A Media Nation reader sent along a couple of close-up photos of Republican congressional candidate William Hudak’s SUV. You get a much clearer look than in the video I posted last week. Click here for the second photo.
Bringing the Hudakmobile into focus
Media Nation 
Dot – I’m not sure what you mean. This mess we’re in is not the fault of one corporate leader, one member of Congress, one President, or hardly one devoted worker.
We have evolved into numerous problems much of it created and contributed to by hard working people – – – people who worked in the trades building too many houses, real estate appraisers who kept upping values, real estate brokers who quickly sold housing units at higher prices, banks and lenders who competed graciously to extend the next home loan, scientists who developed newer, better and stronger drugs and better machinery to detect illness at higher costs, and consumers who bought value oriented merchandise imported at prices lower than USA manufacturing costs.
We fell into this mess. It is darn hard to come up with a solution that works.
I think the vice president said something to the effect that “there is a 30% chance we’ll have it wrong.” I know the number is arbitrary, but the point is we have to try, somehow, and hope somehow we’re on the 70% side.
It is a shame we have so many quality people either unemployed or underemployed, or so many financially stressed over medical costs, so many small, and large, businesses suffering – – – businesses we need to thrive so they can pay hefty taxes.
The victims are diverse. There are the radicals who seem to over decorate their car, and thankfully those who keep the First Amendment alive with criticism, and in a way that is all constructive, too, but the real construction will come from government and business leaders coming together to turn this choas into productivity that benefits everyone, in particular, the average, every day, devoted worker employed within their expertise and pleasure.
Thank you for the lecture Newshound. My point is that someone obviously took the time to rewrite the Iacocca rant to apply it to Obama. Once it has been disseminated to thousands of non-critical thinkers via email, it doesn’t really matter if Iacocca wrote it or not. If it isn’t the truth, it at least conforms to an alternate reality created by right-wing fantasists and is therefore accepted as fact. It’s hard to combat that kind of disinformation.
The important think to keep in mind about Lee Iacocca is that he would never, ever criticize a president who’s bailed out an auto company.
Dec. 19,2008 “President George W. Bush stepped in Friday to keep America’s auto industry afloat, announcing a $17.4 billion bailout for GM and Chrysler, with the terms of the loans requiring that the firms radically restructure and show they can become profitable soon.”
March 30, 2009 “And so today I’m announcing that my administration will offer GM and Chrysler a limited additional period of time to work with creditors, unions, and other stakeholders to fundamentally restructure in a way that would justify an investment of additional taxpayer dollars.”
Not everything is Right or Left – – – the problems or the solutions. Neither President Bush nor President Obama should be blamed for the auto industry. It happened and the blame can be widespread. Both administrations made effort to solve the problem or soften the discomfort.
We’re fortunate to have freedom of speech in this country and much that Mr. Iacocca wrote while Mr. Bush was president can still be applied, unfortunately, even if the work of something “created by right-wing fantasists.” It is freedom of speech along with right-wing and left wing fantasists that help steer us to the middle. As said earlier, we are fortunate the Congressional candidate has made his position clear.
President Bush was not a right-wing screwball, nor is President Obama a liberal screwball. Fortunately, both were and are serious about working hard at extraordinary challenges and neither has had the level of success any of us desire. Not all their fault. Either one of them.
Funny comparison though: the real Mr. Iacocca and the fake “fantasist” Mr. Iacocca are not that much different. They both, overall, make the same point.
Dot, you have every right to be offended by whatever you choose to be offended by, but if the actual subject of the caricature, a highly educated lawyer and Governor, isn’t offended, then your grievances ring a bit hollow.
Cries of Hudak’s “racism” by some here while Governor Patrick expresses no concern, remind me of Münchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP), a disorder in which a caregiver tries to convince others that a healthy child has medical problems. MSbP was named after Baron von Munchausen, an 18th-century German dignitary known for telling outlandish stories.
It’s best to avoid becoming aggrieved by proxy. One of the darkest chapters in American cartoon history was the racist depiction of the Irish as sub-human with animalistic, ape-like features. Our last President, George W. Bush, traces much of his ancestry to Ireland, yet he was depicted as a chimp for his entire presidency. He didn’t make a big deal of it, nor did I. Did you?
The extreme rant some people disseminate is a welcome reminder of the freedoms in this country and those issues and positions which are most important to them. As such, we should be thankful for Mr. Hudak contributing so bluntly to the public discussion.
If he is truly doing this with the expectation of harvesting enough votes for a victory many of us I think can be quite comfortable predicting his disappointment. More importantly to him though, is that his objective may be merely to attract attention to his political opinion.
Most, but not all, who are elected assume a more responsible position to merge their own political beliefs with that of the mainstream of voters. I have seen Rep. Frank riding in a car without banners and advertising when there was a president of the other party. Tip O’Neil didn’t have his car decorated like that either when there was a president of the opposite party.
There was a time, too, when our Congressional delegation could have expressed themselves with a drawing of a big set of lips running the length of their car “Read my Lips!” Obviously, there are varying levels of dignity. At the time, there was a president who had to break the integrity of his campaign promise about new taxes and work with our congressional delegation for what they believed was in the best interest of the country and its people.
Ironically, this president who would like to be more generous is logically backed into a corner to tighten the spending reins.
Thank goodness for the ranters and the likes of Mr. Hudak, and thank goodness that we, in the end, are governed and represented with, usually, as we demand, people more representative of middle ground and who display more dignity.
The president did express that he welcomes better ideas than those of his own. Not a bad.
Now O-Fish is playing psychologist, too. Stellar.
“It’s best to avoid becoming aggrieved by proxy.”
Hilarious.
Setting aside your recent claiming of Martin Luther King as your own, yet seeing nothing at all racist in Patrick’s caricature, the above calls to mind your recent statement:
“The “nothing to see here” attitude smacks of the dismissive tone when Coakley’s goon assaulted the reporter.”
Given your blatant inconsistency bordering on hypocrisy, I am beginning to think you are not a serious person.
And you know I’m not African-American or have African-American relatives how, exactly? As for aggrieved by proxy, well, William Lloyd Garrison and Abraham Lincoln should have just kept their mouths shut, right? Furthermore, Lincoln freeing the slaves is exactly the kind of big government vote pandering states rights interfering action conservatives today would hate.
Dot, It’s not that O-FISH-L is blind to racism, it’s that he’s deaf to it.
The most subversive part of the “bumper sticker” is
“FROM THE ENEMY WITHIN”
calling Pelosi, Obama and Patrick the enemy. They are all lected officials, elected by a majority of their constituents.
You can and should disagree with them on policy but if you believe in our system of government, calling them “enemies” of our nations cornerstone values is just as subversive as any other effort to undermine our democratic republic.
For the sake of argument, I will stipulate that the Patrick caricature depicted is racist. That said, any idea why His Excellency the Governor hasn’t spoken out about it yet? Certainly his bevy of aides are tuned in here and he’s aware of it. To overlook racism is to condone it. While I disagree with Patrick on most issues, I think we agree that racism should never be condoned.
Further, and to his credit, our host Dan Kennedy made fast work of contacting Sen.-elect Brown’s office and getting a statement on Hudak, yet there is nothing from the governor on Hudak. What does Patrick say, about the truck especially? Perhaps you could follow-up, Dan.
I was trained under the philosophy, “no victim, no crime.” While some of you –to whatever degree of seriousness- seem highly offended by the caricature, I think it’s only Governor Patrick, not the bystanders, who could claim a violation of civil rights here. I haven’t heard Patrick making any such claim yet, nor do I expect it. He’s actually trained in the law, after all.
I would think your extensive training in law would have clued you in that sometimes crimes aren’t reported, and that there is no relief available to the Governor under the law. So I wouldn’t take it that the absence of comment means he wouldn’t care. My guess is that he has no clue about Hudak’s truck. And I love the way you set the terms–“to overlok racism is to condone it” yet when people do call it out you accuse people of being aggrieved by proxy. Your argument is an intellectual mess. The caricature is racist and offensive. Next you’ll tell me that I can’t be offended by Mickey Rooney’s role in Breakfast at Tiffanys because I’m not Asian. Tell you what though. Put that caricature on a t-shirt, walk the length of Blue Hill Avenue, and see exactly how aggrieved people are.
@Dot: “And I love the way you set the terms–”to overlook racism is to condone it” yet when people do call it out you accuse people of being aggrieved by proxy. Your argument is an intellectual mess.”
—
Dot, do you really believe that a Milton Academy, Harvard College and Harvard Law grad needs anyone on Media Nation to “call out” a racist cartoon aimed at him? If there were any concern by Patrick or the experts who handle him, the special State Police detail assigned to the governor would have already seized the SUV shown and revoked the NOBAMA plates. Obviously, there is no concern, except for a few busy bodies here.
I’m not sure how my “argument” is an “intellectual mess” when the person depicted in the caricature seems to have no problem with it.
The person depicted a) probably doesn’t know about it and b) if he does, recognizes that calling attention to it won’t solve anything.
That’s why we have the press. Duh.
Let me first state that I’m glad Hudak has that on his truck, because it clearly telegraphs his intentions. Freedom of speech is wonderful thing because so many people avail themselves of it.
But since the cartoon depicts an individual, no one else can be offended. Got it. Now take the same caricature and put “This is America. Pull your weight. No handouts” under it, without Patrick’s name. What do you have in that case? In other words, using 19th century racist imagery to depict an individual does aggrieve others who understand the role of such imagery in denigrating an entire race of people for over a hundred years. Does the Governor need to speak out about it? If someone in the public eye takes the time to respond to every slight and criticism nothing would ever be accomplished. You can drag out the red herrings all you want, but your argument will only stink of fish.
Fish wants to narrow the discussion to frame the topic as a question of whether Duval Patrick is “personally insulted” by Hudak’s truck graphics. That, according to Fish is the only measure of the issue. Fish then asserts that Duval is not offended (without any evidence) thereby concluding that scrutiny of Hudak is nothing more than “Gladis Kravitz” behavior by Dan Kennedy and other commenters.
Dan and some of his readers (but not Fish) look at Hudak and his truck an ask themselves: Do I want to elect a race-baiting yahoo who believes demonstrably untrue assertions about Barack Obama’s nationality, and what’s up with those arguably racist cartoons on his truck?
@Dot: “Now take the same caricature and put “This is America. Pull your weight. No handouts” under it, without Patrick’s name. What do you have in that case?”
—
Dot, if one must engage in hypotheticals and imagine words that aren’t there, I rest my case.
@mikeb_1: “The person depicted a) probably doesn’t know about it and b) if he does, recognizes that calling attention to it won’t solve anything.”
—
That’s a damning indictment of Governor Patrick, don’t you think? Are you really suggesting that he would turn a blind eye to any form of racism directed at him by a candidate for Congress? Wow. I seriously doubt that he would. You’re right about one thing, the media has a role here. Too bad no reporter has asked Patrick how he feels about the sticker. The racism angle is just too good to check, maybe? Can there be any doubt that if Patrick saw anything racially offensive about the truck, he wouldn’t ignore it but would follow the words of a great Republican leader?
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” —Martin Luther King, Jr. (R-GA).
If I were the governor I would ignore whatever the Congressional candidate had on his car. In this case, my view would be that the intent of the message fails due to its lack of dignity and respect. We know what the candidate doesn’t like.
What does he like, what will he do, how will it accomplish his goals with success, and will he proceed with the class and dignity voters desire and expect?
“The Republican platform reads as if it were written by a Klansman.” — Imperial Wizard of the KKK Bill Wilkinson in 1980.
@Fish: Are you saying you support Dr. King? If so, did you lock up every member of the Aryan Nation and the other racist scum walking the streets of Milton or wherever it was you claim to have been a cop?