Bellavia is clearly saying “you’ve got your Tiger Woods” to mean “you’ve got your hot-shot black guy.” That’s plainly racist, the same as Bill Clinton saying Obama’s win in SC was just like Jesse Jackson’s.

Unless Bellavia clarifies that remark, the left is entirely within the rules to call him racist.

House to House: An Epic Memoir of War

The quote refers to the fact that John McCain, whether you agree with his politics or not, has lived his life according to the same Honor Concept that he (and I) held so dear at USNA. Tiger, while apparently a good man, represents the ideal of athletic prowess. Which would you rather your sons hold dear: honor or athleticism? Which do they actually hold dear now?

Do you guys actually click the links? Ever?

Allahpundit on April 8, 2008 at 6:52 PM

Some of us who work behind firewalls are lucky enough to have this site unblocked…or at least go under the radar. A lot of the links go places where government computers fear to tread, so as a precaution I don’t click on links while I’m at work. Even if I preview the URL and it seems safe, I don’t want to draw undue attention to Hot Air and get it blocked.

If I’m totally mystified by the context, absolutely can’t just blow it off, and remember to do so, I’ll wait till I get home to click a link (usually the Dude-lines).

[Kat] Well, it was bound to happen. Hot Air reports that some guy named Sam Stein over at the Huffington Post is implying that Bellavia, in comparing Tiger Woods as a hero for children to Sen. John McCain’s heroism in……

And by the way Obamites… Woods is only one quarter black… so perhaps Thai should be more incensed… LOL (he’s half-asian and only one-quarter black, one eighth white and one either american indian)

He showed it to me at 3pm. He knows, but he is doing media and then travelling home tonight. He just said that he best get used to such attacks.

I should use the “preview” button more often!

DaveS on April 8, 2008 at 7:43 PM

Dave, Allah, gang, we are at that phase of the Moon called small waxing crescent. I think some here are still under the influence of the new moon. It seems some are still affected by the New Moon.

But I already know because 1) I read his speech, 2) I was standing behind him and heard what he said, and 3) I talked to him afterwards at lunch. He was referring to Tiger Woods as an example of a contemporary hero to many children, and contrasted that with how his kids (he has 2 very young ones) would be taught the heroism of others like McCain.

This has more to do with David’s race for congress than it does the race of the people he mentioned.

I think, but not certain, that Tiger is a Repub. so I wonder what he really thinks about obama.

mikeyboss on April 8, 2008 at 7:29 PM

The headline of AP’s post contains the key. Let me carry some of the Hotline piece over here (and add bold):

Bellavia is certainly not the first GOPer to connect the two men. In a piece about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy, Politico reported last month that Republican media consultant Alex Castellanos… said Obama is no Woods. In other words, with the revelations about Wright’s most fiery of sermons, Obama looked less conciliatory, less jovial, less like a bridge builder.

“All the sudden you’ve got two dots, and two dots make a line,” said Castellanos. “You start getting some sense of who he is, and it’s not the Obama you thought. He’s not the Tiger Woods of politics.”

Unfortunately for the Obama team, who might’ve been able to make some hay of McCain’s intro, Teamsters prez James Hoffa mentioned Woods today on a call with reporters. When asked if PA voters — translation PA’s white working class voters — were concerned about Obama’s race, he said: “With regard to his race, he’s African American. I know he’s of mixed race, but, you know, he’s like a Tiger Woods. He’s just a great person that’s really excited a lot of people. We’re not detecting a lot of discussion about his religion or his race here.“

So nobody smeared Tiger Woods. Not Bellavia, not Hoffa.

That’s why the headline reads,

Left’s attempt to smear David Bellavia as racist thwarted by Jimmy Hoffa’s son.

If I may be so presumptuous as to defend you, AP.

Let me go ahead and give you a cheat sheet:

– “Medal of Honor nominee” is about his MoH nomination.

– “[lefties are] treading lightly on this one anyway” is an example of lefties treading lightly on this.

– “Thank the Teamsters, whose president found a timely analogy…” is a link to the timely analogy referenced in the title of the post, an analogy by which the “Left’s attempt to smear David Bellavia as racist [was] thwarted by Jimmy Hoffa’s son”

Not. That. Complicated.