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January 31, 2007
Drudge and Fox News: Together in the Smear
The big headline at the Drudge Report all day today (before he just changed it to the Boston hey-it's-not-a-bomb it's-an-ad fiasco) has been "OBAMA 'CLEAN' BLACK", referring to a mischaracterization of a Joe Biden quote, which Biden later clarified in the clip after the jump.
But Drudge doesn't just take the clarification with a grain of salt, he adds the statement to his front page list, and adds the link to the video, and tries to keep whatever it is rolling.
Ironically the video Drudge links to is to a Fox News report with a chyron that says "Developing...", which everyone knows is Drudge-shtick.
Funny, but meanwhile nothing's developing. Biden meant that Obama had a clean political record and unfortunately for those who oppose him, they will have to focus on the issues. OMG!
Neither Drudge nor Fox is interested in the issues though, nor do right-wing apologist blogs like the Instapundit (who also just posted on Cleangate), and they certainly aren't interested in the Libby Trial.
The Professor has typed "Libby" a mere three times over the last seven days despite the fact that it now appears that the White House indeed outted a member of the CIA for political retaliation. Oh, is that why he's trying to ignore it?
If anything is Developing... it's that shit.
AP photo by Susan Walsh
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Biden really did say that; it's not nearly as mis-quoted as you imply. Here's the full paragraph from the interview:
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
When a mature, white male says of a woman or black man that she or he is "articulate", "bright", and "clean" he is doing so in the language of deep prejudice. Biden has a history of this as well. Remember a couple of months ago when he proudly touted these bona fides on FOX News?:
"You don't know my state. My state was a slave state. My state is a border state. My state has the eighth-largest black population in the country. My state is anything from a Northeast liberal state."
Or shortly after that he commented:
"You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent."
He followed up by explaining that he was just happy that Indian-Americans weren't content to just take high-paid, high-skilled jobs in fields like engineering, computer science and medicine but would also take menial jobs like managing convenience stores.
Biden is an old-school liberal whose racial attitudes stopped evolving when he left Delaware in 1972 to move to Washington. His language is steeped in the racism of an earlier generation. He may have meant well, but in the correct context his words betray a viewpoint unacceptable in a modern democrat.
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i never said he was misquoted, i said it was mischaracterized.
huge difference.
but again, some people would rather steer him towards racism instead of focusing on the White House perjurying and committing treason.
wheres your 6-7 paragraphs on that?
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I'm suggesting that it wasn't seriously mischaracterized and that Biden's attitudes aren't the kind we want to take us forward.
It's your blog. If you write your posts about the crimes of the current administration I'll be more than happy to contribute.
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i largely agree with AP's assessment. biden's comments are a bit creepy.
and tony, why do you act like such a bully to anyone who questions your blog posts? AP was polite in his disagreement. grow up.
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For what it's worth, Obama's response was an all-around class act:
"I didn't take Senator Biden's comments personally, but obviously they are historically inaccurate. After all, we've had presidential candidates like Jesse jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Mosely Braun and Al Sharpton. They gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns and no one would call them inarticulate."