Karen Vaughn – 7/20/08

This page was last updated on July 21, 2008.

Magazine cover spoke for many; Karen Vaughn; Beaver County Times; July 20, 2008.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Daily I look to see what readers have to say about presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

“He’s this, he’s that, when for some it all comes down to one thing — fear of a black man in power. The cover of the New Yorker just goes to show what they’re too scared to say — they do not want a black man as president.”

[RWC] It appears Ms. Vaughn doesn’t know the cover was supposed to be satire attacking Mr. Obama’s opponents. If anyone should be upset (No one should; I thought the cover was funny.), it’s those who don’t support Mr. Obama.

“Well, stay at home and don’t vote for him because his color is brown. Let U.S. Sen. John McCain become president and we’ll have four more years of recession.”

[RWC] Note Ms. Vaughn doesn’t tell us why voting for Mr. McCain will lead to “four more years of recession.” As a reminder, the most recent data doesn’t support the recession label. A recession is defined as two or more consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. To date, we haven’t had one quarter of negative growth.

“I don’t judge people on their race, color or creed. This is the 21st century. Stop hating.”

[RWC] If Ms. Vaughn doesn’t “judge people on their race, color or creed,” it appears she judges people based on their opposition to/support of Barack Obama. If you support Mr. Obama, you’re OK. If you don’t, you’re a hater.

I checked my records and didn’t find any similar letters from Ms. Vaughn regarding Ken Blackwell (former candidate for Ohio governor), Lynn Swann (former candidate for PA governor), Michael Steele (former candidate for U.S. senator from Maryland), and Bobby Jindal (current governor of Louisiana). All are “men of color.” The difference? All four of these men are Republicans.