of an elephant”, then do. It creates an entirely new context for understanding how what Obama says is misunderstood by conservatives and how conservatives who appear to us as batshit crazy can sound justified and logical to their own ears. It’s a fascinating investigation into cognitive linguistics too. Also, it takes about an hour to read. Do it. Before the election. And then make your friends read it, especially if they’re Conservatives or swinging voters.

That isn’t “THe Whitey” tape - it was supposed to be Michelle, remember?

Y’know, when quoting someone who starts out a sentence with “Whether…” cutting out the “or ...” part leaves something to be desired. Unsurprisingly, the rest of the video shows the same level of intellectual dishonesty.

Of course, this is aimed at the McPalin mob, who care little for intellectual honesty in general and respond like Pavlov’s dog to simple cues. But really, anyone else is going to see this clumsy piece for what it is.

I guess it makes sense as a way to GOTV from the wingnuts (and right wing bloggers must be freaked out by all those Dems lining up for early voting). But if this is a smear jobs aimed at swaying swing voters, all I can tell Gateway Pundit is: ur doin it rong!

If you haven’t read George Lakoff’s “Don’t think of an elephant”, then do.

I’ll pick it up. Can’t promise I’ll read it before the election, though. Really, I want to finish Noam Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent” more than anything.

Hey, Jesse, might you Pandagonians change what shows up in the bar atop the browser page and in the RSS feed? “who blogged it? that one” is giving me nightmares because I keep hearing and seeing a hissing John McCain. Make him go away!

The idea that white suburbanites are resentful of their money going to help largely minority population in inner-city communities

Oh, please, Repubs, try and pretend what you’ve based the last 30 years of politicking on isn’t true.

I saw this on snopes som time ago:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/billbrown.asp

Listing how extreme Obama is. Not all of these are true, but when I read them I was like - what is the problem with this?

**
. He voted against banning partial birth abortion.
. He voted no on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions.
. Supports affirmative action in Colleges and Government.
. In 2001 he questioned harsh penalties for drug dealing.
. Says he will deal with street level drug dealing as minimum wage affair.
. Admitted marijuana and cocaine use in high school and in college.
. His religious convictions are very murky.
. He is willing to meet with Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Kim Jung Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
. Has said that one of his first goals after being elected would be to have a conference with all Muslim nations.
. Opposed the Patriot Act.
. First bill he signed that was passed was campaign finance reform.
. Voted No on prohibiting law suits against gun manufacturers.
. Supports universal health-care.
. Voted yes on providing habeas corpus for Guantanamo detainees.
. Supports granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
. Supports extending welfare to illegal immigrants.
. Voted yes on comprehensive immigration reform.
. Voted yes on allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security.
. Wants to make the minimum wage a ‘living wage’.
. Voted with Democratic Party 96 percent of 251 votes.
. Is a big believer in the separation of church and state.
. Opposed to any efforts to Privatize Social Security and instead supports increasing the amount of tax paid.
. He voted No on repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax.
. He voted No on repealing the ‘Death’ Tax.
. He wants to raise the Capital Gains Tax.
. Has repeatedly said the surge in Iraq has not succeeded.
. He is ranked as the most liberal Senator in the Senate today and that takes some doing.
**

I mean, if I was a US citizen this would make me it more likely that I voted for him. Not that I agree 100% on everything, but still.

I just love the outrage at the suggestion that rich white people don’t want their tax money going to help poor minorities—especially because every Republican I know (including my own mother) cites precisely that reason when explaining why they intend to vote for McCain. I guess it’s only offensive and untrue when Obama says it? Or maybe it’s because Obama actually voices the racial portion of the scenario, which is usually left to subtext.

I know people talk about the ‘banality of evil’, but it really isn’t supposed to mean that banal comments are evil.

Vervain, they’re pissed because those minority kids just aren’t working hard enough.  If they really wanted the education, they would work for it, like good Americans!

There is definitely a major difference in viewpoints here because I can’t really find anything wrong with what Obama is saying and certainly nothing untrue, which is why American politics scare me; the fact that this could be a ‘don’t vote for this guy’ is just sad.

Personally I don’t see how anyone can say that they don’t benefit from suppression.

Orange, they changed it!

Wow, that thoughtful young negro wants mild changes in government spending priorities.  He’s totally gonna try to use MY tax money to create jobs and education for people who need that kinda thing.  That’s a horrible thing to do in a recession.  MY job is in no way connected to anyone else’s employment or well-being.  No way am I voting for him….

Damn.  I think Obama has been stealing the class notes for my upper division race and ethnicity class.  Funny how when you make even modest statements about facts and realities you suddenly become a wild-eyed radical.  Of course, I am a socialist.

How dare Obama suggest that I am merely a racist who doesn’t want my money to go to poor minorities!  I merely don’t want my money to go to “those people”. ( / upper-middle class white exurbanite )

All this hubbub about “Obama wants to ‘spread the wealth’” can only make sense politically if either the GOP is so out of touch and economically/statistically innumerate that they think over 50% of the population has an above average income (which is not the case, according to the Pareto distribution, which is what obtains without wealth/income redistribution, the skewness of income/wealth distributions is such that well less than 50% of the population has above the mean income) as that’s what they have or if the real meaning of “Obama wants to ‘spread the wealth’” is “Obama wants to ‘spread the wealth’ to racial minorities”.  Otherwise, if I were a GOoPer (who believes in “rational self interest”), I would hear a message about “spreading the wealth” and then that would cause me to vote for Obama not McCain!

So the McCain camp is either being codedly racist or tone-deaf (could be both, FWIW) ... so I repeat the sentiments above ... how dare GOoPers criticize the speck in others’ eyes and not the mote in their own eyes?

Of course, it’s such blatant chutzpah that has allowed the GOP to win (and steal) elections in the past ...

btw, It’s “barista.” One ‘r’. Carry on.

Don’t be silly, Ms. Kate.  As a poor white person, I receive elitist food stamps and Medicaid.  (I howled when accused of being an elitist a couple of days ago, it was so funny.)

The problem is that this goes beyond race into class - even if a lot of the upper-class sorts who did not want their money going towards these programs because of racism were more informed and realized that a great deal of whites were poor as well, they would still call them white trash and say they don’t work hard enough.

Class transcends race sometimes.

I do disagree with Jesse on the title of this post. There’s still more than a week to the election, which means right wing pundits and bloggers still have plenty of time to dig even deeper and muckier ditches.

If you haven’t read George Lakoff’s “Don’t think of an elephant”, then do. It creates an entirely new context for understanding how what Obama says is misunderstood by conservatives and how conservatives who appear to us as batshit crazy can sound justified and logical to their own ears. It’s a fascinating investigation into cognitive linguistics too. Also, it takes about an hour to read. Do it. Before the election. And then make your friends read it, especially if they’re Conservatives or swinging voters.

Ella

My first thought was that trying to understand conservative ideology is becoming an exercise in diminishing returns, as they go farther and farther into their cloud cuckoo land. However, in reality we can’t afford too much of that attitude. For better or worse, large amounts of people think in that way.

This meme is so pervasive, some of my classmates at MIT had to explain the concept of “white poverty” to students from Philly, NYC, and LA because they first refused to believe it could exist (despite real white poverty cases making the case that it did).

And yet, ironically, the majority of people on welfare in Los Angeles County are in fact white.

Huh, I didn’t know Huey Lewis was a radical minority rights organizer.  Wait, what?

White! He definitely said white, and that makes him a racist. I couldn’t make out anything else through that incomprehensible ghetto jabber of his.

What makes me potentially optimistic is that we really haven’t had the hearings yet. We had a few brief appearances from the ratings guys and Greenspan—all of whom stand to walk away with suitable fortunes—but the big ugly perp-walk hearings are all yet to come. People opinion is against the jerkwads formerly at the top even before that can display for our edification what completely unaware, incompetent jerkwads they were.

@Quicksand

I didn’t know that Newton was Huey Lewis’ middle name.

Ok, the most hilarious bit of that was when they were like “Look, he’s talking about African American jobs!” and the podium said CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS FOUNDATION. I mean, is he supposed to go in there and be like, “White people right now are hurting!”

WTF?