Over the weekend David Gergen said,

“There has been a very intentional effort to paint him as somebody outside the mainstream, other, ‘he’s not one of us,’” said Gergen, who has worked with White Houses, both Republican and Democrat, from Nixon to Clinton. “I think the McCain campaign has been scrupulous about not directly saying it, but it’s the subtext of this campaign. Everybody knows that. There are certain kinds of signals. As a native of the south, I can tell you, when you see this Charlton Heston ad, ‘The One,’ that’s code for, ‘he’s uppity, he ought to stay in his place.’ Everybody gets that who is from a southern background. We all understand that. When McCain comes out and starts talking about affirmative action, ‘I’m against quotas,’ we get what that’s about.”

Exactly what I said last week:

Since the old angry black man stereotype wouldn’t work, the GOP has reached even deeper into white America’s racial memory and brought forth — the uppity black man stereotype.

A lot of bloggers and pundits jumped on the subliminal message of putting Paris Hilton and Britney Spears into the “celebrity” ad, but not so many caught the more dangerous (IMO) subtext of uppity-ness. Maybe you have to be a certain age or have a southern background to see it. But this is what really needs to be pushed back, hard. And now. And Obama can’t do it himself, because he doesn’t want to be “the black candidate.” Others must do this for him.

Regarding the “Praise the One” ad — I’m not sure the Right is acting out of jealousy. There’s a lot of resentment there, of course, but I think they fear Obama’s popularity more than they are jealous of it. I also want to remind everyone that it was the Hillary Clinton campaign that began the meme of Obama the Messiah and his supporters as brainless cult followers. Thanks loads.

Update: Read also “Obama’s crime? Acting too presidential.”