We Actually Have A Control Group
It is going to be a really, really, really long four or eight years if the Obama Administration and much of the left insists on declaring that anyone who dares to criticize a black President in racist. The most recent example, of course, are frequent charges that critics of the health care reform are motivated by racism.
It is already clear that this Administration intends to raise the unverifiable claim to a new state of the art (3 million jobs saved or created!) But the interesting thing about the health care - racism link is that in this particular case, we actually have a really good control group -- the first term of the Clinton administration.
In 1993, the Clinton administration embarked on a double secret effort to redesign the health care industry under government authority. As details of the plan leaked out, many folks went nuts. Commercials aired in key districts attacking various portions of the proposals and raising fears all around. People were so ticked off that in the 1994 mid-term electi0ns, Democrats lost control of Congress for the first time in many decades, an election trouncing generally credited first and foremost to health care proposals.
Its not like the Obama administration is unaware of this example. Many if Obama's approaches to the health care legislation this year are intentional changes from Clinton's approach. Obama's rush to pass legislation that does not really start getting implemented until 2013 by the August 2009 recess was clearly an attempt to prevent opponents from gearing up campaigns against the bill as they did with Clinton's.
But here is the really interesting part. I could have this wrong, but I could swear Clinton is a member of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant oppressor race. If so, the implication is that people went bonkers in 1993-1994 over health care plans for some political reason, but people who go bonkers in 2009 over many of the same plan points are racist? Does this pass any kind of smell test?
What is really going on is that a bunch of people who have never held a productive job, being politicians for life, and who have bought into their own "dedicated public servant" marketing are suddenly shocked to find that they and their efforts are not universally appreciated. When someone has the bubble burst on their manufactured self-image, their reaction is seldom pretty.
Fred from Canuckistan . . .:
Meanwhile, in the new post racial ere drawing its leadership from the Obama White House . . .
"A racially charged activist group called “Color of Change†founded by Van Jones, a special advisor to the Obama Administration, is trying to silence popular radio and Fox News personality Glenn Beck by calling for a boycott of Beck’s TV advertisers.
On July 28th, Beck made a comment on the Fox & Friends morning show about Obama’s reaction to the arrest of Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. During the discussion of “Professor-Gate,†Beck connected the President’s past association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright to Obama’s comment that Cambridge police officer, Sgt. James Crowley, acted stupidly. Though Beck acknowledged most of the Obama administration is in fact white, he concluded that the President’s world experience made him a “racist.â€
Now “Color of Change†has bullied at least five of Beck’s big advertisers -- SC Johnson, Progressive Insurance, Geico, Procter & Gamble and Nexus Lexis -- to pull their ads from Beck’s national cable program. Jones, the founder of “Color of Change,†was named Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality -- a key administrative post -- this past March.
Putting tax-payer dollars to dubious use, the not-for-profit organization has hired well-heeled Hollywood publicist Ken Sunshine to further instigate the boycott.
Developing… "
August 13, 2009, 2:30 pmDr. T:
"It is going to be a really, really, really long four or eight years if the Obama Administration and much of the left insists on declaring that anyone who dares to criticize a black President in racist."
It is going to be a really, really, really long twelve, or sixteen, or twenty-four years if Obama gets the 22nd amendment repealed (or just works around it like his pal from Honduras, President Manuel Zelaya).
August 13, 2009, 3:46 pmRick:
I know this is a bit off topic, but relevant to Obama...
Has anyone been following what's happening in CA's Central Valley. The government turned off the water because allegedly an endangered minnow was found in it. Farms are drying up, unemployment is catastrophic, production is in steep decline and apparently few in government and the Obama administration care.
This is the only link I've found so far on this developing story...
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=23567
August 13, 2009, 5:13 pmRick:
correction... apparently nobody in the Obama administration cares about what's happening in CA's central valley.
August 13, 2009, 5:16 pmMesa Econoguy:
What is really going on is that a bunch of people who have never held a productive job, being politicians for life, and who have bought into their own “dedicated public servant†marketing are suddenly shocked to find that they and their efforts are not universally appreciated.
And these people are backed by other self-appointed intelligentsia/arbiters of truth from an insulated, uninformed academic background, who are caught off guard by reality like startled deer.
August 13, 2009, 5:18 pmRebecca:
"I could have this wrong, but I could swear Clinton is a member of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant oppressor race."
Certainly not! Don't you remember? Clinton was "the first black President".
"What is really going on is that a bunch of people who have never held a productive job, being politicians for life, and who have bought into their own “dedicated public servant†marketing are suddenly shocked to find that they and their efforts are not universally appreciated."
Well put.
August 13, 2009, 5:45 pmDoug:
What the hell is everyone surprised about? It was well known that 1) the commies who call themselves "progressive" (whom I call regressive) are a bunch of nutcases, and 2) Obama was a flat out communist himself. Where's the surprise that we're getting all of these communist policies? "Change." He's doing it. Where's the surprise? "Change." Why? What was so wrong with "status quo"? It was a great system, but we have to tear it down ... why?
Some of us may be pissed off, but there are still far too many more folks on the other side who think all of this is just dandy. That he's "caving," and not going far enough.
The only answer is to split the country. Give them their communist democracy and we'll go back to a Constitutional Republic.
You want democracy? Then this is what you get!
August 13, 2009, 7:30 pmDKN:
Hmmm, since I'm 1/4 of a biracial family that opposes Obamacare, are we 1/4 racist?
But seriously, I've got a question for Mr. President: Given your stoutly held belief that it is unconstitutional for the government to intrude into, ie., to regulate or restrict, the intimately personal decision to abort, whence comes the constitutional authority to intrude into the intimately personal, ie., literally life and death, decisions regarding medical care and end of life?
August 14, 2009, 2:26 pmMethinks:
If we can't criticize a president or a judge because of their race, then that's a good reason to never have minority judges or presidents. The left breeds racism like bacteria.
August 14, 2009, 3:47 pmeCurmudgeon:
I seem to recall that back in the HillaryCare(tm) days, anyone who dared to criticize it was called "sexist".
August 14, 2009, 4:28 pmValens:
Unfortunately, the marketing push behind this will be massive - much greater in extent than before - and this may be able to push perspective and opinion far enough and just long enough to get this done.
August 15, 2009, 2:47 pm