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Obama’s Questionable Ad Strategy

by EDWARD CLINE February 25, 2012
Before commenting on President Barack Obama’s newest campaign ad on YouTube, I ask readers to first watch the ad here. It isn’t long.
 
 
Now I ask readers to reach their own conclusions about this ad. Is it racist? Does it appeal exclusively to blacks or “African-Americans”? Is it addressed to all Americans, and not just blacks? Or not? Do you think the ad is a version of the White House’s policy of “class warfare” between the rich, the poor, and the middle class? I personally do not recall another candidate or incumbent addressing a specific race to garner votes. I have been watching presidential campaign ads for decades, and, in my experience, this ad is unprecedented.
 
Liberal pundits are screaming bloody murder over what they deem acerbic campaign ads put out by both parties. But I have heard or read nothing in the MSM or on any PBS affiliate or in any newspaper about this ad. Apparently, because the MSM has said nothing about it, it passes muster with them as a legitimate campaign ad.
 
I don’t recall JFK appealing to Catholics for their votes. I don’t recall Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton asking for Baptist votes. I don’t recall either of the Bushes pleading for “Caucasian” votes. I don’t recall any black candidates overtly soliciting black votes. Or Latino votes. Or Jewish votes. Not in a nationally broadcast speech addressed to the whole nation. From the White House. And YouTube is open to the entire nation.
 
The only exception might be a George W. Bush campaign video ad from July 2004, in which he stresses that Latinos or Hispanics are Americans. It does not appeal to envy, and doesn’t seek to be divisive.
If you have trouble remembering other innocuous campaign ads from years ago, find them and compare them with the Obama ad. You may see a radical difference.
 
Which ad is the flip side of segregation? Of affirmative action? Of Jim Crow-ism?
 
Racism, after all, is the lowest form of collectivism, but it’s obvious some politicians are willing and desperate enough to stoop to it.
 
FSM would like to hear from its readers. What do you think?
 
FamilySecurityMatters.orgContributing Editor Edward Cline is the author of a number of novels, and his essays, books, reviews, and other nonfiction have appeared in a number of high-profile periodicals.

Edward Cline is the author of the Sparrowhawk series of novels set in England and Virginia in the decades leading up to the American Revolution, and also of Whisper the Guns and First Prize. His essays, books reviews, and other nonfiction have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and other periodicals. He is a frequent contributor to Rule of Reason and The Dougout.


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