Ross Douthat vs. Joe the Plumber
Ross Douthat:
Obama and the Race Card - Ross Douthat: Think about it this way: Maybe the "Joe the Plumber" line is a super-coded attempt to play the race-and-welfare card. Hell, maybe all of the race cards McCain has supposedly played... have been completely cynical attempts to tap into the white electorate's latent or not-so-latent racist sentiments. If this is your take on the election, though, you should acknowledge that if these were all attempts to play the race card, they've been pathetic.... [T]he Obama campaign (and its surrogates and allies) have done a masterful job of boxing the GOP in on race-related fronts, playing off the media's biases, McCain's sense of honor, and the Republican Party's unpleasant history to create a climate of hair-trigger sensitivity around terrains and topic that usually hurt Democratic candidates...
Joe the Plumber:
Don't listen to talk show hosts, don't sit there and listen to papers, I mean, get out there, get the information. Learn it. You know, the facts are out there. Once you find out the facts, it becomes quite obvious.... Get out and vote and, as far as my vote, it's going to be for a 'real American', John McCain...
I don't think it requires hair-trigger sensitivity, Ross, to understand what John McCain's #1 surrogate is saying: Joe the Plumber is saying that Barack Obama is not a 'real American'--and if Barack Obama is not a 'real American', Ross, neither are you.
It's not too late to endorse Barack Obama, and so gain a seat at the table of patriots trying to make America live up to its promise over the next four years. Or you can vote for John McCain and spend the next four years making small talk with Sarah Palin and Joe Wurzelbacher.
