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DemocratSinceBirth

(99,710 posts) Mon Feb 4, 2019, 05:48 PM Feb 2019

I wish I was able to write this. As it was it was another member. We have so many prescient posters.

***CNN*** Northam doesn't want to leave office as racist for life, per staff members.

He knows damn well this is what he'll be remembered for. Almost impossible to reverse or counter. Day to day great work in an honorable endeavor wouldn't come close to accomplishing it. Only a handful would know or care. He'd have self satisfaction but still the big picture stain.

Logically the only method would be a high profile media role. But who would hire him for that?

Mostly I don't care how Northam is remembered or what happens to him because I'm convinced he intentionally lied during the second explanation. That blackface photo is the centerpiece of that yearbook entry. The klan costume is subordinate. All eyes are drawn to blackface and that is by design of the yearbook crew. It was meant to be the focus and it was known to be Northam.

There is so much detail in that blackface photo, like the bow tie and tilted hat, along with holding a beer just above a captioned quote of Northam touting his devotion to beer. Again, that is hardly a coincidence. I helped lay out the yearbook in high school and that is the type of stuff we looked for.

As a handicapper I'll stick with my summary from yesterday that Northam originally knew darn well it was himself in the photo. He likely remembers everything that went into planning that costume and putting it on. He assumed there was no way to deny it. But once he slept on it he realized that he was stuck if he admitted to being in that photo, so he relied on recent examples and rationalized that he could blatantly lie, just like Trump every day and notably the replacement of "wouldn't" for "would" regarding Russian election meddling. That was also a one-day preposterous turnaround.

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I wish I was able to write this. As it was it was another member. We have so many prescient posters. (Original Post) DemocratSinceBirth Feb 2019 OP

There were at least two things about his live press conference that nailed it for me Jarqui Feb 2019 #1

I wasn't sure about using a single yearbook photo to end a political career renate Feb 2019 #2

He also said DemocratSinceBirth Feb 2019 #3

Jarqui

(10,126 posts)

1. There were at least two things about his live press conference that nailed it for me

Reply to DemocratSinceBirth (Original post)

Mon Feb 4, 2019, 06:21 PM

Feb 2019

One was that he never properly explained the "Coonman" nickname from his 1981 VA Military Institute yearbook (different from the 1984 Med School KKK pic).

The second was the overall shallow tone of the press conference that suggested he did not really grasp what racism was and how hurtful it was, etc. You don't contemplate moonwalking during such a serious and sombre moment seeking understanding and maybe acceptance of remorse.

Contrast that to Obama's speech on race after Rev Wright's fiasco. Might be somewhat unfair as it was one of the great speeches in American history. But the sensitivity, humility, sincerity etc were still missing in Northam's press conference. It was kind of like "deny I was in the pic and this thing will go away ..."

That Northam press conference was hollow and sealed the deal for most.

renate

(13,776 posts)

2. I wasn't sure about using a single yearbook photo to end a political career

Reply to DemocratSinceBirth (Original post)

Mon Feb 4, 2019, 06:37 PM

Feb 2019

My daughter's last high school yearbook was crammed full of mistakes: captions not matching photos, people given the wrong names in group photos, etc. Not just one or two mistakes but hundreds (it was particularly bad that year). I would guess that the average yearbook has dozens. Besides, a yearbook isn't edited or fact-checked as carefully as a newspaper... it's written and edited and put together by nonprofessionals, who do their best about getting things right, but who don't do this for a living.

But yeah, what you (or the original author of this post) said about matching the beer in the photo to the quote clarified things for me. That indicates that the photo on his page almost certainly isn't a mistake, or at least it dramatically reduces the likelihood of its being a mistake. And once it's almost certain that it's him in the picture, that would certainly explain why even a couple of people would call him Coonman.

I guess this is evidence that if a Democrat tells a lie, it's game over. If a Republican tells a lie, they can just brazen it out and it'll blow over, because when Republicans do shit like this, their base doesn't care.

DemocratSinceBirth

(99,710 posts)

3. He also said

Reply to renate (Reply #2)

Mon Feb 4, 2019, 06:39 PM

Feb 2019

He also said it was him on Friday and it wasn't him on Saturday and it was a medical school yearbook when he was twenty five years old.

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