Smearing Obama
by Hanlon on January 28, 2007 at 2:01 pm
I could imagine life is a little difficult for the Republican Party these days, at least in terms of the upcoming presidential frenzy. Every single one of the frontrunners has been shot down for one reason or another. Rick Santorum was voted out, along with George Allen. Bill Frist has thoroughly embarrassed himself, and McCain’s position on the war and the media’s ever so gradual willingness to point out his flip floppery are hurting his chances. Beyond that, Brownback? Not likely.
It has be a pain when you have no viable candidates for your party. Worse still, the Democrats have two damn popular potentials. Now, bashing Hillary Clinton has become stale, and it’s just no good to leave the other guy all un-smeared, so the campaign against Barack Obama seems to be up and running.
It seems that our reliable liberal media doesn’t have much to actually go after him for, he’s introduced 152 bills in his two years in the Senate and he’s got a solid voting record plus everything he stands for appears to be eminently reasonable: health care for all citizens, strong education, get the troops home. The issues that would normally be prime for attack are now strong points for Obamamama.
So what’s the solution? Simple: start attacking him over completely irrelevant issues.
We’ve already seen the multiple times his name appears as “Osama” on the media, or the fact that right-wing commentators are having a field day with the fact that his middle name is Hussein, and then the more recent “madrassa” bullshit.
This current one has to be my favorite, however. This Is London, which for some reason is paying closer attention to American politics than I will ever pay to British politics, has introduced the latest salvo: Obama’s father was a jerk. I’m not going to quote anything from this story, it’s fairly pointless.
That’s what they’re “reporting” on Obama. Won’t go after a single issue of his, instead they attack his name, lie about his youth, and go after his father. This is how it’s been for years now. Gore was taken down for “inventing the internet”, Kerry over his war record, and now Obama for his father and his name.
I often wonder what would happen if political ads and campaigns had to be built solely on the comparison and contrast between the candidates’ actual stances on issues.
Posted: January 28th, 2007 under Barack Obama, democrats, media.
Comments
Comment from Wil Robinson
Time January 28, 2007 at 7:57 pm
FOX News also ran a piece about Obama being a “cigarette smoker.”
Cause you know how that affects your ability to govern…
Comment from Hanlon
Time January 28, 2007 at 8:06 pm
I really do wonder what will happen the closer we get to the campaign season. I feel bad for the guy when the Rove-esque attack ads start up. The Obama/Osama and Hussein references will be too much to bear.
Comment from Lynn Gazis-Sax
Time January 28, 2007 at 4:03 pm
That article on Obama’s father really misrepresents his book.
a) They make it sound as if they had to go dig out the business about alcoholism, possible abuse of Ruth, etc., from family members while Obama hid it. But all that stuff is *in Obama’s autobiography*, where he talks at length about coming to terms with his discovery of his father’s shortcomings, as well as about the debt he owes his father, etc. Sure, his account of how his father lost his government job is friendlier to Obama Sr. than theirs, but he doesn’t make his father out to be a saint - you get both the rosy picture that his mother told him (she clearly wanted Obama to see his father in the best light, even though she’d initiated the divorce), and the less rosy picture some other family members told, so that the final portrait shows a man with both significant good and bad points.
b) Obama goes on at length about his loving relationship with his maternal grandparents, and then discusses how he was upset by *one incident* where his grandmother feared a strange black man, partly because of his color. Which I read as showing how cultural attitudes about race can affect even the best intentioned of us. But that article tries to make out that Obama’s denying everything positive about his mother’s family, and simply showing his grandparents as racists who hurt him. I guess that’s so they can make him look like someone who always blames white people (like his maternal grandparents) for everything, and ignores any shortcomings of black people (like his father).