McCain's Major Meltdown

By Adam Howard

In the wake of several new polls showing Barack Obama's lead widening in the presidential race--which has been attributed to the public's perception that he is the better candidate on the economy--John McCain has made a stunning announcement.

He has requested that their foreign-policy themed debate, long scheduled for this Friday, be postponed so that he and Senator Obama can reach a bipartisan solution to the ongoing economic crisis. Here is an excerpt from McCain's statement:

Last Friday, I laid out my proposal and I have since discussed my priorities and concerns with the bill the Administration has put forward. Senator Obama has expressed his priorities and concerns. This morning, I met with a group of economic advisers to talk about the proposal on the table and the steps that we should take going forward. I have also spoken with members of Congress to hear their perspective.

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September 24, 2008

Thank God for Barbara Walters?

By Adam Howard

I never thought I'd say this--but thank God for Barbara Walters. I have been waiting patiently for the election's narrative to shift from pigs wearing lipstick to the issues, but I never thought that the usually grating hosts of The View would help supply it. On a day when Obama launched fresh, stronger ads taking on McCain, Sarah Palin's husband was subpoenaed because of "Trooper-gate" and Palin finally admitted that she had indeed once supported the "Bridge to Nowhere"--The View made the front page of the New York Times website. Why? Because unlike so many other mainstream journalists right now, Barbara Walters actually did her job yesterday.

John McCain appeared on her show Friday morning in an obvious atempt to pander to its audience of mostly middle aged, white women. According to recent polls, the choice of Palin as a running mate has helped McCain make serious inroads with that demographic and he must have assumed an easy, softball interview on The View would only continue to improve his fortunes. Especially since the show features one of his most unambiguously eager beaver supporters, right-winger Elisabeth Hasselbeck. But instead the show's only experienced journalist, Barbara Walters, flanked by entertainers Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg took John McCain to task on a host of real issues like Palin's experience (or lack thereof), abortion and earmarks. To say that McCain was floundering would be a tremendous understatement. Take this exchange and analysis from the New York Times for instance:

Ms. Walters also noted that Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin have said that her job will be to reform Washington. But, she pointed out, Mr. McCain has been in Congress for 22 years, the Republicans have been in the White House for eight years, so who, exactly, is Ms. Palin going to reform?

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September 13, 2008

The Short Attention Span Society

By Adam Howard

I wake up this morning and The Today Show informs me that suddenly after a week of hearing about Obama's post-convention bounce, John McCain is now ahead and has all the momentum. Supposedly white women voters, who as recently as last week were supporting Obama nearly 10 percent more than McCain, were now supporting McCain 12 percent more than Obama. Naturally the on-air pundits attributed nearly all of this to the surprise addition of Sarah Palin to the GOP ticket, but would that many white female voters simply switch sides like that? Are they that ideologically flexible?

I have this regular debate with my fellow progressive friends about whether voters are simply stupid. I always play devil's advocate and argue that the voters are not stupid, just misinformed. That a barrage of 24-hour cable news numbs them and makes them more susceptible than they should be to the ignorant and blatantly false arguments of the right. But lately I haven't been so sure.

It's not that the Obama campaign is flawless or has perfected its messaging--it hasn't. But by all accounts McCain's convention speech was a dud. He didn't address the number one issue in the country--the economy--in any remotely substantive way, he was heckled, stood in front a picture of a high school (that was meant to be Walter Reed Hospital), chewed up most of his air-time recounting his days as a POW--which literally every speaker before him had already done--and was thoroughly upstaged (and continues to be) by his own running mate. This should have been a recipe for disaster, right?

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September 9, 2008

Rush's "Magic Negro" Routine

By Adam Howard

Rush Limbaugh has obviously learned nothing from the outrage and anger unleashed by Don Imus' unfortunate "nappy headed ho's" remark. Never one to shy away from unfunny "humor", Limbaugh recently played a song parody on his radio show in which an Al Sharpton impersonator (played with stereotypical gusto) sings a song filled with idiotic assumptions about black people and dripping with ignorance called "Barack the Magic Negro".

Perhaps this kind of garbage (set to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon") is someone's cup of tea. Limbaugh does have millions of listeners and they do adore of much of what the man says. Whether he's lampooning former President Clinton's daughter or suggesting Michael J. Fox is exaggerating the effects of his Parkinson's disease. So I don't expect his listeners to desert him over this. What does surprise me is that Vice President Dick Cheney among other major conservatives is still a regular guest on Limbaugh's show and I don't anticipate the kind of repudiations that Don Imus received over his transgression from him or anyone else on the right with regards to Limbaugh.

It is true that Imus was chided because he was on a national cable news network and was perhaps less associated with being a provocateur than Limbaugh. But I still think Cheney and his ilk should refuse to appear on Limbaugh's show from now on. I wonder, will there be any outcry? Are people becoming so desensitized to this now that they just don't care about the inevitable phony apology and/or Al Sharpton protest. I'd like to see calls for Limbaugh's removal not just from the black community but from the supporters of the president and vice-president who are not racist, who don't find "jokes" like "Barack The Magic Negro" funny.

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April 25, 2007

Post-Imus Fatigue

By Adam Howard

For those of you who think Don Imus got a bad rap, and you know who you are, how do you defend this Maya Angelou poem parody a producer on his show read last month?

"Whitey plucked you from the jungle; for too many years took away your pride, your dignity and your spears."

My guess is you can't and you don't because just like most of Mr. Imus' "comedy" it ‘s about cruelty rather than wit or insight. In fact, I would argue that it's even more offensive than the now infamous "nappy headed ho's" remark which ultimately lost him both of his high profile, high paying jobs. Yet it was usually simply shrugged off or excused as the madcap antics of one of our beloved American shock jocks.

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April 13, 2007

No More Imus

By Adam Howard

Black people have a great sense of humor about themselves. I don't just say this because I happen to be black but because there's ample evidence to support this. For instance, arguably the most celebrated black comedians (Richard Pryor, Chris Rock come to mind) have been self-deprecating when it comes to the subject of race. Yet there was nothing remotely funny, incisive or somewhat excusable about radio personality Don Imus' remark about the black players on Rutgers' women's basketball team.

For those of you not in the know, he referred to them as "nappy headed ho's". This is not the first foray into racially insensitive rhetoric from Mr. Imus. He's also notoriously referred to respected black PBS anchorwoman Gwen Ifill as a "cleaning lady" and has been known to regularly use the epithet "ragheads" when referring to Arabs. Yet unlike his similarly politically incorrect, but I'd argue more entertaining counterpart Howard Stern, Imus has somehow managed to gain some semblance of mainstream political acceptance.

Left-wing politicians like John Edwards and John Kerry have enthusiastically appeared on his show and while they've never, as far as I know, gone so far as to endorse Mr. Imus' views--by appearing on his program they've more or less implied that they aren't offended enough by them to not be his guest. He even headlined a White House correspondents' dinner in 1996, although he promptly bombed after making off-color jokes about the First Lady.

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April 9, 2007

Tancredo the Terrible

By Adam Howard

Rep. Tom Tancredo displays all the qualities of an ignorant, xenophobic racist and yet he has recently taken a stand against what he considers to be discrimination. Last week, the long-shot candidate for the Republican nomination in 2008 called for the abolition of both the Hispanic and Black caucuses in Congress. Tancredo claimed, "If we are serious about the goal of a color-blind society, Congress should lead by example and end these divisive, race-based caucuses." To say that Tancredo is a peculiar figure to pontificate on the virtues of unity and color-blindness is probably one of the understatements of the year.

Tancredo (R-CO) has made his name as an anti-immigration zealot, championing all the most extreme positions on the issue and saying the most uproariously offensive things in the process. "Look at what has happened to Miami," Tancredo said after last November's elections, "It has become a third world country. You just pick it up and take it and move it someplace. You'd never know you're in the United States of America."

Even more alarming was his appearance revealed last September by the Southern Poverty Law Center at a barbecue hosted by the South Carolina chapter of League of the South (LOS), a group that prides itself in defending and celebrating the Confederacy and everything it stood for. At $15 per plate fundraiser Tancredo appeared at a podium draped in the Confederate flag with a portrait of Robert E. Lee behind him. By the end of this speech Tancredo was flanked by LOS members and he joined them in singing "Dixie". Tancredo said that there's nothing wrong with singing what is seen by most African Americans as a hateful ode to slavery "if the spirit moves you."

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January 29, 2007

In Defense of Obama

By Adam Howard

Ever since Sen. Barack Obama announced the beginning of an exploratory committee to run for president in 2008, there has been a tremendous amount of excitement that has spread outside the traditional circle of pundits and political power brokers. The media is eager to dissect this excitement, to question it, to hold it up to ridicule. Make no mistake, this excitement is real and it is something progressives should be applauding, not deriding.

As Sen. Obama has said Americans "are looking for something different--we want something new." Obama is more than something new though. He is the first potential Democratic candidate who's mustered the charisma, energy and promise of Bill Clinton, unsurprisingly the last Democrat who won the presidency. He's an articulate and appealing speaker. He is the only serious contender for the nomination who has had the right position on the most important issue of the day (Iraq) since the very beginning of that conflict (he opposes the war and wants a redeployment of troops). He presents an opportunity to bring a ethnic diversity to the White House for the first time.

Yet progressives are skeptical. They assail his voting record, when it's actually one of the most progressive we have to choose from. They question his experience when two of our greatest presidents, Kennedy and Lincoln could barely boast of having more in their days. Even African-Americans have succumbed to negative doubts. Robert Ford, a black state senator from South Carolina who supports John Edwards said, "We in the South don't believe America is ready to elect a black President".

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January 18, 2007

This Just In from Pat Robertson

By Adam Howard

Pat Robertson, that wise prognosticator you all know and love has a brand new prediction for his flock: millions of them will most likely die at the end of this new year. On his incredibly classless program The 700 Club, where last year Robertson proved what a good Christian he was by calling for Venezuela's Hugo Chavez to be killed, he announced that God has told him of a "mass killing" coming at the end of '07.

"The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that," Robertson stated matter-of-factly. God apparently delivers these cataclysmic predictions on a regular basis to Robertson's doorstep. Last year God told Robertson that a tsunami would probably slam against our country. ( I guess God was just playing a practical joke.)

Who knows why this terrible "mass killing" is bound to occur? Something tells me Robertson will link it to the incoming Democratic Congress or perhaps the existence of abortion rights and homosexuals. Whatever reason he cites you can be sure it is meant to manipulate and malign, because that's what Robertson does best.

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January 2, 2007

Death of a Moderate

By Adam Howard

When I think about the passing of Gerald Ford several things come to mind: that unforgivable pardon of Nixon, his unfortunate participation on the Warren Commission, even Chevy Chase's mercilessly funny parody of Ford on the early days of Saturday Night Live. But his death represents something else to me, something fundamental about the current political landscape.

Ford, despite a brief tenure in office, has had reaching influence. As Jon Weiner pointed out, the leadership of Justice John Paul Stevens and the ascension of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney all lead back to Ford. But also he was one of the last of a dying breed: the moderate Republican.

By today's standards Ford was a real moderate Republican --maybe even a liberal. In 1976 when Ford ran for re-election he was besieged on both sides. The left wing never forgave him for pardoning Nixon while the right didn't like his extension of détente policies with regards to Communism. They also didn't like the presence of a moderate Republican on his ticket, in the form of Nelson Rockefeller.

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December 27, 2006