Operation "Deflate the Balloon:" Mission Accomplished

From Within The Veil

W.E.B. DuBois said the problem of the 20th Century would be the problem of the color line; solidly within the color line in the culture of the United States stands African Americans, obscured from view by something similar to a veil -- those within are visible behind that veil, but precisely how clearly? Those within obviously see beyond that veil, but again . . . exactly how clearly? I believe the challenge of the 21st Century will prove to be the same as the challenge of the 20th Century (the color line) but with this distinct difference: the "special" burden presented by the challenge and that burden which must be shouldered will no longer be on those from without the veil. No, the special burden in the 21st Century will be on those of us within the veil. As it should be.

This is the first of at least two parts.

There is a multifaceted yet informal series of kill shots being delivered during this Presidential campaign and African Americans are central to the action. I am calling it Operation "Deflate the Balloon" and the tip of the spear has been carried out beautifully by the John McCain campaign. Not only have they accomplished their mission, but they've done so spectacularly. Contrary to the stated opinion of many among our established pundits, who are presently obsessing about a super close electorate, Republicans have been relatively restrained this summer. There is no triumphalism. Or so it seems to me. In the midst of constant advisories about the deadlocked national vote Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan all look good for the Republicans -- at worst, win one and lose one and fight to the end in the other.

At worst.

If that's the case, Obama is a dead man walking -- politically.

Think about it: I don't remember Obama outperforming his polling in the Democrats primaries. In fact, I remember him consistently underperforming his polling. We are less than two months out, however, and time will tell all shortly. We are in the middle of an historic campaign -- more than the far left Democrats bargained for when they maneuvered Barack Obama onto the top of the ticket. It is that forced move that has allowed this informal operation, unplanned and completely serendipitous in nature, to move forward. Thank you, George Soros.

PHASE ONE -- the post-racial celebrity

Thanks to Sarah Palin, the present excitement rank-and-file Republicans feel is palpable. Political operatives would agree, I'm certain, that the smell of victory is how you keep the ground troops excited (and working) and this optimism allows your campaign to fight off manufactured October surprises and glide home on election day.

In a couple of weeks, we will be one month away from election day and so far this campaign gets an A+ on their devastatingly effective summer battle plan. I have dubbed it Operation Deflate the Balloon. The first component of the battle plan has been fairly obvious to see: deflate the balloon of Barack Obama, the post-racial celebrity.

Seizing on the opportunity so remarkably presented to it by the Obama decision to campaign in Europe, the McCain team had to be jumping with glee at the Politics 101 stupidity of it all. The initial celebrity ad skewering Obama through skillful linkage to Paris Hilton was brilliant (yeah, okay; you're famous, but why are you famous?). However, the ad had a stealth quality to it. By making a splash that appeared to be about nothing more than the emptiness of celebrity, it served as a perfect vehicle for what was to come -- deeply fundamental questions that touch upon the mythos of America. It served to fix in place the image of the Magic Negro while simultaneously being dismissive of it (and you know I liked that). The battlefield was now set.

While the "Celebrity" ad may be more famous, I can't forget "The Temple" ad. Again, it was playing off the serious Obama error that will keep giving and giving until all of the post-election analyses are concluded but pay particular attention to all of the images floated into your consciousness:

Devastating.

Notice the good ole boy white males that were menacingly flashed on the screen after the image of Obama was continually diminished? I received an eMail from a friend who saw my earlier post on The Temple/Higher Taxes/Not Ready to Lead ad and wanted to talk about it a bit. This, in part, is what was written:

---

I saw your reference to the plantation. I find it interesting that old antebellum plantations often had front porches intended to evoke the imagery of a Greek temple. The Old South combined a reverence for Athenian architecture and Spartan slave patrols with a certain exaltation of the industrial slave plantation, an ideal that Rome had imported from Carthage along with its custom of crucifixion. In any case, Barack Obama does evoke a patrician ideal.

---

Patrician. As though a member of the upper class, whether in ancient Rome, the plantation South, or present-day America. Yet he's fighting for the little man, don't you know. Where the ad shows the liberal overlords in Congress, I see plantation masters. And Obama is no plantation master. So . . . what is he, my friends? Overseer? Or . . . well, I've been asked by multiple folks to stay on the high road but I think you catch my drift.

Back to the campaign.

There is quite a bit of idle speculation still floating around concerning Hillary joining the Obama ticket as a replacement for Joe Biden. I doubt if there is any way Hillary would be so stupid as to step in just as this tanker is sinking.

What people are missing is that PUMA’s (Hillary supporters who declare "party unity my ass") are of special importance in mostly Democrat areas. They will serve to make the race closer than it ordinarily would be in blue states and the evidence of such is unmistakeable in New Jersey and New York already. In battleground states, Sarah Palin beats out Hillary straight up — because the contrast between them is so stark and Palin is so fresh in a year that demands change, change, change. Hillary getting back in the 2008 race does not change this election and she knows it. Especially since she will be in the service of a man who genuinely doesn’t know how to respect that middle-road approach the Bill Clinton worked so well in the 1990’s. That approach almost saved a non-believer (in the middle-road, that is) such as Hillary. Had she paid proper attention to the caucus states, she’d be the nominee today. If the Democrats had a normal nominating process, she’d be the nominee even with her early miscalculations.

Hillary has a fighting chance against a possible Palin bid for the Presidency in 2012 but not this year.

PHASE TWO -- the historic African American candidacy

Obama losing allows Hillary to come in afterward and not only seek but deliver serious retribution. They aren’t about to give up that opportunity. That leads me to the second component of the battle plan; deflate the balloon of Barack Obama, the historic African American candidate. If you have any doubt about how effectively the McCain campaign has seamlessly pulled this off, take a look at an opinion piece from Lynette Long in the Baltimore Sun:

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I have given my loyalty to the Democratic Party for decades. My party, which is comprised primarily of women, has not put a woman on a presidential ticket for 24 years. My party stood silently by as Hillary Clinton was eviscerated by the mainstream media. My party and its candidate gave their tacit approval for the attacks on Mrs. Clinton (and, consequently, women in general).

I can vote for my party and its candidates, which have demonstrated a blatant disrespect for women and a fundamental lack of integrity. Or I can vote for the Republican ticket, which has heard our concerns and put a woman on the ticket, but with which I fundamentally don't agree on most issues.

Right now, for me, gender trumps everything else. If Democratic women wait for the perfect woman to come along, we will never elect a woman. I will vote for McCain-Palin. I urge other women to do the same. I promise to be the first person knocking on her door if Roe v. Wade or any other legislation that goes against the rights of women is threatened. But in Governor Palin, I find a woman of integrity, who not only talks the talk but walks the walk. I can work with that. I will work with that.

---

I have tried to say to black friends for months now that African Americans have made a very serious error by completely kicking Hillary Clinton to the curb and treating her so shabbily in the process. None of it has sunk in and my commentary usually generates more venom. This is going to be a very hard lesson for black people to learn but apparently a very necessary one as well. I say necessary, because we are just that far gone as a presumptuous population. Jeff Goldstein did a good job of lampooning what passes as elite intellectual thought when he skewered Randall Kennedy's disappointing piece in the Washington Post:

---

That Obama has dropped in the polls precisely after the Republicans’ nomination of Sarah Palin to the VP slot caused an outpouring of very real “hateful, snarling, open bigotry” of this Alaskan “snowbilly” and her doublewide mafia by media elites, Beltway insiders, and those whose aversion to religion borders on the religious — a bigotry that until now had been “a vague, sophisticated, low-key prejudice that is chameleonlike in its ability to adapt to new surroundings and to hide even from those firmly in its grip (”we are the champions of the little people! The working Moms! Unless, you know — they get all presumptuous and whatnot…”) — doesn’t seem to register with Prof Kennedy.

And even if it does, he rejects it — as in fact he must. Because Kennedy’s entire argument is a pre-emptive bit of blame-placing and victimology, a careful attempt to set up the black community, who will vote for a candidate almost exclusively out of racial identification, as the victims of a subtle institutionalized racism for which their is no cure other than to simply vote for a black candidate because he is black.

And is, of course, in Prof Kennedy’s words, given to “progressive politics, cosmopolitan ethos and pragmatic style.”

In other words, an authentic black man — a man of the left.

Up is down. Black is white. Sanford is Townsend.

To me, there's no way for principled African Americans to refute this. So many of us are nothing but navel-gazing narcissists about this issue that white people are increasingly tuning us out. Entirely.

---

I keep asking black people, and will continue to do so, have you called George W. Bush a Hitler? A chimp? Stupid? Have you laughed at the outrageous slandering of Sarah Palin? Every far left liberal who has thrown out that kind of foolishness about the Governor of Alaska (the kindest thing many of them have grudgingly said is "empty suit") has telegraphed to black people exactly what they truthfully think of your grandmother, your aunt or your cousin, etc. Especially if they step off the plantation.

PHASE THREE -- the historic American candidacy

The historic American candidacy is what Barack Obama desperately wanted to run. Unfortunately for him, he's a pretender who has the misfortune of the real thing showing up right in the middle of his pretense.

Uh oh.

As I indicated in an earlier post, Guy Rundle nails the woefully mistaken error African Americans have made (of course, he's talking about Democrats but as far as Democrats are concerned and most black folks -- what the hell is the difference?) in showing the nation a categorical preference to vote as a racial bloc:

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We can't stop talking about Palin because her candidacy is not simply a clever tactical move — it's a genuine historic moment, arguably more significant than Barack Obama's rise to the Democratic candidacy. Why? Put simply, it's because the identity of men and women in a society — what they are allowed to do, what is seen as appropriate to them — really runs deeper than what different types of men — black, white, other — are allowed to do.

---

Do the math: if America votes in racial blocs across the board, do black people win? Now, lets extend that a bit further. In the phase two analysis above I presented an opinion from a white female Democrat that said gender trumps all else for her in this election. Please review and contrast the piece recently posted by Rod Dreher at BeliefNet in full. For my purposes, however, here's what I want to highlight:

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[I]f you are going to extend your empathy to the African-American who votes for Barack Obama because he sees in Obama something deep and important about himself, and finds that makes Obama trustworthy, you have to extend your empathy to the small-town, rural folks who see the same in Sarah Palin, and have confidence in her. Her experiences have given her a certain place from which she judges the world, and it’s a place shared by tens of millions of Americans — men and women whose views and values are scarcely represented in American newsrooms.

---

Doesn't that drive it home? In fact, doesn't that say it all? In my humble opinion the balloon, identity politics, has been deflated and no one is floating above an average American on a theoretically higher plane. This deflating of the identity politics balloon hasn't been completely accomplished and it will likely never be completely accomplished. However, we are now in an increasingly peer-to-peer environment, the way America is supposed to be. And Sarah Palin is the revolutionary change-agent.

Properly exposed, identity politics has a limited utility for African Americans and all other groups. Now we have a race to the finish with the McCain-Palin team clearly in front and the Obama-Biden team panicked in the rear view mirror. In my next From Within The Veil entry, which will be the second part to this entry and titled "Operation Country First," I'm going to do a quick examination of multiculturalism, feminism, Harvey Mansfield, African American women, and Sarah Palin.

Country first.

Think about it.

Comments

[gcotharn]

Thoughtful and fresh. I enjoyed this post.

[Mokey]

I so enjoyed this post and have passed it on to others. I attended the McCain rally in Tampa this morning and noticed the lack of "faces of color" in the crowd. Why are they reluctant to appear? Never mind, I know the answer and it's sad. I did see several signs that said "Tampa Latinos for McCain".

I'm looking forward to reading the next installment!

[Royce]

Your article is real insightful. I check your blog everyday to see what's to learn. Thanks.

[Greg]

You are "very well spoken and articulate".

Seriously though (that was a jab at Mr. Biden), I really respect your writing style and intellectual approach to these elections. I'm glad I just stumbled across your blog. Hopefully I don't sound cliche when I say that as a white guy, I have always respected people that break the molds of stereotypes.

Thank you.

[JewishOdysseus]

"This deflating of the identity politics balloon hasn't been completely accomplished and it will likely never be completely accomplished. However, we are now in an increasingly peer-to-peer environment, the way America is supposed to be. "

Amen to that, bro!

Rest assured, you will never be "tuned out" in this corner.

You have really been eating your Wheaties lately, JB--One home run after another!

[Ohio Boy]

Great post. I hope you're right.

RE: PUMAs -- seems to me that McCain doesn't actually need to flip these voters. He may only need to assure them an "minimally acceptable outcome" (i.e. a woman VP) in order to convince them to find something else to do on election day rather than vote for Obama, who, in their eyes, slandered Hillary during the primary, anyway.

A stay-home voter, who normally votes Democrat, would be just fine to McCain, I think.

[RattlerGator]

The stay-at-home PUMA's and the Bradley Effect have me quite serene. Barack Obama could have a 5-point lead in most swing states and it wouldn't concern me in the slightest.

Gallup can keep tweaking their polls downward re Republican registrations, etc., who cares? The Republicans are united and excited while the Reagan Democrats aren't going to vote for BLT Barry no matter what the polls say.

[EarthTone]

[1] Hmmm... is the point of this that Obama will lose white votes because he is black; or, that some white women won't vote for Obama because Palin is on the ticket?

This does not require any additional discussion. It is a given that those things are true.

The question is, are there enough of those kinds of voters that Obama cannot win? We'll see.

[2] On the speculation that H Clinton could wind up on the ticket: that is nothing but concern trolling. It has a 0% chance of happening... just like the idea of Palin dropping out due to all of her troubles is just concern trolling.

[3] It is curious that you said earlier, "Thank you George Soros." The Obama campaign is not an invention of Soros in any way.

It is more correct to say that Obama is v 2.0 of the Howard Dean campaign: better organized, better funded, with a better candidate.

[4] There is a funny spoof on Onion about Obama as a elitist, here:
http://allotherpersons.wordpress.com/2008/09/07/satire-barack-obama-is-he-black-or-a-snob/

My feeling has always been: if you're going to "call him names", it's better to say Obama's some elitist from Harvard than some souped-up negro from the hood.

If you notice: people say Obama is inexperienced; nobody says he's dumb or "lacking in smarts" on non- or anti-intellectual. It's huge that he's overcome the stereotype of a dim-witted black person.

[5] RE: Sarah Palin: you're giving her way to many props. She is NOT universally loved; in fact, she's a polarizing figure. The latest polls I've seen indicate that the GOP base - which was going to vote for McCain anyway - loves her and is energized by her. But Democrats are not impressed.

From CBS:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/17/opinion/polls/main4456249.shtml

{While Palin remains popular among McCain voters, the poll suggests that the McCain campaign may have cause for concern. More than half of registered voters do not think Palin is prepared for the job of Vice President, and even McCain supporters cite “inexperience” as what they like least about her.

Just 17 percent of registered voters say McCain chose Palin because she is well qualified for the job of Vice President. Seventy-five percent say McCain made the choice to help win the election. (Even voters backing the Republican ticket share this view: 53 percent say the Palin choice was to help McCain win in November.) }

[6] I've never thought that America was ready to elect an African American for president. But then, I never believed an African American would win the Democratic primary... and it happened. So maybe anything is possible.

An interesting article, talking about how political scientists failed to see the possibility of a black presidential candidate in the general election is here:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/election/2372/wanted-more-sophisticated-theories-of-racial-politics

My point is: sometimes vision beats theory and cynicism... not all the time, but sometimes.

[7] I believe it will all come down to (a) the debates, and (b) which candidate has higher negatives.

Lost in all of the above analysis is that, McCain is simply not a great candidate. His poll numbers result from a ruthless and scurrilous negative campaign against Obama, mastery of how to win news cycles, and Sarah Palin.

If McCain needs all of that to stay ahead, then something about him is a problem... which could cause him to lose to a black man in the race for president.

[Ohio Boy]

Yeah. Can't say I expected an excited Republican base this year. Glad it seems to have materialized at this point. If McCain stops his unforced errors, and backs off his silly immigration policy, that energy may even continue through to election day...

I can't help but hope that there is also going to be A Question That Sorta Answers Itself Effect. (I lack a more concise term, but stay with me on this one...)

Are people going to the voting booth to vote for:

1) The President and Vice President of the United States of America?

or

2) The President and Vice President of the World?

I believe that the Reagan Democrats et. al will ultimately vote for the former. There really is only one answer to that question this year -- the former Navy Captain and his convervative running mate.

This will probably bewilder and upset the Germans, who fortunately cannot vote. Given their track record of choosing German leaders over the past 100 years, though, I'd have to say that this is a feature and not a bug of the system. I can live with their disapproval, if that's the way they want it.

Country First.

[RattlerGator]

Congratulations, EarthTone, for continuing the far left tradition of being verbose in the extreme. You've given us 500-600 words but could never figure out the post was about the beginning of the end of identity politics.

Not good. But then again, when people work overtime to try and not see or hear what is staring them in the face that's what happens.

McCain, contrary to your assertion, has to be a great candidate -- how could he not be if he was closing on Obama before naming Sarah Palin in a year Democrats insist they should be winning easily. But why don't you let us worry about that, huh?

Obama isn't nearly as smart as supposed and the debates will prove it. Nor does he comprehend Country First -- and that's why he will lose this election in a landslide. Not because the country isn't ready for him or some other African American; he's not ready for the country. Which means he's the wrong black man for the job.

[RattlerGator]

And by the way, thanks to all who have commented. EarthTone, I will check out your links in the next couple of days.

[odocoileus]

The Palin bounce has already subsided. The trend is now towards Obama, without question.

The Bmore Sun column you quoted isn't relevant - the state of MD is solidly in the Obama column.

Unfortunately for ideologues like yourself, the Republicans have proven themselves corrupt and incompetent, either unwilling or unable to deliver the limited government and strong defense they so often promise.

Obama's a viable alternative. All you really have to offer against him is the "rednecks won't vote for him" canard. Maybe they won't. So what?

[RattlerGator]

Who said anything about rednecks?

But if it soothes your psyche to believe that's the extent of Barry's problems -- cool by me.

I'll be thinking of you on the first Wednesday in November.

[Greg]

And again, it's the liberals using words such as "rednecks" or the "bubba" vote. Ironically, the "progressive" party are the ones constantly playing the race card or using offensive terms toward anyone who doesn't subscribe to their twisted ideals. The plantation analogy you mentioned earler RattleGator could not be any more obvious. The liberals live off of racism. They need it to keep their party together. How utterly sad for them. It really is pathetic.

[Ohio Boy]

To reiterate our host's words from the post:

"Every far left liberal who has thrown out that kind of foolishness about the Governor of Alaska (the kindest thing many of them have grudgingly said is "empty suit") has telegraphed to black people exactly what they truthfully think of your grandmother, your aunt or your cousin, etc. Especially if they step off the plantation."

I'm pretty sure there is some truth in that statement. All that from the "tolerant" party. Strange. Or maybe not.

[odocoileus]

Nominating Palin for VP is roughly equivalent to the Dems nominating Maxine Waters for VP.

As beloved as they are in their respective small worlds, neither woman is ready to take over the top job.

That you're blind to this, when so many of the more thoughtful conservatives clearly see problems with Palin tells me that you're in major denial.

[EarthTone]

RG,

I am somewhat disappointed in your response. You say that I was "verbose" in my post. But c'mon: my comment is certainly no more verbose that your original post. If verbosity is a sin, we would both be damned.

But, my comments were very pointed, and each one was brief (2-3 sentences). It's just that, you had a lot to say, so I had a lot to say.

As to the point of the end of identity politics: this essay just doesn't move me on that point. I am thinking about what additional points I will make on the subject; we'll see if I can eventually get to that.

[EarthTone]

{And again, it's the liberals using words such as "rednecks" or the "bubba" vote.}

Nope.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-09-03-armey_N.htm

Armey: 'Bubba vote' to hurt Obama

ST. PAUL — The "Bubba vote" and underlying racism will hurt Democrat Barack Obama in key battleground states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, former House majority leader Dick Armey said Wednesday.

"The Bubba vote is there, and it's very real, and it is everywhere," Armey told USA TODAY and Gannett News Service. "There's an awful lot of people in America, bless their heart, who simply are not emotionally prepared to vote for a black man.

See also this:
http://allotherpersons.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/will-racism-prevent-white-americans-from-voting-for-barack-obama-republicans-seem-to-think-so/

Posting: Will Racism Prevent White Americans from Voting for Barack Obama?, Part 2: WSJ Doesn’t Think So; Republicans Do.

[RattlerGator]

You have a point, EarthTone, in that the eMail thing really disgusted me last night and that was dominant in my mind when I responded to you.

You made the mistake, however, of submitting a long-ass response to a post and that is a pet-peeve of mine. Every point you raised could have been part of the evolving conversation. I'll never understand this liberal need (and I have seen it all over the web) to bombard people with long-ass responses. Believe me when I tell you, they are counterproductive.

Finally: yes, my post was long this is *my* blog. Stick around; history is going to be made and we might as well talk about it.

[Doug in Colorado]

Cool logic, excellent reasoning, and thoughtful analysis, RG...I came here from Baldilock's trackback, and was delighted and impressed.

As shown by the counter protests at both conventions, though, there's a small but considerable bunch out there, white/black whatever, who will use any excuse to rage against the "machine"...and incite others to do so as well. The Denver police were clever enough to scout out and remove some of the protesters stashes of bagged urine and feces...the St.Paul police were not quite smart enough to put teams on the overpasses and prevent "anarchists" from dropping cement bags on a couple of buses...intimidation and interference that could have been murder.

For the sake of this country, when (not if) Obama loses, let's hope and pray it's not a replay of the Rodney King riots...for all our sakes.

[JewishOdysseus]

JB, I smell a lefty troll-spam attack...As a great American calls them, "seminar" posters.

These people are trained by the Soros/Obama operation to distract/divert/waste the time of effective bloggers on the Net. I guess you shd take it as a backhand compliment...

Getting back to the inherent Chi-town criminality of the Oblama, let's review just the past 2 weeks:

1) Riots/assaults in Minnesota
2) Jill Goldberg defrauds the McCain campaign
3) Now it looks like a Dem activist/son of a Dem congressman was the one who broke Federal laws against Sarah Palin.

[these are just the ones WE KNOW ABOUT...]

Say what you want about "crippled old POWs" or "Alaska rednecks," but they somehow manage to avoid BREAKING THE LAW.

Americans don't like gangsterism. The Klintons were shrewd about hiding theirs. Oblama and his gang aren't even clever or subtle.

[bour3]

This is the clearest arrangement of statements I've read so far.

*bookmarks*

[bour3]

This is the clearest arrangement of statements I've read so far.

*bookmarks*

[Greg]

I find it disgusting that this story of Palin's email being hacked are nowhere to be found on Google new's home page anywhere. You actually have to dig to find any information about it. Ironically, if this would have been Biden's email or Obama's email, there would be a full out assault from the left to have McCain and Palin drawn and quartered for this. I have been reading comments from the left that this is somehow Sarah Palin's fault for using Yahoo email "to conduct government business", when in essence all they found were pictures of her kids... I am disgusted.

[JewishOdysseus]

Notice how the dad of the filthy young hacker Kernell is "dummying up," i.e., NOT COOPERATING WITH A FEDERAL CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION...THE GUY IS A TENNESSEE LAWMAKER!!

Isn't that "obstructing justice"? Why isn't every microphone east of the Mississippi jammed up this bastard's snothole? "Ohhhhhh, he's standing up for Sonny-Boy, isn't that nice..."

John Erlichman, call your office!