The 'Real World' of Pandering

[MountainLaurel]

You know a politician is having a bad week when he spends it trying to convince people he's too unsophisticated to have possibly understood the racial slur he tossed at a man who happened to be armed with a video camera.

Sen. George Allen's mental journey to the imaginary land of Macaca has brought the one-term Virginia Republican -- considered a presidential hopeful for 2008 -- more national attention than ever before. But not in a good way.

The Macaca incident became a sensation on the video-sharing Web site YouTube.com, where some visitors helpfully posted clips of macaques, which are monkeys. It spawned a host of predictable jokes -- "Funny, you don't look Macacan" -- and inspired a hilarious bit on "The Daily Show" that ended with a potty-humor punch line not entirely suitable for the opinion pages of a distinguished newspaper. Suffice it to say that another make-believe realm called Yapipi was invoked.

As you probably know by now, Allen was making a campaign stop and spotted a college student who was shadowing him -- videotaping all his appearances -- to gather possible ammunition for the campaign of his opponent, Democrat James Webb. The young man, S.R. Sidarth, is of Indian descent. Allen pointed him out for the all-white crowd, calling him "Macaca, or whatever his name is," and then said to Sidarth, "Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia." Sidarth happens to be a Virginia native.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR2006081701192.html

I think Robinson gives Allen too much credit, but otherwise he's spot on.