Who says we aren't getting a real black POTUS (something that some people are apparently still afraid of, but then again, we're talking Indiana, and I KNOW THIS about Indiana)? Obama is a very savvy man. He plays down race to the point that he never, ever accesses it in terms of the politics of victimology, even when it's obvious that racist barbs have been used. He knows he can't appear "too black," in terms of the fact that yes, even in this day and age, the POTUS simply can't be too "ethnic."
Yet, in less large-scale company, he knows when to drop dollops of black America's greatest cultural asset, drawn from the endless capital of cool that defines most of American popular culture, American slang, and has provided the soundtrack and set the rhythm of American life for generations.
(Check out the move at around 2:27 -- genius!)
I saw this a while ago (still, HT to Matthew Yglesias), but watching it be remixed lately has caused me no end of amusement and given me additional respect for the only POTUS I know about who could actually look COOL to young, "urban" voters (read: the new black voters who will be absolutely crucial to helping Obama win the general election).
Gawd, you KNOW he KNOWS this is going to be remixed like mad by the YouTube-and-iMovie-enabled youth. The shoulder brush, the basketball layups, the "That's ai'ght" being peppered throughout his more formal speech -- it's good stuff. Yet, when he has to deliver in a debate, he's proven that he can talk specifics and dance with that devil on several occasions, and then turn around and deliver one of the greatest rhetorical disquisitions in American political history.
And who just doesn't "get it" and is ever-the-more talking like a crazy person?
(At the 3:30 and 4:14 marks -- what the hell is she talking about?)
Ferraro -- you're soooo out of touch. You and your husband were offended by the shoulder gesture because you are OUT OF TOUCH. It's not sexist. It's a cultural reference, referring to handling personal attacks against one's reputation.
Ferraro, give it up. Your arguments that Obama is "sexist" is flimsy at best (why not at least reference the "sweetie" comment, which was arguably sexist, but at least it wasn't part of his CAMPAIGN STRATEGY), even as the Clintons have totally played the race card, and Hillary even recently apologized for it, you don't see Obama whining about it. In fact, Obama downplays the race issue, since he knows that in the end, he's going to be stuck with the bill, as usually happens in the public sphere when a minority points out obvious facts of still-extant racism. In American racial politics, "the one who smelt it dealt it" and pointing out racism often leads to that person of being racist him or herself, since we shouldn't be thinking about that anymore, right?
What Hillary doesn't realize is that she should just give it up and stop grasping at straws. The American voter (the ones who'd vote for either Hillary or Obama, anyway, and not the misanthropes who see a black man in a suit-and-tie and still clutch their loved ones closer to their breasts) is savvy enough to see sour grapes for what they are. She was racist as a mofo when she was campaigning in the very non-black-friendly states of the recent races, where doors are slammed in Obama campaigners' faces, a campaign center was defaced with racial epithets, and cold callers are hung up on while the receiver hisses the "N-word" across the line.
Yet, Obama is smart enough to literally just brush his shoulders off, not be left with the check-as-wages-of-guilt or loathing, while allowing his rich, white, politically connected, increasingly shrill, and hypocritical opponent to dig herself even deeper into the hole.
Sure, there's some sexism in the mix. There has been ever since the Republicans stonewalled her when she tried health care reforms back in the day. But it's not the deciding factor, Hillary, and you know it -- even as you throw the same kind of under-the-belt stones.
Hillary -- stop playin' yourself and give it up. Or at least fight to the end gracefully, and not go out like a punk. Think about what you HAVE accomplished and should be proud of, and try to save it for 2012 if you think you badass enough to come with it again. As they used to say in the old days when people used to worry about and wear such things, "your slip is showing."
And Obama, "go ahead and brush your shoulders off."
