The Right Wing Media v. Obama: Death of 1000 Cuts or Softening Him Up for the General Election

[McCamy Taylor]

First a confession. I never watch FOX News. Which means, I watched it once, in an airport, because it was on in the cafeteria. Some anchor, who looked competent to get a job on a local news channel but not-ready-for-network was interviewing some Vietnam War veteran. The vet said something to the effect that John Kerry was personally responsible for the U.S.’s illegal incursion into Cambodia. The FOX anchor just nodded his head and ended the program.

That said, I had no idea that the right wing media--- Coulter, O’Reilly, Savage, Beck and the rest---had been beating up on Obama for this past year. Like many lefties, I had accepted the line which the so called neutral media had been dishing out---that the right wing really liked Obama, and that was why all those Republicans were crossing over to vote for him. And as Wayne Barrett writes in his recent article for The Village Voice the respectable conservatives like George Will and Bill Kristol were saying nice things about Obama last year.

However, I have a theory, just as I have a theory in my last journal The Press v. Obama: Fear and Loathing ’08 At the moment the mainstream media is conducting an operation based upon the Nixon/Buchanan/CREEP dirty tricks of 1972 (probably directed by Rove, who worked with Atawater in 1972) in which Buchanan’s number one dirty trick, smear one Democrat and blame another Democrat is being used to sow seeds of discord among the members of the Democratic Party, while creating the impression that Hillary is a bitch who will do anything to win and Obama is a Muslim, cocaine using, incompetent victim. Note that the smears against Obama are not of the type to influence Democrats who will transform “Incompetent” to “Fresh, new”. Dems will emphasize the “victim” and give him more votes. The other part of the 1972 strategy is to keep the Dems neck and neck and make the convention brokered.

The smears about Obama which have been repeated endlessly by the guys and gals at the major networks under the guise of asking How could Hillary and her surrogates say such things?! will have a big impact on the general election, however. Hearing Chris Matthews talk about cocaine and Obama endlessly has an effect. The MSM will say--disingenuously-- “We didn’t mean it”.But we all know that they did. They are professionals. They know how to concoct a smear. Just ask Al Gore and John Kerry.

In parallel with this soft smear, the hard right wing news media has been waging a war of words and innuendo that shocked me when I started reading about it at Media Matters, the holy bible of media lies and distortions. After compiling 60 pages of notes, I did not know where to begin. Then I found this by Halperin at Time

http://thepage.time.com/halperin%E2%80%99s-take-ways-mccain-can-beat-obama-that-clinton-cannot/

HALPERIN’S TAKE (updated): Things McCain Can Do to Try to Beat Obama That Clinton Cannot (some already on display)
From TIME

3. Go at Obama unambiguously from the right.

4. Encourage interest groups, bloggers, and right-leaning media to explore Obama’s past.

5. Make an issue of Obama’s acknowledged drug use.

6. Allow some supporters to risk being accused of using the race card when criticizing Obama.

7. Exploit Michelle Obama’s mistakes and address her controversial remarks with unrestricted censure.

8. Play dirty without alienating his party.

9. Dismiss Obama’s brief national tenure from his own lofty platform of decades in the Senate – there will be no ambiguity about who has more experience as conventionally defined.

10. Use his sterling war record to reinforce his image of patriotism and valor – and contrast it with his opponent’s.

11. Emphasize Barack Hussein Obama’s unusual name and exotic background through a Manchurian Candidate prism.

There is more, obviously. But the funny thing was that most of Halperin’s points had already been well covered by the right wingers. Go at Obama unambiguously from the right. Check. Encourage interest groups, bloggers, and right-leaning media to explore Obama’s past. Check. Play dirty without alienating his party. Oh my god! Is that another reason why the “respectable conservative pundits” have been saying nice things about him even as their more disreputable colleagues have been spewing filth? Have they wanted to avoid alienating the Democrats whom they hope to encourage to cross over to vote for McCain? If the GOP plans to play the race card this fall, that means they want to attract Hispanics and some White Democrats. Those voters will not cross over if they think that the Republicans have been launching unfair smears against their candidate. However, if Karl Rove can convince them that all the smears actually originated within the Democratic Primary---from Hillary Clinton---then John McCain can portray himself as innocent. A uniter, not a divider. Fiendish. And probably not too far fetched.

And then there are the actual smears. Let’s get to them. Here are some of the most malicious lies that have been spread, the ones that can not hurt him in the primary but which can be deadly in the general election.

I. Obama is a Muslim


Media Matters credits Chris Matthews with being the first television pundit to say that Obama’s middle name has political potential back in Nov. 7 2006. How prescient of him.

I could summarize, but I think the effect will be more accurate if I catalog a bunch of media atrocities. This way you can relive the experience of being a conservative voter in America who watches Fox:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200612150011 (video)
On Hannity and Colmes Fox Dec 2006 a bunch of conservative bloggers talk about Obama's middle name “Hussein”

Mary MATALIN: Oh, for Pete's sake, get a sense of humor, for -- Lord, have mercy!

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2006/12/barack_hussein.html

December 18, 2006
Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, Always A Muslim
By Debbie Schlussel
So, even if he identifies strongly as a Christian, and even if he despised the behavior of his father (as Obama said on Oprah); is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father's heritage, a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?
Is that even the man we'd want to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency, if Hillary Clinton offers him the Vice Presidential candidacy on her ticket (which he certainly wouldn't turn down)?
NO WAY, JOSE . . . Or, is that, HUSSEIN?

(Insert the month long Insight Moonie madrassa scandal here)

WaPo calls foul on the use of his middle name here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/27/AR2007012701097.html

“The senator, however, does not use his middle name. Those who take pains to insert it when referring to him are trying, none too subtly, to stir up scary images of menacing terrorists and evil dictators. They embarrass only themselves.”

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2007/02/obamania.html
2-9-2007 Jake Tapper uses “Hussein”

http://mediamatters.org/items/200701300008 (you can listen)

On the January 29 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage stated that, rather than "tak our side should there be some kind of catastrophic attack on America," Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) would "march thousands of us into the hands of the enemy." He also said that Obama and Clinton -- whom he identified as "Hussein Barack Obama" and "Hillary Rotten Clinton" -- "would gladly take the guns of the American military and turn them first on the American patriot, rather than turning the guns of the American patriot on the enemy within."
Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage's show, says that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches more than 8 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it the third most-listened-to talk radio show in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200702020009
About Obama

IMUS: Yeah, he's not -- he's not -- first of all, he's not qualified to be president, that's one, and two, he's a flip-flopping weasel.
McCORD: A wind-watching wimp.
IMUS: Oh, thank you, Charles.
McGUIRK: With a Jew-hating name.

This Media Matters article has a summary of many smears against Obama made in the first three months of 2007 including lots of name calling
http://mediamatters.org/items/200703200011

Finally, on March 8, Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes joined the chorus of media figures who have likened Obama's name to that of Osama bin Laden, when he joked: "It is true that Barack Obama is on the move. I don't know if it's true that President Bush called Musharraf and said: 'Why can't we catch this guy?' " Ailes made his comment while accepting the Radio-Television News Directors Association and Foundation's First Amendment Leadership Award

http://mediamatters.org/items/200704130003
4-2007 Katie Couric talks about Obama growing up Muslim although story already debunked.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200704170003

A sidebar on the conservative website Townhall.com features a cartoon of a bearded man with a rifle -- presumably Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden -- wearing a button that reads "Obama 2008." In the image, the man is smiling and giving a thumbs-up. As of April 17, the sidebar appears aside every column on the website and invites visitors to "Click Here" for "More Funnies." The image is linked to Townhall.com's "The Funnies," a collection of political cartoons by "Townhall.com Cartoonists."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200706260004

On the June 25 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, discussing Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) June 23 speech at a church in Hartford, Connecticut, co-host Alan Colmes asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter if "nly Republicans can talk in churches." Coulter responded: "No, but I do think anyone named B. Hussein Obama should avoid using 'hijack' and 'religion' in the same sentence." Colmes replied: "I see. So, in other words, you want to paint him as a terrorist by continuing to highlight that his middle name is Hussein?" Coulter stated: "Just avoid those two together. ... Avoid 'hijack and 'religion.' "

http://mediamatters.org/items/200706260013

On the June 25 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage said that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) was "indoctrinated" by a "Muslim madrassa in Indonesia."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/28/AR2007112802757.html?hpid=topnews

ON THE DEMOCRATIC FRONT
Foes Use Obama's Muslim Ties to Fuel Rumors About Him
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 29, 2007; Page A01
In his speeches and often on the Internet, the part of Sen. Barack Obama's biography that gets the most attention is not his race but his connections to the Muslim world.
Since declaring his candidacy for president in February, Obama, a member of a congregation of the United Church of Christ in Chicago, has had to address assertions that he is a Muslim or that he had received training in Islam in Indonesia, where he lived from ages 6 to 10. While his father was an atheist and his mother did not practice religion, Obama's stepfather did occasionally attend services at a mosque there.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200711290007

Media Matters does sleuth work to reveal that an article in Politico was written by contributor Michael M. Rosen. Rosen is also the secretary of the San Diego Republican Party and the co-chairman of the San Diego chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition.:

“That Obama spent part of his youth studying in an Indonesian madrassa is merely disconcerting to Americans.
But it's downright lethal to Islamists, who consider him an apostate worthy of summary execution because he eschewed Islam in favor of Christianity.”

This was edited out of later versions of Politico , but Media Matters recovered the original text from a Daily Kos diary. That is what I love about Media Matters.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200712220005
While attacking Hillary for her “dirty tricks” (that are actually Matthews fabrications) look what kind of filthy language Tweety indulges in. Note that the subject is Obama’s youthful drug experimentation. Tweety introduced the topic of religion.

MATTHEWS: Hussein, Muslim, blah, blah, blah, coke, all kinds of stuff. Will they continue to drop these poisons in the water?

Matthews, Buchanan, Fineman, Schuster, Russert, Scarborough---all of them are poison in the water of the Democratic Primary. Remember, Buchanan wrote the dirty tricks playbook that Rove is using this year.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=656B62BA-7A61-4DF8-BDF7-B3937EFDECB4

Obama and Islam
By Daniel Pipes
FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, December 26, 2007
“If I were a Muslim I would let you know,” Barack Obama has said, and I believe him. In fact, he is a practicing Christian, a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ. He is not now a Muslim.
But was he ever a Muslim or seen by others as a Muslim? More precisely, might Muslims consider him a murtadd (apostate), that is, a Muslim who converted to another religion and, therefore, someone whose blood may be shed?

http://www.newsmax.com/lowell_ponte/obama_huckabee/2008/01/04/61760.html

For Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, whose mother was born and raised nearby in Kansas, his victory in lily-white Iowa speaks loudly to the world about America.
This charismatic young candidate could — inshallah — become the first American president who was raised as a Muslim in Islamic Indonesia.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200801100003

During his nationally syndicated radio talk show, Bill Cunningham repeatedly called Sen. Barack Obama, "Barack Mohammed Hussein Obama," even though "Mohammed" is not a part of Obama's name, saying at one point that "it would be a shock" if "Barack Mohammed Hussein Obama can be elected the president of this country in these difficult terrorist times." Cunningham also falsely claimed that Obama "was raised in madrassas in Indonesia" and falsely accused Obama's church of being "black separatist" and "black racist."

http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/RossMackenzie/2008/01/10/will_the_democrats_find_an_adult_of_their_own?page=full&comments=true

Obama must grow beyond offering the sum of his experience in foreign policy as his madrassa school years in Indonesia and a visit or two to his grandmother in Africa.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200802220012

On his radio show, Michael Savage falsely asserted that Sen. Barack Obama is a Muslim, claiming that "e have a right to know if he's a so-called friendly Muslim or one who aspires to more radical teachings."

(Insert photo of Obama in African garb that Drudge printed and blamed on Hillary. MSM exploited it by claiming they were reporting on the Hillary angle. Apparently anything goes in this country if it is the press maligning the Clintons without proof. They are absolutely unrepentant when it comes to lies about Hillary. However, this meant that everyone saw the photo.)

(Insert the major nationwide media storm that came when Drudge edited Hillary’s 60 Minutes interview to create the impression that she hedged on her “Is Obama a Muslim?” answer---once again the so called neutral media was able spend weeks pounding the notion that Obama is a Muslim into the minds of Americans subliminally while claiming that they were only talking about it because Hillary brought it up—even though it was Viacom/CBS and then Drudge and the MSM that brought it up)

This is just what I have culled from Media Matters. There are many more references to Obama’s so called “Muslim” upbringing on right wing blogs. That world is saturated with the smear and has been so for over a year. These attacks have come from the right and have managed to gain traction in the mainstream media through the clever ploy of “Hillary must be behind this!” even though the only documented instance of Clinton involvement was one volunteer staffer who forwarded an Obama-Muslim email (she was promptly fired). No one has ever proved that any of this material was generated by Clinton, and indeed, she has suffered in the primaries, since the timing of the smears---right before Iowa---left her open to charges of dirty politics which angered Iowa voters. For this reason, I believe that these attacks are exactly what they appear to be---part of a coordinated right wing attack that utilizes the Big Lie theory that you can convince the public of any lie as long as you keep repeating it over and over.

Had the GOP been forced to wait until the general election to start its smear campaign, there would not have been enough time to sell the lies.Recall how close the 2004 election was Four months was not long enough to convince the public that Kerry was a traitor or a waffler. A Big Lie takes much longer than that. And as Halperin wrote, it helps a lot if you can attribute it to someone else, so that the public has no reason to suspect that there is a political motive behind it (like Karl Rove wants a Republican president elected so that he can pardon all their asses).

So what does it matter if Obama is a Muslim? It does not matter at all in the Democratic Primary. But in the general election it could matter a lot. Republican and Independent voters---especially evangelicals and people who are afraid of Muslim terrorists---could be lured to the polls specifically to vote against Barack Obama.

II. Obama is a radical leftist un-American
In an election that is being modeled in 1972, Obama is obviously the McGovern. The Nixon camp painted the straight talking Senator as an extremist----a man so far to the left that he would have all of us carrying around our own copies of Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book. A man who delighted in flushing baby’s down toilets. A drugged out freaking hippie. Nixon made American fear McGovern the way that they feared rioting in the streets.

As with religion, this smear has no effect on the Democratic Primary. If anything, it makes Obama look even more desirable to some of the Democratic Party’s loudest, most active and influential writes and thinkers. If conservatives dub Obama the “most liberal Senator” (something he is not) then leftie Democrats are pleased. If the right wing gangs up on him for his political stance, that is taken as a sign that Obama must be a good guy. However, middle of the road America is suspicious of fringe ideology, left or right wing. If they have been told over and over that some candidate’s opinions are extreme, they will get worried. People do not like sudden change. They want out of the war in Iraq, but they do not want to have their whole world rocked.

There is change and then there is scary change .

You want to see scary? Here is an ex CREEP member getting involved in 2008 politics. Roger Stone, who was quoted by Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press for an article about Obama:
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14678.html

Yesterday, the AP’s Nedra Pickler tackled the charges.
Sen. Barack Obama’s refusal to wear an American flag lapel pin along with a photo of him not putting his hand over his heart during the National Anthem led conservatives on Internet and in the media to question his patriotism.
Now Obama’s wife, Michelle, has drawn their ire, too, for saying recently that she’s really proud of her country for the first time in her adult life.
Conservative consultants say that combined, the cases could be an issue for Obama in the general election if he wins the nomination, especially as he runs against Vietnam war hero Sen. John McCain.
“The reason it hasn’t been an issue so far is that we’re still in the microcosm of the Democratic primary,” said Republican consultant Roger Stone. “Many Americans will find the three things offensive. Barack Obama is out of the McGovern wing of the party, and he is part of the blame America first crowd.”

They will now that you said it, you CREEPy thing, you. Shame on AP for printing that. Stone comes right out and admits that what I am speculating is true----the plan is to make Obama this year’s McGovern. An updated McGovern, someone who is too extreme for 2008.

The article goes on to remind readers that Stone was one of the youngest members of CREEP. He has also participated in numerous other dirty election trick campaigns over the years. Any journalist who quotes him is either biased as hell or needs to go back and take some modern American history classes.

More media lies in the Obama is a radical un-American leftist category :

http://mediamatters.org/items/200706070003
After Obama gave his “quiet riot” speech, both Tucker and Limbaugh accused him of trying to incite Americans to violence.

“And to talk about a quiet riot that is brewing out there it is dangerous, it is reckless." Limbaugh later asked, "Can you imagine if a Republican candidate talked about something equivalent to this; there's a quiet riot brewing? It would be all over the place, headlines and so forth, about how this is irresponsible, trying to incite violence in America. What do you think Obama was doing?"

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070702/EDITORIAL/107020002/1013
Obama’s “wasted lives” remark has been deliberately misinterpreted and exploited even after he apologized for it as here:

Outside such hearings, one hears two kinds of ill-advised thinking which seem to take such facts less seriously than they should, one frequently heard on the left, the other on the right. On the left is the use of the military-health-care mess as a political cudgel whose real aim seems to be to remind listeners of the decision by President Bush to enter Iraq. The most egregious, later retracted, was Sen. Barack Obama's February "wasted lives" remark which the senator said he came to regret, and for which he apologized repeatedly.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200707030001
Here is one of many instances of Tucker calling him a “wuss”---conservatives commonly referring to liberal men as effeminate. I will not list the many times he has made remarks like this on his show. The amount almost to badgering---as if Tucker was trying to provoke Obama into a war of words with Hillary.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200707190013
Scarborough mocks Obama for suggesting age appropriate sex education for children.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200707200013
Tucker also attacks his sex ed policy

http://mediamatters.org/items/200707230004
So does Hannity at Fox

http://mediamatters.org/items/200708160009

On Hannity & Colmes, during a segment highlighting Barack Obama's August 13 remark that "e've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians," an on-screen graphic read: "Obama criticizes U.S. troops for 'air-raiding villages and killing civilians.' " During the show, co-host Sean Hannity asserted that Obama was "slamming the troops," and later suggested that Obama had "attack our troops as murderers." In fact, Obama expressed support for increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan so the U.S. military is not so reliant on airstrikes in the region.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200708170014

During an ABC News report on Sen. Barack Obama, David Wright clipped a recent statement by Obama in order to assert that he "seemed to criticize the performance of U.S. troops" there. But Wright left out the rest of Obama's sentence, which makes clear that Obama was criticizing the troop shortage in Afghanistan, rather than the troops' conduct.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200708290012
Fox claims Castro wants Obama-Hillary dream team.
Media Matters reports CNN Glenn Beck later says same thing.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200709060005

In a September 5 "exclusive commentary," conservative radio host and WorldNetDaily.com White House correspondent Les Kinsolving defended his false assertion during an August 30 White House briefing that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro "endorsed" a potential presidential ticket consisting of Democratic candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

(Drudge does a bogus flagpin story on Obama and the press goes wild....)

http://mediamatters.org/items/200710050005

On the October 5 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, former radio host Mark Williams claimed that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), "took his flag pin off after 9-11, and he felt, apparently, some sort of an affinity or some sort of a connection, because at that point he felt it OK to come out of the closet as the domestic insurgent he is."
snip

WILLIAMS: He took it off after 9/11. He said that he felt that the flag was becoming something -- it was becoming too noticeable, too high profile. He thought that people were wearing it in place of showing their patriotism. I mean, come on, what has Obama done to demonstrate the patriotism that he says doesn't belong on his lapel? What's he done to demonstrate that, except get out there, badmouth this country, and help demoralize the troops, and help do his part to undermine this nation?

http://mediamatters.org/items/200710230004
FOX claims Obama does not put his hand over his heart for the Pledge…

http://mediamatters.org/items/200711050003

During the "All-Star Panel" segment of the November 2 edition of Fox News' Special Report, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer claimed that Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) policy regarding Iran's purported nuclear weapons program "takes all aggression, all threats, everything serious off the table in advance." Pointing to a November 2 New York Times article, Krauthammer went on to claim that Obama "talks about sticks and carrots. In his story in The New York Times, there is nothing in there that has to do with sticks," adding: "This man is all carrots and extremely unserious." However, according to the transcript of the interview with the Times that formed the basis for the article Krauthammer cited, Obama did not take military action against Iran "off the table."

Take particular note of Charles Krauthammer. He has scored a trifecta of media lies about Democrats, participating in mainstream media smear campaigns against Obama, Hillary and Edwards as I document in my journals about the three. He also played a big role in 2000, since he went beyond the “Gore is a liar” Big Lie and actually made a psychiatric diagnosis (the man claims to be a psychiatrist in some previous incarnation. I guess he was a very bad psychiatrist, and that was why he had to return to life as a media whore for the right wing instead of something with some dignity, say a gnat or slug.) You will see more of his work later. His writing should be awarded the same degree of respect that is shown to the work of John Solomon, who had to quit the Washington Post and become an editor for the Moonie Times, because no one would believe anything under his byline anymore.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200712130006
O’Reilly on the flagpin, pledge etc.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200801070007
Republican strategist on Fox says Obama is “so liberal he is anti-American”

http://mediamatters.org/items/200801100002
Tom Delay on Hardball.

DeLAY: I don't know. I think she has some good qualities for us. Her unpopularity and her ability to polarize people is good for us. On the other hand, Obama -- and we'll get to talk about what change means when Obama is president of the United States. Change isn't exactly what I think this nation wants to go -- surrender the war on terror, more taxes, more spending, bigger government. I think that's all good for us.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200802030004

Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes stated on Fox News' The Beltway Boys that "MoveOn.org -- which hates the war, hates the military, hates America -- endorsed Obama ."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200802120010
Karl Rove on O’Reilly says that Obama is the most liberal Senator.

(The Castro/Che Guevara picture flap)

http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=287712495807374

The display of the Castroite flag with Che's picture on it sends a particularly disturbing message about his campaign. Apparently, Obama tends to attract the kind of people who think of mass murderers like Che and Fidel as romantic revolutionaries. Those same people see Obama as a man with a messianic message. These are the voters he'll be indebted to should he win higher office.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200802130015

On The Big Story, on Fox Ralph Reed repeated the false claim that Sen. Barack Obama "has said that he will embrace Ahmadinejad," a claim President Bush made recently on Fox News Sunday, which was not challenged by Chris Wallace. John Gibson did not rebut Reed's assertion.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200802200005

On Hannity & Colmes, Mike Allen uncritically quoted an assertion by Sen. John McCain's campaign manager that Sen. Barack Obama "is the most liberal senator in the United States Senate" -- presumably a reference to National Journal's 2007 vote ratings. By repeating the McCain campaign's invocation of the National Journal vote ratings, Allen joined Karl Rove, Pat Buchanan, and other conservative media figures in promoting the ratings, as National Journal anticipated the media would.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200803100007

In an editorial discussing recently killed spokesman of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, "Raúl Reyes," and the fact that there was a reference to Sen. Barack Obama in one of the letters allegedly found on Reyes' computer, Investor's Business Daily claimed that the "little Obama reference ... signals a disturbing pattern of contacts with rogue actors." IBD further stated that "FARC seems to have an inside line to Obama's campaign." However, the letter offers no indication whatsoever that Reyes or FARC had any "contacts" with the Obama campaign.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0208/CNNs_question_Obamas_patriotism.html

Politico highlights a CNN poll asking if Obama is patriotic enough to be president.
Then links to this CNN article
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/24/obama.patriotism/index.html
The CN link mentions this “bad endorsement” (a Buchanan trick right out of the play book in which a candidate is smeared because someone with a bad history endorsed him or gave him money)

Obama did not respond to the question about the Weather Underground, a group whose members bombed the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon during the 1970s.
Last week, the New York Sun reported that as an Illinois state senator in 2001, Obama accepted a $200 contribution from William Ayers, a founder of the group who was not convicted for the bombings and now works as a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

So, basically, CNN and Politico were trying to get even more mileage out of the press’s attempt to link Obama to the Weathermen, a group that were active while he was in grade school!

Media Matters proves that it is a master of subtle irony here:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200802250010

CNN's Josh Levs reported on "rumors" about Sen. Barack Obama's "patriotism" that the Obama campaign "says are lies," adding, They're not sure where these rumors come from." Levs did not note that Republicans have begun using patriotism as an issue.

Great. CNN is telling the world once again Obama is unpatriotic and implying that Hillary the bitch must be saying it---even though lack of patriotism is a general election smear.


III. Obama is a Scary Black Muslim
It has been obvious since last year that this was where Karl Rove and his dirty tricks machine was heading. African-American candidate. Muslim family members. United States. Black Muslim. Nation of Islam….

Americans are not the most politically savvy creatures on earth. It does not take much to convince some of them that a Black man whom they now believe to be a Muslim must---by definition—be a Black Muslim. That means a Black separatist. Someone who will favor African-Americans, enacting some kind of wild affirmative action that will strip America of its wealth and send it all back to Africa.

Here is right wing fear mongering at its worst. And all of Chris Matthews' racially divisive comments after New Hampshire and Pat Buchanan’s Ghettoizing Barrack (which, incidentally, did just what the title claimed the Clintons were trying to do, subliminally, by putting the two words side by side, shame on you Pat Buchanan, you are indeed the Lord of Lies) and all of the MSM’s obsession with finding race where it isn’t has done nothing but focus the rest of the nation’s attention on this issue which was a non issue, while taking it off the war and the economy and domestic spying and all the real issues.

Right now, in the Democratic primary, the MSM is saying as one “It is Hillary’s fault!” After the primary is over, in the general election, you can bet that the New York Times and the Washington Post will revisit the accusations against Hillary, as Media Matters and I have, and they will declare “The emperor has no clothes!” Then, instead of blaming their own for distorting the facts and creating a mountain out of a mole hole, they will point their finger at the Obama camp and say “It is Obama’s fault! His side pretended that Hillary’s side was making racist attacks in order to get the nomination! For shame! Straight talker McCain would never do something like that!”

Anyone who doubts me should go read Wayne Barrett’s article about how fickle the American press has already proven to be this election when it comes to Obama. The press never admits its own culpability. They have yet to apologize for failing to release the 2004 Ohio exit polls or for calling Gore a Liar.

Anyway, pour yourself a glass of whatever you drink to relax and then get ready to read or watch or listen to some of the most infuriating material that Media Matters has documented, the right wing media propagating the smear that Barack Obama is a Scary Black Muslim .

In Feb, 2007 they were already talking about Obama’s Church

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-0702060164feb06,1,5408274.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Looking to weigh Obama down with some of that baggage, conservative critics have seized on Trinity's 12-point Black Value System, especially the portion relating to "middleclassness," as evidence that Obama is a divisive candidate who rejects mainstream American values and is primarily focused on the black community.

"I question his . . . ability to be able to reach out to a lot of people when he is committed to a group of people who are focused on helping a certain group of people," said Fran Eaton, editor of Illinois Review, a conservative political blog. "It seems wrong."

http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_03_26/feature.html

March 26, 2007 Issue
Copyright © 2007 The American Conservative
Obama’s Identity Crisis
Although he presents himself as a healer of differences, the presidential candidate’s own racial struggle paints a conflicted portrait.
by Steve Sailer
Paints Obama as a new Malcolm X who has rejected White America and wants to take our wealth back to Africa.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703160007

On the March 16 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, executive producer Bernard McGuirk, performing as his character "Cardinal Egan," said that "the whole nation is talking about" reports of a "young colored fellah pretty much deckin' the old bag from New York and takin' away some of her money." McGuirk continued: "I'm speaking, of course, about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton ."

Media Matters sums up the early attacks on this topic

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703200011

As discredited charges about Obama's association with Islam began to fade, new smears about his religion began to surface. During the "Obameter" segment on the February 7 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, host Tucker Carlson criticized Obama for being a member of a church that Carlson claimed "sounds separatist to me" and "contradicts the basic tenets of Christianity," a subject Carlson said he was "actually qualified to discuss." Carlson was referring to the "Black Value System" advocated by the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, of which Obama is a member. A February 6 Chicago Tribune article reported that "conservative critics have seized on Trinity's 12-point Black Value System, especially the portion relating to 'middleclassness,' as evidence that Obama is a divisive candidate who rejects mainstream American values and is primarily focused on the black community." Carlson pointed to the "disavowal of the pursuit of 'middleclassness' " in the church's tenets, calling the church's mission a "racially exclusive theology" and "a theology that ministers to one group of people, based on race." Carlson claimed that Trinity's theology is "racially exclusive" and "wrong," adding that "it's hard to call that Christianity."
snip
Yet the description of Trinity as "separatist" continued. While discussing Obama's church on the February 28 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity stated that "many" call Trinity "separatist," adding that "in some cases, even drawing comparisons to a cult." Guest Erik Rush, a columnist for the conservative website WorldNetDaily, said that the church's "scary doctrine" is "something that you'd see in more like a cult or an Aryan Brethren Church or something like that."
Referring to "The Black Value System," Rush also stated on Hannity & Colmes: "I would go beyond saying that they're Afrocentric. They're African-centric. They refer to themselves as an African people, and that somewhat disturbs me from the viewpoint of, well, do they consider themselves Americans? Do they consider themselves Christians? Are they worshipping Christ? Are they worshipping African things black? Well, I mean, what is it?" Later in the segment, when co-host Alan Colmes asked: "Are you questioning Barack Obama's Christianity?" Rush responded simply: "Yeah."
A similar smear was directed at Obama's church on the March 5 broadcast of KSFO's Sussman, Morgan, and Vic, when Morgan stated: "his is a major American presidential candidate whose church that he belongs to -- says he's proud to belong to -- says that their allegiance goes to Africa before it goes to America." But while the Trinity website contains a "10-point Vision" that calls for its congregation to make "a non-negotiable commitment to Africa," there is no statement that such a commitment supersedes a parishioner's commitment to the United States. Trinity's mission statement reads: "e are called to be agents of liberation not only for the oppressed, but for all of God's family."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200704030003
CNN’s Paula Zahn asks “Is Obama’s Church racist?”

No Paula, are you? Temperature rising....

http://mediamatters.org/items/200706260011

On Hannity & Colmes, Sean Hannity claimed that the pastor of Sen. Barack Obama's church, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, "has a very black-separatist point of view." Hannity played a video clip of an interview with Wright from the March 1 Hannity & Colmes, but did not play the portion in which Wright specifically stated that his church's point of view does not "assume superiority, nor does it assume separatism."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200712200007
Hannity and Coulter on Fox claim Obama’s Church is segregated. (It isn’t)

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/seton-motley/2008/01/11/audacity-media-s-coverage-obama-s-church
The Audacity of the Media’s Coverage of Obama’s Church
Conservative site accuses Obama of playing up race to get ahead of Hillary. Also claims his membership in a Black separatist Church makes him unfit to take the oath of office as president.

http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/BurtPrelutsky/2008/01/14/all_kidding_aside,_obama_for_president!!
Another conservative site on Obama’s religion.

All Kidding Aside, Obama For President?!?!
By Burt Prelutsky
Monday, January 14, 2008
“The truth is, he sort of reminds me of David Duke.”

http://mediamatters.org/items/200801180006

Fox News' Sean Hannity suggested that Sen. Barack Obama had "associated" himself with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who had received an award from a magazine founded by Obama's church. But Hannity, who described Farrakhan as "an anti-Semite racist," did not note that Obama issued a statement "condemning" Farrakhan's "anti-Semitic statements" and saying of the award: “It is not a decision with which I agree."

Note that this is a variation of the “bad endorsement” smear. Focus on the endorsement and accuse the candidate of sharing the views of the one making it.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200801230010

On Hannity & Colmes, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson said of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago: "If a white preacher, including the KKK, espouses so-called white values -- remember, at one time, the KKK was doing that." During the show, neither Peterson nor Sean Hannity explained how Trinity United Church of Christ in any way reflects the ideology, mission, or history of the KKK.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/04/AR2008020402422.html

Hail to the Chief of Staff
By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, February 5, 2008; Page A19
Look, I know what Barack Obama was doing when he refused to confront his minister about the latter's embrace of Louis Farrakhan. He was ducking an issue with no upside for him. He will not get my Profiles in Courage award for this, but the rest of his record overwhelms this one chintzy act.

Death of the 1000 cuts. Have to slip that knife in where ever you can.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200802210011

Reading from a column by Accuracy in Media editor and writer Cliff Kincaid, Rush Limbaugh falsely asserted on his nationally syndicated radio show that the Global Poverty Act, sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama, "would commit the United States to spending 0.7 percent of GDP on foreign aid."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200802240002

On The McLaughlin Group, host John McLaughlin asked Clarence Page: "Do you think Michelle -- do you think she leaves the impression -- not mine, but I've heard this -- that she has a chip on her shoulder?" McLaughlin later asked Page: "You don't think she's a black militant?"

Note that the press has tried to portray Michelle as violent, extreme. They have make a big deal of her “proud for the first time” statement, her “house in order” statement, her thesis and in general tried to paint her as being unfeminine. They may be heading in the direction of making the case that she is another Hillary---a hard core leftist who controls her weak, politically ambitious husband, driving him to the left.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200802260008
Hannity on Farrakhan again.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200802270006
The Farrakhan matter comes to a head when Russert begins badgering Obama about it. Chuck Todd live blogging criticizes Obama’s responses, wonders why he will not reject Farrakhan. At Hillary’s urging, Obama finally rejects Obama and the matter is dropped—or is it?

http://mediamatters.org/items/200803030007
Rove claims Obama will try to withdraw aid to Israel.

(Drudge interjects Islam twice into the national media spotlight with its Hillary gave us the photo lie and its Hillary said “as far as I know” on 60 Minutes distortion. This keeps Obama is a Muslim on the front page all across the country.)

http://mediamatters.org/items/200803050004

On Hannity's America, Sean Hannity falsely asserted that the minister of Sen. Barack Obama's church "honored Farrakhan for lifetime achievement, saying, quote, 'He truly epitomized greatness.' " In fact, the managing editor of a magazine founded by the church wrote those words, not the minister. Hannity also stated that Michelle Obama "wrote in her thesis that we see at Princeton, you know, the belief -- 'because of the belief that blacks must join in solidarity to combat a white oppressor.' " However, as the full context of the passage makes clear, she was discussing views that black students who attended Princeton in the 1970s may have held, not asserting her own views.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200803050006

“On Morning Joe, Christopher Hitchens called Sen. Barack Obama's church a "dumb, nasty, ethnic rock 'n' roll racist church."”

Hitchens was only partly wrong. Someone is “dumb and nasty”. That someone is Hitchens, himself. For all I know they do play rock n’ roll at Obama’s Church. More power to them. As for racism---there is a whole lot of that going around these days, and almost all of it is coming from the right wing press and being giving help by their allies in the MSM.

Maybe it is because I am doctor, and I am used to having people project their anger, fears and frustrations on me. It hurts a little when people who have suffered through no fault of their own or my own blame me, but I am there to help so I help, I do not blame them back. When people start crying “reverse racism”, they are ignoring a plea for help. The answer is not to demand denunciations and rejections. Nor does it help to erect barriers. The answer it to open arms and say “Whenever you want to start a dialog, I am ready.”

Only people with fragile egos---people like Hitchens---get bent out of shape by a Church like Obama’s. The rest of media hype is just hype designed to provoke fears of race riots and crime and old wounds that healed until the RNC started picking at the fresh scabs.

Sorry for the extra jumbo sized journal. I will have to do a third installment to get to the special smears that have been crafted specifically to use against Obama in a contest with McCain---Obama is a crook, Obama is inexperienced, Obama is a typical Chicago politician.

To sum it all up, what I have tried to show is that the right wing press has spent the last year telling its followers that Obama is a scary Black Muslim radical un-American liberal separatist. I suspect that most of the cross over vote that we have seen has been part of a strategy to influence the Democratic Primary. As I have written in Salon, people like George Will deliver the Talking Points du Jour to the GOP masses. They tell them how to spin the news, how to vote, where to give their money. If Will speaks well of Obama, that means cross over to vote for Obama. If the so called respectable conservatives start making friendly with Hillary that means that it is time to start crossing over to vote for Hillary. The goal is and has been to keep Obama and Hillary---McGovern and Humphrey---neck and neck all the way to the Brokered Democratic Convention. The GOP voting base knows all about this strategy. It has been well publicized. For example, on the night of the Wisconsin primary--before the polls were closed and while voters could still go register and vote in either primary---Nora O'Donnell had a headline Convention in Chaos and interviewed a guest who had been in Chicago 1968 who could describe how the anger and violence contributed to the Democratic loss that year. I have also heard Tom Brokaw discuss how brokered Democratic conventions lead to their loss---and then go on to tell Republican primary voters that they must select one candidate early to avoid that happening to them. With pundits in the media sending them these messages, GOP voters would have no problem figuring out what they were supposed to do.

The Republicans who have been listening to their pundits and absorbing the lies which I describe above are no more likely to vote for Obama than they are for Hillary. If they vote for either candidate, it will be because they are fed up with the Republicans. However, the right wing has trashed Obama so completely among conservatives that it is more likely that they will stay home----and it is starting to look like they might show up out of fear to vote against him, unless something is done to counter the impress which the Monster that is the American Press is creating.

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." Joseph Goebbels.

[jaybeat]

1. Thank you for this. I hope the Obama camp will take this in.

I have long felt (as an undecided) that so much of the so-called "dirty tactics" that the Obama camp accused the Clintons of was really just RW crap, as well as previews of what Obama will face in the fall.

Please, Obama supporters--Hillary is not the enemy. McSame and the Republican corprotocracy are!!

I have only one hope, feeble at best, which is that Obama will become toughened by dealing with these attacks now, so that when the campaign begins in earnest he will be ready for them.

But I fear we ain't seen nothin' yet...

[knixphan]

2. toughen up, guys.

I mean that lovingly.

Read some FDR quotes on fear.

You think the O-team doesn't have all your info and more?

You fight 'this week's fight', then move on.

Fight tomorrow's fight tomorrow.

Do NOT lump all the fights you'll ever have in your life into one insurmountable obstacle.

Plus: NO FEAR ALLOWED in the Obama campaign.

Feel afraid? DONATE.

Works for me.

[rug]

3. Both.

[AX10]

4. K & R!

[sunnystarr]

5. K&R Great research and analysis! (nt)

[PerfectSage]

6. K&R, I agree with all you say; I think Rove underestimated Obama

Taking, everything I've ever read about leadership, organizational culture and warfare and analyzing Obama.
He's got game. He's got a shitload of game. Rove is probably scared shitless of him after tonite's cnn,fox,cnbc interviews.

As far as I can tell the original Rove gameplan was Ghouliani vs Hillary?

My greatest hope is that Rove miscalculated the: It's the economy stupid, effect.
Bear market with a 4 year cycle low due in oct/2010
http://www.decisionpoint.com/ChartSpotliteFiles/080314_lt.html

[Ztarbod]

7. And the rev Wright story isn't more of the same?

The media, left and right have been unfair to Mr. Obama. I am nonpartisan, so I always watch with interest, and Hillary is getting a pass from the media.

[McCamy Taylor]

8. Wright is exactly more of the same. But Ferraro was the same, too.

The RW media is going from one side to the other. This will barely die down and there will be something aimed at Hillary---maybe another Drudge rumor about Barack that they will claim Hillary sent them.

You should go back and read my four part epic "The Press v. Hillary Clinton" that I wrote just before I started this one. The press has been much worse to Hillary---and she has been getting it from right, center and left for a solid year---until they finally wore her down and elevated Obama and got his delegate count above hers. Then, the center finally began the non-stop Hillary bashing fest in the MSM. The RW media still calls her a lesbian-bitch-whore 24-7. And the left has gotten even worse to make up for the fact that the MSM does not bash her any more. They are even more rabid than the RW. The third journal "The Press v. Hillary Clinton: Leaping Lesbians" about the RW smears is a real hoot. The 4th one "Friendly Fire" is incredibly sad. For instance The Village Voice Started a smear last summer that Hillary is having a lesbian affair with an aid. They have been more or less openly supporting Obama all this time. The rumors are all over the internet. It even got into Harpers A Political blogger in South Carolina says that reps for the Edwards, Richardson and Obama campaign tried to peddle the Hillary is having a lesbian affair to him before the South Carolina primary. That is low when a left wing journal slimes a Dem like that. Just disgusting. Real 1972 stuff.

[tabasco]

9. Just wait till they get a hold of Hillary's tax records, White House records,

Senate earmark requests, and library donor records.

The wingnuts are champing at the bit for Hillary to get the nomination so she will have to release this info, which SHE IS HIDING from Democratic voters! They know there is TONS of filthy laundry in those records.

Obama has released all of his equivalent records, WHY ARE THE CLINTONS TAP DANCING TO KEEP THIS STUFF HIDDEN FROM DEMOCRATIC VOTERS?

I'll tell you why. They have calculated that it is harder to beat Obama than it is to beat McCain, so they will keep these records hidden until Hillary gets the nomination!

Hillary brazenly puts her ambition ahead of the good of the party and the good of the country.

WAKE UP!

[McCamy Taylor]

10. Why does the RNC have to smear Dems when Dems will do it for them?

:cry:

[Iceburg]

11. K & R /nt

[bhikkhu]

12. Good intel = no fear. thanks

I agree that the repugs didn't see it coming, and are desperately making crap up as they go along. A popular movement is the one unstoppable force, and years of stolen elections, manipulation and power gathering see some sunlight.

[pretzel4gore]

13. but they don't want the 'prize'

lol. It's almost therapeutic to watch mr pig (or his minions in rw media and the gop) play the game with all his tricks up his sleeve and total lack of morals to limit his effectiveness HAMSTRUNG by the lil detail that mr pig really wants, needs, the dems to take over in Nov/08 if only because he knows the repukkes will kill off the golden goose- which is on life support until the dems take over and, just by being moral human beings, will inject value back into the economy when they do. But until then, in the spirit of 'everything's normal here folks, move along' the pigfukks must pretend they're trying to win the game, at the same time as they arrange to lose, with the knowlege that the dems are such assholes that the least effort the pigs make will cause pelosi/dean and the rest of DINO give up and concede the battle to the overwhelming might! It's that episode of Bob Newhart show where Bob was pressured into the weekly poker game by the townsfolk who refused to accept Bob's raincheck, so Bob shrugged his shoulders and went to the game, preparing to lose 100 dollars at most, but...haha, the townsfolk were the most idiotic poker players ever, and Bob easily won hundreds of dollars, even when he, kinda surprised by this, tried to lose, and he won the reputation of a cardsharp to boot!
Only the repukkes aint funny, and their dilemma is a joy to see. If they win in Nov/08, it'll be agauinst their interests to do so, and in defiance of their secret efforts.
:rofl: :toast:
(i'm referring of course to repukkes with a bit of wit- the truly witless actually wanna win, but they simply don't matter, being dead weight, or ballast, in a sinking boat)