Sure, we hear a lot about black people supposedly playing the race card, but no one plays it as masterfully as white conservatives:
Hewitt: Governor, your candidacy has ignited extreme hostility, even some hatred on the left and in some parts of the media. Are you surprised? And what do you attribute this reaction to?
Palin: Oh, I think they're just not used to someone coming in from the outside saying you know what? It's time that normal Joe six-pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency, and I think that that's kind of taken some people off guard, and they're out of sorts, and they're ticked off about it.
Of course, we've been told that every Republican nominee was Joe Sixpack since George H.W. Bush was running around eating pork rinds. Imagine if a reporter had asked Obama why some people don't like him and he had simply responded, "It's because a black man is trying to run for president, and that's taken some people off guard, and they're out of sorts, and they're ticked off about it."
Let's put aside the fact that if Obama said that, it would actually be true, which is partially why he can't say it. Palin is plainly dismissing questions about her qualifications by saying people just don't like her because of who she is. If Obama did that his support would dash off a cliff faster than a lemming with a jetpack, because black people draw criticism for publicly presenting themselves as victims. But for white people running for president, this kind of white identity politics is practically a tradition, for several reasons.
It obscures discussion of policy, in which Palin (and previous "regular guy" George W. Bush do not often excel) and it makes the election about electing candidates who are "more like you," rather than the candidates who might do a better job. The latter is debatable, but the McCain campaign is betting the racial contrast, accented by Palin's class markers, is enough. In short, it's a hustle. Sometimes Democrats are better at it (Bill Clinton) and sometimes Republicans are (George W. Bush), but it has nothing to do with anything other than winning votes through presenting oneself as the aggrieved party. The only group in America that can consistently get away with being aggrieved just happens to be white.
Why do I say this is about race, instead of about class? Because as far as politics is concerned, there IS no black working class. We never hear about it, partially because, as one prominent pollster told me, black people tend to vote as a group across class. But the other part is there simply isn't a cultural image of the black working class prominent in the American imagination -- our conception of "black people" is sadly monolithic in contexts independent of voting behavior. There simply is no question that when Palin is talking about Joe Sixpack, she's not talking about black people.
This is also a shift in strategy. Palin could have played the gender card, arguing that they were gunning for her because of "sexism," but that one seems to have been exhausted, and it doesn't seem like women are buying it. It also puts conservatives in an awkward position, since they've been arguing for years that sexism is a creation of the fevered liberal imagination. Of course, as Michelle Cottle points out, the McCain campaign may run out of cards before Election Day at the rate they're playing them.
--A. Serwer
