Obama Waffles: I'm Disappointed in My Fellow Middle Tennesseans

By now, you may have heard about Obama Waffles, a novelty item sold at the Family Research Council's Value Voters Summit. Basically, a couple guys from Franklin, Tennessee sold boxes of waffle mix depicting Obama "as a racial stereotype on its front and wearing Arab-like headdress on its top flap." Three things:

• First, while I would hope that no voter would be swayed by a box of Obama Waffles, several voters have been swayed by racism in general, and several of Obama's opponents—including these two guys from Franklin—have used racism and false rumors that Obama is a Muslim extremist to their advantage. But plenty has been written elsewhere about racism in this year's campaign, so I'll move on to the next item.


• "Waffles" refers to waffling, or being inconsistent on policy positions. Flip=flopping. Apparently, each box of Obama Waffles details ways in which the candidate has waffled. I'm on record as not being bothered by waffling, and I don't doubt that Obama has been inconsistent on some issues, but McCain supporters are in no position to cast stones at someone for flip-flopping. McCain has altered his stance on the Bush tax cuts, campaign-finance reform, and Roe v. Wade, among others, and has spent the past two years re-inventing himself to gain favor with the conservative base of his party. (Maybe I'm assuming too much. Maybe the two guys in Franklin aren't McCain supporters at all and are also developing an equally tasteless box of McCain Waffles. Maybe.)


• I'm especially bothered that Obama Waffles were on sale at a "Value Voters" summit. I would think that honor, respect, and not being racist would be values that value voters could get behind; but I could be wrong.