Republicans Turn to Lies, Race Baiting and Swiftboating
05 October 2008 3:03 pm by Taylor Marsh
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Republicans are smearing the Democratic nominee? So what else is new?
Well, the McCain team warned us they were going to start hitting. Bill Kristol backed them on it. So let the smearing begin.
Sarah Palin started it off by teasing that Obama is not quite as American as
she is or the crowd to whom she was speaking. AP’s
analysis rips Palin for the “racial tinge” of her comments:
By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is “palling around with terrorists”
and doesn’t see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate
Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign.And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was
unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself
may come to regret.… “Our opponent … is someone who sees America, it seems, as being
so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he’s palling around with terrorists who
would target their own country,” Palin told a group of donors in Englewood,
Colo. A deliberate attempt to smear Obama, McCain’s ticket-mate echoed the
line at three separate events Saturday.“This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America,”
she said. “We see America as a force of good in this world. We see an
America of exceptionalism.”…Palin’s words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another
subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee “palling
around” with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience
that he doesn’t see their America? …
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| Imbedded in a Human Events email received today. |
This is something I warned about during the primaries, which infuriated Obama
supporters everywhere, though I didn’t care, because I was telling the truth.
I’ve obviously been proven correct. I wanted Democrats to get out in front of
it: If past is prologue, the Republicans are set to make Ayers Barack Obama’s
Wille Horton. That’s a summation I made during the primaries. It’s what’s
about to happen right now. Palin is more than willing to get in the dirt, urged
by her conservative benefactors, while John McCain obviously approves. Because
we all know Palin wouldn’t say anything the campaign didn’t condone.
Here is a list of links I received via dueling McCain camp emails today, never mind that I’d already
seen the onslaught coming: Washington
Post; New
York Times; Chicago
Tribune; AP;
Reuters; Politico; ABC The Blotter; NBC
First Read; ABC
News; CBS;
Fox
News; CNN.
No doubt local news outlets will parrot this “palling around” lie,
because the traditional press covered it. It’s out there again in the political
bloodstream, just as the McCain campaign planned.
Don’t get me wrong, the traditional press’ job is to cover what’s happening
on the campaign trail and when McCain’s vice president says outright that their
opponent “is not a man who sees America like you and I see America,”
while talking to an all white audience, obviously race baiting, while simultaneously lying that he is “palling
around with terrorists,” the news outlets must cover it. They also
need to cover whether it’s true. The
New York Times covered it yesterday, finding nothing of note about Ayers.
AP
called Palin out on her the “racial tinge” of her comments, including
Ayers. CNN
said what Palin is asserting is false.
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| Imbedded in a Human Events email received today. |
All of this follows something that happened in Virginia, which the LA
Times writes about today. Bobby May, treasurer of the Buchanan County
Republican Party who is also listed as the county’s representative on McCain’s
Virginia leadership team, according to the Times, wrote a column that
is race-baiting
at its lowest, complete with the usage of Obama’s middle name, as well as
intoning Ludacris to “paint it black” to drive his point home. Truly
despicable stuff coming from the Republicans who are losing traction in Virginia.
That McCain-Palin are losing their grip with the electorate entirely is why the campaign and the Republicans are willing to channel the worst of political tactics, even as the American economy slides into a deep recession that could turn into a depression. But since McCain-Palin can’t solve our challenges, they’ve decided to go dirty to cast a dark shadow on Obama-Biden.
But the pictures imbedded in this post punctuate the conservative playbook
the final weeks of the campaign. They are compliments of a Human Events
magazine email on Obama and ACORN. But it’s through “AmericaPac, American
Political Action Committee” in the email subheading where the pictures
appear.
These smears are coming at a time when the general election is at a tipping
point and right before Tuesday’s debate as well, which will be a townhall. People
are moving to Obama, as all the polls suggest, but decisions aren’t set. So people will bring Obama up in
their minds to evaluate a second time to see if he indeed passes as someone they want to be president, giving Obama one last look. The McCain campaign wants Palin’s
words that he’s “palling around with terrorists” to be part of that
last assessment, punctuated by her racially tinged judgment that Obama “is not a man
who sees America like you and I see America.” Casting one last aspersion on his character.
It’s up to Obama-Biden to not let these slurs and lies stand, combating every one of them, then hitting back just as hard.
More important is the negative message. The McCain campaign has to convince 51 percent of the voters they can’t trust Barack Obama to be our next president. This has an ideological component and a character component. – Bill Kristol
The wind may be at O-Biden’s back, but this race isn’t over yet. Nobody should take anything for granted.
