Couple hypotheticals…
Back in July, McCain accused Obama of pulling the race card after Obama told supporters in Missouri that he didn’t look like the other presidents on the dollar bill. Well now, someone “loosely†associated with the McCain and Palin duo is truly showcasing the race issue. However, in this particular case, I’m not sure it’s believable.
According to a video circulating around YouTube, an African American guy named Kevin is claiming to be the father of Bristol Palin’s baby. He says that Bristol was sexually intimate with him “outside of her relationship†with Levi Johnston, the reported father. He even asks Bristol to call him, and he would take the video off YouTube.
Kevin actually blames race as the reason the truth about the child’s paternity is being kept a secret. In the video, he said:
I didn’t want to pull the race card but feel like Ms. Palin (he mispronounced as PAL-in, not PAY-lin) is keeping me away from my child to keep her political career in good standing. She understands that an African American male being the father of her child wouldn’t be best for her career.
The kicker to this paternity video is that old Kevin doesn’t agree with Gov. Palin’s politics, and is voting for Obama. And it probably comes as no surprise; Kevin is a “musician working on his urban rap career in LA.â€
What a difference 72 hours can make. After The McCain campaign released a statement on Monday saying Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol was five months pregnant, the press jumped, providing details on a story the public was hungry to read about. Even Labor Day couldn’t keep a story this big away. But now McCain staffers, conservative media outlets and other Republicans are turning against the press, claiming the “liberal media” are out to destroy Palin’s candidacy.
Democrats may have been more united behind their candidate than Republicans, despite the Clinton/Obama in-fighting, but Republicans can join together and start striking the media punching bag.
In tonight’s speeches, former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee thanked the “liberal media” for going after Palin and uniting the Republican base. Giuliani and Romney took their shots as well, stirring up the antiquated Conservative Napoleonic complex that the media is utterly dominated by people out to bring ruin to the Republican Party.
Yesterday, the McCain camp canceled a scheduled interview their candidate had on CNN’s Larry King Live after Campbell Brown pushed McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds to elaborate on some of Gov. Palin’s executive experience in an interview earlier in the day.
Former senator and presidential candidate Fred Thompson hammered home the notion during his speech in the Xcel Center. He said, “Some Washington pundits and media big shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit.”
Conservative talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh followed. On his Wednesday-morning show, he accused the media – and the entire “Washington government machine” – of attacking Palin. “I sense a shift here, ladies and gentlemen, in the Drive-By Media and the way they’re going after Sarah Palin,” Limbaugh said. “I think they’re going to drop this business that she’s not experienced enough. I think they’re going to go after the fact she’s trailer trash.”
Senior McCain strategist Steve Schmidt released statements and gave interviews all day Wednesday, arguing that the press’s treatment of Sarah Palin needed to change. In an interview with the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz, he claimed news outlets were “on a mission to destroy” Palin, and said the McCain camp was “under siege” from reporters.
