Let me first apologize for not posting here in so long. I've been so busy that I haven't had time to do two posts in a day....sometimes not even one post a day for my other responsibility ...and of course the pressures of a Mayoral Campaign, pending Capital Improvements Budget, personnel crisis (not really ...just hyped to make a political issue out of it ..see "Mayoral Campaign" above) and a ton of other little issues make blogging a hit or miss issue.
I would like to post more about the local issues involved in this campaign but I noticed on STATCOUNTER that a computer that could only come from the opposition camp has been very frequently visiting this blog...or at least was a week ago... I am closely associated with one candidate and I certainly don't want anything I say here to be used in a campaign speech, news release, newspaper advertisement, or campaign blog against my preferred candidate. So I'll be a bit cautious. I wish I could be more candid but unfortunately it would be counter-productive to do so.
So
About that ad...
By now I'm sure almost anyone with even the most minute bit of interest in the Democratic Nomination campaign has seen or heard of the Clinton Campaign's ad entitled "It's 3 AM and somewhere in Washington, a phone is ringing." Of course, the surface implication of the ad is that only Hillary Clinton has the experience to answer the "red phone" in the White House at 3 AM.
As you might has also seen, the ad has been attacked on several
different levels and parodied on an even larger number of levels. James Wolcott of Vanity Fair writes about a particularly outlandish stupid analysis of the ad. Here's the gist of it:
I would like to post more about the local issues involved in this campaign but I noticed on STATCOUNTER that a computer that could only come from the opposition camp has been very frequently visiting this blog...or at least was a week ago... I am closely associated with one candidate and I certainly don't want anything I say here to be used in a campaign speech, news release, newspaper advertisement, or campaign blog against my preferred candidate. So I'll be a bit cautious. I wish I could be more candid but unfortunately it would be counter-productive to do so.
So
About that ad...
By now I'm sure almost anyone with even the most minute bit of interest in the Democratic Nomination campaign has seen or heard of the Clinton Campaign's ad entitled "It's 3 AM and somewhere in Washington, a phone is ringing." Of course, the surface implication of the ad is that only Hillary Clinton has the experience to answer the "red phone" in the White House at 3 AM.
As you might has also seen, the ad has been attacked on several
different levels and parodied on an even larger number of levels. James Wolcott of Vanity Fair writes about a particularly "...., and the Daily Howler's Bob Somerby is scathing on the troubled thoughts that Patterson can't help but think even if those thoughts are hobgoblins of his own imagination:
..The uneasy professor "ha[s] spent [his] life studying the pictures and symbols of racism and slavery." Another person might have put that sort of work to good use, but Patterson is left with "scenes from the past" that come to his mind—with things he "couldn’t help but think." Of course, fools that we are, we all have things we’re inclined to think—reactions we're inclined to have, thoughts that instantly pop into consciousness. But to the extent that we have trained our minds, we then subject such reactions to analysis. Sorry, but Patterson doesn't go there much. Later on, he again reports the things he "could not help but think." Soon, he’s throwing the r-word around quite a bit, based on things he "could not help but think."
[snip]
Patterson offers interpretations of this ad that are, simply speaking, inane. For that reason, it's sad to see him boo-hoo-hooing about the way some people "may" or "could" be "trading on the darkened memories of a twisted past Obama has struggled to transcend." Part of our history with which Obama has struggled (quite brilliantly, in our view) is the requiremen--lodged in the brains of many professor--that every incident in the world must be given a racial reading. Obama has struggled against that quite brilliantly. (It's a shame that he's had to do it. Just think of the other social problems this brilliant man might have solved.) But race men like Patterson have played this dumb card ever step of the way in the past four months. They've played this card inanely befor--but never as inanely as this.
See what I mean? Everybody seems to be using the Clinton ad as some sort of Rosarch test upon which they hang their own personal fears and bigotries....pretty bad huh?
Well, hold on. I've got one more for you.
My own problem with Clinton's ad is that is solidifies the Republican narrative about the state of our nation today. Their narrative is and has been the same since Sept 12, 2001 :
FEAR
Hillary is selling you the image that you must live in fear unless and only unless, you elect her to the Presidency. It's primal. We need to protect our young so she shows picture of innocent little rug-rats sleeping the sleep of the just in their beds and a conscientious Mom looking in on them to be sure they are safe.....while a crisis looms somewhere else....the red phone is ringing.
But relax. We're safe. We're safe only because Hillary is answering the phone.
The message is no more complex than that. There is no racial underpinning to it, much less any veiled reference to "Birth of A Nation" and the KKK. No. It's the same, old, worn out Republican narrative coming to us from the warm and safe confines of OUR Democratic candidate for the Presidency.
Be Afraid.
Be VERY Afraid.
I CALL BULLSHIT!
