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Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates - Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor for The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues for TheAtlantic.com and the magazine. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle. More

Born in 1975, the product of two beautiful parents. Raised in West Baltimore—not quite The Wire, but sometimes ill all the same. Studied at the Mecca for some years in the mid-’90s. Emerged with a purpose, if not a degree. Slowly migrated up the East Coast with a baby and my beloved, until I reached the shores of Harlem. Wrote some stuff along the way.

This really won't end well...

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Nov 20 2008, 10:00 AM ET Comment

So predictable to see Joe the Plumber now attacking McCain for not defending Palin--even when he's defended her at every turn.  Nativisim is about eating all the natives--even the nativist natives. The same lynch-mobs that showed up to McCain's rallies would have strung him up in a second. People often compared Obama's crowds to McCain's. The real difference is McCain's crowds, at the end, weren't there to support him--they were there because they believed Obama was a Muslim. Obama didn't draw 70,000 people who hated McCain, he drew 70,000 people who--mock them if you want--loved him. McCain's mob never loved him, they just hated a specter of the dude he was running against. Joe the Plumber has always been that rambling fool at the end of the bar. But McCain gave the fool a platform. How fitting that he's using it to now spit on McCain. 

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