Barack Obama Just Loves Young White Women

The McCain camp released an official smear ad this week simply entitled, "Celeb," which juxtaposes Senator Obama with clips of Britney Spears (circa 1999) and Paris Hilton, supposedly highlighting Obama's lack of substance despite his undeniable star power.

Frankly, we find the ad to be pretty embarrassing. It's simply not good--the video quality is terrible, the editing shoddy, the voice-over nearly comical, the celebutard footage ineffective. And hey, we're proud of the GOP for trying to get jiggy with thems newfangled concepts of viral interwebs marketing and all, but uh, they're probably gonna have to do better than that.

Still, the piece has gotten a lot of attention, and in the process drawn quite a bit of controversy. One take in particular caught our eye via Political Punch--liberal blogger Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo condemned McCain's attacks yesterday but focused on one specific extrapolation we hadn't even thought of:

"...the McCain campaign is now pushing the caricature of Obama as a uppity young black man whose presumptuousness is displayed not only in taking on airs above his station but also in a taste for young white women."

Um... We're not proud of McCain's decision to resort to attack ads, but have to say that in watching "Celeb" about 25 times over, we witnessed Obama being criticized for being all bark and no bite, being lauded for non-achievements, being celebrated for simply being a celebrity. But the thought never once struck us that Obama was being defamed with the insinuation that he likes to dabble in "young white women."

What made us even go there? Obama, by all accounts, is a happily married man with a beautiful wife. And the footage in "Celeb" simply references the two most useless (yet most famous) stars of this decade. So we wonder how the point of lust was even dragged into the dialogue. Does a picture of a white woman and a black man instantly connote sexuality? Do we assume that even if black man isn't leering over taut blondes, he must be denying the fact that he wants to? Do we always refer to people this way, by color?

Lordy, is this really 2008? We feel like we're in a fucking time warp.

Or that we just overheard someone at a dinner party saying, "I just love Black people. They're such wonderful musicians and athletes."

Comments

[Linda Bergthold]

10:38 AM on 08/04/2008

As ugly as this is going to get, I can only hope that exposing these ads now to some broader scrutiny will make it harder for the dark souls who run McCain's campaign to keep doing it over and over... the problem is that most people won't even think about it consciously -- they'll just get the subliminal message. And that's the point. We didn't get it at first either. Good post!

[ThomasDoubting]

09:30 PM on 08/03/2008

Hundreds of millions off dollars, are being invested in each of these campaigns. They know exactly how people will react. McCains' campaign strategists are aiming this one at their base. They're trying to create more hostility toward Obama, among the most racist among us. I don't think they have to worry about losing those votes. How is it that these same people don't seem to notice that Clarence Thomas has a wife who is white. Is it color that they object to, so strongly, or is it something else?

[anticonformist911]

08:10 PM on 08/03/2008

Not long ago, it was actually against the law for a black man to date a white woman. There are still many people in this country who have a visceral reaction to a black man been linked to white women. It's sad, but true

[katmeyster]

04:12 PM on 08/03/2008

This is a long-held strategy to motivate white folks. We used it to justify the attempt to wipe out Indians (they will capture our pristine white women), to justify the extension of slavery and lynching, in the gold fields of California to justify near-slavery conditions of the Chinese. Just raise the potential of a black, brown, red, or yellow man who could have sex with one of "our" women. The fear that is created, magnified, and exploited will lead to slavery, torture, and war. This is not new. Just really disgusting and the undercurrent is being used by the McCain ad. Learn some history (not the stuff from school books).

[Nia1999]

11:24 AM on 08/03/2008

You know, we can try and spin the intent of the ad all we want, but the truth of the matter is, John McCain knew exactly what he was doing and it wasn't to portray Barack Obama as a celebrity. When I first say the ad, I got the same impression as Josh Marshall and the more I saw the ad, the more it became clear. McCain wants to portray Barack Obama as another O.J. Simpson by placing him with two White girls and the more you see the ad, the more you think about it. It is the same tactic that was used in the early 1900's with the filming of "Birth of a Nation" to scare the White southern voter's by showing an African American man chasing a young White girl until she jumps off a cliff.. Barack Obama was right, John McCain is as low as they come.

Willie Horton strikes again!

[MARTYB]

08:22 AM on 08/03/2008

That was funny ROBXDION! I mean the part about WF's getting along with males. Some of my white
friends would really disagree with you on that point, but then again some of them have expressed a distinct preference for AF's anyway.

[optech007]

12:41 AM on 08/03/2008

When the Harold Ford ad came out, and from the comments here about this ad, the conversation is always about how these ads scare white people about black guys dating white women. Something that is never brought up is that black women also get very angry when they see a black guy, especially a successful one, dating a white woman.

[omaro]

10:23 PM on 08/02/2008

You apparently do not get the implication in the ad, which is to your credit. I suspect you are fairly young, and all the evidence suggests that younger folks in general are a lot less racially prejudiced than their elders. Believe me, though, the image of Obama linked to the images of two blond young women are meant to raise the level of racial anxiety of those people who are susceptible to it, which includes a whole lot of people of certain ages and backgrounds

[Soulsurfer]

11:48 PM on 08/02/2008

Yep, thank goodness most of our young people are growing up color blind, but for people of our generation..........well, just watch the ad without sound, and the connection can be made.

[Repub4Obama]

12:38 PM on 08/03/2008

Yup, it's going to be nice when there's nobody around anymore that was born before 1945. Greatest Generation? Yes, but also greatest racists and separatists.

[MeanGreenMachine]

08:43 PM on 08/02/2008

That's the first reading I got: Hide the white women!

[unity08]

05:24 PM on 08/02/2008

Three words: Call me, Harold.

[JNail]

01:40 PM on 08/02/2008

If it had not been for the Harold Ford ad 2 years ago I might go along with your take here but images are very powerful things and these just don''t sit right with me in that context...

[HBeachbum]

12:53 PM on 08/02/2008

We do know he likes Scarlett Johanson a bunch.

[MeanGreenMachine]

08:43 PM on 08/02/2008

Who doesn't?

[Morcat]

12:42 PM on 08/02/2008

Oh, so you've never been to The South. I can assure you that implying that a black man might like a white woman is inflammatory in the south, and it is not hesitantly expressed. As poorly done as that ad is, it will hit its mark with great accuracy, and there's no point in being naive about it.

[WitchyPooh]

01:23 PM on 08/02/2008

Picturing RockStarObama with two, dumb blonde groupies,
is NOT FUNNY racebaiting by McCain's Klanish base, to incite sexual fear in white men.
Obama IS SuperCool to nail McCain with cynicism, in that McCain must know that he is destined to only place in the horserace, as the Patriotic Martyr brave(or foolish) enough to face the Obama Landslide, and proud to uphold the democratic process. He's the perfect Republican Straw Man because it's not gonna kill him to go back to the Senate, and live long enough to retire from politics, like he's promised his wife.

[Incredulous]

12:38 PM on 08/02/2008

The smear worked with Harold Ford.

[harriscrl3]

12:30 PM on 08/02/2008

I think this ad showed a couple of things. It showed that Obama is some sort of a blond airhead bimbo and that he has appeal to young white women. I dont know if its because of the Scarlett Johanson incident.

If he wanted to show Obama was a celebrity they are other celebrities besides these two. He could have used Oparah WInfrey who Obama has met he could have used Halle Berry who is also a supporter.

Or hell he could have just used the chanting of Obama with the crowds and just say he is a celebrity. He ddint need to have a celebrity in the ad. But see they are some celebrities that are hardworking and talented but he chose these empty headed irresponsible blonds for a reason. Its an insult to Obama supporters that they are empty headed and thats the only reason someone like them would be supporting Obama. He's handsome good looking and AA so young white women would swoon over him because he is different and intriguing to them.

This is not an insult just to Obama its an insult to his supporters he is calling them airheads.

America may have come far but McCain is as old white man and a jealous one to booth.

Carol

[researcher]

02:23 PM on 08/02/2008

america come far what planet do you live on carol :-)

america is one of the most self righteous war mongering countries this world has ever known

we are so self righteous we borrow from communists, socialists, and kings to make our one sided system work and then brag how great our economic system is

47 million americans without health care says it all about americans

argueing over if the surge is working in this illegal iraq war says the rest