Somebody made an oopsie!

From TGPW:

"Honestly, I've never paid that much attention to Michelle Obama. Just
what little I've seen of her and Senator Obama, is that they're a
member of an elitist class... that thinks that they're uppity."



-- Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), quoted by CQ Politics.



'


Ok so this guy isn't a prominent Republican, but he's trying out a few attacks.
We've got the mention of elitism, which is apparently standard and doesn't seem to be that effective against Obama. We've got the dismissal of Mrs. Obama, which is also standard and doesn't seem that effective either.

And then we've got that one word: uppity.

All right then. I don't pretend to know what's going on inside Rep. Wesmoreland's mind, but when confronted with a mental picture of a black woman he would like to see politically defeated, he reaches for the word 'uppity.'

There are two groups of people the word 'uppity' applies to:

1. African-Americans who don't "know their place"
2. Women who don't "know their place"

This is what I'd call a political 'oopsie'. It probably won't get wide coverage, but let's be honest - it's not a very common word except in the above contexts. I don't want to argue about whether it's racist or sexist or not. I don't want to argue about whether those features are endemic to Republicans or not (for what it's worth, a large amount of liberal criticism of Palin is transparently sexist: I've heard her called a 'traitor' to her female-ness because she's pro-life). I would hope that Rep. Westmoreland sees he spoke loosely.

[Someday I will give a formal definition of the 'oopsie,' which I plan to make a political neologism just like 'truthiness]

Because I haven't been able to post anything substantial on the VPs

The following humorous anagrams are taken from The Volokh Conspiracy:

Who's the real secret Muslim in the race?

SHARIA PLAN

Who's most desperate to win?

I NEED JOB

As for Palin, who is more of a 'surprise' than Biden was, her rollout isn't working exactly as her party hoped. Sure she's got the Republicans excited, but when anybody unknown comes suddenly into the public eye there's a huge info-dump. Unfortunately, Palin's info-dump has made the McCain campaign seem...tabloid-friendly.

So all right, McCain picks someone his base loves, and it probably picks him up a couple points among women. But then it also kinda makes his campaign NOT seem like the 'safe' thing anymore. I have no idea whatsoever if this will benefit McCain in the long run.

Polls on RCP show a post-convention, pre-Palin Obama leading in Ohio and Florida. If he wins either, the race is effectively over. There's still room for McCain, but head-to-heads put Obama between 49-51% support. While the Republican convention will probably give McCain some support, will it really drain support from Obama? If he's winning more than half of voters it means that McCain would have to rely on turnout to win the election. The way I see it, the Democrats are the ones with the new turnout advantage in this election.

And let's not forget Barr and Nader. Nader polls at 1-4%. That's bullshit. There's no way that a guy who got .4% last time he ran will do twice to ten times as well in this election, where the nominee is more exciting to vote for than Gore or Kerry was. Barr gets 1-5%, and I think he'll get about 1-2%, basically getting .5% in the coastal areas outside the South and maybe up to 5% in the Midwest. I have no idea how Nader polls so high, but it is literally impossible for him to do as well as he's polling. More people might vote for nearly-crazy-"I'm so entitled I can hit police officers and disregard regulations" Cynthia McKinney, who's the real Green Party nominee this year.