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Is The McCain Campaign Playing The Race Card?

September 19th, 2008
By JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief

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The issue of whether the campaign of Republican Presidential candidate John McCain is trying to subtly play the race card against Democrat Sen. Barack Obama has now reared its ugly — and highly controversial — head.

It’s an issue now that is being raised by at least one mainstream news media organization, as well as by bloggers and even some blog readers. The issue surfaced strongly during the Democratic primary season when former President Bill Clinton was accused of repeatedly referring to race when it came to Obama in subtle and, some think, not so subtle ways. Clinton professes to be livid to this day about the allegation, while some pundits believe he did in fact raise it and knew exactly what he was doing and how he was doing it.

Campaign 2008 now seems to be headed in the same direction.

Rather than wade into this controversy and make a self-assured pronouncement, here are some links for you to explore for yourself so you can decide for yourself. Your thoughts are welcome in comments (please be specific rather than name-calling those who believe it or don’t believe it).

#1: A reader insists a McCain ad had music similar to the theme of Roots:
LINK to the ad in question.
LINK to Roots theme song.

Your view?

The reader who submitted this writes:

This kind of reference in an ad is a hallmark of Fred Davis, who heads up McCain’s advertising team. He is 56 years old and his nickname is Hollywood, which is also where his firm is based.

Beyond that, one of the key targets for the McCain campaign are white middle-aged voters in key battleground states, in other words, individuals who would be old enough to remember the miniseries and are inclined to have a definite opinion one way or the other.

Again, though, what they are really hoping for is that someone notices it and makes it a story, because ultimately a story of this nature benefits them more with regard to the voters described above. (Marc Ambinder makes the same point this morning, calling it “playing the race card card.”)

#2 A new McCain ad has sparked accusations that it plays the race card.

Writes Karen Tumulty:

When politicians interject race into a campaign, they seldom do it directly. Consider McCain’s new ad, which the campaign says it will be airing nationally….

This is hardly subtle: Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman.

Let me stipulate: Obama’s Fannie Mae connections are completely fair game. But this ad doesn’t even mention a far more significant tie–that of Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chairman who had to resign as head of Obama’s vice presidential search team after it was revealed he got a sweetheart deal on a mortgage from Countrywide Financial. Instead, it relies on a fleeting and tenuous reference in a Washington Post Style section story to suggest that Obama’s principal economic adviser is former Fannie Mae Chairman Frank Raines. Why? One reason might be that Johnson is white; Raines is black.

And the image of the victim doesn’t seem accidental either, given the fact that older white women are a key swing constituency in this election.

The race card issue cuts both ways. Some Republicans have charged that Obama has played the race card in his ads aimed at Latinos that touch on immigration. Race and gender are influential and emotional issues in this election cycle. The danger for a campaign that is eventually “nailed” as playing the race card: any victory carved out using this tactic will be hollow since the winner would take office with a part of the country highly-resentful against him and the good-will safety net that new Presidents generally have will be flimsy, indeed.



This entry was posted on Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 1:45 pm and is filed under John McCain, Newsweek Blogitics, Campaign Ads, Barack Obama, Republicans, 2008 Elections, Race, Democrats, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 2 Comments

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    I'm not sure about the music, but the Lipstick on a Pig ad by McCain seems to be one of the most misleading ads I've ever seen. It says Obama was talking about Palin when he made the pig remark but he was really talking about McCain's economic policies being like George Bush's. Anyone who didn't know better would think that Obama was being a total jerk. Perhaps Obama can run a counter ad that shows the same clip with its real context both to critique McCain's policies and his outright lies (at least in this ad). It is in fact a lie to say Obama was talking "about Palin" when he specifically referenced McCain and his policies before the lipstick on a pig remark.
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    "any victory carved out using this tactic will be hallow since the winner would take office with a highly resentful part of the country against him and the good-will safety net new Presidents have will be flimsy, indeed."

    You can delete "carved out using this tactic" since the sentence is going to be true regardless of any particular issue.
 
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