Hypocrite Howie calls NC GOP’S Wright/Obama ad “racially divisive”
Jim Geraghty notes with quotes from the past the sheer hypocrisy of the DNC Chair Howard Dean when it comes to his accusations of “racial divisiveness.” What Dean said today:
“This is a test of leadership for John McCain. If he can’t pick up the phone and make members of his own party stop airing a television ad he claims to oppose, how can he lead our country through an economic crisis or the war in Iraq? After shifting his positions on gun control, immigration and tax cuts throughout this campaign, McCain should not equivocate on this issue. Making a show of releasing your emails to the press is not leadership. If he is serious, he will get this ad pulled.”
In addition to Geraghty’s quotes which prove Dean is a flaming hypocrite on this issue, here’s one from back in February that I wrote about:
Howard Dean showed up to talk about Black History Month but the focus quickly changed to politics Tuesday night in ICC Auditorium.
The Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and former Governor of Vermont contrasted the two parties’ presidential candidates, saying that with a woman and an African-American as the two front-runners, the Democratic field “looks like America” while the all-white male Republican field “looks like the 1950s and talks like the 1850s.”
Dean wants to talk about McCain’s “lack of leadership” on this issue, but that is an absurd accusation considering the decades of Democrat party and mainstream media (but I repeat myself) complicity in letting racist black Democrats get away with incendiary remarks that really are racially divisive – remarks that neither he, nor other prominent members of his party are keen to denounce because they’re so desperate to keep their hold on the black vote – so much so that they are willing to let racist members of their own party get away with demagoguing the issue and throwing out false accusations of racism against not just Republicans, but Democrats as well, when the occasion presents itself. Instead of denouncing the comments, lying hypocrites like Howard Dean display a cowardice far bigger than the earth’s so-called “carbon footprint” because allowing the comments to stand without tackling them head on just keeps the racial pot stirred and as a result, keeps people divided, and makes it harder to move foward beyond the racially divisive issues of the past.
But come to think of it, that’s exactly what they want (see first paragraph), isn’t it? So completely and utterly reprehensible.
Just one more reason I thank God I had a wake-up call in the early to mid-90s and rejected liberalism – forever.
Related: In another post at Campaign Spot, Geraghty thinks there’s a method to McCain’s madness re: his condemnation of the Wright/Obama ad:
We never see Obama denounce any of these [insulting] remarks [made by other Democrats about McCain], (heaven forbid he do so in front of a camera like McCain does) or ever call anyone out as inappropriate.
The DNC chops up McCain’s quote, and Obama doesn’t object. A liberal group makes a web ad mocking McCain’s age, and Obama doesn’t object. Jimmy Carter goes overseas to hug Hamas leaders, and Obama says he doesn’t approve, but he can’t do anything about it.
One guy says he’s going to unite the country, and is running on hope, but when his surrogates try to kneecap an opponent, we get these milquetoast disapproving statements from press aides. But when somebody on McCain’s team does something that’s even remotely controversial, the senator denounces it in front of the cameras.
One guy walks the walk, the other guy just talks the talk. And the frustrated independents, exhausted from nasty politics, will notice this.
He makes some good points, but I think McCain should have been more diplomatic on the ad rather than denounce it in the manner that he did. These issues speak to character, and as someone who is trying to, in part, make his character a selling point in his campaign, the Mc should understand why the Wright/Obama connection is an important one to explore and study. Not only that, but McCain’s still got his conservative base to worry about, and his forceful criticism of the ad did nothing to help on that front and in fact, may have hurt him some.