Oh, Lordy, the Black Folks are Voting!

Alright, I’ve not posted on political stuff for a few days, but wow, this one just blew me away. Over on Daily Kos early this morning, they posted this email sent by David Storck, the chair of the Hillsborough Republican Party (that’s the county in Florida that includes Tampa):
THE THREAT:
HERE IN TEMPLE TERRACE, FL OUR REPUBLICAN HQ IS ONE BLOCK AWAY FROM OUR LIBRARY, WHICH IS AN EARLY VOTING SITE.
I SEE CARLOADS OF BLACK OBAMA SUPPORTERS COMING FROM THE INNER CITY TO CAST THEIR VOTES FOR OBAMA. THIS IS THEIR CHANCE TO GET A BLACK PRESIDENT AND THEY SEEM TO CARE LITTLE THAT HE IS AT MINIMUM, SOCIALIST, AND PROBABLY MARXIST IN HIS CORE BELIEFS. AFTER ALL, HE IS BLACK–NO EXPERIENCE OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS–BUT HE IS BLACK.
I ALSO SEE YOUNG COLLEGE STUDENTS AND THEIR PROFESSORS FROM USF PARKING THEIR CARS WITH THE PROMINENT ‘OBAMA’ BUMPER STICKERS. THE STUDENTS ARE ENTHUSIASTIC TO BE VOTING IN A HISTORIC ELECTION WHERE THERE MAY BE THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT.
Oh my lordy, the black folks are coming out to vote! Close the doors, douse the lights! Jesus H. Christ, folks. I don’t even know where to start. With Storck’s inflammatory assertion that the turnout of early black voters is a cause for alarm? How about the brilliant part where he asserts that the only reason black voters are voting for Obama is because he is black, his implication that they don’t know or care about Obama’s stance on issues? They “seem to care little” based on what, Mr. Storck? Did you actually schlep your ass over from the GOP HQ to — gasp! — talk to those black voters? Are are you just making a blanket assumption about the motivations of carloads of black voters?
Heavens to Betsy, those black voters couldn’t possibly be voting on issues, could they? Is it, perhaps, possible, that they see in Obama a chance to turn things around in this country? Is it possible that they want the same access to health care that the predominantly white, male Congress has? Do they perhaps think Obama has his finger more accurately on the pulse of what the majority of Americans want right now? Do they just want change?
The most accurate thing on the Daily Kos post: “Here is what I find most interesting of all: no one will suggest that Storck is anti-American.”
That’s right, because the Republicans who won’t see this as email as an issue indicative of a greater underlying problem in the GOP would never admit that the implication that it’s a BAD thing to see increased voter turnout if that increased turnout is coming from the minority population is in any way a racist idea. Just a few more days, folks. Just a few more days.
The irony is that Storck’s stupidity in forwarding that email, and the subsequent coverage in the Florida news media, might very well motivate that many more minority voters in that state to turn out and vote to support Obama. C’mon, Florida! Get those minority voters motivated and out there. Let’s see Obama take that state.

Palin Going Rogue?

Interesting piece from Ben Smith on Politico about how Sarah Palin is reportedly increasingly ignoring the advice of her Republican party handlers, who she blames for her tarnished media image, and “going rogue” in some of her decisions.
Translation: Whether she hurts the McCain campaign or not in the waning days left to McCain to make up lost ground, Palin is going to do her best to try to salvage her own political reputation. Moreover, she’s repeatedly not taken responsibility for her own contributions to the tarnishing of her image: Her glaring inadequacy to be a candidate for the vice-presidency, allegations of abuse of power (Troopergate and the state of Alaska paying heaps of cash for her kids to travel with her), the colossal PR misstep of the $150,000 campaign wardrobe, and Palin’s makeup artist being the highest-paid member of the campaign staff for October.
No matter how you look at it, or which side of the aisle you’re on politically, the McCain camp’s choice of Palin as his running mate was just a huge, huge misstep. Joe Lieberman or Mitt Romney would have been much stronger contenders than Palin, but if McCain wanted to be a “maverick” by choosing a woman as his running mate, there were any number of more qualified female Republican candidates he could have chosen. McCain would have been in a stronger position to challenge Obama at the polls next week with just about anyone but Palin as his VP choice.
Any McCain supporters out there who have a different view, with a perspective on why Palin was not a terrible choice in every respect, I’d love to hear why you think so …

Jane Six Pack and the 27 Dresses

Sorry, Mgmax … you can skip this one.
The above video is great, if you’ve not seen it, watch it …
This whole story yesterday about the RNC spending over $150K on Sarah Palin’s campaign wardrobe is just another example of the myriad missteps the McCain camp has made since announcing Palin as his running mate. Over $49,000 at Saks 5th Avenue. A $75,000 shopping spree at Neiman Marcus. I mean, seriously. What on earth were they thinking? What a missed opportunity by Palin to capitalize on the “I’m just an average hockey mom” image she keeps trying (and failing) to sell.

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Go Tinklenberg!

Awesome news coming from Minnesota Public Radio: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has reportedly added El Tinklenberg to the list of candidates it will support from its Red to Blue Fund, which pours money into the coffers of Democratic candidates in races where there’s a good possibility of taking back a Republican-controlled seat.
The DCCC will, it seems, spend more than $1 million in television ads supporting Tinklenberg in his race against Michele “McCarthy” Bachmann. The ads start tomorrow. This could be just what the Tink needs to uproot Bachmann and put a Democrat in the seat for Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District. One question … will the DCCC’s ads end with a “thank you” to Bachmann for handing them her own head on a silver platter? She keeps trying to backtrack and talk her way out of this, but that’s kind of hard to do when the video of you saying the very things you’re denying saying is out there to be seen by anyone and everyone.
It’s going to be a close race, but here’s hoping Tinklenberg pulls it off. This has just become one of the hottest races to watch on election night.
… and mucho thanks to Ray Pride for tipping me off about this.

Un-American

Poor Michele Bachmann. Her inflammatory statements on this Hardball episode, in which she blithely labeled “leftist, liberal views” as un-American and called for a media investigation into whether members of Congress are “pro-America or anti-America” (has she ever even heard of the McCarthy Era? Probably she thinks it was a high point of our nation’s political history), are coming back to bite her in the ass and may end up getting her booted out of Congress by her own constituency. Now she claims her comments were “misunderstood.” Oh, I don’t think so, Michele. I think your comments were heard loud and clear.
In case you’re one of the 23 people with any interest in politics who haven’t seen this video, the link is above. At one point, after she prattles on at some length about Obama’s connection to Bill Ayers, host Chris Matthews asks her whether she believes Obama may have anti-American views, to which she replies, “Absolutely. I’m very concerned that he may have anti-American views.” She goes on to equate liberal, leftist views as being un-American and ends by suggesting the media should investigate Congress to determine which members of Congress hold “un-American” views. The first time I saw this video, I nearly choked on my coffee; I’ve watched it three times now (just to torture myself, I guess) and just can’t stomach watching it again. It makes my blood boil.

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Color Blind

Last night I was listening to NPR while I was driving along, and they had a thing on about Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to run for President of the United States, way back in 1972. Listening to recordings of Chisholm speak, I was powerfully struck by her passion, the clear way in which she presented her points, the tenacity with which she went after the brass ring, and the courage with which she put herself out there as a candidate for the presidency as a woman and an African American, all those years ago.
But what particularly struck me was her saying, in an interview, that she didn’t believe that her race was really such a big issue in 1972, that surely we’d come far enough along as a country by that point that race didn’t matter. I don’t know if the programmers at NPR intended the contrast, but on the program immediately following Chisholm, they were in Logan, West Virginia, talking to voters in that predominantly Democratic town about whether they were voting for Obama or McCain, and while there were quite a few smart-sounding folks who were talking about issues, there were also the requisite racists talking about “the coloreds” and even one guy sounding off about how black people don’t have “what it takes” to lead the country. Oy.
In 1972, Shirley Chisholm believed race was no longer an issue in a race for the presidency. And here we are in 2008, with Obama’s race still very much an issue for a lot of voters. I’m proud of the Democratic party. When it got down to the convention, we had a woman and a black man competing for their party’s nomination. It was a stirring, historic moment, but the fight’s not over yet. We’ve got a long way to go.
But I hope that Shirley Chisholm, wherever she is in the afterlife, saw the massive crowd in St. Louis gathering to hear their next president speak, and smiled.

Betty White Calls Sarah Palin a "Crazy Bitch"