Brendan Nyhan points out that Karl Rove is basically going through a traditional checklist of racist stereotypes in criticizing Obama, but he missed a few. First there's the laziness smear, which Rove has been pushing for months. Rove returned to this theme last Thursday, but that doesn't mean he's neglecting the others. You'll remember that Rove sought months ago to characterize Obama as "that guy at the Country Club."
"He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by."
This critique is made without irony, despite the fact that Rove surely belongs to a few country clubs Obama wouldn't be able to get into. But that aside, note that Obama is there with "a beautiful date," not his wife. (You know how the chicks dig black guys, who are biologically incapable of restraining our sexual impulses).
So, to reiterate, Obama is an uppity, lazy, promiscuous jerk who's had everything handed to him. As is typical with racism, this is projection, but what makes it frustrating is that the Obama campaign has everything to lose by pointing it out. What's particularly effective about such smears is that they tend to reinforce themselves through their familiarity; the stereotypes are so well known and understood that they can be internalized without much effort.
It's also worth noting Nyhan's critique of Charles Blow's vaguely homophobic column in The New York Times this Sunday, wherein Blow made this statement directed at Obama:
Your initial response to the crisis in Georgia was tepid and swishy. McCain was muscular and straightforward.
Once again, language that presents political questions in terms of binary masculinity often implicates the speaker. Did McCain's pulsing, throbbing response also take Blow to a place he'd never been before?
-- A. Serwer
