Alonzo
03-06-2008, 02:38 AM
Oh come on, when you play the race card at least do it better than this:
Did the Hillary Clinton campaign try to make Barack Obama look blacker for a recent attack ad? The simple answer seems to be yes. But whether it was intentional is a grayer matter.
Debate is raging in the blogosphere about a recent campaign ad for Clinton which shows footage from a MSNBC debate where Obama discusses Afghanistan.
Obama's skin is clearly darker in the ad than in the debate footage posted on YouTube. And as the blogger Troutnut on dailykos.com points out, the ad also squishes the image to make it fit on one side of the screen, so his face looks fatter.
But as to whether it was on purpose is debatable. Hunter Thompson on mydd.com responded it could simply be an issue with colour balance. And certainly, there's an argument for this: John Aravosis of americablog.com posts screen captures of three different versions of the video. And although none of the examples are quite as dark as the Clinton ad, it does show the variations possible.
(The squishing issue, despite not being talked about as much, is less justifiable. Only laziness could innocently explain why the image of Obama was poorly re-sized and not just cropped.)
But what's most interesting are the accusations themselves. Assuming the allegations are true, what benefits do the accusers think Clinton would gain from this stunt? It's an odd comment on the American psyche that if Obama's skin were to become a shade or two darker, it would cause people not to vote for him.
It's that notion that because Obama (politics aside) is a skinny, light-skinned African American he is more electable in the U.S. than say, James Earl Jones (though he does become president in The Man - And he was Vader, I mean he could just use the force on Osama and be done with it!). It would be like Obama's campaign trying to digitally add an apron onto Clinton to make her look like a maid because she's a woman.
I'm not saying they're aren't bigoted voters in the States. Many live here too. But it requires such a mild racist or sexist, to even consider voting for Obama or Clinton because he is only kind-of black or she is only sort-of a woman.
And Americans aren't really known for their subtlety.
http://blog.canoe.ca/canoedossier/2008/03/05/black_like_obama
This is the dumbest accusation ever!
Did the Hillary Clinton campaign try to make Barack Obama look blacker for a recent attack ad? The simple answer seems to be yes. But whether it was intentional is a grayer matter.
Debate is raging in the blogosphere about a recent campaign ad for Clinton which shows footage from a MSNBC debate where Obama discusses Afghanistan.
Obama's skin is clearly darker in the ad than in the debate footage posted on YouTube. And as the blogger Troutnut on dailykos.com points out, the ad also squishes the image to make it fit on one side of the screen, so his face looks fatter.
But as to whether it was on purpose is debatable. Hunter Thompson on mydd.com responded it could simply be an issue with colour balance. And certainly, there's an argument for this: John Aravosis of americablog.com posts screen captures of three different versions of the video. And although none of the examples are quite as dark as the Clinton ad, it does show the variations possible.
(The squishing issue, despite not being talked about as much, is less justifiable. Only laziness could innocently explain why the image of Obama was poorly re-sized and not just cropped.)
But what's most interesting are the accusations themselves. Assuming the allegations are true, what benefits do the accusers think Clinton would gain from this stunt? It's an odd comment on the American psyche that if Obama's skin were to become a shade or two darker, it would cause people not to vote for him.
It's that notion that because Obama (politics aside) is a skinny, light-skinned African American he is more electable in the U.S. than say, James Earl Jones (though he does become president in The Man - And he was Vader, I mean he could just use the force on Osama and be done with it!). It would be like Obama's campaign trying to digitally add an apron onto Clinton to make her look like a maid because she's a woman.
I'm not saying they're aren't bigoted voters in the States. Many live here too. But it requires such a mild racist or sexist, to even consider voting for Obama or Clinton because he is only kind-of black or she is only sort-of a woman.
And Americans aren't really known for their subtlety.
http://blog.canoe.ca/canoedossier/2008/03/05/black_like_obama
This is the dumbest accusation ever!