I just wanted to have my say about the whole brouhaha over whether Hillary Clinton's campaign darkened Obama's skin tones in a recent advertisement. Before it blows over.
Since Edwards dropped out, I've decided to support Obama. But I look at the stink that other Obama supporters are making over this, and I have to wonder: what could they possibly imagine this will do for Obama's benefit?
It's downright mystifying.
Obama's appeal boils down to this: he's a classy guy, who says we can start fixing our problems if we just get out of the mud pit. Cue the applause, as his cheering supporters hoist him on their shoulders and proceed to march straight into the pigsty. What a terrible waste of a nice suit.
Let's suppose -- just for a moment -- that the Wicked Witch of Chappaqua really did plot to do a little race baiting with this ad. What could she have possibly hoped to have gained by this?
The reaction of Obama's supporters reminds me of the hand wringing that English Firsters do over the status of Englsh as the official language of the United States. Ray Suarez once quipped that we might as well make a law establishing air as the official respiratory gas of the United States. Some Obama supporters seem to fear that legions of Democratic voters who see this ad will suddenly sit up and say, "Oh my God!, he's black!"
How many votes would Clinton get by darkening Obama's skin in an ad? Let's call that X, and stipulate that the magnitude X > 0.
Now how many votes does Obama get by appearing to have enough dignity to be above slinging mud pies at anybody who stands in his way? Let's call that quantity Y.
Now, class, here's the big question: is X > Y, or is Y > X?
If Y > X, I suggest that Obama's supporters might want to refrain from dragging him into a mud fight. It's making it hard for the rest of us to feel smug about being above "politics as usual".
Now, Obama supporters, take it from another Obama supporter, the evidence in this case is weak, weak, weak. Sure, you can put together an internally consistent narrative in which Hillary was orchestrating race baiting, but it's all predicated on Hillary's moral degeneracy; as such it can't be used to prove her moral degeneracy.
And folks, we seem to have forgotten what a serious accusation this is. Or maybe we've discovered the appeal of the logic that gets people whisked off to Gitmo on mere suspicion: the power to destroy with an accusation. It's a heady power, because you don't need proof, you just need to be loud and self-righteous.
The Democratic Party stands against this kind of power; it stands for reason and restraint, even in the face of a terrible accusation that might well be true. Barack Obama is running a campaign that is consistent with those ideals. Or he would be if his followers would let him.