Christoper takes on Mitt Romney’s “Obama Isn’t Working” slogan, which has been around for months now, and does what a liberal will do and makes it raaaaaacist.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney rolled out a new accessory at a speech in Ohio today, delivering his remarks in front of a black banner that said “Obama Isn’t Working,” which is also the name of a websitehis campaign set up several months ago (in case you didn’t get the message from the banner, it was also on the front of Romney’s podium).
The slogan is a multiple entendre, but one of those entendres, intentionally or not, is evocative of a nasty racial stereotype about black men.
When I first saw the banner this afternoon, the multiple meanings were clear: President Obama‘s policies aren’t working, the Obama presidency isn’t working, President Obama…isn’t working, as in, doing any work. That’s not a nice thing to say about any president, but like it or not, it becomes a more loaded accusation when leveled at our first black president.
Just to be sure it wasn’t just me, though, I asked several friends about the banner, and four out of four pointed out, unprompted, the stereotype of the “lazy,” “shiftless” black man. One of the people I called was cable news fixture Goldie Taylor, who, upon hearing my description of the banner, said “Are you kidding me? You have got to be kidding me.”
“Just to be sure,” Christopher asked a bunch of his race-obsessed liberal friends. Who of course believe that the “Obama Isn’t Working” slogan is raaaacist. They see everything every Republican says and does as somehow raaaaacist. Big surprise.
The “Obama Isn’t Working” slogan is very effective messaging. That’s why Christoper and his liberal friends are out to destroy it. “Obama Isn’t Working” hits the major notes that Christopher mentions above — Obama’s policies aren’t working, his presidency isn’t working, and yes, the president himself isn’t working. In case Tommy missed it, this president has already held more campaign events this year than any previous incumbent president ever has, by far. This president has become known for golfing during the work day, and his family has become known for their 17 lavish vacations at a time when most Americans are on shaky economic ground thanks in part to Obama’s failed and misguided policies. None of this has anything to do with race, but the fact that Christopher sees race in it says more about him than anything or anyone else. He’s a typical liberal, and will use race as a weapon when it suits him. We’re supposed to be past all this.
Obama isn’t working. That’s just a fact.
By the way, Christopher and his liberal friend Goldie Taylor try their hand at comedy, with this.
She also noted the multiple meanings, and the unmistakable stereotype it evokes, but didn’t think it was intentional. “That’s what happens when you don’t surround yourself with a diverse array of people,” she said. “Maybe if Mitt Romney’s experience was more diverse, or the people he surrounds himself with, somebody would have looked at that banner and realized how it could be offensive to some people.
You mean, diverse like Obama’s headquarters?
I don’t see it as being racist at all. But I’m not liberal enough to be offended by anything a conservative says.
Now if the slogan said something like “Let’s trade this old pair of brown loafers in for a new pair of cowboy boots.” That would be racist.
I don’t think ‘unmistakable’ means what Taylor thinks it means.
What she did mean is that Romney should surround himself with paranoid, overweening morons who think a white cloud passing over the sun has some deeper, racial meaning, just like black hole’s, devil’s food cake, ink and sunspots.
Being multiracial, I have to say someone speaking truthfully without all the pc crap would be refreshing. I think Romney should say “what about you (Obama) being black kept you from becoming the most powerful man in the world? That is what he whould say without batting an eye. This great country has made it possible for ANYONE to make if they WANT too. And Obama is living proof!!
Indeed!!!
Obama’s headquarters picture is quite diverse. There is a good cross section of youth there; cute guys, pretty girls, funny-looking guys, ugly girls …
Politico 44 has been publishing President’s Obama’s daily schedule for a while now. Check it out: http://www.politico.com/politico44/
The President’s day usually starts out with his daily briefing around 10:30 or 11, and then not much happens for the rest of the day. This schedule looks so stupid that they had to add Biden and Michelle to it, and that only makes it look more empty.
What they really hate is that someone they view as an evil, stuffed-shirt, humorless capitalist came up with a witty, tongue-in-cheek and delightfully descriptive slogan … and then he actually has the cojones to use it.
Pitiful Progressive minds translate this complex confluence of thoughts and emotions into their most familiar and favored word: Raaaaacism.
– was a succinct response to the question: “How’s that ‘Hope and Change’ working out for you?”
Go back to “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” (No, the Great Recession has finally caught up with the upper middle class.)
But that’s raaaacist, too! You see, four years ago we had a white male president.
You can’t win with these people.
How about, “Obama is Golfing”?
This might lead to related slogans, come to think of it …
When my wife told me about this kerfuffle yesterday, my first response was, “That’s not racist. It’s a riff on Thatcher’s slogan.”