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General Election Preview

I hope the irony is not lost upon the people here (it hasn't been lost on Mike): After months of deconstructing Hillary and Bill's statements and ads for any sign of racism or nativism or McCarthyism--Orlando Patterson's "Birth of a Nation" analysis of the red phone ad being the standard by which these efforts could be measured--John McCain has come out with his first ad, claiming that he is the "AMERICAN president that AMERICANS have been waiting for." In my former days as an ordinary language philosopher, we used to ask of a phrase "As opposed to what?" "An African President?" "A Mexican President?"

--John B. Judis