Lisa Schiffrin? I much prefer Lalo Schiffrin myself.

Posted February 20, 2008 5:20 PM by Serge

Not being American, I am a bit confused about her point.

Are evil communist Jews corrupting highly educated Africanamerican menfolks, or are evil (uppity, one assumes) communist highly educated Africanamerican menfolks corrupting virtuous American Jews?

(OBBluesBrothers" The Jew ... is using the Black ...(snippage) ... *VROOOOOOOOOM* ... *splashsplashsplash*)

And if Barak Obama's father is in fact African (but horrors! Not American), is he still part of the vast conspiracy?

And, not that it's my business or anybodies, but is Mrs Obama Sr Jewish, and if so, who is entitled to give a damn?

And wow, weren't we "politically correct types" clever to see the whole thing brewing, lo, these many years ago, and engineer a movement specifically so noone would ask these questions?

Posted February 20, 2008 5:25 PM by vian

Oh ye gods and small fishes.

It is true that there were a lot of interracial marriages in the Communist Party USA in the 30s, 40s and 50s, and that these often occurred between Jewish women and black men. That was often simply because these were men and women working together for a common cause who liked each other, fell in love and got married. It also occurred in the RWP and other Trotskyist parties and for the same reason (or is she going to be suggesting that Trotsky was ordering C.L.R. James to marry Constance Webb?).

It also occurred outside Marxist circles in the US and outside the US, when like-minded young men and women were thrown together by circumstances. That's something that should surprise anyone, unless they're complete idiots. Of course, I'd love to have her explain my parents meeting and marriage on those grounds. I've seen my mother's party card -- she was (as a matter of obligation, not choice) a member of the sección femenina of the Falange española tradicionalista y de las juntas de ofensiva nacional-sindicalista; would Ms Schiffrin attribute my existence to a fascist plot?

Posted February 20, 2008 5:33 PM by Fragano Ledgister

Mrs Obama Sr is not only not Jewish, but her ancestry made the news several months ago when her eighth-cousinship with Dick Cheney was revealed - by Lynne Cheney.

They're not doing their homework over there ...

Posted February 20, 2008 5:41 PM by Jon Meltzer

Her point appears to be that Obama is a mixed-raced commie. Apparently.

Mothers, hide you democracy-loving white daughters, 'cause Obamania is coming!

Or some such.

Posted February 20, 2008 6:00 PM by Onion

Do you ever read this stuff and think we are seeing the real life equivalent of the scene in Blazing Saddles where Cleavon Little rides up and introduces himself as the new sheriff?

And no, I'm gonna stop right here...must...not...quote...from...movie...

Posted February 20, 2008 6:09 PM by Lance Weber

And obviously mixed race commies are ... er ... Tiger Woods? Well, Okay, maybe not the commie part. So she's saying Obama should stick to being good at sport and not be a politician?

Wouldn't it be easier to prove he was a commie by, oh, showing evidence of some sort that he'd joined the Communist party at some stage? I suppose it's too late to plant a copy of Das Kapital on him in a body search?

I mean, the mixed-race thing is already fairly well known, I'd have thought. Also, he's male. And has eyes, a nose and a mouth. Such facts have not escaped us, even down here. As a smear, it's not working.

Posted February 20, 2008 6:16 PM by vian

Honestly?, she had me at the conflation of "Jew" , "Black" and "commie"...you just can't make this shit up.

An this is what we have to look forward to. If Clinton or Obama become president (and please God one of them does) than we will spend the next 4 years watching the right spend huge amounts of money and time "proving" that there is an evil conspiracy against the American way of life or some such nonsense.

My biggest fear is the right will do everything it can, and in many ways succeed in keeping a Democratic president from getting any good work done.

Posted February 20, 2008 6:31 PM by amysue

"I don't know how Barack Obama's parents met..."

You know, it takes a particularly breathtaking kind of boldness to start speculating about commie connections based on undiluted lack of information and a very limited personal experience of the subject.

As for how a Kansas girl would meet a Kenyan grad student: the land grant universities had (and maybe still have?) many Africans who came to study agronomy and economics and soils science and veterinary medicine and run on the track and cross country teams; I met a Ghanain horticulture student who was at WSU when I was a tiny 4-H kid, and often ran into Kipchoge Keno at the corner store when I was at WSU in the seventies.

Maybe it's just me, but when I find myself formulating the phrase "I don't know" my first impulse is to go find the hell out.

Posted February 20, 2008 6:31 PM by JESR

But JESR, she's not interested in the truth. No one that far to the wacky right is. She's interested in implying that since Obama is mixed, he must be a Communist.

I had thought the National Review tried to simulate logic better than that. Sadly, no.

Posted February 20, 2008 6:42 PM by Xopher

JESR @ #10, you just don't understand the ethos over there. Have you forgotten this?

WANTED: HERBERT SPENCER EXPERT [Jonah Goldberg]I'm working on a chapter of the book which requires me to read a lot about and by Herbert Spencer. There's simply no way I can read all of it, nor do I really need to. But if there are any real experts on Spencer out there -- regardless of ideological affiliation -- I'd love to ask you a few questions in case I'm missing something.

That's taken from Brad DeLong's blog. The link he cites at The Corner seems to be down, but I saw it so frequently when the request occurred that I'm sure it's accurate.

Posted February 20, 2008 6:44 PM by Linkmeister

Xopher and Linkmeister, this must be why I have yet to become a pundit: I keep getting distracted by wanting to collect data and find out what actually happened.

Posted February 20, 2008 6:56 PM by JESR

Hmmpph. My cousin met her Kenyan husband... in Kenya! It wasn't that easy, though. First, she had to join a U.N. mission, then she had to befriend a Kenyan woman on that mission, then that woman had to take her home, where she could meet and fall in love with her new friend's younger brother.

They did the agricultural college thing after they were married.

Posted February 20, 2008 7:14 PM by Pfusand

Um, it should be Mena AR not Mena AK.

I almost got whiplash when I read it.

Posted February 20, 2008 8:28 PM by Tania

amysue #8: My biggest fear is the right will do everything it can, and in many ways succeed in keeping a Democratic president from getting any good work done.

That trend is already here, since, due to arcane congressional quibbles, getting anything done takes a supermajority instead of a simple majority, and the bad guys are using that minority political power to its most vicious advantage.

In any case, if Obama wins, based on the ubiquitous toxicity of right-wing wacko responses to his unique qualities, the Secret Service is probably going to need a bigger budget.

Posted February 20, 2008 8:50 PM by Earl Cooley III

And from the other side of the literacy scale via
Crooks and Liars

Posted February 20, 2008 9:36 PM by Nathan

I wondered where this stuff was coming from when a friend started doing the "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" thing about "and just where did Obama come from and how's he getting funded?"

Sigh.

Posted February 20, 2008 9:37 PM by Joyce Reynolds-Ward

I just want to say that the phrase "Manchuriolatto Candidate" someone came up with in the comments over there made me laugh out loud.

Posted February 20, 2008 9:58 PM by Chris Quinones

Chris, #18: Me, too. Good thing I wasn't drinking anything at the time!

Posted February 20, 2008 10:51 PM by Lee

Manchuriolatto...that's a Starbuck's Latte with sesame seeds or something?

Posted February 20, 2008 11:07 PM by Xopher

Sesame seeds....or a funny mustache.

Posted February 20, 2008 11:20 PM by TexAnne

Chris, it took me a moment. Then I was glad I had just finished my can of Mendota Springs fizzy water.

Posted February 20, 2008 11:30 PM by Paula Helm Murray

Is a Manchuriolatto someone from Manchester?

Posted February 21, 2008 12:12 AM by Serge

Ah, Belle Waring! The author of one of the greatest blog posts of all time: If Wishes Were Horses, Beggars Would Ride -- A Pony!

In unrelated news, her mom is a stone cold fox.

Posted February 21, 2008 1:57 AM by Evan Goer

18, 19, 22: [feels flattered].

23: someone with one parent from Manchester, surely.

Posted February 21, 2008 4:36 AM by ajay

#10 ::: Xopher ::: (view all by) ::: February 20, 2008, 06:42 PM:

But JESR, she's not interested in the truth. No one that far to the wacky right is. She's interested in implying that since Obama is mixed, he must be a Communist.

Not quite -- she's implying that he is the product of a Communist plot, which in turn implies he's a Commie too.

Posted February 21, 2008 4:58 AM by Tehanu

Ewww. Ewwwwwww. Wow. That...is something else. I have my problems with Obama. But reading that quoted bit of slime left me feeling dirty. And "Time for some investigative journalism about the Obama family's background, ..." Wow. That's big-time trolling; an invitation to gang-flaming the man in the national media.

The other thing that strikes me is that Ms. Schffrin fails to recognize that the reason blacks and Jews were attracted to the CP is that, prior to World War II, it was a non-racist, non-church political organization--IIRC the only major one. But I suppose thinking about this would make her head explode. Ummmmm. Maybe we need to write the NR some letters. Brains in the morning, mmmmm.

Posted February 21, 2008 7:18 AM by Randolph Fritz

Putting all the net.comments together, it's perfectly simple, no reason to be confused. He's just a pot-smokin', black separatist super-liberal secretly too conservative Jewish Muslim Communist. What could be simpler? I await the next smear against him with baited breath. Perhaps he's also a fascist? A goldfish fancier? A closet Trekkie?

Damn, but this is going to be a fun campaign season.

Posted February 21, 2008 8:27 AM by albatross

Fragano #3: Aha! At last, your deep dark past comes out! A nefarious fascist plot to Corrupt Our Youth by making them learn political science and history. It all becomes clear now....

(Always knew he was a spy. Who else would speak *that* many languages?)

Posted February 21, 2008 8:30 AM by albatross

My parents were an interracial couple in Brooklyn as far back as the '40s, and no Communism involved. Of course, I'm Puerto Rican, and there isn't the same black/white dichotomy among Hispanics (at least within the same nation - take Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans, and the inter-island rivalry is pretty fierce).

I'm still a subversive, regardless. Why, Puerto Rico is in the same body of water as Castro! Plus, my mother is actually half-Venezuelan, which makes me Hugo Chavez.

Posted February 21, 2008 10:05 AM by Chris Quinones

Lisa @ NRO:

And how had these two come together at a time when it was neither natural nor easy for such relationships to flourish? Always through politics. No, not the young Republicans. Usually the Communist Youth League.

Evpuneq Jevtug, Angvir Fba?

This is a fun game!

Oh, wait. Wrong thread.

Posted February 21, 2008 10:16 AM by HP

(Always knew he was a spy. Who else would speak *that* many languages?)

Thomas Jefferson? Grant? Every president ever before Teddy?

I was saddened when one of the slurs against Kerry in 04 was that he spoke French, as if being bi/multilingual was a bad thing. The Nativists seemed to have missed the fact that every one of the first ten presidents spoke French as well and several were accomplished orators in Greek and Latin.

And here we are again, hearing dingbats lament that a viable candidate for President of These United States is deficient because he is worldly, articulate, and comes form a mixed, world spanning heritage and seems to possess the unique perspective afforded those who were raised with a broad cultural window.

Bother.

But yes, I anticipate a crazy hurricane of slur porridge if/when he wins the Nom. But at least we'll find out more about his secret, gay, underage mestizo lover Julio and the tragic, beautiful time they spent together at the Communist Summer Camp in Tijuana.

Posted February 21, 2008 10:19 AM by Keith

Well, yes. Anyone who knows foreign languages and stuff has obviously not put enough of his attention where it belongs, at home. Someone who knows too much about foreign countries might take their concerns into account when dealing with them, and obviously that would be a bad thing.

Posted February 21, 2008 11:05 AM by Joel Polowin

Albatross #29 Most of them *badly* I have to add.

(Now, if someone had told my father* that he was part of a communist plot....).

I don't know what they're smoking at National Review, but they need to get better quality drugs, and soon.

* Who made me, when I was a little boy, refer to General Franco as 'Tio Franco'.

Posted February 21, 2008 11:28 AM by Fragano Ledgister

Betty and Barney Hill were a mixed-race couple.

Therefore: Obama is a space alien!

(Remember, you read it here first.)

Posted February 21, 2008 11:51 AM by James D. Macdonald

Keith #32:

Oh My God, it's a new genre: Presidential candidate slash fiction. Imagine how this might have changed history, if only invented sooner....

"Take me Winnie, take me hard" gasped Franklin, roughly grasping at his chubby but indominable lover's shoulders. "And for God's sake, put that cigar out before you set fire to the sheets!"

Posted February 21, 2008 11:56 AM by albatross

albatross@36:
Oh My God, it's a new genre: Presidential candidate slash fiction. Imagine how this might have changed history, if only invented sooner....

Not new. I promise you. There are entire livejournal communities, and I know fic goes back at least to the 2000 election -- probably before.

Posted February 21, 2008 12:06 PM by tavella

Joel #33: Yeah, I somehow just can't make the leap into a mental state in which a presidential candidate being smart, well-read, and widely traveled is a minus. But that's been around for awhile, right? I mean, W ran pretty openly on not being an intellectual, to the point of downplaying his excellent education[1], paring down his vocabulary, and moving his accent downmarket. Previously, Bill Clinton's accent and good-old-boy mannerisms made his obvious and demonstrated intelligence easier to swallow, something that I don't think is as easy for Hillary Clinton to imitate.

[1] World class prep school, Yale for undergrad, Harvard for MBA, right?

Posted February 21, 2008 12:13 PM by albatross

There are entire livejournal communities

For instance, George and Dick. (Finding that took about ten seconds)

Posted February 21, 2008 12:14 PM by Jon Meltzer

...World class prep school, Yale for undergrad, Harvard for MBA, right?

Yale legacy, remember. It's not as if Papa Bush was a hard talking ranch hand from Lubbock.

Posted February 21, 2008 1:08 PM by Keith

OTOH, admissions requirements were not as onerous for legacies in W's time as for others. Those fancy degrees were bought and paid for fair and square!

Posted February 21, 2008 1:47 PM by Chris Quinones

This is funny, though not as hysterical as it was when I thought it was a traditional-conservative blog. This guy is saying that the only way McCain can beat Obama is to run on a Democratic platform!

Posted February 21, 2008 2:41 PM by Lee

That's a great article! It exposes the fact that the only people who would marry outside their own race are commies...and probably Jews, too.

I'm glad they cleared that up for me. I had a white friend who married a black woman but I didn't know he was a commie...or a Jew. Now I understand.

If only Lisa Schiffren would explain how Obama could be a commie Jew and also a Muslim bent on creating an Islamo-nazi state it would really tie it all up in a neat bundle.

Posted February 21, 2008 4:14 PM by DBK

...World class prep school, Yale for undergrad, Harvard for MBA, right?

Yale legacy, remember. It's not as if Papa Bush was a hard talking ranch hand from Lubbock.

Prep schools have legacy admissions, too. There's no way any school would ever let a child named "Bush" even hear the words "failing". That's not to say that all legacy admissions are to dumb children; however, certain families are going to be cut a lot more slack. Harvard is certainly not resistant to this pressure.

He may have had a world-class education, but he damned well hasn't demonstrated it, which I consider a crying shame.

Posted February 21, 2008 4:31 PM by Ginger

DBK @ 43... the only people who would marry outside their own race are commies...and probably Jews, too.

...and 23th Century teachers named Amanda.

Posted February 21, 2008 4:45 PM by Serge

JDM @ #35:

I've been waiting all along for Betty & Barney Hill to get dragged into this, ever since the New Hampshire primary. Thank you. My paranoia is now officially fulfilled.

Posted February 21, 2008 4:45 PM by Vince S.

So, even if Obama did turn out to be the product of some evil Commie plot, so what? Does Schiffrin figure he's going to invite Chinese troops to seize Little Rock and Des Moines?

Posted February 21, 2008 4:51 PM by tim gueguen

Serge @ 45 -

That's it! Obama is really the offspring of Tuvok and a Terran woman, sent back in time to set the country back on the path.

Furthermore, if you plug his full name into an anagram generator, you get Marihuana Babes Sock, which is Vulcan for "pass the doobie".

Posted February 21, 2008 4:57 PM by Steve C.

Steve C @ 48... Why does this sound no more crazy than what the wingnuts say - aside from time travel's busting of causality and and that good stuff?

"pass the doobie"
Blood fever, right. Plomic soup, sure.

Posted February 21, 2008 5:05 PM by Serge

Keith, Ginger: Yep, I didn't say it was obvious he'd profited from his excellent education, just that he'd been given one. (It's not obvious he didn't profit from it, either. I'm not a fan of his presidency, but he's managed to become president and get re-elected, which isn't an obvious mark of failure. Though I suppose his approval numbers don't indicate a glowing success, either....)

Didn't some of Bush's standardized test scores come out a few years back, leading to comparisons with (I think) Kerry's? Those should give enough information to say whether Bush was at least in the right general intellectual class to be at an Ivy League school.

Posted February 21, 2008 5:08 PM by albatross

albatross @ 50: I think my point is, you don't need to be smart to attend an Ivy League school -- that people think you do attests to their successful propaganda.

I went to prep school, and even though it wasn't one of the "top tier" preps it still had its fair share of legacies and rich kids (and the Rev Moon's children). Some of the smartest kids didn't bother going to an Ivy League college, and it's not about money or networking or even education. The Ivy League schools are primarily about appearance.

Don't get me wrong: they are good schools -- and so are many non-Ivy schools. ;-)

Posted February 21, 2008 5:41 PM by Ginger

Being nit-picky here... I think it's more accurate to say that GWB was exposed to a world-class education. How much of it took is an entirely different issue.

Posted February 21, 2008 6:02 PM by Lee

Lee@ 52: GWB was exposed to a world-class education

..but luckily he was wearing his gas mask and was protected!

Posted February 21, 2008 6:28 PM by Ginger

I was commenting more on his folksy tongue wagging ways as an obvious put on, seeing as how not only was he an Ivy League Legacy but so was his dear Papa.

As to the man's actual intelligence level... that's debatable. He's smart enough to know he needs to be surrounded at all times but people who are smarter. But like CEOs, he may have forgotten that he's merely the Decider, and couldn't run the company without his henchmen doing the heavy lifting. So perhaps cunning is what he has and he just leaves the smarts to those Nouveau Riche like Condi and the gang.

Posted February 21, 2008 7:19 PM by Keith