The Obama-as-Muslim photo

Reason #487 why I will vote 3rd party if Hillary is the D nominee.

The Willie Horton story originally came from the Gore campaign, but most people nowadays would probably tell you that Bush's people invented it. If this story lingers into the general election, it'll probably similarly be blamed on the GOP.

As I mentioned on my blog...is it just me, or does he look like Hadji from Johnny Quest? And with his proficiency at magically charming audiences...I'm just saying.

Mac, I've had several conversations with people who believe that, and who will not be dissuaded. I've also been hearing the "Manchurian candidate" them, e.g., the woman who said to me the other day, "Obama just came out of nowhere." I pointed out that that's not true, and explained why it wasn't true. She refused to budge.

It's campaign-killer if used properly by the Republicans, who have long-ago learned that charges of racism affect their candidates like water affects a duck. One of the reasons the Democrats keep getting surprised is that they use attacks that would kill a fellow Democrat against Republicans, forgetting that one of the reasons that people become Republican is that they hold the Democrats' sensitivities in contempt. Calling a Republican a racist will usually bring out 4 votes for every 1 lost for the Republican.

What surprises me is that Obama, who is nothing if not a savvy politician (unlike his wife who is regarded by her colleagues as the archetypal affirmative-action baby and a genuine liability), would let himself get caught doing something so incredibly stupid and guaranteed to feed the unconcious (and often conscious) fears that his very name creates.

All in all, from a strategic point of view, this last week has been the worst nightmare for the Obama campaign and may prove to be the time when the end began. Properly used this stuff will render him unelectable in the fall.

Mama Obama put her foot in her mouth giving the Republicans a great attack ad that is almost impossible to answer.

The New York Times shot itself and the rest of mainstream media in the head with that stupid story that no freshman journalism student would have written. (I wondered where the editorial staff of the Weekly World News was going to go when that august journal folded. Now I know.)

And now Obama has virtually changed his name to Osama for real in the minds of lots of people who see that picture. And, by November, everyone who is not physically blind will have seen it somewhere.

He does look like Hadji from Johnny Quest.

Bugg is the kind of voter this nonsense panders to.

HOW can anyone be one over by someone who needs to invoke cynicism in order to prove their point?!

--How can anyone that is not already a cynic vote for a Democrat?

Blah Blah. I've heard all that "hope" stuff from Obama... How much "hope" will he bring to the millions of babies that are murdered every year in this country?

The Obama campaign has provided a persuasive explanation about this photo. One of his foreign-policy advisers (a retired AF general) accompanied Obama when this photo was taken in Kenya in 2006 and has explained that donning this costume was merely a courtesy to local custom. If the Clinton people really were serious about making this photo a campaign issue, then it shows just how desperate they truly ARE :-( Don't expect John McCain to traffic in this filth.

Let's hope the fall campaign focuses primarily on the governing philosophies of McCain and Obama and on their "track records." It may not be the surest way to win an election, but it is the only way for either side to win a mandate.

If this is really an election of "change" which all three candidates seem to be preaching, then let's hope that this picture isn't smeared at Obama by either Clinton or McCain. I think the one thing that the young people don't like to see (me being one of them) is the smear campaigns. It makes the population apathetic. Personally, i'd rather see someone win because of their ideas, rather than lack of integrity.

p.s. Plus Kenya is largely Christian and has the largest Quaker population of any country. Only 10% of the population is Muslim. People will be pretty stupid if they don't check the facts before claiming something about a picture.

Chance:

Agree that there is no place for smears like this Obama-as-Muslim photo. Do you feel the same way about the way the NY Times tried to smear McCain last week with the "lady lobbyist" story?

I am certainly not a supporter of B. Hussein Obama but this is a non-starter. I mean it's not as if he'd kissed the Koran or prayed facing Mecca. Then again he's not running for pope....

Were his name O'Bama, I'd expect to see him in a kilt playing the uillean pipes.

His crypto-mohammedanism is not so much to be feared as the strident anti-Americanism in which he was raised. (see today's Spengler at Asia Times).

"See, the Clintons really will do just about anything to win"

But with your re=posting of the photo and your just happening to mention that Obama's middle name is the same as the last name of the late Iraqi dictator, can it not be said that Rod Dreher "will do just about anything to" perpetuate the myth?

Yup, no "fearmongering GOP attacks this fall" there, eh?

Sowing their wild oats. Bwahahahahahaha!

Wow. So now a Kenyan kikoi = "Muslim" clothes? Obama is actually dressed almost exactly the same as an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian priest...

But I know (and am ashamed) that seventy-plus per cent of Americans would look at this photo and think that Obama is wearing "Muslim" clothing. Why are we so willfully ignorant?

Though to be fair, there are plenty of Middle Easterners out there who think that suit + tie = "Christian" clothes.

The Willie Horton story originally came from the Gore campaign

That itself is a myth. Bob Somerby has discussed that GOP falsehood many times. Go over to dailyhowler.com and do a site search. For example, Somerby covered it on 11/1/02 as follows:

In one of 45 Dem debates that year, Candidate Gore challenged Candidate Dukakis to defend a Massachusetts furlough program under which convicts serving life sentences without hope of parole were released on weekend passes. In particular, Gore noted that two furloughed prisoners had committed new murders while on weekend leave. (Willie Horton was not one of these convicts.) The program was almost impossible to defend. But Gore only mentioned the program once, and he never mentioned any prisoner’s name; never mentioned any prisoner’s race; never ran any TV ads on the topic; and never used any visuals. More specifically, he never named Willie Horton, or mentioned his specific crime (Horton committed a brutal rape while on leave). In the Bush-Dukakis general election, the Bush campaign—and an independent, pro-Bush group—made extensive use of the Horton incident. In particular, the independent group used visuals of Horton which seemed to emphasize his race (he was black).

Um, sj, I'm not sure you made the point you wanted to.
So Willie Horton was not the worst case of all the convicts leaving on weekend furloughs and committing crimes? You mean there were others who committed murder, and not "just" a brutal rape?
Are you aware of how many families of murder victims tried to talk Dukakis out of allowing this, and he gave them a cold (but liberal) shoulder?
Tell me, sj, do you agree that this furlough program was a bad idea? Do you think there was something wrong with the Republicans using it as an issue? And are they only allowed to make an issue of this if the convict happens to be white, because anything else is racism?

"How about using it--and even using the specific case of this convict--*without* showing see-the-scary-looking-black-guy videos?"

Because its TELEVISION! The Horton story was not one of abstracts. It was THAT scary guy that the the gov. let out again.

To call the Horton ad racist is to say that we can't look at the particulars of violent crime in the USA if the criminal is black.

Dukakis let Horton out...
Horton raped again...
The GOP pointed this out...
And in the liberal cosmos, the GOP is the bad guy here!

ROFL!

Wow, great of the author to post little elliptical note in his article that conservative voters *shouldn't* let a total falsehood get in the way of using fear to motivate voters. Wow, that's so big of you! You're one of the good guys. Oh, wait, you're not.

Thanks for showing us a tiny bit of the inherent racism in the GOP. Christians don't judge others. Unless they're poor and black!

It's over for Hillary. I take comfort in the fact that this is a "change" election no matter who wins. I like McCain, and I am willing to give Obama a chance and plan to check out his positions carefully before making a final decision. I'm sad for Hillary, though.