Anti-Obama criticism racist bleg

Don't expect too much here. When people are shamed they tend to skulk away, and there's no question that this is a shameful example of racism in America in the 21st century.

Limbaugh predicted in early 2009 if things started to go bad for Obama Democrats would start playing the race card. He has been proven right!!

It is equally plausible that that ridiculous poster was created by leftist agent provocateur as it is by a unhinged freeper or Angelqueen.

From Representative Clyburn:

"“The governor of Louisiana expressed opposition. Has the highest African-American population in the country. Governor of Mississippi expressed opposition. The governor of Texas, and the governor of South Carolina. These four governor’s represent states that are in the black belt. I was insulted by that,” Clyburn said. “All of this was a slap in the face of African-Americans. It had nothing to do with Governor Sanford.”…
Source Link:
hotair.com/archives/2009/02/19/clyburn-opposing-the-stimulus-is-racist-or-something/

Then there were the stupid whines over the NY Post cartoon:
www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2009/02/18/ny-post-in-obama-chimp-stimulus-racism-flap/

That took me all of 15 seconds on Google, oh great journalist.

As for the graphic you posted, it shouldn't be used. If it isn't outright racist, it can certainly be construed as such. But why the vapors? You can find this thing on both ends of the spectrum. How many "Me so horny" gags are thrown at Michele Malkin, or tranny comments towards Anne Coulter? Or racist graphics of Condoleeza Rice?
serr8d.blogspot.com/2009/09/witch-doctor-obama-racist-african.html

No, two wrongs don't make a right, but the two wrongs show that the right side isn't somehow uniquely evil.

That took me all of 15 seconds on Google, oh great journalist.

Look, stop being a jackass, or get off this blog. I put this post up because I have other things to do today, and a deadline to meet. I wanted to ask others to look for them. Thank you for doing so. Now get it together, or get out of here.

Rod, I think the most interesting part of all this for me is that after 9/11 Bush had what - a 90% approval rating. Which means that vast numbers of liberals lined up with Bush and Republicans in solidarity. I just can't imagine conservatives/Republicans doing the same thing with Obama under any circumstance.

Chris and Joel,

Maybe you can explain why I like President Obama more than I like Pete Stark, or Noam Chomsky, or Bill Ayers, or Andrew Bacevich. And why I like Clarence Thomas a lot more than I like John Paul Stevens. And why I like Condi Rice more than I like Madeleine Albright. And Thomas Sowell more than Bob Herbert. (Do I need to keep going?)

If this proves too difficult, I'll provide a hint . . . It's the same reason I prefer Clint Eastwood to Harry Belafonte.

Rod says: "Maureen Dowd wrote her column last week calling some of the Tea Partiers racist, and now Jimmy Carter has said he sees racism behind the protests."

Rod,

This isn't true. Well, maybe it is but I don't know about it.
Dowd and Carter said that Rep. Joe Wilson was a racist when he said to the President "You lie!". And it's not new. The New York Post printed a political cartoon where cops shoot a mad chimpanzee that represented Obama's policies. The Post was accused of ACTUALLY publishing a cartoon equating Obama with a monkey (the cartoon was referencing a crazed chimp that had recently ripped a woman's face off).

Before that in the South Carolina primary, Bill Clinton was accused fo racism for saying Obama wasn't ready to be president. This has been the standard M.O. whenever Obama needs help.

You simply don't seem to know what you are talking about.

(BTW "Obama's America" was a reference to the "Robert Bork's America", "Reagan's America", and "George W. Bush's America" declarations over the last 20 years. The reference is linked to the promises of post-racism by Obama's supporters. I'm pretty sure Lieberman never implied that if he were elected senator, then anti-semitism would end.)

Horst,

I've been pleased with a number of President Obama's decisions in the national security arena. Notwithstanding that little fig leaf saying we're going to close it within a year, Gitmo remains open for business. We continue to prosecute the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and renditions remain in the playbook. Most recently, our C-in-C explicitly ordered Special Forces into Somalia to whack Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan. Well done, Mr. President!

It is fascinating to see conservatives attempt to spin the response to the NYPost chimpanzee cartoon as "liberals playing the race card." That cartoon was not one iota less obviously racist than the White House watermelon cartoon or the witch-doctor photo shown at the top of this post. It's odd to see people concede that one might be racist but not the other. Did they just flip a coin?

"No, no, there's nothing racist about watermelons on the White House lawn--see, it's a joke about Obama being too close to the green movement and his wife having to actually help around the house for a change! Yeah, that's it...."

Witch-doctors have more to do with primitive healthcare methods than well-established stereotypes like watermelon cliches. If Obama didn't personally draft the stimulus package, then how could the dead chimpanze cartoon depict him (or did another African American congressman draft it?) This isn't rocket science, triple T.

Yes, dismissing critics of the president as racists is wrong. Just as it was wrong when supporters of the previous president so often dismissed his critics as unpatriotic.

I can't help but wonder if that's the new codeword for 'white'.

I think that the charge resonates more when deployed against African-Americans, but that I don't think it's used exclusively for African-Americans. I'm pretty sure it was used against Clinton in connection with his (admittedly sketchy) anti-Vietnam War position. I think that the Right sees itself, still, as in opposition to the various Sixties movements that were often explicitly critical of the US. So "real Americans" are Americans who fall into that class of people who wouldn't have criticized the US in the Sixties and would have been offended by those who did. African-Americans were obviously quite critical--for pretty good reasons--so the charge resonates more. Of course, we're more than forty years past 1968.

What is happening is very simple. The word "racist" has lost its power to scare. No one really cares any more.

What is happening is very simple. The word "racist" has lost its power to scare. No one really cares any more.

I'm not sure it has had much power to scare for nearly thirty years. The language being used now with regard to Obama is a step back, but things were worse in the Eighties, I think.

I've been paying some attention to the tea party type protests, even attended one, and I haven't seen anything that is overtly racist about them. Around here they seem to be harping on about a lot of the hard-core libertarian they've been on about for years.

This liberal hasn't called the opposition racist because what I've seen doesn't appear racist.

That said, the incoherence and lack of positive message combined with extreme passion suggests there's quite a bit of hate in many of them. I tend to think its not so much hate towards a black president as hate towards their unhinged, demonized notion of "liberals."

Once again, Rod, you show rare and admirable intellectual honesty.

Oh come on, Rod. I think the picture is appalling. But if a conservative painted a word picture calling Obamacare "voodoo" health care I can't see that it would be. Remember when Reagan was accused of "voodoo" economics?

As for the administration playing the race card, are you serious? Obama raised it again and again during the campaign saying "they" were trying to scare people because he "looked different" and "had a funny name." Accusing his opponents of racism has been a staple from the very beginning.

I'm sure someone will accuse me of being racist for this post, so let me put you straight. My husband and I were foster parents for a time and had a precious little black kindergartener who lived with us for about four months. He's now an adult and we were so racist that he called us recently to say hello.

Well, Limbaugh seemed to be greatly offended by this Newsweek story -- http://www.newsweek.com/id/214989 -- headlined "Is Your Baby Racist."

Having read the first page of it, at least, it appears his umbrage has no relation to the story.

Hey Rod, I'm a conservative leaning libertarian (or maybe vice-versa). I keep up with the news, keep up with many of the blogs. This post is the first time I've seen the Obama-as-witch-doctor photo, though I had heard of it.

Do I get to call you a racist now for posting it? Seems to me you'd adding fuel to the fire. (Racist!!)

Also, how dare you suggest that African cultural conceptions of the world and spirituality are somehow less sophisticated than non-African ones. (Racist!!! How dare you!!)

Remember, you believe that a particular man was both human and divine (despite the contradictions involved in), you believe this person rose from the dead and performed other sundry miracles (despite the utter lack of evidence, besides question-begging assertions). You believe in a colorful cosmology that includes angels, demons, arch-angels, hellfire, the efficacy of petitionary rites/ritual, etc.

Yet you somehow think this is any more plausible than the content of the witch-doctors’ equally non-evidence based claims? The nerve! (Racist!! Imperialist!!)

The only difference between an African witch-doctor and a priest is the style of dress and particulars of wishful thinking. (Which might help explain why it’s been so easy for so many recent would-be witch-doctors to change uniforms, re-jigger their wishful thinking, and becomes priests. In record numbers.)

I’m tired of your racism Rod.

Rod, Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd have written articles critical of President Obama and the administration. One must examine the spirit in which criticism is given, whether it is helpful or harmful, and context. For example, Bob Inglis and Joe Wilson are both Republicans of the South Carolina House Delegation. But Bob Inglis has carried himself in a far more respectful and manner than his colleague, Mr. Wilson. Further, Mr. Wilson also accused Strom Thurmond's Black daugher of 'smears'. Though it had been proven that she was Mr. Thurmond's child.

Both Congressmen are conservative but only one carries himself in a respectful and yes...non-racist manner.

You just gained yourself a reader. I bookmarked your page to read again. Even as a lifelong liberal Democrat, I respect true conservatives and anyone willing to buck their party's conventional thinking (what can I say, it is oppositional defiance disorder).

Your piece on Limbaugh and follow up with the Lieberman America bit was really brilliant. It is apparent to me that your's is an important voice.

Kudos.

Rod,

I am an African who has lived here ( Dallas) for over a decade. We Africans are always divided along tribal lines & we occassional fight each other but never have I seen this kind of vernom directed against an individual, leave along a sitting President. I am truly lost for words. I am however heartened by writers like you calling out brain-dead hatemongers like Limbaugh. Thank you for standing up for our Country!

I'm a liberal and I support Rod for speaking out like this. We may disagree on political or ideological grounds, but I want to tell all of you conservatives who have grown disillusioned or disgusted with what's going on with the right, like Dan in SC, that I understand and agree with your pain. At a certain point, political differences become either simple differences of thought and belief, or blinding dogmas that can bring out the worst in our fellow human beings. If we don't give in to fear and fearmongering now, we may turn this negative into a positive in the long run.

Mr. Dreher:

I followed the link posted by a "fringe nut at Daily Kos" to this wonderfully written, thoughtful piece by you . I also note that Steve Benen at Washington Monthly linked to it. I must warn you that I am a progressive Democrat, but I hope that I can still have your ear. I commend you for having the courage to speak your mind and conscience. I lament the fact that so few conservatives have spoken up about the dangerous trend that Beck and Limbaugh are setting. I'm sure that you and I would disagree about many things were we to talk across a dinner table, but what a delightful and thought-provoking exchange that would be. It's a pleasure, sir, to read your work.

Reaganite from NYC said: "Probably "disgust" towards the system and towards the the hypocrisy of so many in the political class is what drives the "tea party" people I know."

While I certainly don't know the minds and motivations of those you purport to know, I would ask you this: Where were you when Bush cut taxes the very wealthiest Americans? Where were you when the Bush administration led us the fiscal and moral morass we all know as Iraq?

Rod is right on target, when in an earlier post, he points out that it was those policy decisions made by the Bush administration that created this "economic anxiety" as you call it (really a near Great Depression as it is commonly understood).

Reaganite from NYC also said: "The bill had very little to do with near-term economic stimulus and was just a whole lot of useless pork that will be born on the back of their grandkids."

You know, I think that Jindal, Cantor, and McConnell may have missed that message. On account of them handing out rather large checks (directly provided by the stimulus package).

And finally, Reaganite from NYC said, in response to DMS: "Well, of course, DMS, you find Rod to your liking. He peddles the racist filth like the photo he posted here and passes it off as typically conservative and then shakes his head and clucks his tongue and wags his finger at those bad, naughty conservatives"

Seriousely?! And how do you reconcile that with the latest from Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchannon, Bachmann?

Progressive Black Democrat from Texas signing in to thank you for speaking truth to power. I found a link to your blog over on DailyKos and want you to know that no matter our ideological differences, we must all stand for decency and civility, or we're doomed. If your conservative counterparts can't handle the truth, it should tell you something about their true motivations. Keep up the good work!

Your Name (3:55 PM): "I followed the link posted by a 'fringe nut at Daily Kos' to this wonderfully written, thoughtful piece by you."

Congratulations, Rod!! You've become a useful tool for "fringe nut at Daily Kos." Are you happy now? I would advise you to get an agent and stand by the phone to await that call any minute now from the booker at the Rachel Maddow Show.

The Republicans have, for too long, depended upon a separate, advocate run media, with folks like Limbaugh a large part of that. This media, free from the pressures of competition, have allowed Republican thinking, and the policy and political tactics that proceed from them, to degenerate into something that does not stay healthy outside the hothouse of the Right-Wing Media.

The Republicans need to redevelop a positive relationship with the rest of the country. They need to quit idolizing themselves as a heroic minority, and realize that their difficult place in today's politics owes itself to their having made themselves the antagonists on so many issues, pitting themselves against majority public opinion.

The Republicans need to realize that they have to earn the Public's trust. They can't simply excoriate and smear their way back into the good graces of the American people. At best they will set themselves up to remind the rest of Americans why they kicked them out in the first place.

Reaganite in NYC,

Here is one for you, from one of the original supply-siders:

The GOP's Misplaced Rage

Leading conservative economist Bruce Bartlett writes that the Obama-hating town-hall mobs have it wrong—the person they should be angry with left the White House seven months ago.

"Where is the evidence that everything would be better if Republicans were in charge? Does anyone believe the economy would be growing faster or that unemployment would be lower today if John McCain had won the election? I know of no economist who holds that view. The economy is like an ocean liner that turns only very slowly. The gross domestic product and the level of employment would be pretty much the same today under any conceivable set of policies enacted since Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Until conservatives once again hold Republicans to the same standard they hold Democrats, they will have no credibility and deserve no respect."

http://tinyurl.com/qobp7w

Of course the left has been screaming racism for years. It is their bread and butter.

A-Bax's argument is so self-servingly strained and circular that you can't help but watch as it circles around behind him ready to sink its dull fangs into A-Bax's own behind. And, yes I think there's unconscious racism lurking underneath his silly display of handwringing. Methinks he definitely dost protest way too much to be taken seriously as anything but a racism apologist.

That being said, I believe it's the economy's collapse that's to blame for most of the anti-Obaman vitriol and blood-libel-hyperbole, but riding "shotgun" with those lies and slander is the kernel within the nut, namely the racism that dares not speak its name, the upstanding libertarian's sterling ideological impulse that unfortunately couldn't help over the years but absorb and internalize the white racism lurking within society, historically and currently, and blame the victim as have the overt racists been doing all along. And then there's the hot mouth-fart air of Limbought's hate speech providing incitement to murder beneath the wings of the anti-Obama tirade.

Funny how Limbaugh has been edging closer and closer and now has finally arrived at his own Radio Rwanda status. I'm sure he'd never think of himself in the same business and genocide-urging Africans, but it just goes to show: We're all the same under the skin.

@William R. Maybe its time you reconsider the Southern Strategy and its intended outcome (as per the words of Nixon's own strategist). The Left has been "screaming" racism (others would call it acknowledging or pointing out) for years because the Right has been peddling in racism for years to rile up its base and contributions.

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/books/phillips-southern.pdf

Ironically, when the RNC 'fessed up to this ( http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-07-14-GOP-racial-politics_x.htm ), it was Limbaugh who took them to task for even acknowledging that ( http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200507140004 ).

I think it is the msm who are ramping up the "racism" thing and they've been at it a while. Most egregious example: Contessa Brewer trying to make it look like a black man at some rally carrying a gun was actually a threat of white racism: http://independentelephant.blogspot.com/2009/08/msnbc-oppose-obama-racism.html

Summertime Tea Partiers: "Racism, straight up" http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/04/16/garofalo-tea-partiers-are-all-racists-who-hate-black-president

If you don't find the Obama/Joker poster racist, you're racist: http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/14/la-weekly-if-you-object-to-calling-the-obama-joker-poster-racist-youre-probably-racist/

Interesting take from a black journalist: http://news-political.com/2009/06/10/the-politics-of-blackness-obama%E2%80%99s-takeover-of-auto-industry/

Chris Matthews: http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/06/chris-matthews-to-kathleen-parker-is-sarah-palin-the-poster-girl-for-racism/ Is Saray Palin the Poster Girl for Racism?

Huffpo: opposing Obama's speech to school, racist http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mario-almonte/republican-critics-of-oba_b_279533.html

Frank Rich in August: Racists. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/opinion/02rich.html?_r=1

Opposing healthcare: racist http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/08/10/antihealth-care-reform-racism-not-just-wrong-but-stupid

It just takes a few minutes on google. And yes, it seems to be the press and the pundits who are creating this narrative. I wonder if President Obama will tell them to stop. I think he should.

Hampton and others, thank you for collecting these appalling examples. I'm dismayed. What possesses people?

The right's talk of (to quote A-bax) "The boy who cried racism" has always struck me as a preemptive strike against what the right assumed would happen. It didn't. Not in any meaningful widespread way. As a lefty, I never heard anyone of my fellow bleeding heart pinko commies ONCE say anything about a racist being the root of right-wing attacks on Obama until very recently.

Frankly, the whole tea party movement seems so devoid of a clear message or purpose (at least of things that weren't either enacted under Bush, or exactly what Bush had done), and so incredibly vitriolic that they are either incredibly hypocritical or racist.

I don't want to think this way, and I don't even think its conscious in most cases, but none the less, people need to really examine why they are so furious at Obama. Has he really been that bad? Was he not left with two failed war, a ruined economy, and a looted treasury? Do you not believe that the country can survive a ever-so-slight move the the left without threatening armed uprising or acting like a general election is a coupe?

And it's not like he didn't campaign on this stuff, he very much did! And he won the election. Give the guy a chance. He deserves that.

Short on time this afternoon, but thought these were interesting in light of the racism discussion:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26803840/

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/09/MNB313DUTE.DTL

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=4918487&page=1

All of Erin's links go to pre-election articles. Obama received Security Service protection earlier than any other candidate because the death threats started immediately upon his announcing his candidacy.

It has been reported that Obama receives about 400% more threats than the threats against Bush. It is impossible to know how much is attributable to racism, but it is safe to say that racism is the cause for many of the threats.

As usual the opponents of any kind of restriction on the illegal immigration, is playing the race card? It's a forgone conclusion that the benefactors of promoting a mass invasion of our shores, such as religious groups, unions, ACLU, radical ethnic caucuses and even our own US Chamber of Commerce, will mouth epithets that doesn't benefit big business, that doesn't advocate a continuous force of illegal cheap labor. Now they are really livid because their objection to E-Verify was thrown out of court. Now all federal contractors and subcontractors must adhere to the law. They have conspired against the American worker and people for too long, and now we are fighting back ourselves against corrupt politicians and other elected officials nationwide,

Rep.Joe Wilson was actually telling the truth at the time, and now Democrats have placed restrictive language in the Health care reform package as a reluctant afterthought by public demand. This was nothing to do about bigotry or racism, but the American workers and family survival. None of the business community who hire them wants their labor, but forces the taxpayer to carry the financial load. The US labor force should not have to be in competition, with people from other countries. Businesses have already offshore American jobs, because it's cheaper? So every illegal foreign national and family member should be exempt from government run health care, jobs and all the billions of taxpayer dollars secretly allocated to pay for their support. Twenty million plus illegal people compromised themselves, when they entered a sovereign nation without permission. Find out the truth at NUMBERSUSA, JUDICIAL WATCH and contact your politician at 202-224-3121 demanding no weakening conditions to E-Verify or any other law authored by Congress.

Still more...

13. Diann Jones, a vice chairman of the Collin County TX GOP, sent an email to local Republican clubs that included the statement, "Another terrific idea from the black house and its minions."

14. The home page of the Pemberton NJ GOP site had a banner that declared, "Obama loves America Like OJ loved Nicole!" until Burlington County Democratic Chairman Rick Perr complained.

15. Audra Shay, vice chairwoman of the Young Republicans, wrote on her Facebook page "You tell em Eric! lol" in response to a Eric Pike's comment, "...need to take this country back from all of these mad coons... and illegals."

16. Rep Geoff Davis (R-KY) said at a Northern Kentucky Lincoln Day dinner (a GOP dinner) "I'm going to tell you something: That boy's finger does not need to be on the button."

17. When asked at a public forum about GOP prospects in light of a Democratic controlled Congress and the nation's first black president, Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) said that, "Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope."

18. Jill Jackson, a Republican and the former top election official of Johnson County IN, distributed "literature" to two county employees that included statements such as, "He is proud of his 'African heritage' (a father who got a white girl pregnant and deserted her)" and "The U.S. citizens are just not ready to give up their country to this young, black 'Adolf Hitler' with a smile, poor direction and absolutely no experience!"

"He (Obaman) is in danger, however, of allowing race to be the principal political weapon used by Democrats against Republicans. A failure to show presidential leadership by calling a halt to this folly could fuel opposition to the Obama agenda – and unpick the scab of racism just as the old wounds were beginning to heal."
http://bit.ly/vtyti

as for the image you posted Rod all I can say is nice cherry picking. I've been collecting images of Obama since last year. The one who posted is in definitely in the minority. The vast majority are based upon his iconography or played off against Communist/Fascist style posters.

"if Obama got elected, the left would racialize all policy differences with Obama, making any criticism of him out to be racism."
it may not have come from the leaders of the Left but i have experienced from the footsoldiers. What you want is for us to disprove a negative. Go back to Limbaugh's monologue and look at who he quotes

Dan
Frankly, the whole tea party movement seems so devoid of a clear message or purpose (at least of things that weren't either enacted under Bush, or exactly what Bush had done), and so incredibly vitriolic that they are either incredibly hypocritical or racist.

When the left gets pissed about things, we get pissed about specific things. In fact, we specifically single-issue target stuff...protesting warrentless wiretapping, or the war, or pro-gay rights, or, yes, bank bailouts, or whatever, but not a hodgepodge of things. Heck, we even have protests that are specifically about one war and not the other.

This serves two purposes...first, it assures everyone that the people protesting all actually agrees with the specific aim of the protest, and aren't just standing around because they hate Bush, and second it means you get more people, who might agree with one thing but not another. In fact, a lot of the protests are bipartisan. (Admittedly, this usually doesn't work very well, but the protest organizers at least make the attempt.)

No, these aren't the specific protests we're used to. This is more akin to the 'general anger protests' done in the 60s by the left. General anger protests don't really have anything to do with the issues, they are because a segment of society feels totally ignored.

'The left' in the 60 (Actually, the 'young' left...let's not forget what happened at the 1968 DNC.), had a specific issue they could focus on 'Being sent off to die in a war', and civil rights. But in actuality the issue was the world not changing fast enough for them, them not knowing what to do with themselves in the real world, and feeling voiceless. (There have been entire shelves of books written on the hippie movement, I don't need to get into it, and I'm nowhere near the expert.)

But if you think it was utterly silly, and you think the issues were dumb, and that hippies were just 'acting out'...well, you're actually agreeing with me. It was not about the war, it was a 'we think society is broken' protest. That is what 'general anger protests' are about.

I don't want to think this way, and I don't even think its conscious in most cases, but none the less, people need to really examine why they are so furious at Obama. Has he really been that bad? Was he not left with two failed war, a ruined economy, and a looted treasury? Do you not believe that the country can survive a ever-so-slight move the the left without threatening armed uprising or acting like a general election is a coupe?

Now that the right has started 'general anger protests'. And I truly am trying to see the best of them, but the only change I really can see to have triggered these protests is 'Obama taking office'. Seriously, someone give me some other change to have trigger this.

Granted, they could be angry about some lack of change, like the hippies were supposedly angry about the lack of civil rights and the lack of ending the war, but I'm not actually seeing anything they wish to end except 'deficit spending', and this is way too much protest, way too fast, to be caused by that.

It would be possible for them to be pissed off about the mortgage crisis, that's certainly something that could be (and is) causing general malcontent. Or unemployment, or the general recession, or all sorts of things. But those would only work if any of the tea party people even slightly seemed to want to address that issue.

And, no, health care reform hasn't actually happened that, and thus has not affected society in any manner yet. Likewise, neither did TARP. I'm not saying they aren't valid complaints, I'm saying that it can't possibly be causing the general anger protests, which require people to feel harmed to start with.

The nicest version of this is that the change they're objecting to was a Democratic president, instead of the other attribute of Obama.

Which, frankly, isn't much better. Actually, I personally consider it worse. As you said, their unwillingness for the country to move slightly to the left when it elected the left by overwhelming electoral success who campaigned on exactly those issues indicates no respect for the democratic process at all.

The claim that criticism of President Obama is largely a function of racism seems to have become more widespread as his favorability poll numbers have declined, an observation for which I owe credit to someone I've forgotten and so who regrettably must go unnamed.

The art of Parody is dead. We can do parody of anyone and its comedy. Do parody of Obama and it's racism. They have managed to divide and conquer. Would not surprise me if the parody came direct from the White House. Me, I am about fed up with this racism hysteria, put a sock in it. Obama as the Witch Doctor and his Obama Care is fair game. Remember the skits with the Witch Doctors standing around a big pot with a white person in it, was that racism or hungry Witch Doctors?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/14/AR2009091403369.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/opinion/13dowd.html (I think this is a different column from the Dowd column you referenced)

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/59015-waters-media-must-investigate-right-wing-protesters-for-racism

Incidentally, to this day, the left accuses Sarah Palin of consorting with witch doctors, when what actually happened was that she had an African pastor, known for opposing witchcraft, pray over her at church. I'm not saying that makes the "Obama witch doctor" poster okay -- it doesn't. What I'm saying is that racism may be a little more widespread than you realize.

Alicia,

I guess all that spending will pay for itself since you've found some racists on the right. Thanks, I'll sleep a lot better tonight knowing that.

That's interesting, because moderates such as myself are so turned off by the hysteria of people who use the race card to explain EVERYTHING that it is becoming much harder to hear those who have legitimate criticisms.

About that image that is supposedly "making the rounds on the right": how did YOU get a hold of it? As a far-right free-thinker myself, I have never seen that image before and I almost suspect that some liberal made it up just to make the right appear racist.