February 27, 2008

TNR talks to David Duke about Obama.

So Andrew Sullivan said:
I have not believed that Obama has an ounce of sympathy for a creep like Farrakhan. But Obama has now made me doubt this. If David Duke called John McCain a good man, would McCain hesitate to say he'd rather Duke opposed him? If this is how Obama wants to tackle this emotive issue, he needs to get real.
And now there's this from Michael Crowley at TNR. He's talking on the phone with David Duke. What does the famous racist think of the prospect of a black President?
...Duke seems almost nonchalant about it. Self-described white nationalists like himself, he explained cordially, "don't see much difference in Barack Obama than Hillary Clinton--or, for that matter, John McCain." Sure, Duke considers Obama "a racist individual," citing his Afrocentric Chicago church. But soon the founder of the National Association for the Advancement of White People was critiquing Obama as overhyped and insubstantial in terms you might hear from, say, Clinton strategist Mark Penn. ...

[H]is mild tone is still a curious reaction to what white supremacists have long considered a sign of racial apocalypse. ...

"I don't think Obama will be any more negative for the United States than Hillary or John McCain," explains Duke. "In fact," he added, "we probably have less preference for a European like a John McCain or a Hillary who has betrayed our interests, our heritage, our rights."

Edward Sebesta, a Dallas-based expert on neo-Confederate groups, says that, in a match-up against Obama, McCain might wind up suffering the brunt of the hatred: "They really hate McCain," he says. "They're suffering from emotional exhaustion. They might not have the energy to be infuriated by two candidates at the same time." Amazingly, some commenters on racist websites are already debating the grim choice between Obama and McCain.

20 comments:

Beth said...

So it's worse to be a "race traitor" than to be non-white. That fits with what I've seen and heard from those folks. They want their own separate nation anyway; they don't care who's running the ZOG.

the wolf said...

Now there's a group of people I wish would threaten to leave the country and follow through on it.

Anonymous said...

Obama sells himself as the unifier-but if you vote for him is that what you are really going to get.

The outcome would almost be the opposite of the centrism Obama is selling through no fault of his own.

Obama has attracted or won the support of the far polar Left of his party. He had to go there strategically because he went to the left of Hillary-Hillary by her voting record was occupying the more center right.

McCain has fought hard the right in some really ugly arenas-he won the nomination despite all of their best efforts. The conservative media was running stuff on his judge postion as poorly sourced as the NYT's lobbyist story.

So what would happen if Obama wins the Presidency and McCain loses it?

The Democrats would follow Obama's winning pattern and cater more to the Left.

The Republicans would fear that the Hard Right abandoned them and would drive even further to that pole to try and win it the next time.

It would be an overcorrection but I am afraid they would believe that the Right really left them this time-even though it has happened before.

We could end up even more polarized -if that's possible.

ricpic said...

Hey, who knows? something good may come out of this Obama candidacy yet. Perhaps R word overkill will finally consign that epithet to W word status, as in The Boy Who Cried W(olf).

Palladian said...

At this point, interviewing David Duke about anything is kind of like interviewing the corpse of Abraham Lincoln about his opinion on the long-range aging potential of the 2005 vintage of Bordeaux wines: irrelevant, frustrating, and ultimately fruitless because, on the very off chance that Mr Lincoln does answer, you won't hear it through the tons of concrete encasing the coffin.

Hoosier Daddy said...

TNR talks to David Duke about Obama

Was Robert Byrd not available for comment?

Ron said...

Duke makes 'European' sound like a slur...which from him, I guess it is!

Peter V. Bella said...

Hoosier Daddy said...
TNR talks to David Duke about Obama

Was Robert Byrd not available for comment?



Actually, he was. He is in the hospital. Avian flu or something-LOL. He has to get well otherwise they will rename WV Byrd Land.

DBrooks17 said...

Hey, Palladian. Strange fact--Lincoln was strictly a Riesling drinker.

Balfegor said...

A man writes an autobiography obsessing over his "race and inheritance," then chooses to attend a racial separatist church, and we are supposed to be in some way surprised that racial separatist David Duke is more or less fine with him?

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Extremist groups already feel that there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans. Otherwise, they wouldn't be extremists.

To someone outside the system, it doesn't matter which candidate wins. To admit that it does would be to admit that their self-exile into wacko land is pointless. So, they always say that elections don't matter, the system is corrupt (otherwise their views would prevail) etc.

The very few that can still see reality admit that their ideas are just unpopular. For some reason, that's hard to do. It's easier just to make up conspiracy theory (which is primarily found in fringe politics for this reason).

This holds true whether a group right- or left-wing.

Palladian said...

"Hey, Palladian. Strange fact--Lincoln was strictly a Riesling drinker."

Really? Weird. I mean, not weird that he drank Riesling, which I love as well, but....

Upon re-reading my earlier comment, I have no idea what the hell I was trying to say with that metaphor.

Crimso said...

"Was Robert Byrd not available for comment?"

My guess is they were afraid he'd use that word (as he is wont to do). They either figured a) Duke was less likely to (sparing their delicate readers the exposure to that word), or b) more likely to (thus reinforcing the narrative). I'm guessing they were hoping for b.

TMink said...

I can think of a few people who have less cogent views on America than David Dukes, but none of them come to mind.

I do agree with Beth, and I admire that Dukes actually followed through with his threat to leave the country. Right on!

Does that make him more honorable than Alex Baldwin?

Trey

Daryl said...

It's not so shocking that Duke wouldn't hate Obama. White nationalists are always looking for other racial separatists to fall in love with, and they naturally assume that 99% of all black people are racial separatists.

former law student said...

Obama has attracted or won the the Presidency and McCain loses it?

The Democrats would follow Obama's winning pattern and cater more to the Left.


Obama will govern the same way Bill did: run on the left and govern from the center. That's why Bill led off by pushing gays in the military. That way he threw some red meat to his base, and could shift rightwards from then on.

Schwarzenegger did the same thing in California. He rolled back the car tax, and then pushed four initiatives to weaken the power of public employee unions. Every time I turned on the news, I had to hear a teacher, a nurse, or a firefighter telling me that Arnold was the AntiChrist. After the measures went down to defeat, Arnold buddied up with the Democrats in the legislature.

Start from one extreme, then govern from the center. That's the formula for bipartisan success.

Revenant said...

Schwarzenegger did the same thing in California.

Well, no; here, he ran in the center and has moved to the left. Sure, he was to the right of the teachers' union, but so was Fidel Castro.

Beth said...

Hi Trey. Don't get too happy; Duke still lives in Louisiana, but spends a lot of time in Russia and Eastern Europe. He's more focused on hating Jews than black people. That's always been his obsession.

rcocean said...

First, it puzzling that TNR would waste its time on David Duke, what does the head of CPUSA think about McCain?

And Farakhan and Duke aren't equals in terms of number of supporters or political power. Farakhan has real support in the AA community. Duke is simply a KKK bogey man that MSM uses to scare us.

TMink said...

Rats, Beth, another perfectly good day ruined by the truth! I thought that sorry bastard had gone to Russia "where they know how to treat a white man."

Trey