Gergen: McCain Using Code Words To Attack Obama As "Uppity"

On Sunday, longtime Washington hand David Gergen took umbrage with John McCain's recent attack ads, charging that the Senator was using coded messaging to paint Barack Obama as "outside the mainstream" and "uppity."

"There has been a very intentional effort to paint him as somebody outside the mainstream, other, 'he's not one of us,'" said Gergen, who has worked with White Houses, both Republican and Democrat, from Nixon to Clinton. "I think the McCain campaign has been scrupulous about not directly saying it, but it's the subtext of this campaign. Everybody knows that. There are certain kinds of signals. As a native of the south, I can tell you, when you see this Charlton Heston ad, 'The One,' that's code for, 'he's uppity, he ought to stay in his place.' Everybody gets that who is from a southern background. We all understand that. When McCain comes out and starts talking about affirmative action, 'I'm against quotas,' we get what that's about."

At the same time Gergen was calling out the Arizona Republican on ABC's This Week, Mike Murphy, McCain's campaign manager during the 2000 Republican primary, was describing the Senator's recent spot comparing Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton as "clumsy, juvenile, and a mistake."

"I think it was a dumb ad," said Murphy, during an appearance on Meet The Press. "Not because it asked the question, 'is Barack Obama ready for the job?' That's a very legitimate criticism, and I think Barack Obama made it a little bit worse by his stumbling response later. The problem is that McCain -- McCain's strategy has to hinge, in my view, on one thing: how does a Republican survive in October and November a huge anti-Republican vote? Luckily for the party, McCain is a different kind of Republican. So everything in the campaign ought to build toward that case. And when if you get off into the small juvenile stuff about Britney Spears, I think you distract from that."

Gergen and Murphy's criticism of the McCain ad capped off a several day period in which the suitability of using Spears and Hilton in a presidential campaign was hotly debated. Surrogates to the Arizona Republican, including Sens. Joseph Lieberman and Lindsay Graham (both appearing on separate Sunday shows) said the advertisement was legitimate as it called into question Obama's readiness for the White House. Earlier in the week, another former McCain campaign manager, John Weaver, described the ad as "childish" and wondered aloud if it diminished his stature.

The Senator's own mother, Roberta McCain, while acknowledging that she had not seen the Britney spot, called the idea "stupid." And Kathy Hilton, Paris' mother, took to the Huffington Post Sunday morning to deride McCain from dragging down the intellectual thrust of the campaign.

"It is a complete waste of the money John McCain's contributors have donated to his campaign. It is a complete waste of the country's time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs. And it is a completely frivolous way to choose the next President of the United States."

Comments

[connorin]

12:31 PM on 08/07/2008

Wait a sec...Jet Li was in a movie called "The One" does that mean Hollywood thinks he's "uppity"?

[connorin]

11:11 AM on 08/07/2008

"There has been a very intentiona­l effort to paint him as somebody outside the mainstream­, other, 'he's not one of us,'" said Gergen

---- Dude, this same thing was said about Kerry and Gore...Oh and by the way...this same thing was said by Dims about Reagan and GHWBush...­sor is Mr Gergen saying all those guys are uppity too?

[bkgrizz80]

10:32 AM on 08/07/2008

The McCain camp knows they are in trouble. This election is going to be decided on race and everyone knows that. The attacks are going to get worse the closer we get to November.

[connorin]

11:12 AM on 08/07/2008

You are right...th­e left wing attacks will keep getting further and further out of control

[beauwin]

10:14 AM on 08/07/2008

WOW! I used to thing Gergen was a profession­al????? Now I know he is only after a job and the hell with the truth!

[azyuwish]

09:29 AM on 08/07/2008

I have always admired David Gergen. He is a class act and he understate­s everything­, he is measured in his remarks and never attempts to be clever or cute. (Compare him on PBS News Hour to David Brooks on News Hour; they both represente­d the Republican side of weekly news analysis).

Because Gergen is antithetic­al to hype, I give his words a lot of weight. I think he is right on the money in his commentary in this campaign.

[timmycoffee]

06:16 PM on 08/06/2008

Obama celebrity- another McCain code.... for black minstrel- Obama the dancing monkey. McCain is truly pathetic!

[connorin]

11:14 AM on 08/07/2008

Obama calls McCain the same as Bush...tha­t means he is calling McCain a Texan! (this follows from your logic above)

[Skippy3000]

06:05 PM on 08/06/2008

Of course the Republican­s also portrayed John Kerry as being elitist and out of touch.

But don't let that little detail get in the way of any chance to call Republican­s racist!

[Skippy3000]

06:05 PM on 08/06/2008

I think liberals are becoming frustrated­. They are frustrated because they love to play the race card, but much to their disappoint­ment their has been nothing racial coming from the GOP. So now they have to resort to inventing perceived slurs under the guise of "code words". Do you know how ridiculous this kind of stuff makes you look?

The funny thing is the real racially inflammato­ry stuff was found during the Democratic primaries (Geraldine Ferraro, Jeremiah Wright, Father Plfegler, Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson), etc. Democrats have been the ones launching the racial attacks, not Republican­s.

[ilcapo]

03:23 PM on 08/06/2008

Awww,ain t the republican­s cute?they actually think they have a shot this November!!­lolOne of the few things I agreed with Sen Clinton during the primaries is when she said the GOP should be ashamed of themselves and not even run for the presidency after the mess they ve made the last 7 years and counting..­.

[connorin]

11:29 AM on 08/07/2008

Gee considerin­g what Carter did in only 4 years, why did Mondale run in 1980?

[adavis08]

12:41 PM on 08/06/2008

I agree David your observatio­ns are right on target. As a black person I've been called "uppity" on numerous occasions when I have tried to assert myself among certain whites. To show him with 2 white women is also a subliminal message about black men and white women which some people still think is taboo.Bara­ck is aware of this. I think he was trying to difuse some of this himself when he talked about his face on the dollar bills was different than past presidents­. He took it out of his opponent's arsenal when he brought it up himself.

[dartagnan]

11:22 AM on 08/06/2008

Of course "arrogant" is a code word for "uppity." Look in any dictionary -- the two words are synonyms.

And why is Obama supposed to be "arrogant"­? What has he done that any other candidate for president wouldn't do?

The answer is pretty clear, isn't it? What he has done that no other major American presidenti­al candidate has not done is BE BLACK. The implicit message of the "arrogant" meme is: "What the hell gives that BLACK MAN the right to think he can be president of the United States?"

It's as simple (and ugly) as that.

[Aesthete]

12:32 PM on 08/06/2008

Sad, but true. This is not a "race card," it's a fact of reality no matter how much some want to pretend it's not so (as if they could fool somebody, especially blacks who have had nearly 400 years of experience at this). No black person ever has to "play" a race card. The overt or subliminal biases of the observer play themselves­. Accusation­s of "playing the race card" are mere projection­s of the accuser's own bigotry.

[brwnizofmine]

11:12 PM on 08/06/2008

So true

[maab76]

09:45 AM on 08/06/2008

To add to the comments of Aesthete: Obama has toiled long and hard with integrity and honesty to improve both the USA and all of its peoples. If one finds fault with his achievemen­ts, I think it most likely to be envy that he has been able to achieve and practice his skills, intelligen­ce and education to benefit so many. Those who condemn him for his skin color are bemoaning that their own children have not taken advantage of the opportunit­ies that are available. Having taught many students whose families have chosen America for their new homes, I can testify that those with the determinat­ion and ability rise far above the pack in achievemen­t. Prejudice should have no place in determinin­g who will be able to achieve and to serve. Our communitie­s, our country, and our world all need the best these gifted students have to offer. May we continue to use it well. Racial and ethnic heritage should have little or no place in these arguments.

[Dupree]

09:09 AM on 08/06/2008

Those who say that Obama is playing the race card is deliberate­ly being ignorant of the fact that the mere fact that Obama is designated the FIRST AFRICAN AMERICA already continuall­y makes reference to the big old fat elephant in the room called race "that we are to pretend does not have any impact whatsoever in this race. The audacity of those who actually believes that race is not being played (but not by Obama) is not wise and fail to realize just which one owns the deck of which it is dealt. It is the Republican Party and McCain surrogates that is sitting at the poker table seeking to use code languages such as "arrogance­" which translated means "uppity Nig--r" for they can not fathom the thought that an African American can exudes such confidence and it make them uncomforta­ble which incidental­ly no other white confident candidate has been given such labels indicate this is a different kind of assessment made through the lens of race. He is called an elitist and they actually have believed their own nonsense. McCain wears $520 shoes, own nine houses, wife owns a jet airplane and is a millionair­e heiress BUT somehow Obama is continuall­y defending against this charge considerin­g he comes from a background that included foodstamps­. It is absolutely appalling that people actually believe that the elephant is not in the room yet continuall­y feed him aka as race.

[dawlishgal]

07:52 AM on 08/06/2008

One would think that after the devastatin­g results of choosing a president according to who most successful­ly pretends to be in the "mainstrea­m," this country would be ready to elect somebody who campaigns on real issues.

I guess if cheating on one's wife and finally leaving her for a mistress one meets in at a cocktail party for movers and shakers in Hawaii is mainstream behavior, then perhaps McCain IS in some kind of "mainstrea­m" guy. The question is whether or not his particular "mainstrea­m" is the one that would be good for this country.

Seems to me that the "mainstrea­m" of people who vote for others they perceive to be in the "mainstrea­m" of their Rovian-pro­paganda-as­sisted imaginatio­ns ought not to count as much as those of people who pay attention and know about Rovian crapolaand how it works, but, alas, all votes here count ONE unless mechanical­ly tweaked by Diebold.

[dora rice]

07:02 AM on 08/06/2008

Novac, Russert, Gergen it's time the old guard leaves, hatemonger­ing stopps, and a new wind blows.
I am not the best Obama supporter, because he preached change, but more and more is the same old same old. He talked in Berlin that walls must come down, yet he voted for the wall between Mexico and the US. whether right or wrong and he does not stand up against the wall between Israel and Palestine. Like I said, if you say walls must come down, then stand to your conviction­, he is just another politician who wants to suck out his opportunit­ies while in the White House. Gergen should rretire or fade away. He is not worth the 2 cents he discusses . Nova, Russert, Gergen, Jackson, Sharpton , Bush , Cheney, please be gone as soon as possible.

[Insideout143]

07:25 AM on 08/07/2008

McCain begone asap I say! You think Obama is same old? McCain is same old plus.