"That One" is a Terrorist and/or an Uppity Negro

To make it through the day, I'm wont to fling dismissive remarks about people left and right. If I were to simply refer to someone as "that one," it'd be a moment of grace, for I would have exercised self-restraint.

However, John McCain's reference to Barack Obama as "that one" in last week's debate blew the lid off the issue that many of us political commentators have been tiptoe-ing around, with varying degrees of self-restraint. With less than four weeks until election time let's take off our gloves and be honest - and by honest I mean let's speak in very general, offensive terms: the choice for President comes down to a spry, septagenarian war hero with a dingbat running mate OR a smart, uppity negro with a Muslim bloodline.

The left-of-center media has set out to turn "that one" into the new n-word. And rightfully so.

NPR's weekly series "On the Media" ran a very interest report on the subtle ways in which the McCain camp is playing on some Americans' fears that Obama could very well be Osama's hit man. Two years into the campaign for President, Team McCain is still asking "who is Barack Obama?" when they really mean to ask "don't you all see the turban on his head and the dynamite strapped to his chest?" To ask, at this point, how much we know about Obama is really asking "are you ready to hand control over to a Black man?"

To be fair, the McCain camp's vetting process is less complicated than Match.com's. So, yes, they do have a right to question who the opposing candidate really is when they don't even know the hot mess of a VP candidate they have on their hands (duh, the best defense is a good offense). At this point in the election, we know enough about Barack Obama - perhaps too much. We've only scratched the surface with Sarah Palin, though, and thus far, we're coming up with a right-wing Pentecostal who can't control her teenage daughter.

Not that it matters to these folks:


I could be smug here and blast the Ann Coulters and Michelle Malkins of the world for their role in other-izing Obama and playing on stupid Americans' fears. They've both made a point of calling out every last one of Barack and Michelle's differences from mainstream (meaning under-read, under-educated, under-traveled) America, but so have I.

Until very recently, I was calling Barack B.Hussein Obama - I thought it was funny when Ann Coulter did it - simply because I did think Barack was Muslim and I thought it was insane that the Democrats pinned their hopes on a candidate with the name Hussein. I also called him the Anti Christ. And when it comes to Sarah Palin, I've been a little soft - even on her anti-gay ways.

And that's because I did (ok, do) think Obama is a little uppity. I do think that Barack and Michelle are too self-congratulatory and I still take issue with the fact that the Dems tossed Hillary to the side for a novice politician. For me, cutting Obama down was my way of saying "J'accuse the Democrats of supporting the entitled fancies of a nobody politico."

But at this point in the election, my choices are pretty limited. Between Barack's entitled ways and Sarah Palin's idiocy, my choice for President is pretty clear. Were it not for Sarah Palin I may still, sort of, be on Team McCain, but homegirl's backwoods ways are too much for me. After all, Barack's uppitiness should have endeared him to me, God knows I've been called uppity more times than I've been called a fag. Uppity people of color unite!