More Bursts of Insanity From Outer Blogovia
By dcmediagirl on August 21, 2008 at 9:21 AM in Current Affairs, Huffington Post, John McCain, Obama, Political Correctness
I heart the Internets. I’ve often said it’s the greatest invention since the telephone…and the Internet, accepting its extreme coolness with dignity and class, gives the telephone the opportunity to put its feet up and take a rest by serving as a conduit between you and your mother (e-mail cuts down on valuable nagging time), your long-lost friends (that’s what “social networking sites” are for) and helps keep your blood pressure in check by reducing the amount of time you waste standing in line at the bank and the DMV. Yes, thank the Lord for the Internets.
The Internet has also given voice to “citizen journalists”. Some are fantastic writers and dogged investigators. Others, well, not so much. The downside is that any idiot with a modem and an account can post his or her “views”, irrespective of the validity or accuracy of their “reporting”. All of which can make for good sport, sure, but I find that as I get older my patience for this sort of nonsense wanes. Particularly when it comes to politics.
Consider, if you will, this Huffington Post “column” by Rebecca Curtis.
I’m too tired to analyze all the inaccuracies and poorly arrived-at conclusions in Curtis’s screed. One part at the very beginning, however, bears mentioning since reading it accomplished the same end as a plank with nails piercing a car’s tires. If you’re going to deal the race card, might as well make it an Ace:
The Rasmussen Report and Zogby/ATV poll found that Obama’s lost major ground with women, independents, Democrats, even young voters. Polls are just that; they could change. But we might ask: why the dip? If it reflects the fact that Obama acted “uppity” and met state heads in Europe, or that McCain ran ads comparing Obama to amateur porn star Paris Hilton (implying black people are good at sex and celebrity, and not-so-good at intellectual endeavors), then perhaps race is in play after all.
Again:
McCain ran ads comparing Obama to amateur porn star Paris Hilton (implying black people are good at sex and celebrity, and not-so-good at intellectual endeavors)…
OK, so Rebecca Curtis supports Obama. Fine. That’s her choice. But let’s remember, for roughly the billionth time, that NOT ALL POLL NUMBERS INDICATING THAT OBAMA’S SUPPORT IS ERODING CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO RACE. Some people, unlike Rebecca Curtis, see Obama not as a symbol but as a flesh-and-blood man running for the highest political office in the United States. We’ve already seen what happens when an inexperienced non-entity is elected to the Presidency and aren’t much looking forward to another go-around. We don’t believe that a candidate should be granted this office because “it’s time for America to elect a (woman, African-American, fill in the blank) for President”.
But here’s another thing. This Curtis column demonstrates how irrational and desperate Obama supporters are when it comes to any and all criticism of their man. Black people are good at sex and celebrity? What sane person would interpret the McCain ad that way? I’m guessing a person obsessed with race. It looks like she’s the one who needs help, not Obama opponents.
Intrigued by the flabby reasoning, laughable conclusions and arch, self-riteous tone of this article, I looked up her bio:
Rebecca Curtis received a B.A. from Pomona College, an M.A. in English from New York University, and an M.F.A from Syracuse University. Her first book, Twenty Grand and Other Tales of Love & Money (Harpercollins 2007) was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, an L.A. Times Best Book of the Year, and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year. It won the New Hampshire Literary Award for Outstanding Work of Fiction, 2006-7, and was a finalist for the Pen-Hemingway Award and the L.A. Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Curtis’ fiction and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire, Jane, Harper’s Bazaar, McSweeney’s, N+1, and elsewhere. Her stories have been performed by New York’s Symphony Space and Chicago’s Stories on Stage and have been anthologized in The O’Henry Prize Stories 2007. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation award, and a Saltonstall Grant. She has taught in the graduate and undergraduate writing programs at St. Mary’s College of California and the University of Kansas. She now teaches in the Graduate Writing Program at Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn.
Impressive qualifications, no doubt – FOR A BOOK REVIEWER OR ENGLISH PROFESSOR. But when it comes to writing about politics, maybe Rebecca Curtis should stay out of the deep end of the pool until she learns how to do something other than dog paddle.
by Ronald Scott
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