Posts Tagged ‘turban picture’
The Obama Turban Picture and Bill Cunningham’s “Hussein” Remark
A few days ago a photograph of Obama wearing traditional Somali duds was leaked onto the internet. I could care less where that picture came from, because the truth is we’ll never know. If it was Clinton, then shame on her for throwing something at Obama that could stick in some idiot’s mind well into the fall. If it wasn’t, then shame on her response.
After Obama came out accusing her of fear mongering, Clinton’s people responded by essentially saying, ‘Wait dude, we think that’s a great picture that represents a dignified culture… but you call it a scare tactic… are you saying that you’re afraid of black people? That’s messed up.’ Not quite verbatim, but pretty close.
Then came Bill Cunningham. At a recent McCain rally, the conservative talk radio commentator made it a point to refer to Obama by his full name, notably injecting his middle name Hussein into his rant. Both McCain and the Republican National Committee denounced the move, basically equating it with playground politicking. So now, to preserve his honor, Cunningham’s doing NPR interviews to explain what he meant. Some people will actually buy it. He’s rebutted by using the Clinton line. ‘Hey man, Hussein is his middle name, if he’s offended by Islam that’s messed up.’
The following is a colloquial example of what Clinton and Cunningham have done:
Scenario: Dude walks into a bar with Wingman. Dude sarcastically says to Wingman, ‘Man, that girl is beautiful.’ She is in fact not. Wingman, who notices the implication says, “Hey man, that’s messed up, you shouldn’t make fun of people.” Dude turns around to look at Wingman with a serious glare and says “I really think she’s attractive; are you saying she’s not?” Wingman is trapped. He looks angrily at Dude. Dude just smiles.
Public Domain photograph courtesy of the Obama Campaign.
