When speaking about those who might vote for Republican hopeful Mitt Romney, comedian (I use the term loosely) had this to say:
Still rockin’ the mullet
Let’s all try to be intellectually honest here. If this were a conservative making this statement even in jest, we know the backlash. Given that the left is so quick to label any criticism of President Barack Obama as racist, one can only imagine how this would have gone over.
I can see the headlines now: Conservative calls African-Americans angry and prone to racist violence. Or, White Conservative calls blacks rage-filled thugs.
The double standard on racial rhetoric is beyond tiresome.
Sifting Reality 
I’ll stay here and wait as I’m sure I’ll see outrage over this remark by one or two of the leftist bloggers I follow. They’ll be all over this like…like…well, I don’t really have a witty metaphor at the ready. But should any of them stumble upon this story on their own, they likely would not think to report it and chastise Maher as if he was Coulter or Limbaugh. And if they stumbled upon it through a site like this, they would report on it as if they never found out about it here, so as to appear fair and balanced. Of course, they might also ignore it because, after all, he’s a comedian, regardless of the facts that he is not even “sorta funny” and currently makes his bones as a political/social commentator.
Only conservatives can be racists; simple as that.
When Maher makes a joke like that, he gets a pass because people understand he really doesn’t believe it. What he is doing is satirizing what (some) white conservatives really think. Now, it might not be fair to paint conservatives with the wide brush that he does–but that doesn’t mean it’s not funny to his audience.
Correction: they give Maher the benefit of the doubt that he’s joking. However, it is presumed to not be a joke when a conservative would dare make a joke like that.
Maybe that is because there are no conservative comedians–unless you consider Limbaugh, Hannity, or Beck to be comedians. Seriously though, can you think of one comedian that would be considered politically conservative. Jeff Foxworthy, maybe?
Absolutely right about the double standard. Had any conservative said “It’s great that we’ve come so far as to have finally elected a black president”, some liberal would wonder just what he meant by that. Or worse, accused him of not being able to get over the race issue.
I get the joke. Sure, it’s in a little questionable taste, but Maher’s “edgy”. Who cares? We should ignore him. Honestly, I don’t understand why we spend so much time trying to make anything stick to this guy. He’s a punk doing what punks do. We should have forgotten him as a political voice the moment he called Palin the “c-word”… And probably much earlier.
I have an idea. The joke should be understood to be what it is: satire about the fact that Obama is black. Perfectly acceptable waters for a comedian to wade into. Like I said, who cares? If we want to tackle the double standard, we should make a few jokes of our own and then defend them when the onslaught of the weepy cries of “INTOLERANT! *sniffle*” ensues.
“What? I’m funny! You know, like Bill blank-ing Maher! Nyuck nyuck nyuck!”