What Else is New?
by digby
A conservative political forum on Saturday sold boxes of waffle mix depicting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as a racial stereotype on its front and wearing Arab-like headdress on its top flap.
The product, Obama Waffles, was meant as political satire, said Mark Whitlock and Bob DeMoss, two writers from Franklin, Tenn., who created the mix and sold it for $10 a box from a booth at the Values Voter Summit sponsored by the lobbying arm of the Family Research Council.
Republican Party stalwarts Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney were among speakers at the forum, which officials said drew 2,100 activists from 44 states.
While Obama Waffles takes aim at Obama’s politics by poking fun at his public remarks and positions on issues, it also plays off the image of the classic pancake-mix icon Aunt Jemima, which has been widely criticized as a demeaning stereotype. Obama is portrayed with popping eyes and big, thick lips as he stares at a plate of waffles and smiles broadly.
Placing Obama in Arab-like headdress recalls the false rumor that he is a follower of Islam, though he is actually a Christian.
There’s nothing new in this. For years they’ve been selling buttons that say “happiness is Hillary’s face on a milk carton” at conservative confabs. Here’s one they were selling at the Texas Republican convention:
Just a few months ago I posted pictures of these fun t-shirts they were selling at CPAC:
And this too …
This is why we get so crazed when they unctuously attack liberals with charges of racism or sexism (or libertinism.) But then, hypocrisy is no longer an operative concept in our post modern conservative world and we’d better learn to adapt to it.
Update: More on the waffles. “Aunt Jemima means quality.”
And in case anyone still thinks that “values voters” care about the private lives of conservative politicians, check out the presence of Newt Gingrich as a featured speaker.
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