A 'Macaca' Moment For Obama?

A 'Macaca' Moment For Obama?



By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, September 10, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Election '08: Back when he led the polls, Barack Obama gallantly promised a new, post-partisan politics. Now his lead is gone, and he's getting personal about Sarah Palin. However he justifies it, he's starting to look small.

Ever since the governor of Alaska joined the Republican ticket, Team Obama has been at a loss about how to take her on. For a while, they just called Gov. Palin the "mayor of Wasilla" and "lieutenant governor" of the state. But now they've turned to far worse code words in a bid to psychologically demean her.

On Tuesday in Virginia, Obama himself sank to levels not even plumbed by Joe Biden. He basically called the GOP's vice presidential contender a stinking fish and a pig, all to the knowing cheers of his audience.

"You can put lipstick on a pig," he told his crowd. "It's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still gonna stink. We've had enough of the same old thing."

But rest assured, Obama said when questioned later, the statement was "innocent."

We're not so sure. In light of Palin's reference to pit bulls and lipstick in her convention speech last week, and her nickname of Barracuda, Obama's remark looked like a bid to psychologically bully her with an arpeggio of trash talk.

It also wasn't spontaneous. Obama's remarks leading into the lipstick comment appeared to be lifted from a Sept. 5 political cartoon by the Washington Post's Tom Toles. Confidently delivered, Obama's lines were all memorized.

The hostility of it all echoes politician George Allen's exasperated identification of an Indian-American filmmaker who was stalking him as "macaca," a patronizing remark that sank his campaign. It's made worse because claims of sexism against Obama from disgruntled Hillary Clinton Democrats are already a live issue.

It was hip and modern Obama, not crotchety old John McCain, who called a female reporter "sweetie" on the campaign trail, noting in his apology that it was a bad habit.

Meanwhile, feminist columnist Tammy Bruce wrote recently that Obama just didn't compare Hillary Clinton to actress Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction." He actually said: "I understand that Sen. Clinton, periodically when she's feeling down, launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal." He effectively reduced her strong electoral challenge to premenstrual syndrome.

Obama then refused to even consider Clinton as his running mate, despite the votes she'd bring. It infuriated many female voters.

The mate he did pick, Joe Biden, has shown at least as much befuddlement. After solicitously complimenting Palin on her looks, he called Palin the "lieutenant governor" of Alaska.

Obama himself has condescendingly referred to Palin's motherhood to deflect voter attention from her successful role as governor. "She hasn't been on the scene, you know, she's got five kids and my hat goes off to anybody who's looking after five. I've got two and they tire Michelle and me out," he smarmed.

His supporters in the left-wing blogosphere reflected the tone Obama had set, obsessively Googling for Palin bikini pictures, and photoshopping their own when they couldn't find any.

Why would someone like Obama, presumably from the "enlightened" liberal branch of the Democratic Party, stoop to such apparent misogyny in lieu of confronting Palin as a political opponent?

It's not merely that she's got a stellar record as governor that eclipses his record by comparison, but perhaps the crude identity politics of the Democratic platform as well.

Democrats don't see voters as individuals, but as special interest groups. They pigeonhole them into narrow agendas and identities, and anyone who dares to stand outside that is considered a nonperson. They can be degraded.

In Denver, the main spoil Democrats offered to women was abortion on demand, not party power. No small wonder, then, that a Democrat leader Wednesday said McCain chose Palin, "whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn't had an abortion."

Governor of Alaska, our biggest energy state? A reformer who took on her own party? Initiator of the world's largest construction project in the $40 billion trans-Canada natural gas pipeline? National Guard chief in our most strategic state?

These are real achievements. Democrats could challenge them, but they have little to offer instead.



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