Quick Hits: Haiti, "Cheating", and Obama's Truck Fixation

There was considerable confusion and turmoil delivering goods to the victims of the 2004 tsunami in southeast Asia. At the time, it was reported that goods, supplies and provisions were not getting to survivors. If memory serves me well, coordinators from DHL and FEDEX straightened out that mess; goods and supplies were routed efficiently and effectively once the professionals got involved.

Sounds like the public sector working in Haiti could use some big time private sector help. Hopefully DHL, FEDEX and UPS, among others, are helping to get things going. Swiftly. But I do understand how difficult such a task is, particularly in Haiti, since the infrastructure to begin with was so limited. If there are only a few roads out of an airport and they are closed, well, there really isn't much one can do.

It's not like many of us in America have had UPS, FEDEX, DHL or the US Postal Service drop packages in our yards from helicopters.

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I have seen at least one TV journalist lose control of his objectivity while covering Haiti. It is clear he has not kept his distance. I am not saying he should, but it is clear his humanity has gotten the journalistic best of him. But there is one fact that people who believe relief is not coming swiftly enough seem to forget: There is no Spiderman. There is no action figure or super hero; there are no Jack Bauers in the world. Relief comes slowly. It's just the way it is. The real world is not TV; the real world is not a movie. No one is guaranteed a happy ending.

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In Massachusetts right now, voters are turning out to elect the successor to Edward M. Kennedy. The two nominees are Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Scott Brown. As you probably know by now, Mr. Brown has a significant lead in the pre-election polls in a state that is so blue even its clams are Democrats.

In his speech Sunday in Massachusetts supporting Martha Coakley, Barack Obama mentioned Scott Brown's pickup truck six times (Mr. Brown drives a GMC pickup with 200,000 miles on it). Below are all six instances Mr. Obama referred to the "truck":

• "Now, I’ve heard about some of the ads that Martha’s opponent is running. He’s driving his truck around the commonwealth and he says that he gets you, that he fights for you, that he’ll be an independent voice. And I don't know him, he may be a perfectly nice guy. I don't know his record, but I don't know whether he's been fighting for you up until now, but --."
• "So, look, forget the ads. Everybody can run slick ads.  Forget the truck. Everybody can buy a truck."
• "Now, what we're proposing is to make sure that taxpayers get their money back from the rescue that we had engaged in at the beginning of this year, thanks to the bad regulatory policies of the previous administration.  And so we asked Martha’s opponent what's he going to do. And he decided to park his truck on Wall Street."
• "Now, there’s a big difference here.  It gives you a sense of who the respective candidates are going to be fighting for, despite the rhetoric, despite the television ads, despite the truck."
• "So I’d think long and hard about getting in that truck with Martha’s opponent. It might not take you where you want to go."

I have heard others comment about Mr. Obama's truck fixation, but none of these commentators seems to have heard what I hear. What I hear is a man using language that is sexist and racially-charged. Women should be particularly anxious about a man in a pickup truck, as Mr. Obama says: "I'd think long and hard about getting in [Mr. Brown's] truck... [he] might not take you where you want to go." And African-Americans should "think long and hard" about riding in a white man's truck; we all know what a white man in a pickup truck really means.

Maybe I have heard too much. Maybe I am so cynical I can't hear with clarity what a politician actually means. But I have no idea why the President of the United States would use a white Republican man's truck as a reason to steer clear of that man. I have no idea why a pickup truck should be an object of aversion. And I have no idea what a President of the United States is doing scoffing at one of his constituents and all those Americans who have put 200,000 miles on their trucks.

Note, too, Mr. Obama's lovely locution: I know nothing about Scott Brown. But I do know he is this and this and this.

Oh, and one last laugher. Mr. Obama intended to sow fear by suggesting Scott Brown would park his pickup truck on Wall Street. Nice! This from a man who sits in the Oval Office because the largest donors to his presidential campaign were Wall Street financial and banking firms.

Sick.

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MSNBC's Ed Schultz had this to say about the Massachusetts special election:

"I tell you what, if I lived in Massachusetts I’d try to vote 10 times. I don't know if they'd let me or not, but I’d try. Yeah, that's right. I’d cheat to keep these bastards out. I would. 'Cause that's exactly what they are."

Splendid. And Fox News is Faux News!

Did you read Mr. Schultz' apology? Here it is:

"I misspoke on Friday. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I meant to say if I could vote 20 times -- that's what I would do."

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MSNBC's Keith Olbermann had some nice things to say about Scott Brown:

"In short, in Scott Brown we have an irresponsible homophobic racist reactionary ex-nude-model tea-bagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees. In any other time in our history this man would have been laughed off the stage as an unqualified and disaster in the making by the most conservative of conservatives. Instead the commonwealth of Massachusetts is close to sending this bad joke to the Senate of the United States."

I am wondering if anyone can find for me a single personality on Fox News that is Mr. Olbermann's equal? If so, has that Fox News personality EVER said anything as vile about a candidate for public office as what Mr. Olbermann has said here?

Mr. Olbermann, by the way, is a strawweight.

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Just some thoughts.