Therefore, no one remotely familiar with American politics is surprised that muckraking in campaign rhetoric and TV ads has fallen to an all-time low this year. For example, the Republican candidate running against Senator Hillary Clinton in New York called her a “lesbian wildebeest” transformed by millions of dollars in plastic surgery; and liberal supporters of the white Democratic candidate running against black Republican Lt Governor Michael Steele for the Senate in Maryland published caricatures of Steele as little black Sambo and mocked him mercilessly as an Uncle Tom.
So, given this standard of campaigning, which is being played out all over the country, I was struck by the way mainstream media have reported on the inevitable racial flare-up between Ford and Corker (seen here last weekend when Ford ambushed Corker at his press conference).
Because, notwithstanding the veritable street fight their race has become, what Democrats are calling a racist slur by Corker against Ford pales in comparison to the racial antics Democrats have not only condoned but actually perpetrated in races like Steele’s and others. For example, I invite you to click here to see how these same racially-sensitive Democrats tarred and feathered Senator Joe Lieberman, a fellow Democrat no less, purportedly because he, unlike Hillary and John Kerry, was too principled in his support for the Iraq war.
But I could not have anticipated that within hours of publishing Tuesday’s article on the prospect of black Barack Obama running for president of the United States (in which I made the following reference to Ford) that he would be at the center of a national racial controversy:
…I suspect his almost-white complexion is what makes Harold Ford of Tennessee so attractive to whites in that state. But it will be instructive for Obama to see how many whites actually vote for Ford two weeks from today in his race to join Obama in the U.S. Senate.
In this case, Corker’s Republican supporters ran a TV ad featuring a young white actress playing the stereotype of a dumb blonde who coos about meeting Ford, a 36-year-old bachelor who is black, “at the Playboy party.” At the end of the ad, she winks and says to the camera, “Harold — call me.”
And, despite the fact that Corker publicly denounced the ad as “over the top, tacky and not reflective of the kind of campaign we are running”, and even demanded those running it to pull it off the air, Democrats have accused him of playing the race card. (Never mind that, by his own admission, Ford is a playboy who likes to party with white playboy bunnies. )
But then, on Tuesday, NBC, the NAACP and a host of national news and (liberal) political organizations jumped into this local, and relatively clean, campaign fight with the moral indignation of abolitionists taking up the cause of Dred Scott. And suddenly, this tongue-in-cheek reference to Ford’s bachelor peccadilloes became the racial crime of the century, with the NAACP protesting that it:
…plays to preexisting prejudices about African American men and white women.
But here’s what I think about this ad and the national outcry over it:
Ford’s opponent is right: it’s tacky and tawdry and should be pulled off the air. But, I take profound and historically correct exception to white liberals and the NAACP calling it racist.
Moreover, I am troubled by Tim Russert of NBC suggesting that the mere notion of interracial sex is racist. Because critics like him betray their own prejudices by making a big deal out of the fact that Ford partied with white playboy bunnies, and may have even had one or two….
Ironically, one could be forgiven the impression that those expressing moral indignation over this ad are pining for old anti-miscegenation laws.
NOTE: For the record, I’m hoping Harold Ford wins in Tennessee and Michael Steele (right) wins in Maryland. Because I think each man in his own right is a far better candidate not only for leadership in his home state but also nationally….
Tennessee Senate race, Harold Ford Jr, Bob+Corker
world wide waco says
I really think the inability of Corker to get the ad actually pulled speaks volumes. The RNC finally pulled it after it got the traction that they sought not when the candidate asked-either way some party and some candidate. I also think all the talk on all sides about this ad has made Rove and his sick anti-american war profiteering anarchists look like the genius’ they most certainly are not. At play here is the serious trouble that will result if the dems acquire 50 seats and the republicans hold 49 with Judas lieberman voting with the republicans- that will make Cheney-the president of the senate even more powerful than he already is currently- I really don’t need that revelation and even if others do- the harm it will do will be serious and substantive. Keeping our eyes on the prize…indeed!