Friday Morning: Playing the Race Card, Celeb Semantics, and the Skinniness Gap

Good morning, and happy Friday.

After several months in the wings, race moved to center-stage in the presidential campaign yesterday when the McCain campaign accused Obama of "playing the race card...from the bottom of the deck" after Obama told audiences in Missouri Wednesday that he would be portrayed as a "risky" candidate because he doesn't "look like all those other Presidents on the dollar bills." We'll leave the nitpicking over what he meant by "other Presidents" to other blogs, and focus on the bigger implication: that Obama is claiming the McCain camp and others in the GOP are using racially divisive tactics to scare voters away from him. The Obama camp has denied that Obama considers McCain's tactics race-baiting, but hasn't really offered up an alternative explanation for what he meant.

As for the McCain camp claiming that Obama has injected race into the campaign, the NYT writes that it is a risky gambit for McCain to take:

The tactic could cut both ways: it might tap into the qualms some white, working-class voters in crucial swing states may have about a black candidate, or it could ricochet back against the McCain campaign, which has been accused even by some fellow Republicans of engaging in overly negative campaigning in recent days.

But Politico provides some context from top McCain strategist Steve Schmidt, who cites the racial tensions in the Democratic primary as reason to offer up a quick response:

"Say whatever you want about Bill Clinton," Schmidt said, "but it's deeply unfair to suggest his criticism of Obama was race-based. President Clinton was a force for unity in this country on this subject. Every American should be proud of his record as both a governor and president. But we knew it was coming in our direction because they did it against a President of the United States of their own party."

That may not be an entirely apt comparison; while Governor (and later President) Clinton had an excellent record on race issues, he did makes some legitimately insensitive comments during the primary season, especially in the wake of Obama's primary victory in South Carolina. Perhaps Schmidt's "defense" of Bill Clinton is a tactic designed to fit the McCain campaign's strategy; one suspects that the nice words directed at the 42nd President would not be there had his wife won the Democratic nomination.

Regardless, there's no question that the events of the past 24 hours could create some tension for McCain when he addresses the National Urban League today. (Obama speaks to the group tomorrow.)

But this is also tough territory for Obama, who has endeavored to create a broad-based (many have called it "post-racial," though we think that's a vast oversimplification) message to appeal to working-class white voters in the swing states. As the WSJ editorial board puts it:

The more he tries to use race as a shield from criticism, the less he'll look like a potential leader of the entire country and more like a traditional liberal playing racial politics.

It was already a racially-loaded week with all the Ludacris hubbub. And the lines between what's racially-motivated and what isn't appear blurry for the media as well as the campaigns. The NYT editorial board blogged yesterday that the "bottom of the deck" trope comes straight out of the O.J. trial, with all its racially divisive connotations...a noteworthy point to be sure.

But they add (echoing a TPM column from Wednesday) that the Britney/Paris footage in McCain's "Celeb" ad recalled the racially-charged appearance of a sultry white woman in a 2006 ad criticizing African-American TN Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. This seems to us to be a bit of an overread. Can you imagine how much more outrageous it would have seemed if the ad had depicted only African-American celebrities? Who would be a sufficiently TMZ-worthy pick to make the point the McCain camp was going for? Diddy? Liberals would have gone bananas!

We found this utterly non-racial nugget of Hollywood react from the LA Times much more relevant:

Just for a start, industry types say the ad is wrong: In the Hollywood lexicon, Obama is not a celebrity. He's a rock star. (Note to McCain strategists: That's the difference between Jessica Simpson and Bono.)

But despite the backlash, McCain insisted yesterday that he's "proud" of the Celeb ad, essentially defending his campaign's recent turn to the negative that has garnered piles of critical press coverage, a web video from the DNC calling him "desperate" and a response website from the Obama campaign. Say what you will about the ad, McCain can certainly be proud of the amount of free media it's driven his way.

And finally, the WSJ takes a look at another divisive identity-politics issue: Obama's skinniness. Are Americans too sloth-like to identify with a candidate who works out and has "no excess body fat"?

-- Evie Stone

10:00 AM ET | 08- 1-2008 | permalink

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