Reaction so far seems predictably mixed—ecstasy on the left, skepticism and even poetry on the right—but my chief response is that the real concerns haven’t been answered. Victor Davis Hanson:
So here we have it: a candidate who professes racial transcendence is comfortable with a racist; a candidate who preaches a new candor and transparency reflects the worst of the old Chicago politics of dissimulation, and a candidate, after Ohio, in need of displaying moderation to woo white male voters from Hillary, has almost ensured that he will lose them by his very inability to distance himself from someone who by his own testimony despised just that constituency.
Megan McArdle raises another intriguing point. It’s hard to urge us to get beyond divisions while spouting anti-trade rhetoric that stirs up fear of the other:
“This time we need to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you will take your job, it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.”
This is jaw-droppingly, head-shakingly, soul-cringingly, “Oh my God, maw, I think my eardrum just exploded” stupid.
“Don’t be afraid of the people who don’t look like you–be afraid of the people who don’t look like you, and have the nerve to live somewhere else.” They’ll sneak over the border at night, steal your job, and sell it to some wetback hooker in Juarez.
I understand the political logic that forces Barack Obama to spend a fair amount of time hating on trade. But I sort of feel–call me a starry-eyed idealist though you will–that a speech urging Americans not to hate and fear people who are different from them, should perhaps itself forgo urging Americans to hate and fear people who are different from them. You know, to set a good example for the children.
your an idiot!