The Pinnacle: slim, sharp & lonely

Catching up on all the stories since I have been away and I must have missed this one when it broke – the header: Democrat: Republicans hate ObamaCare because they’re racists. Also, Castro’s a genius.

The Democrat is Rep. Diane Watson (D-California). Watson is both African-American and female, so she is speaking from the fake ledge of “absolute moral authority” which was once the province of Cindy Sheehan until she stopped being a useful bat for to beat around the Bush, with. From Watson’s ledge, she declares that if you don’t like Obamacare, you’re racist. And Castro is a genius.

Undoubtedly, if Hillary was now president and having difficulty selling Hillarycare, Watson would be declaring that you and I do not like the plan because we are all a bunch of sexists, who are (naturally) “afraid of a strong woman” who is selflessly all about saving every human being from everything, including themselves.

And, of course, Castro is a “genius.”

I’m a little tired of these overplayed hands and overused labels; I think they’re bandied about much too easily by people who prefer to call names rather than make a cogent, reasonable case for their positions.

The “racism” charge is especially tiresome. Our “post-racial” president has managed to take the sting and the scar out of the word in just, what, 9 short months, not because he’s “transcended” race and brought us all together into the sunshine of his love, but because he and his minions, his presscorp, his party and many of his supports have so quickly made “racism” the de facto excuse for his every failing that they have managed to render the word almost meaningless, to the detriment of those people who actually do suffer the real effects of racism, still, in this country.

NY’s hapless knucklehead of a governor, David Patterson has also been going on about how people think he’s a lousy governor because they’re racists and don’t like black people in power, he suggests (!) that President Obama was going to be the “next” victim of racism masquerading as substantive criticism.

Governor, please! New Yorkers think you’re a lousy governor because you’re a lousy governor. And people are displeased with President Obama’s policies and programs because he’s not doing the things he said he would do, and he is doing the things he said he wouldn’t do, and he seems completely frazzled, lost, whiney, annoyed and out-of-his depths. The guy can make a great speech, it’s true. But a likely-14-Trillion-Dollar Deficit, a jobless “recovery,” dozens of unaccountable czars, a healthcare plan long on control and short on cohesion, no jobs “saved or created,” questions about who his Attorney General will or will not prosecute, White House that seems out of control (and a president who hides behind blame and lacks the stamina to forebear his vacation – none of these inspire confidence.

“Racism” is a handy, empty and lazy excuse for unpopularity, mediocrity or outright failure, and it puts me in mind of Katie Couric’s (and her flock’s) tiresome petulance about her dismal ratings as the anchor of the CBS Evening News, and what I wrote about that could easily be applied to Watson, Patterson and Obama:

Twenty years ago it might have been “enough” for Couric to have gotten into the anchor chair. Today her being a woman is not enough…she has to be good at her job, too, and she simply is not. Her weaknesses are all too apparent, and they are not weaknesses of her sex, but of her self.
…
Once you’ve reached a pinnacle, you can’t keep whining that you’re only teetering because you’re a woman victim. You’re teetering because the pinnacle is slim, sharp and lonely, and you can only remain there if you belong there, or if you have one hell of a safety belt supporting you. Those that belong there make the pinnacle look easy, the rest impale themselves or fall. Or they loll about in the safety belt, and stagnate.

We have too many years before we can vote for a new governor or a new president. Can we recall the governor? Incompetence is one thing; whining, excuse-making, craven incompetence is another.