Miss Jackson, If You're Nasty
In round two of the Eggheads vs. Warriors debate, Noemie Emery picks up where Michael Barone left off, contrasting the soon-to-be conventional wisdom that Newsweek is pushing (all opposition to Obama is racial) against the more likely theory that Obama's weakness among white working-class voters is based on, well, his inherent weakness as an "Academician." She describes the Newsweek Doctrine:
In this view--let us call it the Newsweek Doctrine--race is the issue, and the big years in history were 1964 and 1965, when Lyndon B. Johnson did the Right Thing, signing the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, and consigning his party to electoral darkness by losing the South for the next several eons. By these lights, bigotry and fear are the main factors, and all the others are thinly masked surrogates for them. If Obama loses, this will be the excuse of the campaign and of the press that supports it.
As opposed to the Barone Manifesto:
The second school of thought admits the presence of bias as a contributing factor, but not the most important one. The real cause, it thinks, is a cultural divide among whites that splits them on matters of worldview and attitude into hostile and competing camps. Let us call this rival approach the Barone Manifesto, after its author, political analyst Michael Barone, who crunched the poll numbers for Obama's primary battles with Hillary Clinton and discovered that while the former did exceedingly well with white voters in university towns and state capitals, he did poorly almost everywhere else. From this, Barone broke the electorate down into two large divisions--academics and state employees who live in these places, whom he calls Academicians, and Jacksonians, who live elsewhere, especially in the regions close to the Appalachian mountains.
Emery then stacks Academicians and Jacksonians side by side --- anything sound familiar?:
Academicians traffic in words and abstractions, and admire those who do likewise. Jacksonians prefer men of action, whose achievements are tangible. Academicians love nuance, Jacksonians clarity; academicians love fairness, Jacksonians justice; academicians dislike force and think it is vulgar; Jacksonians admire it, when justly applied. Each side tends to look down on the other, though academicians do it with much more intensity: Jacksonians think academicians are inconsequential, while academicians think that Jacksonians are beneath their contempt.
Which brings me back to my photoshop up top. There's Obama, wearing the manifestation of modern nanny-state vanity, the bike helmet. The most physical danger Obama has ever encountered is the chance of reeling headfirst over his handle bars, as opposed to warrior Democrat Andrew Jackson, who endured more danger and violence in his childhood than Obama has in his entire lifetime:
During the American Revolutionary War, Jackson, at age thirteen, joined a local regiment as a courier. Andrew and his brother Robert Jackson were captured by the British, and held as prisoners of war; they nearly starved to death in captivity. When Andrew refused to clean the boots of a British officer, the irate redcoat slashed at him with a sword, giving him scars on his left hand and head, as well as an intense hatred for the British.
As Emery concludes:
...the first credible black candidate to be running for president of the world's greatest power is also one of the least Jacksonian candidates who ever drew breath.
(h/t: memeorandum)
UPDATE: Elsewhere in the Emery piece, she wonders what might happen should a black Jacksonian appear on the scene. See-dubya has found one (and thanks for the link).
Absolutely brilliant post, Cuffy.
The ridiculousness of Obama biking in that helmet and how that serves as an excellent symbol of his nanny-state proclivities didn't occur to me until I read this.
You smart like bull.
Posted by: Rosetta | June 14, 2008 at 12:35 PM
I doubt BHO was wearing a helmet when he was a kid. What changed? The Nanny State decreed it. Even our aspiring leader is a slave to the Nanny State.
Posted by: geb4000 | June 14, 2008 at 01:12 PM
Beautifully expressed ... and thanks for the link in Ace of Spades HQ that led me here! You go right in my "Conservatives Like Me" favorites file.
Posted by: Fred | June 14, 2008 at 01:26 PM
Barack Obama was alone in the playground playing with some blocks.“Now that that mean lady is gone, I’m gonna be pesident,” he said to himself.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad slowly crept near him.“Hello, little Barry.”
Obama waved at him enthusiastically.“Hi! I’m Barack Obama, and I’ve been in the Senate...” He held up three fingers.“...this many years and now I’m gonna be pesident.”
“I heard!” Mahmoud sat down next to him.“So what are you up to?”
Obama stacked some more blocks.“I’m building a prison for all the mean people who don’t want to pay for universal healthcare and own guns.”
“It looks nice. Anyway, I think we should go somewhere and talk.” Mahmoud pointed to his van parked next the playground.
Obama suddenly became cautious.“My campaign manager said I’m not supposed to talk to dictators.”
“That’s crazy!” Mahmoud said.“I’m the democratically elected president of Iran. Shouldn’t you be able to talk to a leader of a country like me.”
Obama was hesitant.“I dunno.”
“And we both want American out of Iraq... I just work towards that end more actively. Shouldn’t we talk so we can better combine our energies to achieve a goal we both want.”
“Maybe... but my campaign manager told me...”
“And I lost my puppy and need your help finding him,” Mahmoud told him.
“Your puppy! Oh no! Where did you lose him?”
“Israel took him!” Mahmoud narrowed his eyes.“I will wipe them off the map.”
Obama was cautious again.“I really think I’m supposed to stay here.”
“But I have candy!”
“Yay! Candy!” Obama screamed as he scampered off towards Mahmoud’s van.
********
“This just in: Senator Barack Obama has made a deal with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to cut off all ties with Israel in exchange for five candy bars,” the anchorman said.
“I heard Ahmadinejad tried to only give him only four candy bars,” the anchorwoman commented,“but Obama negotiated him up to five. He is so shrewd. I just love him so much. I want to give myself to him sexually.”
The anchorman nodded.“Me too. I bet he has soft hands. Anyway, John McCain, who I remind you is very old, was quick to condemn Obama’s diplomacy, calling Obama a ‘little whippersnapper’ and told him and all his buddies to stay off his lawn.”
“I guess he doesn’t like black people,” the anchorwoman added.
The anchorman nodded again.“He is a Republican.”
Posted by: Alan Trout | June 14, 2008 at 11:55 PM
That's impressive, Alan Trout.
Sadly a fitting analogy, I'm afraid.
Posted by: Rosetta | June 15, 2008 at 02:04 PM