Question Of The Day: What Is Carol Swain The Tennessean Smoking?

Seriously, is this the best person The Tennessean could find to write an op-ed opposing President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize?

Carol Swain’s piece in today’s fishwrap reads like the greatest hits from Michelle Bachmann’s cult of crazy. For example:

Everything that we know about President Obama causes one to marvel at his extraordinary good fortune. The odds against his election were enormous. No other president has been surrounded by a shroud of secrecy that includes sealed birth, educational and travel records. These sealed records have made it difficult for him to garner the military respect needed for a successful commander-in-chief.

You can just hear where Swain is going with this "it's awfully suspicious isn't it" tack. Yes, Obama was pretty "lucky" (wink wink) to rise to power, wasn't he? Strange, isn't it? And now a Nobel Peace Prize on top of that? (You know, that "prize" awarded by "foreigners"?)

Oh, there’s more:

A great fear is that the prize was given to influence future presidential behavior. That it could serve to curtail military options. Already some people fret about weakening national sovereignty, reductions in domestic freedoms through increased surveillance of citizens, and a thumbing of the nose at traditional American values.

“Some people fret” -- like who? The UN black helicopter crowd? Those people? Apparently, yes:

The peace prize has gone to a president who engaged in what some called an international apology tour for past U.S. behavior. Under his watch, U.S. military officers ordered the burning of Bibles in Afghanistan, and he told a Muslim audience in Turkey that the United States is no longer a Christian nation. In words and deeds, some see a rejection of American exceptionalism.

OMG!!!1!!!1!!!ELEVEN!!! It’s a Muslim conspiracy!!!! Where’s the outrage!

Perhaps the U.S. military didn’t think it helped the war effort when some Fundies took it upon themselves to convert the Afghan population to Christianity. Maybe that church should have checked with someone before going to all that trouble. Sorry but you’ll have to proselytize without the help of the U.S. military. (Fact check note: Via Black Gold 68 in comments, this incident happened during the Bush Administration and was merely confirmed after Obama became POTUS.) And no, the U.S. has never been a “Christian nation.” I really don’t want to have that argument again.

And finally:

A cosmopolitan man, who has worn an American flag pin with great unease, has been awarded a Nobel Prize. Where he takes America, God knows.

Oh Carol Swain! Just come out and say it already: you think President Obama is an America-hating secret Muslim installed into the White House as part of some conspiracy by "foreigners" who hate Jesus. He could be the Antichrist!!! OMG!! Don't dance around it, you lay out your "evidence" pretty well. Just tell us what you think.

I cannot believe this crackpot is a Vanderbilt University professor. What an embarrassment to that institution.

Even worse: I cannot believe The Tennessean assigned Swain the anti-Nobel Peace Prize column. I have heard some actual legitimate arguments questioning the Nobel Committee’s decision (personally I think the entire thing is ridiculously overblown, but that’s just me). But fear-mongering that it’s an attempt by foreigners to control the president and trotting out “he’s a super scary secret Muslim” conspiracies from the campaign are not among them.

Is The Tennessean trying to make conservatives look stupid by giving column inches to the right’s most wacked out voices, people like Carol Swain and Phil Valentine? Or is this really what the conservative movement has become? Crazy conspiracies about Manchurian presidencies and intolerance for the poor?

Michael Steele: Looks Great, Less Filling

Nashville’s own Carol Swain, Vanderbilt political science and law professor and recent appointee to a six-year term on the National Council on the Humanities, just met new RNC Chair Michael Steele in Washington.

Dr. Swain, who is African American, has made a scholarly specialty out of race relations, immigration and diversity issues. A self-described political independent, she’s staunchly pro-life and has attacked Planned Parenthood in editorials. She is also against affirmative action, and her views toward immigrants are harsh, to say the least.

So I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see her gushing about her Steele-y encounter on a local news group:

"I'm sooooo excited about Michael's election. In fact, I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work helping him diversify the Republican Party.

"Clearly, the Republican leadership has sent a strong message of inclusiveness to racial and ethnic minorities. Alas, much of the mainstream media have not given this historic event the coverage it deserves. If Michael is successful, it could prove to be a New Deal for all Americans. Perhaps, we will finally have real choice, fresh vision, and new direction for this country.”

Whoa there, Dr. Swain! It’s not like he’s president or anything! The only new direction he can offer is for the Republican Party, and I've got my doubts.

One doesn’t have to be too cynical to point out the obvious here. Steele was picked because the Republican Party wanted to put a good face on the party, the right sort of face, if you know what I mean, just as Sarah Palin was picked because the McCain campaign wanted a woman. And it will surely backfire if the Republicans can’t find the right message to back up the messenger.

Unfortunately for the GOP, the party is trying to convince everyone that “Barack The Magic Negro” is not a racist song and “The Star Spanglish Banner” is not anti-Hispanic. So, you know, good luck with that.

As for that “strong message of inclusiveness,” I’m a little suspicious of a guy who first came to our attention calling for the whaaaambulance over a bogus Oreo cookie throwing incident.

The selection of Steele highlights a more profound problem for the Republican Party. They seem to think Obama won the election because he’s black, not because people were sick and tired of eight years of Bush policies. Sorry guys, but Obama won in spite of race, not because of it.

Wrote Thomas Schaller over at Salon:

Charles Kessler, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and editor of the Claremont Review of Books, told me by phone from California that some conservatives had lost touch with core principles because of a mistaken belief that they've already won the battle for the hearts and minds of their fellow citizens.

"Both the party and the conservative movement have bought into the notion that this is a center-right country, that the majority of the country is already conservative, that we don't have to persuade them to be conservative because they already are," said Kessler. "That may have been true when Reagan was president, but it's not a permanent truth and it doesn't seem true to me now. I don't think Bush or the party tried to really persuade people toward conservatism."

So when Marsha Blackburn writes an op-ed for the local fishwrap repeating the same tired line that tax cuts and only tax cuts will stimulate the economy, I have to think this is a party completely out of ideas. We had eight years of tax cuts and that sure didn’t do jack shit for the country, did it? All of the deficit spending she and the rest of her ilk bemoan was stuff she voted for: the Yellow Elephant Brigade’s wars.

You know, if we hadn’t squandered a few trillion in Iraq we might have some money to spend on things like highway bridges and levees and healthcare here at home.

Michael Steele’s latest is to tell Wolf Blitzer, "Not in the history of mankind has the government ever created a job." Really? The government is the largest employer in this country, which you’d think someone who has actually been in government would know. I guess that statement was just made for a bumper sticker, like so much else that one hears from Republicans these days.

Americans went to the polls in November and screamed loud and clear that they wanted to do things differently for a while. And all the Republican Party heard was “hey, let’s give the keys to a black guy.”

Typical.

Sorry Dr. Swain, but I wouldn’t be waxing enthusiastic over Michael Steele. The Republican Party needs to change more than its skin color.