Since this seems to be the term de jour over at OpenLeft, I’d like to give a round of applause to this bit of ass-clownery from OpenLeft’s Paul Rosenberg – truly a classic of the kind.
Is Obama just a (way) smarter version of Harold Ford?
by: Paul Rosenberg
Sat Jan 16, 2010 at 08:00
Harold Ford is a joke. His pandering, flip-flopping and sizzle-to-steak ratio are all legendary. But in the end, his politics are unremarkably neo-liberal, with nothing special to distinguish them. Take away his black skin, and he’d be a dime a dozen. Which reminds me of a certain President I know, who has either reappointed or replicated George W. Bush’s team on national security, economic policy, and education, and Bill Clinton’s team–at best–on most other top issues.With Obama’s resume, there’s no doubt that he’s a very smart individual. But with the great financial meltdown there’s no doubt that tons of smart people can get together to do very stupid things. So the question is, “What purpose is Obama’s intelligence devoted to? And is the end result going to be smart or stupid?”
The answer I propose is simple, perhaps too simple, but I think it serves as a good-enough first approximation: His intelligence is devoted to being a smarter version of Harold Ford. Okay, a lot smarter version of Harold Ford. But still, Harold Ford.
I got banned for OpenLeft for having the effrontery to suggest that Rosenberg’s consistent claims that Obama was naive, feckless, ignorant of basic history and government etc. might be an unpleasant example of white people obviously underestimating black people who were clearly smarter than them. But now, Rosenberg explains that Harold Ford and Obama are the same – of course, race can’t have anything to do with it. Rosenberg is effin enlightened. He’ll tell you himself.