A Stern Warning to My GOP Friends
Some conservative Republicans are playing a game that will do great damage to the Republican Party. I will explain.
In 2004, Democratic candidate for vice-president John Edwards made a clumsy, even stupid, attempt to siphon off, or at least suppress, Republican voters by in essence outing the daughter of Dick Cheney. I don't know anyone who believes that Mr. Edwards is a homophobe or any other kind of bigot, but there can be little doubt that he was attempting to appeal to those who might be considered such, and whose views he would consider repugnant.
Now, for those who persist in making use of Barrack Obama's middle name: really, there is only one reason to do this -- the name sounds Middle Eastern, like Saddam's name. The Oracle is not accusing you of bigotry. However, I will accuse you of attempting to make a thinly disguised appeal to some of the baser instincts of a portion of the electorate.
If you keep doing this, it will backfire. The number of votes you gain will be greatly diminished by the number of people you lose because of this ill advised tactic. Please stop.
Update: See also Bob Krumm
In 2004, Democratic candidate for vice-president John Edwards made a clumsy, even stupid, attempt to siphon off, or at least suppress, Republican voters by in essence outing the daughter of Dick Cheney. I don't know anyone who believes that Mr. Edwards is a homophobe or any other kind of bigot, but there can be little doubt that he was attempting to appeal to those who might be considered such, and whose views he would consider repugnant.
Now, for those who persist in making use of Barrack Obama's middle name: really, there is only one reason to do this -- the name sounds Middle Eastern, like Saddam's name. The Oracle is not accusing you of bigotry. However, I will accuse you of attempting to make a thinly disguised appeal to some of the baser instincts of a portion of the electorate.
If you keep doing this, it will backfire. The number of votes you gain will be greatly diminished by the number of people you lose because of this ill advised tactic. Please stop.
Update: See also Bob Krumm
posted by MCO at 2:57 PM
1 Comments:
MCO,
I enjoyed perusing your site. I had a different take on why Edwards pulled that maneuver--I don't think it was to appeal to bigotry, I think he was trying put Cheney on the spot for either (a) holding what some characterize as heartless or unloving policy positions or (b) hypocritical, inauthentic campaign posing. What made it so cheap, is that Edwards was indifferent to potentially embarrassing or forcing into the public eye Cheney's daughter.
That being said, I agree that referring to Obama by his middle name is petty and manifests a weak argument.
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