Daily Scold: I want to cut his tenders off!

I'm sure you've all heard this by now, but those intrepid journalistic sneaksters at Fox News caught a snippet of conversation between the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Reid Tuckson, a black executive with the United Health Group. The two men were preparing to go on air for an episode of The O'Reilly Factor. Jackson, who whispers the entire inflammatory comment, apparently thought his microphone was off. He whispers to Tuckson, "Barack ... he's been talking down to black people. I wanna cut his nuts off."

The good Reverend was evidently referring to remarks Obama made around Father's Day, remarks stating that fathers (implying black fathers) need to take more personal responsibility in their children's development. After all, Obama's black father went AWOL on his white mother after he was born.

Anyway, the Rev. Jackson seems to believe this is somehow not being fair to black fathers, or black people in general. Well, I call B.S. on that. Amusingly enough, so does the Rev. Jackson's son, who issued a statement soon after Fox released the tape: "I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric." Ouch.

Upon watching this play out on the evening news, my own father remarked, "This just shows Jesse Jackson is obsolete."

Well, it surely does. What's really surprising is that this flap is arguably a good thing for Obama's campaign, an argument that MSNBC's First Read blog makes this morning. The logic goes as thus -- this just shows Obama isn't one of those crazy radical black people, you know, the kind of black person that's secretly a Manchurian candidate for the Black Panthers!

I suppose this does show there's no particular love lost between the Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton type of black leaders and Barack Obama, which I suppose is good for Obama when it comes to convincing white people that he's not out to advance the notorious "black agenda."

Why I am doing all this supposing, you ask? Well, I would venture to suppose I'm feeling a little disappointed all this is necessary to convince some white people that Obama isn't a radical. I mean, at worst or best he's just a conventional liberal Democrat with a unique bio and good charisma. It makes you think about how easily people allow their stereotypes to overrun their logical faculties. Let's just remember and scold some other amusing logical jumps that some white people have made about Obama:

1.) OMG WTF THIS GUY HAD HIS BACK TURNED DURING THE PLEDGE!1!11! NON-PATRIOT!
He's a politician. Do you have any idea how many times he has to say the pledge? More to the point, if similar footage of John McCain emerged, showing McCain turning his back on the flag, say to discreetly pick his nose or itch his testicles, would there be the same screams that he's not a patriot?

2.) OMG WTF THIS GUY DOESN'T WEAR FLAG LAPEL PINS!!!111! NON-PATRIOT!
Sigh. Maybe we should look at all the times where Republicans don't wear flag pins. Obama got himself into this with a remark he made in 2007 about how the lapel pin has taken the place of true patriotism, which he suggested might be better measured by how a politician treats American veterans (Obama voted for a stronger GI Bill, but McCain inexplicably did not). For more on the lapel pin, get a load of previous Scold coverage.

3.) OMG WTF THIS GUY WAS SWORN INTO OFFICE ON THE QU'RAN NOT THE BIBLE! HE'S A SECRET MUSLIM! HIS MIDDLE NAME IS HUSSEIN OMG!!@11!1!
This shrill refrain has often been fanned by conservative bloggers, but it's so blatantly false that even such august right-wing institutions such as The Weekly Standard and Fox News have distanced themselves from it or repudiated it. In any case the facts are simple, Obama received some education as little boy in a secular school in Indonesia. He's been a Christian for 20 years at his controversial Chicago church, for better or worse depending on how Jeremiah Wright's role will shape up in the fall. In any case, if you believe this, you were probably one of those people who was OK with Arabs, Muslims (and even some Hindus, which aren't at all like Muslims) and other foreign-looking people being harrassed in the weeks following the 9/11 attacks.

If you honestly believe this, you are a person who is acting on fear. As one prominent Nazi (Hermann Goring) said: "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

It's people who are afraid, ironically enough, that pose the greatest danger to the compromise of American values.