Southern senator: ‘My people’ dislike Obama because he is too ‘exotic’

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Buchanan said Rep. strategy: "They're going to use the fact that he is exotic."

Right from the get-go in 2008:

http://mediamatters.org/video/2008/06/16/msnbcs-buchanan-called-obama-exotic-said-hes-li/143764

On the June 12 edition of MSNBC's Verdict, MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan said to host Dan Abrams, "Dan, I've told you all along, the only way the Republicans can win this when the whole country wants to throw the Republicans out, is raise questions, raise doubts about the alternative -- just like the Democrats did with Reagan in 1980." Buchanan then said of the Republican strategy against presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama: "And they're going to do it. And they're going to use his associations. And they're going to use his statements, his elitism. They're going to use the fact he's exotic." Democratic strategist Tanya Acker responded to Buchanan's statement by saying, "Exotic? What does 'exotic' mean? What's exotic? Is 'exotic' code for 'black'? I don't understand what exotic means." Buchanan then replied, "All right. Here's what it means. Listen. 'Exotic' is code for somebody who talks to people in Pennsylvania as though they're some stupid tribe holding on to their Bibles, guns, and bigotries, and telling that to a bunch of people in San Francisco behind closed doors."

Later in the segment, Acker said, referring to Obama, "[T]he notion that he is somehow exotic, that he's so different from the rest of America, I mean, I just have to take issue with that. He's really -- he's browner than a lot of America, but he's really not that different." Abrams then asked, "Pat, is the strategy to use code words? I mean, is the strategy going to be to use words like 'exotic' where people say, 'Well, I guess he wasn't saying that he's bad, but, boy, that sounds kind of funny' -- to use these words in the hope that they're going to stick?" Buchanan replied: "[W]hat do you mean, 'code words'? Barack Obama made these statements. It tells you where he is coming from. He is coming out of the left. He doesn't understand Middle America. He's like the guys in the Harvard faculty lounge. They don't know anything about their country. They sit up there and talk to one another." Responding to Buchanan, Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky said: "Wait a second, Pat. Pat, listen, Barack Obama is as American as you and I are, and these code words for exotic is exactly that; you're trying to paint him as some sort of a strange outsider."