Tracy Morgan: Feminist Icon

Tom Watson writing about Tracy Morgan’s appearance on SNL:

The somnambulist media took guest star Tracy Morgan’s “defense” of Senator Barack Obama last night as an equal time gesture on the part of Saturday Night Live after Tina Fey’s defiant “bitch is the new black” stand on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Not shockingly, they’ve missed the story. Ya see, Morgan’s a comedian, fellas. He didn’t come to praise the campaign of Senator Obama - he was openly mocking some of his supporters. Take his now-famous “bitch may be the new black, but black is the new president, bitch” line. The right-wing Chicago Tribune called it “a blistering (and funny) response to Geraldine Ferraro’s comments about Barack Obama.” Uh fellas, Morgan was satirizing some of the blatant sexism that suffuses much of Clinton’s opposition - and quite brilliantly. You see, by referring to a still-revered female septuagenarian Democratic pioneer as “bitch” - by pretending to be an angry anti-feminist on SNL - Tracy Morgan was holding up a mirror to the hate, and he was nailing so many of the misogynists to the wall with the simple hammer of humor. Morgan took down some of the iron-my-shirt, likeable-enough, she-sipped-tea woman-haters in the crowd - and hard - while joining his good pal Tina in battling sexism. The great ones can do that. The Lenny Bruces and the George Carlins. But so many missed the message. Dudes, you ever hear of satire?

Tom Watson, I like you, I really do, but, dude, you ever heard of a vacation? Either than or it might be time for a Johnny Thunders post or two.

p.s. Yesterday Riverdaughter, who Tom said “always seems to nail what’s so important about the typical Clinton voter,” wrote the following:

Now, I am going to say something that will undoubtably be misconstrued and condemned as insensitive and racist. Of course, it is none of these things but it must be pointed out anyway. It is the great unspoken that everyone is thinking but no one will say for fear of bringing down another Keith Olbermann rambling, unfocussed diatribe on our heads. If Obama wins this thing by virtue of having obtained unearned delegates, he will become the Affirmative Action candidate. [my emphasis—ed.] Not only that, but he will have done it by gender discrimination as the candidate most qualified, having more experience, a greater knowledge base, dedication and hard work was passed over, along with all of the millions and millions of disenfranchised voters of the most populous Democratic states and several crucial swing states. That is the narrative that will haunt you all the way to November, Bill. It won’t matter whether he is a better candidate than John McCain or not. The thing that the GOP has been railing about for years will be out there for the whole country to see. And how do you expect the country, including independents and Republicans, to get behind Obama when this is the way your party treats its own voters?

In case anyone is confused and/or offended, I think Riverdaughter was satirizing some of the blatant racism that suffuses much of Obama’s opposition. Right? Someone get George Carlin on the phone. I think we need an expert opinion on this one.

Posted by Kevin K. on 03/17/08 at 08:12 AM • Permalink

Categories: Politics • Election '08 • Barack Obama • Hillary Clinton • Poliblogs • Polisnark • Television •

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Kevin - you’re 100% right about one thing - I need a vacation, big-time!

Now, as for the Thunders post….hmmmm, he died in ‘91 but I’m petty certain he’d be a Hillary man.

Comment by Tom W. on 03/17/08 at 09:54 AM

I see that you are confused by what I wrote. Let me take this opportunity to clear it up for you.
The Affirmative Action comment was not satire. I am deadly serious and Obama supporters should be very careful to make sure he doesn’t go the route of getting unearned delegates in Florida or Michigan. See, that’s the kind of thing the GOP would beat to death in the general. And it resonate with the lunch bucket voters that Obama has written off in his reckless pursuit of the young, the pretentious and the angry-white-male-libertarian. There’s nothing funny about that. And that is the key to distinguishing serious commentary and satire. Satire is funny. This issue is not.

Comment by riverdaughter on 03/17/08 at 10:28 AM

The Affirmative Action candidate, huh? Jeebus H. Christ on a popsicle stick.

Comment by Betty Cracker on 03/17/08 at 11:27 AM

I think riverdaughter has head in the river too long. Her head is waterlogged. And she is indeed a racist. That’s all I can get from her post if it is indeed not a sad attempt at satire. She’s also an overanalyzer.

Comment by Bonnach on 03/17/08 at 12:31 PM

I don’t know whether “riverdaughter” is a racist or not, but she definitely doesn’t have her facts straight. She writes:

Considering the extreme punishment met [sic] out to Florida, it almost seems to the unenlightened that you guys didn’t *want* Florida to count and set it up so it was between a rock and a hard place. It’s almost like those people were just going to destroy you [sic] beautiful plans with ugly votes so they were given an impossible choice and 1,750,000 of them turned out in defiance and voted for Clinton anyway. Well, we can’t have that.

Unenlightened indeed. I’m a Florida voter, and I can tell you that’s a load of crap. Clinton got around 850K votes in Florida to Obama’s 569K and Edwards’ 248K. You could look it up.

Also, the reason voter turn-out was as high as it was in FL is because there was a property tax amendment on the ballot. That probably drew a disproportionate share of Clintonites to the polls too since they tend to be older and hence more likely to own property.

Comment by Betty Cracker on 03/17/08 at 01:47 PM

Sorry for the late response, but I’ve been working my ass off so I can afford all of the latte-sippin’ I’ve been doing lately.

Betty, I wasn’t aware that there was a property tax amendment on the ballot. Interesting. Thanks for the info.

As far Riverdaughter (or any other Hillary supporter) being a racist, I won’t take it that far, but they’re really toeing the line lately and draping themselves in the flag or screeching about reverse racism to preemptively counter charges of racism doesn’t really cut in the left side of the sphere. And quite honestly, with the cascades of kneejerk (and inaccurate) cries of sexism they unleash these days, it’s pretty darn easy to just say, fuck it, and return the favor with an equally lazy smear.

I’m not quite there yet, but if I see a few more pro-Hillary blogs with endless dog-whistle-laden Rev. Jeremiah Wright posts or favorable references (and links) to anti-Obama editorials written by wretched rightwing racists like Mark Steyn, that could all change relatively soon.

And Tom, once again, you’ve got to take off your Hillary blinders. Johnny Thunders would clearly be a Ron Paul or Mike Gravel guy. Seriously, Bermuda is calling. ;)

Comment by Kevin K. on 03/17/08 at 02:49 PM

riverdaughter, Hillary’s the actual affirmative action candidate. She’s the one who swore that MI and FL wouldn’t count, but actually lied, and later demanded that they count.

She didn’t earn any of her MI delegates. She pitched a tantrum like a spoiled child, and they indulged her with some. She shouldn’t have received any, because that primary was a joke.