During the presidential campaign, Savage repeatedly described Obama as an "affirmative action" candidate. For instance, Media Matters for America noted that on his October 27 broadcast, Savage said that Obama "benefited from affirmative action, stepping over more qualified white men, I actually lost as a result of affirmative action, many times in my life. ... [W]e have America's first affirmative action candidate about to become president."
Apparently Savage never heard about the last President we have. Bush was a legacy admission to Yale, gaining admission in part because his father and grandfather had attended, in spite of mediocre grades and SAT scores. He got into the National Guard, avoiding service in Vietnam, because of political favors from family friends, because he was white and rich. And though he of course denies asking for such favors, other accounts recall him boasting about them. His life was a long line of mediocrity and failure, but despite this he managed to climb higher due in large part to family connections. The notion that affirmative action is bad because it will push aside talented white people in favor of lackluster minority candidates is a joke, ignoring that mediocre, inexperienced, and untalented white people are given preferential treatment all the time.
Opposition to affirmative action like that Savage spouts stems mostly from the idea that jobs belong inherently to white people--that it is their birthright. Anything that dismantles such notions of white privilege must be attacked bitterly.
And this isn't even going into the rest of what Savage said, that because of Obama's election "there's gonna be a wholesale firing of competent white men in the United States government up and down the line, in police departments, in fire departments." Which completely ignores the picks Obama has made so far, but reality is anathema to people like Savage.
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