I've seen it before:


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61CXixlWwQL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Made for a different era, but the same themes keep re-occurring.

Nothing describes Reagan better, but fits for the Chris Christie and Scott Walkers of the world too.

Glad you're both here! That IS a good one, for sure! "For Whom the Dinner Bell Tolls"! Love it!!! We get some GREAT ones from people here! We used to have the DUzys - these ersatz "awards" that would be bestowed in a special thread, every week I think it was, and people would suggest posts for it. DUers would come up with some of the funniest, silliest, wittiest, catchy-est, most hilarious comments and they'd all get their moment in the sunshine with a DUzy award! Every now and then you still see somebody shouting "DUzy!" at a post they thought warranted it. I still do that myself! I suppose you could say "no good deed goes unpunished"!

the local library is learning to hate me.

and that would be the only "lean" thing about Gov. Crispy.

And the Dem convention.

Bipartisanship at its finest!

an unholy alliance. Want to talk about an "axis of evil", Christie and his crew and Norcross and his-it's like Hell's Angels and the Pagans teaming up to run the state.

This is the way Christie talks to some people "shut up" and "get out of here if you don't like what I'm saying" anyway, words to that effect. Well, could you even imagine if Obama spoke to anyone like that??? He would be called the black-thuggish president, and much worse! But, how come Christie can get away with that kind of behavior (especially if he thinks about running for presidency)? Even if he doesn't run for presidency, can you imagine if there were a black governor talking the way Christie does????

Good to have you here, too! You make a REALLY good point. Some of us have suspected that this was why President Obama behaved the way he did toward Congress and his opponents for the first six years or so, and why it's only now, late in the game, when he starts to put his foot down. Some of us have suspected that he probably had discussions with trusted advisors and probably also Michelle, going in. I mean - just consider. The First Black President. That whole "uppity" thing. Can you just imagine the pressure, the baggage that people automatically assign to such a man - Just Because? Oh, sir, you really can't be a hard-ass - you'll be lambasted as being the thug and all kinds of other horrible and idiotic slams and name-calling; you have to pull your punches; you have to deal with all this old stale shit that some of your opponents still carry around and cherish like so many baby pictures in their wallets. All the old shit YOU have to deal with, the unspoken shit, the presumptions, the inability of others to get the rocks out of their eyes, their hearts, and their brains...

All of that. It wouldn't surprise me if they kicked this idea around almost constantly after he won the title "President-Elect" - how are you going to govern? How are you going to manage the conflicting sides? How are you going to work this? I bet that was THE conversation that went on behind the scenes ALL THE TIME.

I've heard, I think, Rachel Maddow talking about Hillary Clinton in the same way - and if she gets the brass ring she will face this too - as The First. She WILL get shit. She WILL have to deal with people who've never had to face this particular template before, and aren't comfortable with it because it was always a man in that job and some people just always want it that way and this is an affront to what THEY feel is "the way it oughta be." The same people, I'm certain, feel that it's always been a white man in that job. So that's just the way it oughta be. And the first person to break through that convention is always gonna get shit, and always has to strategize extra, always has to use psychology extra, always has to manage attitudes and old perceptions and conventions and old thinking and old crap. The first person to cut through the bushes and brambles is always the one who gets the most scratches and bruises and cuts and scrapes from doing so. But that's what happens when you have to clear the way and cut a new path where there wasn't one before. The path-cutter up in front is the one that gets all banged up. For those who come afterwards, they don't have to deal with most of that, because the path has already been cut, the trail blazed, the basic way cleared, even weeds have started growing back over some of it.

I heard Rachel Maddow talk about Hillary Clinton that way - that literally everything she's done has been a first. She's done almost nothing throughout her life BUT be The First One. Or The First To Do Whatever-it-is. Nobody ever went from First Lady to Senator in her own right. Nobody ever campaigned for "THAT" job as a genuine peer - as she did in her primary campaigns for President. No woman was ever a realistic candidate before, even though there had been a handful before her. Geraldine Ferrarro before her - beat sarah palin to the Vice Presidential nomination by decades. SHE, too, had to face all kinds of shit just because she was The First. Again, that whole "uppity" thing.

There've been other women and other black men - and even one black woman (Shirley Chisholm) who sort of ran for President. But they were never considered viable. Even ben carson, today, isn't REALLY considered a viable candidate. He has about as much chance of getting the GOP nomination as I do. Realistically. Frankly, they laughed at Shirley Chisholm back in the day. I'm sure they laughed at white GOP female Margaret Chase Smith - DECADES AGO - during her very brief flirtation with a presidential run. Hell, I think she was the only female in the Senate back then. I remember the campaign button - a white oval that simply contained her name and a single long-stemmed red rose underneath it.

No, I can NEVER imagine a black governor talking the way christie bellows and taunts and blows. You'd hear "BLACK PANTHERS!!!" "OMG! Stokely Carmichael!" "You SEE?!?!? THERE! Proof positive they're taking over! They wanna kill the whites!!! BE AFRAID BE AFRAID You shoulda listened to us! He's coming for our GUNS, even!" God, there'd be no end to it. Especially now, with Pox Noise and the limbaugh-hate radio contingent regurgitating it, around the clock. JEEZ there'd be no end to it. African American men and women who've risen to positions of power, I suspect, know better. They know us better than we know us. They understand. They get it - what it is they're up against. They're wiser than we know. They know the stereotypes they face - even when they're the farthest imaginable individuals from such a stereotype. They know it. I'm sure Hillary knows it, and I'm sure Barack Obama knew it, too.

already we expect it.

insane! We're living in a country where the scammer is king!