Name calling campaign to undermine Obama

[FOTD]

By Alex Spillius in Austin

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/29/wus129.xml


"Republicans have begun to emphasise Barack Obama's middle name Hussein in an attempt to spread doubts about his patriotism and raise fears among voters that he is a closet Muslim.

The unofficial smear campaign is a foretaste of what the Illinois senator would face if he becomes the Democratic Party's candidate for November's presidential election.

This week the Tennessee Republican party issued a press release with the headline "anti-Semites for Obama", which claimed that "a growing chorus of Americans [are] concerned about the future of the nation of Israel, the only stable democracy in the Middle East, if Sen Barack Hussein Obama is elected president of the United States".

The release said that Mr Obama had pledged to set up a "Muslim summit", referring to his idea of holding a Middle Eastern meeting.

It also tried to link the senator to Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam, as well as to fundraising events for alleged pro-Palestinian extremists.

advertisementThe release was illustrated by a picture that began circulating on the internet a few days ago of Mr Obama dressed in ethnic Somali garb, which he wore on an official visit to Kenya.

Mr Obama's father was Kenyan and his mother was a white woman from Kansas. He spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, a largely Muslim country.

"My grandfather, who was Kenyan, converted to Christianity, then converted to Islam," he explained recently. "My father never practised; he was basically agnostic. So, other than my name and the fact that I lived in a populous Muslim country for four years when I was a child, I have very little connection to the Islamic religion," added Mr Obama, who began worshipping at the Trinity United Church in Chicago 20 years ago.

Right-wing broadcasters such as Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter have, however, regularly use his middle name, while never openly stressing its obvious echo of the nation's greatest recent enemy, Saddam Hussein.

Michael Savage, a talk radio host, once asked whether Mr Obama was a "so-called friendly Muslim" or one more "radical". While, earlier this week, Bill Cunningham, another radio presenter, used the "Hussein" moniker three separate times while speaking at a rally in Cincinnati for John McCain, Mr Obama's probable Republican opponent.

The radio star drew cheers from the crowd when he said that the national media had been soft in their coverage of the Democrats and should "peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama".

Rob Portman, a Republican Congressman sharing the platform, said: "Willie, you're out of control again... so what else is new?"

Mr McCain, who was not on stage when the remarks were made, afterwards denounced Mr Cunningham, saying that it was not appropriate to invoke Mr Obama's middle name in the course of the campaign.

"I absolutely repudiate such comments," said Mr McCain. "It will never happen again."

The Republican National Committee similarly rejected the Tennessee party's press release.

Meanwhile, Karl Rove, the architect of George W Bush's two electoral victories and a man considered by many to be a master of the dark political arts, said that using Mr Obama's middle name would be counter-productive for Republicans.

At a recent meeting of party state directors he said that doing so would perpetuate the notion that Republicans were bigoted.

Instead, he stressed that Mr Obama had plenty of weak spots that should be probed. One of these is the recent award given by the senator's church to Mr Farrakhan for his work with former criminals.

The controversial leader of the Nation of Islam has described Mr Obama as "the hope of the entire world that America will change".

However, in a televised debate on Tuesday with Hillary Clinton, his Democrat rival, Mr Obama distanced himself firmly from Mr Farrakhan.

"I've been very clear, in terms of me believing that what he has said is reprehensible and inappropriate," Mr Obama stated.

Mr Rove also mentioned the senator's connections with Weather Underground, the 1960s domestic terror group that planted bombs in government buildings.

The Clinton campaign first pointed out that the candidate met two members of the group at a Chicago social event 12 years ago, one of whom donated $200 to his Illinois senate campaign.

"The fact is he has the most liberal voting record in the Senate," said Mr Rove, adding that his condemnation of Mr Farrakhan had been "too narrow".


Pathetic, isn't it? If the worst they have on him is his second name, his future is bright.

[FOTD]

Jesus H. Christ!
http://pabloonpolitics.com/jc3.htm

One of the devils made me do it.....

[Ed W]

This one is going to get very ugly before it's over.  The Swift Boat end of the Republican party will toss an endless barrage toward whoever ends up as the Democratic nominee.  And while McCain may condemn such tactics as he did after that recent speech, ultimately he has no control over the party's more rabid members.

This is unfortunate, because Senator McCain seems to be a decent man at heart.  While I may disagree with many of his ideas, I still have to admire and respect the man.

[FOTD]

Peek into the future.....

Hypocrisy Alert: Bush Condemns Leaders Who Pose for Photos With "Tyrants"

http://alternet.org/blogs/peek/78296/

"Perhaps Bush forgot all the times that he sat down and had his picture taken with leaders of questionable human rights credentials..."

Ed, they'll throw everything including the bad stuff put in a brown bag and lit on a porch. They are the fright wing of McCain's Grand Old People.

[Ed W]

Wait a minute!  



"Leaders who pose with tyrants" huh?  Shameless hypocrisy knows no bounds.

[HazMatCFO]

McCain can win if he points out the differences between the two candidates. I believe Americans are closer to McCain's middle of the road politics than they are Obama's left wing views.

McCain and GOP must keep the election about the issues, if so, I think he wins by a slim margin.

Obama's campaign would love nothing more than for Republicans to get sidetracked on the name issue or the muslim attacks. See how Hillary's campaign suffered after the Madrassa accusations, the drug use attacks and most recently sending out photos of Obama dressed in African tribal clothing.

[Ed W]

Obama is from the 'left wing' of the Democratic party?  Only by Oklahoma standards.

[FOTD]

quote:Originally posted by HazMatCFO

McCain can win if he points out the differences between the two candidates. I believe Americans are closer to McCain's middle of the road politics than they are Obama's left wing views.

McCain and GOP must keep the election about the issues, if so, I think he wins by a slim margin.

Obama's campaign would love nothing more than for Republicans to get sidetracked on the name issue or the muslim attacks. See how Hillary's campaign suffered after the Madrassa accusations, the drug use attacks and most recently sending out photos of Obama dressed in African tribal clothing.

McCaint....win.....

[waterboy]

quote:Originally posted by Ed W

Obama is from the 'left wing' of the Democratic party?  Only by Oklahoma standards.

Thank you Ed. Thank you.

[cannon_fodder]

Barrack Hussein Obama.  Who'd-a-thunk we would have a president by that name given the anti-Muslim hysteria that the media has been cramming us full of.  I thought we all hated Mulsim, profile Muslim names and on and on.

By percentage, voters in this country are the better educated of the masses - such insignificant things as a name should have only a minor effect.  Emphasizing his name is somewhat underhanded assuming they are doing it to drum up unfounded tensions, but it IS his name.  I never even realized Obama was a letter off of Osama for some reason until it was pointed out.

IF he is elected I can imagine SNL doing Hussein Osama skits of some persuasion - maybe have Irans president praising the American people for election Saddam and Bin Laden and then act all confused when his mistake is pointed out (that's why I'm not a writer for SNL - I'd suck). Ironic that his platform includes ending wars with the two similarly named parties.  Again, I don't think it's a big deal, but it is a bit ironic.

[Conan71]

What is it with you Democrats who don't realize your own party has it's own "Swift-boaters"?

The Clinton's are masters of character assassination, it simply pisses you off when it goes the other way.

Politics is a dirty business, quit assuming your own party has clean hands.

Anyone remember the forged National Guard letter Dan Rather eventually had to apologize for?  Perfect example of "Swift-Boating".  Give me a ****ing break.  

[USRufnex]

Clintons aren't into character assassination as much as they are the art of parsing and innuendo...  Bill & Hill thought they'd get away with trying to marginalize Obama by comparing him to Jesse Jackson and then compare her to LBJ... and it backfired.    

Unfortunately, Conan, you seem to be one of those head-in-the-sand republicans who like to equate Dan Rather with Rush Limbaugh...

You'll remember it was the "liberal media" who gave the swift-boaters all sorts of free media time... funny dat.

There's a difference between liberal-bias and the type of republican talking points and outright propaganda pushed by Fox News, Limbaugh, Sinclair Broadcasting, G Gordon Liddy, etc, etc, etc...

236.com: SwiftKids-Hillary's Cookies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW7s8TuvZ8U&NR=1

[RecycleMichael]

Hillary Rodham Clinton's middle name reminds me of a cross-dressing basketball player named Dennis Rodman.

Please tell me she was never married to Carman Electra.

[we vs us]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

What is it with you Democrats who don't realize your own party has it's own "Swift-boaters"?

The Clinton's are masters of character assassination, it simply pisses you off when it goes the other way.

Politics is a dirty business, quit assuming your own party has clean hands.

Anyone remember the forged National Guard letter Dan Rather eventually had to apologize for?  Perfect example of "Swift-Boating".  Give me a ****ing break.  

Here's the Democratic critique in a nutshell, for what it's worth:  Republicans have an exceptionally effective media machine.  Democrats have a completely useless media machine.  Republicans don't seem to have a single scruple left about how to deploy this amazing machine.  Democrats simply cannot coordinate and move forward together to save their lives, and wish they had something to sacrifice their scruples for.  Republicans present an amazingly seamless front in congress, even for a minority party.  Democratic congressional leadership fails us at every turn.  Politics is indeed dirty, but there is a quantitative difference between the parties.  The Republicans have been more successful at politics in the last 8 years; hence their hands are dirtier.  Democrats have been too incompetent to even get near the dirtpile.  

So no, it's hard to believe that the Democrats have Swift Boaters.  Or specifically, effective Swift Boaters that can get any play on Hardball at all.  (Rather's piece, for what it's worth, is more bad reporting than concerted smear effort) If we could equal what we perceive as the Republican Machine head on that would be a huge victory.

I don't see Hillary as a character assassin par excellence, either, and really am at a loss as to why you think that, either.  They've been uniformly unsuccessful at shaping the media narrative throughout this entire election season -- and for that matter, shaping the media narrative throughout Bill's presidency.  If she were such an omnipotent power player, why did she and Bill spend years passively getting pummeled for the relatively harmeless minutiae of their lives?

I guess what I'm saying is, you see Hillary as this Darth Vader uber-tyrant, but the fact that she's had only middling political success in her life really seems to undermine that.

[Conan71]

I don't know wevus, "middling success"?  She won a Senate seat in her first attempt at elected public office in a state she had not been a legal resident of for more than a year or so, and managed to win re-election with a comfortable margin.  Now she's one of the top three candidates for President.  Doesn't sound "middling" to me at all.  That'd be success in a number of people's books.

She was also one of the more visible and active first ladies since Elanor Roosevelt.

I really don't see where the Democrat propaganda machine is any weaker than the one for the GOP.

I've often wondered if the relative impotence of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi is total lack of leadership skills or if everyone in Congress is covering for each other behind the scenes to try and keep their cushy jobs.  Admittedly, I'm not a political scientist and my analysis is probably weak in that regard, but I really do wonder why Congress as a whole seems totally incompetent and out of touch with the American citizen.