Tagg Romney was asked by a conservative talk show host what it was like during the debate “to hear the president of the United States call your dad a liar.” A chuckling little Romney said:
Jump out of your seat and you want to rush down to the stage and take a swing at him. But you know you can’t do that because, well, first because there’s a lot of Secret Service between you and him, but also because that’s the nature of the process.
Keith Boykin, an African-American broadcaster and former aid to Bill Clinton, was on a discussion panel on MSNBC this afternoon that included Steve Deace, a conservative radio host. Boykin responded to the Tagg Romney thing this way:
This is the most privileged, pampered group of people I’ve ever seen, complaining about everything along the way…and the idea that somehow they get away with it makes no sense to me, because you know, everyone at this table, everyone on this panel knows, if by chance Barack Obama had a son, and his son was an African-American and said he wanted to take a swing at the President of the United States, there would be an uproar from Steve and the conservative media and Fox “News.” This is a double standard at its highest level.
Who can doubt that?
For his part, the conservative Deace compared Tagg Romney’s macho response to one his eleven-year old girl might give if Deace were under attack from Boykin. “In the heat of the battle, I think you cut people a little bit of slack when family’s at stake,” Deace said.
The problem is that Little Mittens is 42 bleeping years old.
Again, who can doubt that if Obama’s black son, of any age, suggested he wanted to take a swing at a President Romney, that Sean Hannity would feature a “Breaking News” segment tonight complete with that nutty Fox “News” psychiatrist—you know, the one who suggested that Joe Biden’s debate performance was attributable to “dementia”—telling us about pent-up black rage in the Obama family?
The Erstwhile Conservative: A Blog of Repentance 
Dhevan Pillay
/ October 18, 2012Is this the values that Romney instilled in his son? So if China , Iran , Russia angers Romney will he rush to war ? Is this how he sorts out disagreements?
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writer89
/ October 18, 2012The right-wing response on this one is that “family should be off limits.” They compare the liberal complaints about this to the flap over the Bush Twins’ drinking in college. This is quite odd, considering all the terrible things they’ve said about Michelle and their daughters, but beyond that, there’s the fact that 42-year-old Tagg is actually part of the campaign staff, not an innocent high school or college kid who got stalked by a lefty blogger (their words, not mine). I doubt if the apple falls too far from the tree. The Obama campaign should take their cue from this, and see if they can actually get Mitt to take a swing at the President. Then not only would he lose votes, but he would be in jail during the last few weeks of the campaign!
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N.Michael Barrows
/ October 18, 2012Duane
I very much enjoy the posts on your site. It is refreshing to know that a young Democrat, residing in the red state of Kansas, can find political views that echo his own so close to home. Thank you for honest and intellectual writing.
P.S. If brother Daryl did not include me on his emailing list, I would not have been introduced to this site.
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R. Duane Graham
/ October 19, 2012Michael,
Welcome! I look forward to your participation. Daryl is a great promoter of Democrats in his circle of friends, which aggravates some of them greatly. And you probably know who I mean.
In any case, Kansas is now past the point of redemption, as I have written several times. The only thing that can save it is to allow the governor’s conservative extremism to have its way and, as it always does, wreck the economy for most of the folks living there. Then maybe, just maybe, at least the moderate Republicans who used to run the state can get back control.
Again, though, welcome to sanity!
RDG
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Kabe
/ October 18, 2012Why didn’t this hard ass join the military? This family is a joke and this entire quest for the White House is nothing more than a new hobby.
Kabe
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Yellow Dog
/ October 19, 2012Because the military is for the “little people”, not the privileged. The only time the privileged serve their country now is when they run for office…as with Romney, Ryan, and the rest of the young guns. Geeeze.
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Treeske
/ October 18, 2012Kabe, AMEN!
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brucetheeconomist
/ October 18, 2012Tag saying this (with you indicate a chuckle), or Obama’s hypothetical son doing so, leaves or would leave me thinking its mostly tongue in cheek, or at worst a way to curry favor with the audience.
I doubt it would actually happen even if the Secret service weren’t there.
Everyone chill a little.
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R. Duane Graham
/ October 19, 2012Bruce,
Of course, though, it would not leave conservatives thinking it was just tongue in cheek, which is my point. That crazy Fox psychiatrist would be called in to analyze the remark and conclude, I have no doubt, that it resulted from a subterranean black rage that likely ran through the entire family. I kid you not.
Duane
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brucetheeconomist
/ October 19, 2012OK. I agree, and likely on the Sean Hannity show, along with some carefully edited transcripts or recordings to make it seem as scary as possible to white folk like me.
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N.Michael Barrows
/ October 19, 2012I have a question for anyone for anyone willing to give a response. I see that The President is getting slammed this morning (10/19) for using the phrase “not optimal” last night on The Daily Show when referring to the deaths of the four Americans in Libya. Now, I’m not saying that “not optimal” is what should have been said; but my question is: Could he have said anything regarding the attack that would not have drawn the negative attention as what he did say?
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Yellow Dog
/ October 19, 2012The media is splitting hairs. Don’t you think they should stop setting their own hair on fire with stupid headlines and just cover the damn election and then shut up.
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R. Duane Graham
/ October 19, 2012Michael,
Let me begin by reminding folks that it was Jon Stewart who first used that phrase. The President then incorporated it into his response to Stewart, as is rhetorically kosher. I don’t see a damn thing wrong with the way Obama used the phrase, given the question he was asked, which had to do with the administration’s initial response—response—to the tragedy in Benghazi:
STEWART: I would say and even you would admit it was not the optimal response — at least to the American people as far as us all being on the same page.
OBAMA: Here is what I will say: If four Americans get killed, it is not optimal. And we’re gonna fix it…
STEWART: All of it…
OBAMA: All of it. And what happens during the course of a presidency, is that, you know, the government is a big operation, and at any given time, something screws up and you make that sure you find out what’s broken and you fix it.
Whatever else I have done throughout the course of my presidency, the one thing that I’ve been absolutely clear about is America’s security comes first and the American people need to know exactly how I make decisions, when it comes to war, peace, national security, and protecting Americans. And they will continue to get that over the next four years of my presidency.
Naturally, these words, which admittedly most people will never hear, were immediately ignored by not only right-wingers, but also by some mainstream news outlets. The focus, as usual, was on one word, as if one word suffices to characterize Obama’s response.
Was the President supposed to respond to Stewart’s question by saying that “it”—whatever the “it” referenced in his response—was optimal? What Obama was essentially saying, as he played off Stewart’s word, was this:
Look, Jon, four Americans died. Of course the response was not optimal.
But the larger point to make in response to your question, Michael, is this: There are those out there who parse Obama’s every statement, who interpret what he says in the worst possible light, who no matter how he answered Jon Stewart’s question, would have found grave fault with it.
What is worse than that, though, is that the mainstream press often, way too often, makes a news story out of ridiculous conservative-inspired criticism of Obama. You can turn on your TV or you can search the Internet and you will find all kinds of mainstream journalists talking and writing about this overwrought conservative response to what Obama said. This latest attack on the President’s words are just part of the larger attack against him as not being sufficiently American, of not sufficiently loving the country.
And the mainstream press ought to have learned by now to ignore this utter bullshit coming from places like Breitbart and Fox “News.” The fact that it doesn’t ignore it is what makes me so angry. This whole non-controversy demonstrates just how easily conservatives can manipulate the mainstream press. It is sickening. It is shameful.
Duane
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N.Michael Barrows
/ October 19, 2012“just cover the damn election and then shut up.”
I love it
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