tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/tennessee_gop_smears_obama_wit.php
defended the release to the Knoxville News Sentinel, despite the fact that John McCain has asked his supporters not to use such attacks in the wake of the Bill Cunningham flap.
Obama Advertisement Comments (73) avatar Just you watch, the RNC is going to turn themselves into the party of racists and xenophobes. It won't be pretty, especially for them when only a handful of Republicans hold office.
Permalink avatar Yes, it could be that a lot of Republicans believe they are already screwed for the fall, so have decided to pull out all the racist, fanatical and xenophobic stops, and go out in a hail of bullets and a blaze of wingnut glory.
"Turn" themselves into the party of racists and xenophobes? This is going to cut very deeply into McCain's independent voter base - I really don't think they are going to be comfortable with this kind of thing.
Essentially, we'll see the gop 'southern strategy' go national-- but it's going to be with the viciousness occurring just barely under the radar, so that McCain can disavow it, and with subtle comments in the mainstream, so that he can benefit from it. This can play out two ways: unite the country around Obama, or set the country back 30 years in race relations. I'm an optimist, so it's hard for me to see the latter happening, but it's going to get very ugly in the meantime. I believe it will attempt to be the most vicious and divisive campaign that we've seen in some time, and will be undertaken almost entirely by C-list surrogates and outside organizations. This is also why Bush said he is confident of a republican win this fall, saying he understands the "mentality" of Americans-- in other words he assumes we live in a country that will never elect a black man, but Bush, as an official party member, can't say that quite so directly, again for fear of alienating deluded moderates in the fall. That has to come from Hannity, Limbaugh, new swiftboat groups, and other "unofficial" GOP operatives. The Tennessee GOP is apparently the only group that hasn't gotten the message, maybe because they see a different dynamic playing out locally.
Meanwhile, Al Gore was not able to carry TN, so I rather doubt that Obama ever had much of a chance there anyway. I suppose that it is possible that this will have some effect on the down ticket races, so it does not hurt for the campaign to respond, but in the end I expect that this will prove to be mostly wasted effort.
org/contact/ I sent them the following letter: Ms Smith, I was offended by your deeply dishonest smear of Senator Obama. You have also contributed to the unfortunate stereotype of the racist, fear mongering southern conservative politician. I have just contributed another $50 to Senator Obama's campaign as a consequence of your actions, and I am even more energized to defeat your candidate this fall. Thank you for reminding me again what America does and does not stand for, and I look forward to the day when your children and grandchildren renounce your words in the same manner that George Wallace, segregation, and lynching is renounced today.
Permalink avatar I guess Eric like this story so much, it had to be printed twice in the same post. Obama has done his best to get out in front of stuff like this, so the only people that'll buy into it are the ones that this tool from the Tennessee Republican Party call his "base". Or in other words, the bitter and hardcore racists that wouldn't vote Democrat under any circumstances. Stuff like this IMO is a net positive for Barack, as it further drives a wedge between independents and moderate Republicans that McCain has to spend time undoing. He can't win without his base, but it's increasingly clear that the hardcore GOP is going to be a problem for McCain this entire campaign.
Permalink avatar In case anyone's wondering now that the post is formated correctly, Erik originally had the text and picture of this post printed twice back to back.
As a person adrift in Tennessee for 10 years now, you can knock me over with not surprise. Seriously, this is an unbelieveably backward state when it comes to thinking, and the TN repub party is among the worst of the offenders. And, hey, that should come as no shock since we have already foisted Bill Frist and Fred Thompson on the rest of you poor bastards. And, correct, this state is deep red, no matter who gets the dem nom.
if you watched the debate she actually helped Obama further distance himself from Farrakhan. People like you make me look for someone to cast my vote for in November.
I think the only real effect stuff like this will have is drive independents away from McCain. The people this type of mailer caters to weren't going to vote for Obama anyway.
Permalink avatar The smearing of Obama has not only appeared in GOP propaganda -- but also appearing covertly in what is considered Left US Jewish press... Durbin had to write a defense/reply to the The Forward -- having to state the bloody obvious that Obama is a Christian and has always had strong and supportive ties to the Jewish community.
Barack Hussein, Semitic names, meaning "Blessed" and "good" of Semitic origin, claiming anti-semitism, in a state and a political party where fundamentalist religion condemns the Jew to hell. Here's a great commentary on Barack's name from Juan Cole, the Middle Eastern historian. He gives some great background and perspective on Semitic names of well known Americans.
Permalink avatar And McCain said that flying the Confederate Battle Flag should be left up to the State of South Carolina. Not suprising when one considers his families ties to the Confederacy.
The important question is, how does Obama's campaign respond? This is clearly dishonest, and the scumbags who put out this garbage know it. This is Obama's first real test against a Swift Boat-style attack.
Last night I was at a fundraiser here in LA, "Live for Sderot." It was a huge affair with celebrities, poor children from Sderot getting paraded around, and featured recorded messages from all three presidential candidates. Each appeared and stated their support for Sderot and for Israel in general. They announced her, and there was a big blast of applause and cheers. Even bigger crescendo of applause, but it was quickly shouted down by a chorus of boos. You can tell there's a lot of disagreement in the Israeli community about him. McCain gets 90 seconds for his response, double that of the other candidates. So all three candidates are openly pro-Israel, but Israel is decidedly pro-McCain.
Permalink avatar Obama couldn't have engineered this better himself. These fools accomplish two things for the Obama campaign each time they erupt. First, they focus attention on how sleazy the GOP is and force McCain to repudiate them or be tarred as an accomplice. Second, the more we see this crap now, the more it inoculates Obama from the fever swamp. It'll make it much harder to smear him and should drive voters into his camp each time it happens. Remember how whenever some troll posted something ugly on DailyKos the right wing would go ape shit and demand all Dems disavow it? And second, McCain's martyrdom in SC in 2000 and his campaign's attempt to rev it up again this year have conditioned the public to react with outrage to such things.
Permalink avatar I don't agreee with ADL Executive Director Abe Foxman on every issue, but it goes without saying that he is far more of an expert on anti-Semitism than Robin Smith.
While Foxman said Obama had dealt with the Farrakhan issue, he mirrored the notion that the relationship with Wright was less likely to disappear. Foxman said he was unsatisfied with Obama's explanation at the meeting with Cleveland's Jews, in which Obama likened his pastor to a slightly dotty uncle who occasionally embarrasses... Will the Jewish community condemn this type of fear-mongering or will the email smears continue?
All the people who pointedly use Obama's middle name fall back on the "well, it IS his name" argument. And yet, I don't see any discussion of John McCain or HRC's middle name.
Permalink avatar I emailed the whole lot of them, expressing my hopes that some members of the state's party le...
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