Monday, June 16, 2008

Fight the smears

This is part of our work in this election season. Fighting the smears. I am glad to report that the Obama campaign is not waiting for sometime close to the election to start confronting the lies that abound already on the internet and right-wing fulminatin' radio.

Click on this:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

It takes you to where the truth will combat the lies.

And if you lose the link or forget, do a search for Obama and "fight the smears" and it will pop up.

I was moved into this by browsing a little in DailyKos this morning, where I happened upon this item about a Tennessee Democrat who's dubious about Obama.

Oh, yes, Sean Hannity is hammering on this. I've heard Hannity repeatedly nasaling this topic in recent weeks. It ascended from the Hannity depths to the point that Obama was asked about it during a debate in April, and our current ally Hillary Clinton wondered about it, too. So this is not just one Tennessee Democrat and Sean Hannity, this is up around the top of the media pyramid, and it will never go away. There, you read it here first. It will never go away.

I note that this isn't covered yet on Fight the Smears. It is a smear and it deserves a better response than what Obama said when asked by ABC's George Stephanopoulus if there was a problem in his knowing William Ayers, a onetime member of the Weather Underground.

His response, from one of many sources you will find if you Google this topic.

Obama replied that Ayers was a neighbor and acquaintance. "The notion that . . . me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense," he said.


This isn't a bad response; rather, since Obama is such a great speaker, his message-shapers should work on this topic and produce the ultimate sentence to put down this nonsense.

My feeling is that we can emerge from this approaching mud bath of a campaign in better shape and with some of our prejudices and ignorances wrestled to the ground and pinned to the point of surrender. "Uncle!" Sean Hannity will cry, but only if the force of reason has been applied to him like that headache remedy, and we all can see that these smears are mere vaporous distractions from the business of fixing this country.

UPDATE: Talk about smears! Take a look at the comments section after the Miami Herald finally published something about the Jefferson-Jackson dinner that rocked the Westin Diplomat Hotel on Saturday. I couldn't tell exactly when this story got on line, but the comments started early Sunday and were continuing Monday afternoon, and all the canards about Obama popped up here and there. It will not be easy to get through all this, but we must.

And I'm still looking in the printed Herald editions of Sunday and Monday for a report from the Jefferson-Jackson dinner. Nothing in the papers I got in Miami Beach. I couldn't find it online looking through the Herald's section called Political Currents. Finally, in the Naked Politics blog, I found the link in the paragraph above. Anyone else have trouble finding a report? I know the Herald is firing a ton of people (250 announced today) but I saw the Herald at the JJ.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Senator Obama is NOT a Dirty Muslim!

"What you won't hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge," says Mr. Obama, while denouncing statements of him being a Muslim as a smear. Why is the presidential candidate who claims to be religiously inclusive is treating the word "Muslim" as an insult? Apparently, it is OK for Mr. Obama to be associated with terrorists like William Ayers or racists like Jeremiah Wright, but God forbid somebody would call him a Muslim! No, he won't stand for that kind of smear! We admit that most terrorists are Muslims, but most Muslims are not terrorists and the statement on Mr. Obama's website is insulting to hundreds of millions of people.

How could a man who discards his family heritage in favor of political expediency be even considered for presidency of the United States? Where are all the so-called "Islamic civil rights groups" like CAIR, MPAC, ISNA, MAS, etc. who are quick to defend every Islamic terrorist, but are silent when Muslims in general are being denigrated? Would Mr. Obama have the same reaction if someone claimed that he was raised as a Jew? We sincerely doubt that.

Muslims Against Sharia demand immediate removal of "SMEAR: Barack Obama is a Muslim" statement from the official Barack Obama's website as well as an apology for giving the word "Muslim" a negative connotation.

http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/2008/06/senator-obama-is-not-dirty-muslim.html