Asked And Answered

It is educational to learn from people like Eugene Robinson exactly how I, as a conservative white guy, was supposed to dread the idea of a blonde in the vicinity of Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr.:

At issue is a television ad, paid for by the Republican National Committee, that speaks to white voters in the old tried-and-true Republican code -- very cleverly, I must say. If you haven't seen the ad, it's easy to find on YouTube.com.

It has to be one of the funniest, slickest, best-produced political ads of the year. A succession of stupid or shady characters expresses support for Ford, applauding him because he wants to make families pay higher taxes or take guns away from hunters. A greasy guy in dark sunglasses claims Ford has taken contributions from pornographers, but shrugs and adds, "Who hasn't?"

Among the mock endorsers is a blond bimbo -- sorry, but that's the only word -- who squeals, "I met Harold at the Playboy party!" At the end of the ad she reappears, suggesting a certain intimacy as she implores, "Harold, call me."

There you have it: a black man, a white woman, more than a hint of sex. Viewers are left to fill in the blanks, and clearly the hope is that they will free-associate to a word like "miscegenation." Or, if Republicans are lucky, something considerably worse.

Okay, you're losing me here. Really. I've had to do online searches to learn what secret racist signals were being transmitted into my brain and was content to settle on race-mixing. So when Robinson asks in the title of his column Does The Code Still Work? the answer is No but not for the reasons Robinson imagines.

I see a different pattern. Democrats passing around lists to out gays. Liberals reviving race stereotypes. Who has issues exactly?

While I'm at it, Gay Patriot is one-stop shopping on the continued Foley fallout, though you'll find others doing great work too.