Carville To The Press: Get Over Your Race Hysteria
By K. Daniel Glover | October 18, 2009
It took a focus group to convince Democratic political strategist James Carville what astute Americans already knew about President Obama's vocal critics: They aren't racist; they just don't like his liberal policies.
So now Carville has a message for media squawkers like Maureen Dowd of The New York Times: Get over it! Your racial conspiracy theories are way off base.
Carville's Democracy Corps opinion research firm yesterday released an analysis titled "The Very Separate World Of Conservative Republicans." The report, based on focus groups of the targeted subjects in Atlanta and Cleveland, maligns the "extreme disconnect" of conservatives but refutes the notion that their animosity toward Obama is driven by race.
Instead of focusing on these intense ideological divisions, the press and elites continue to look for a racial element that drives these voters' beliefs -- but they need to get over it. Conducted on the heels of Joe Wilson's incendiary comments at the president's joint session address, we gave these groups of older, white Republican base voters in Georgia full opportunity to bring race into their discussion -- but it did not ever become a central element, and indeed, was almost beside the point.
The report elaborated in a separate section on race that includes quotes from focus group participants. They are well aware of how the racist myth is being perpetuated. "You would be called a racist" for criticizing Obama, one person said. "You would not like him because he is black. That is what the media [are] saying."
Even though Carville's firm gave the president's critics "full opportunity" for racist rants, none took the bait because, well, they aren't racist. "Race was barely raised, certainly not what was bothering them about President Obama," the report said. "In fact, some of these voters talked about feeling some pride at his election."
It would be great if "the press and elites" that Carville lectured in the report learned something from his analytical epiphany and abandoned the all-Obama-critics-are-racist spin from their coverage. But that's probably expecting too much.
K. Daniel Glover is a project manager for Accuracy In Media. He has worked as an editor, writer and new media specialist in the Washington area since 1991, spending most of that time at National Journal and Congressional Quarterly.
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His RACE is NOT the issue, his SOCIALISM is ALL of the issue, and what that socialism is doing to this nation.
Never thought I would agree with Carville, but this time I do, it’s NOT about RACE, it’s ALL about America!
If Obama were a qualified President, then race would not be an issue. However, he is by all indications, an Affirmative Action President; he and Michelle were Affirmative Action students at Ivy League colleges; Michelle got her $300,000 a year job through Affirmative Action; all too much of what they have and have achieved is either direct or indirectly attributable to Affirmative Action (“code,” a word his ract-card cadre love, for race-based). Obama has shown his anti-White prejudice quite directly on several occasions, and, if not directly, he tacitly approves his staff and supporters playing the race-card at every criticism (completely ignoring the history of viicious ad hominem attacks on every President, starting with Geo Washington through George Bush, often denigrated as “Dubya”). After all, who can argue that this man with not only no qualifying experience, but with one embarrassing revelation after another, did not get elected by playing the race-card? However, he is OUR President, for good or ill, no matter how partisan, and I sincerely believe that generally Americans are proud to have elected a Black President, and basically wish him well—even as they hope and ferventlyu pray that somehow we will survive him. Unfortunately, since he constantly appears not to have ANY idea of what he is doing, attributing all criticism to race seems to be his only out. If we had elected Rice or Powell, or any one of many Blacks with real qualifying experience, then race would not be always in the background. With Rice or Powell, or another experienced Black, we would have had a Black President in whom everyone could have confidence. Right now, the whole world is rushing to take full advantage of America’s inept President, both our enemies and friends. The Affirmative Action Peace Prize itself is no more than the ultimate lobbying tool, albeit it has lately been denigrated and has lost its prestigous luster by its award to Gore and Carter, among others. While we usually think of lobbyists as people who lavish money, campaign contribuitons, jobs for relatives, country club memberships, lavish vacations, etc., the Europeans shrewdly figure that the extreme flattery of an award of the Peace Prize, for an egotist like Obama, is the best way to “play” Obama, the prize used in this instance as the ultimate lobbying tool. Hopefully, President Obama might surprise us and the world: It remains to be seen if President Obama ultimately has the integrity required to turn it down and tell the Europeans where to stick it! That influence with the American President cannot be bought at any price! President Obama might even gain my vote by such sober reflection and action becoming a US President!
Hey wait a minute….Carville has played the RACE Card many times before. Carville is always famous for coming out sqeeky clean. Don’t believe him and never trust him. I am from the same state he is from and trust me he no longer lives there because he could not get a platform in good old Progressive Louisiana. Huey Long brought it to us in Louisiana and we have finally gotten rid of it. Louisiana is Republican and conservative in thinking now. Thank GOD he now lives in Washington. I wish him no luck. But I wish him no harm.
Going by Carville’s logic, it would be safe to assume that any Democrat white senator who voted against confirming Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, as well as any white member of NOW who opposed his nomination, were also racists.
I’d like to see him squirm out that one.
Carville did only one thing right in his entire life. He married a staunch CONSERVATIVE.
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October 19 at 6:33 pm | #1 | Link
This is one of the main reasons conservatives, are getting angrier. We can’t engage in any useful debate since anything we say is turned into a racist comment. It’s not because he’s black we don’t like him it’s because he’s a SOCIALIST!!