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4 commentsThe smears feel a bit closer now
Living in San Francisco and working in Silicon Valley, I don’t interact with the “Obama is a terrorist” people on a regular basis. I just see them on the news or read about them online. There are real conservatives and actual republicans, but I don’t know anyone in the email-forwarding fringe.
Yesterday, there was a McCain/Palin rally at Lehigh, and it happened to be right where I spent last weekend. Here’s some video from the line there (it’s not as “good” as the one from Ohio, which I’ve included below):
Now, I’ve heard far more offensive things at the football and basketball games there, but it scares me that these people aren’t kidding. I knew that they existed, but to see them in a place I spent so many years makes it that much more real.
The McCain campaign has not called Obama a terrorist.
The McCain campaign has not used Obama’s middle name for the obvious effect.
They have pushed the focus of their (as far as I can tell) now-entirely-negative campaign to a place that fuels the internet forwarding fringe.
My thoughts were expressed well by conservative columnist Kathleen Parker:
Neither McCain nor Palin would dare mention Obama’s middle name, Hussein, but they can play up Obama’s past associations and let others connect the dots. Terrorist. Muslim. Dangerous. Other.
It is legitimate to question character and dubious associations — and William Ayers is certifiably dubious. The truth is, Obama should have avoided Ayers, and his denouncement of Wright was tardy. But this is a dangerous game.
The McCain campaign knows that Obama isn’t a Muslim or a terrorist, but they’re willing to help a certain kind of voter think he is. Just the way certain South Carolinians in 2000 were allowed to think that McCain’s adopted daughter from Bangladesh was his illegitimate black child.
The only real effect I can see on the Ayers implication is that it riles up the crazy wing of the party. Here’s a video you may have already seen from a Palin rally in Ohio:
I’ve watched that 3 times now, and it still angers me. Seeing a bit of it at Lehigh, though, made it that much more real.
4 comments
What is really missing from that first video is someone responding to the “get a job” chants with something like “I had a job until Bush became president. Now there are no jobs.”
Ha! Yeah, I was a bit disappointed that video was so heavily edited, but it’s enough to get a taste.
Matt, thanks for posting these. It reminded me about the ACORN thing… when I talked to my parents they brought this organization up constantly (e.g, about how Obama wanted to put 30% of the 700 billion dollar rescue plan into golden parachutes for ACORN, about how ACORN was responsible for the failures at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac)… basically, from that conversation, my opinion was that this was some sort of criminal organization (which I obviously also thought was bogus). However, I just looked it up: ACORN is the largest community organization of low and middle income families. Wow… it’s phenomenal just how far smear goes.
Peyton, ACORN is an incredibly corrupt organization responsible for fraudulent voter registration across the country, including in Bridgeport. It isn’t a smear tactic if the argument is factually sound.
Regarding the videos of “McCain supporters,” sure, these people aren’t the best and brightest. Not everyone that supports McCain believes Obama is a terrorist, I certainly don’t. I don’t support Obama for a variety of reasons but his middle name or his ethnicity have nothing to do with my decision. Most of the folks in those videos deserve ridicule for their ridiculous views. Most contemporary conservatives are far from those folks, though, and it is important to recognize that fact.
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