Obama is Ty Webb?

Dang it, I couldn’t post and Justin beat me to it.

Yes, apparently we’re now supposed to base our voting decisions on which Caddyshack character we most identified with.

Come on, say it, Rove, you know you want to: U.P.P.I.T.Y

The hilarious thing about this comment is that it’s so disconnected from reality it looks like a bitter rant Karl Rove has been sitting on for 30 years. To quote the immortal Cordelia Chase, of Buffy and Angel memory: “Hey, what’s your childhood trauma?”

Genius Justin!

Yes, Rove has some wierd hang-up right there. Playing the ‘country club’ card? These people are totally disconnected from reality.

Murray/Chase ‘08!

How much do you want to bet that there are actual human beings in this country who are able to hold the “uppity snob at the country club”, the “secret muslim”, AND the “silver spoon elite unlike like me and Jamakane” memes in their brains, all at the same time?

If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s those country club negroes. Like that Bagger Vance—annoying!

Does anybody remember that time George Jefferson was invited to join a country club as a photo op so journalists would think it was actually integrated, when really he was quite literally the token black member?

Maybe that’s what Karl Rove was referring to?

Dood’s seen Animal House one too many times.

Tho I think the “hordes invading your country club” scenario will probably keep David Broder in adult diapers for the next 8+ years.

Obama is Ty Webb?

Rove could be Spaulding, the booger-eating, heavyset son of Ted Knight…

I don’t think Rove has ever seen a black men at any club he is a member of except for the hired help, of course.

Tom, I think that’s kind of the point - how dare Obama snag the hot chick (who, in Rove’s imagination, is probably white) and hang out looking cool, instead of busing plates or caddying for his betters.

Nice job on totally alienating all the voters who’ve never seen the inside of a country club, there, Karl.

I guess this metaphor works for anyone who either belongs to the management committee at a country club or has never been to one.  Ultimately it’s a really fine opening for return spin: “Karl Rove says he would be uncomfortable if Obama came to his country club” will sure play well in the heartland.

This is a coded message to white wealthy folks to protect their caste.  Race is about culture but more importantly here about caste.  Ironically, as much as these conservatives revere Ayn Rand, this is a classic example of “hating the good for being the good” per Rand, good here being excellence generally and not following Randian philosophy.

But the message also goes out to white trash males like me and my people: Obama is not jusy “uppity” but is out for the white women that poor uneducated no-connection, no-family tree humps like “you” cannot talk to.  Again, class envy, tinged with male privilege and resentment.  In one perfect strike, Rove manages to combine “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”, Dirty Dancing and Emmitt Till in one move.

He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.

That’s one talented cigarette!  Or, no, wait, Obama is a cigarette ventriloquist!  I’ll be damned if I let one of THOSE into my country club.

What a bizarre reference; are we supposed to know this guy from our own clubs, or are we supposed to be alienated by the idea that he’s at a country club in the first place?  Wouldn’t it be more to the point, though, to say that Obama fit in well with the snobs, rather than that he was too cool for the snobs?  Is he going for a _Pretty in Pink_ kinda vibe, with Obama as James Spader ragging on Andrew McCarthy’s feelings for Molly Ringwald (of course), the girl from the wrong side of the tracks?

Rove’s premising the whole slam on some kind of odd country-club experience reminds me of the Jon Stewart bit mocking Mitt Romney’s dig at Massachusetts’s “blue state” reputation.  Romney said it was like a navy blue suit that was so blue it was hard to tell from a black suit.  Stewart said that when trying to get in touch with the common man, it was a good idea to draw metaphors from something other than haberdashery.

Well, this tell more about how Karl Rove and his uptown buddies hang out. What matters to them.

This whole thing strikes me as bizarre. It’s as though Rove forgot the entire point of the Republican “elite” slander, which is to detach the term “elite” from the country club set.

The Republicans for the last several elections have been careful to try to change the meaning of elite from its traditional meaning (the WASPy, largely Republican blue blooded set) to the coastal upper-middle-class. Thus the tags they’d attach to “elite” have consistently been emblematic of the affluent middle-class (lattes, California wines, organic foods, and the rest).

But cigarette-smoking martiniman isn’t a well-off liberal California suburbanite—he’s a wealthy upper-class guy, like a Bush or a McCain. I simply can’t fathom where Rove is going here.

Hey Rove, you asshole, how would I know some mother fucker standing in a fucking country club?  I’ve never been in a country club in my life.  You’ve given it away now, Rove; I’ll never want to drink a beer with another of your candidates ever again.

Can’t help you with the light, hbsweet, but I can mix martinis with the best of them. Doubt I’d make it into the country club to hand it to you, though—I don’t think they’re keen on my type either.

Ah, well. We’ll find some other place to meet, invite Obama, mix some martinis, and hang. I somehow suspect he’d be a great guy to have a drink with. For one thing, the conversation would be worth listening to!

On second thought, we’ll have to do this in a decade or so. I suspect Barack’s going to be a bit busy for the next eight years or so.

For the regular white guy who’s pissed about his shitty life, reminding him that Obama is well educated, wealthy, and uppity serves a similar purpose.  He may resent the (white) guys who are in The Club, but he might also aspire to get in there some day.  But the upstart Black Man…he’s a usurper who needs to be put back into his place…

I’m not sure why it took me so long to notice that little added fillip to modern American racism but, yes, there’s definitely this weird notion that it’s perfectly fine for minorities to get good jobs and get into good schools ... but only after every white person has already had the opportunity.  If the Obamas went to Ivy League schools, that doesn’t show that they’re smart, driven people.  It shows that they’re trying to jump their place in line.

FlipYrWhig: Yeah, or the moment when David Brooks talked about the Applebee’s salad bar . . .

Hey conservatives! You got wealthy all over your shirt! Might wanna clean that up before someone sees it!

“I can’t believe these loonies actually mobilize the fundamentalist Christian vote for an evil atheist like me.” (Said at country club while holding drink with beautiful Jeff Gannon/James Guckert nearby).

My reaction is the same as hbsweet’s. Instead of “which candidate would you have a beer with?” it’s now “which candidate would you rather have martini-flavored snark at the rich, fat, dull white men with?”

And then hit the dance floor and you and your date and Michelle and Barack break out the dance moves and shock the Establishment Fogeys, just like in every dance movie ever.

Yeah, I guess *that’s* not going to appeal to the Gen Xers. Heh. Pour me a dirty martini, please, and put on some Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

And what about the older voters? The fans of Hollywood’s Rat Pack could probably picture Sammy Davis Jr and Frank Sinatra mocking the snobs. We’re a culture that has embraced for generations the idea of twitting the upper classes for their follies, and those who can look cool while doing so.

I’m with Andrew Sullivan on this one: one of the most fun things about this election thus far has been watching the GOP fumble desperately for a way to tag Obama; they just can’t find a meme.  Their efforts, formerly so depressingly easy and effective, are now visibly confused and hesitant.

I’m only four chapters into Nixonland, but it’s amazing how Perlstein makes Rove’s remark here completely predictable and transparent. Rove is expressing the archetypal Orthogonian envy and resentment of the Franklins.  It doesn’t even matter if his opponent fits the mold; every conflict gets cast in the framework of a clash between upper-class cliques in college.

The problem with an Orthogonian wedge like PUMA is the GOP’s disdain for women’s rights. Rounding that corner smooth takes a far more capable candidate than McCain.

Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He’s the guy at the country club…

This just begs for a Describe Karl Rove contest: 

He’s the guy at the country club…who never says a bad word about anyone if more than one person is listening. His favorite phrase is “You never heard that from me.”

“Dood’s seen Animal House one too many times. “

“Do you MIND if we DANCE wit’ yo DATES?!”

I’d expected Rove to say Obama is more like that at the club.

Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He’s the guy at the country club…

*headdesk* Way to lose all of us who’ve never set foot in a country club, Rove.

Obama doesn’t snark, much—but I dare say I’d rather stand next to the snarky, smart fellow (with the hot girlfriend, even) rather than the dull folks who think they’re above critique.