Racism seen in new attacks on Obama

Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, October 9, 2008

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...13DUTE.DTL
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(10-08) 18:42 PDT -- As CNN's pundits wondered whether instant post-debate polls favoring Sen. Barack Obama meant he would win on election day, analyst David Gergen - who has been an adviser to Republican and Democratic presidents - stopped them.

"I think it's too early to declare victory, because Barack Obama is black," Gergen said Tuesday night. "And until we play out the issue of race in this country, I don't think we'll know and maybe (not until) late in the campaign."

While Obama's campaign has fended off racially rooted attacks since its inception, analysts say the ones surfacing in the past few days have been more overt, arriving as many undecided voters are making their final decision. They are part of a recent stream of attacks on his background, including his religion and his connections to a former '60s radical.

"It is the Willie Hortonization of Obama," said University of San Francisco associate professor of political science James Taylor. Horton, an African American man, was a Massachusetts felon who committed a rape and armed robbery while on a weekend furlough. Republican strategist Lee Atwater used a TV attack ad featuring Horton to create a negative impression of the 1988 Democratic nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, in the campaign's final months.

'Coded' language

Instead of using a grainy photo of a grizzled convict as Atwater did, the current attacks, analysts say, are embedded in "coded" language. They cite as examples Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin portraying Obama as a cultural outsider and friend to terrorists and the dismissive way his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, referred to Obama at their Tuesday night debate as "that one."

Other recent attacks include the unsubstantiated allegation on Fox News' "Hannity's America" Sunday that Obama's community organizing work in Chicago was "training for a radical overthrow of the government." The incendiary allegations - as well as the anti-Semitic background of the source of the allegation, commentator Andy Martin - went unchallenged and undisclosed by the host, conservative commentator Sean Hannity. Fox said that the program is the host's opinion, even though the allegation was presented as a documentary. Obama did not respond to Hannity's request for comment.

Martin wrote on his blog that "I am not a 'reporter' assembling facts for a morning newspaper. I am an analyst and expert opinion columnist. I take 'facts' that may or may not make sense in isolation, and I analyze them until patterns emerge and conclusions are apparent."

Then there have been the speakers at McCain-Palin rallies who continue, unchecked by the candidates, to refer to "Barack Hussein Obama" - the emphasis on his middle name is an implication that Obama, who is a Christian, is Muslim. The latest occurred Wednesday in Pennsylvania, when Bill Platt, the Lehigh County Republican chairman, mentioned Obama's former reluctance to wear an American flag lapel pin and said: "Think about how you'll feel on Nov. 5 if you see the news that Barack Obama, Barack Hussein Obama, is president of the United States."

McCain-Palin spokesman Paul Lindsay said, "We do not condone this inappropriate rhetoric, which distracts from the real questions of judgment, character and experience that voters will base their decisions on this November."

Shouts of 'terrorist'

Regardless, some attending McCain-Palin rallies are responding to this kind of incitement. The Secret Service is investigating press reports that someone might have said "kill him" after Palin tried to connect Obama to former Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers. Some attending McCain's rally Wednesday in Pennsylvania interrupted him with shouts of "socialist," "terrorist" and "liar."

Earlier this week, Palin told a group of donors in Colorado that "this is not a man who sees America like you and I see America." Obama, Palin said, "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," a reference to Obama's connection with Ayers, now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Conservative talk radio show host Rush Limbaugh echoed this attack by referring to Obama's "mentorship" by Ayers; Obama was in elementary school when Ayers and the Weather Underground were carrying out bombings.

Politico.com described Obama's relationship with Ayers: "There's no evidence their relationship is more than the casual friendship of two men who occupy overlapping Chicago political circles and who served together on the board of a Chicago foundation." FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan fact-checking organization, confirmed that description.

And during the week of Sept. 28-Oct. 4, "nearly 100 percent of the McCain campaign's advertisements were negative," according to the nonpartisan Wisconsin Advertising Project. "During the same period, 34 percent of the Obama campaign's ads were negative."

Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden worried Wednesday that the Republicans are injecting "fear and loathing" into the campaign.

"The idea that a leading American politician who might be vice president of the United States would not just stop midsentence and turn and condemn that - it's just a slippery slope, it's a place that we shouldn't be going," Biden said Wednesday on NBC's "Today" show, referring to the shouts of "terrorist" at Palin's rallies.

"I mean, here you have out there these kinds of, you know, incitements out there - a guy introducing Barack using his middle name as if it's some epithet or something," he said on CBS Wednesday. "This is over the top."

These attacks are no different from the kind Atwater - the political mentor of Karl Rove - launched during the 1980s, said Stefan Forbes, director of the documentary "Boogieman: The Lee Atwater Story," which opens Friday in San Francisco.

"I don't see how the Democrats don't understand the Lee Atwater playbook. His tactics have been winning elections, even after his death" in 1991, Forbes said. The Horton campaign "represented the triumph of spin and smear over the issues. They know that if you wrap things in the flag, you can sell anything."

The key to Atwater's success was that the candidates themselves remained above the fray.

"They were friendly, like (Ronald) Reagan," Forbes said. "Just like now, Palin is the friendly face, or George W. Bush was the guy you wanted to have a beer with. They'll dance around it and say (these tactics) aren't racist, but they are.

"The next couple of weeks are going to be really fascinating," Forbes said. "If the Atwater playbook can destroy Obama when the economy is collapsing the way it is, then it can accomplish almost anything."

But Stanford University political science Professor Paul Sniderman, who recently completed a survey on racial attitudes of voters, doesn't think the attacks will work. He also said widely circulated media reports that said "Obama's support would be as much as 6 percentage points higher if there were no white racial prejudice" were wrong.

E-mail Joe Garofoli at jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
[Edited 10/10/08 21:57pm]

Great post, July!!!

I was glad that Michelle was on Larry King show last night and hit a homerun talking about some of this nonissue crap. She knows that race is a factor. Heck race is a factor no matter what. But the key (and you hit on it as well), Michelle told Larry King was that the people don't really care about if Obama is black, they want to know about the issues; health care, education, the economic issues, things that are really important.

We all know that there will be people that will not vote for Obama just because he is black, and that is their loss. Just like I will never, ever, ever, vote for a Republican, which might be my loss. But thank God those people are in the minority of voters.

Sure the Republicans will have their racist base of voters, but that will not be enough to stop Obama and Biden. America and the world is ready for a positive leader and I am so glad that Obama has remained cool and focused. We need Obama as our president.

JellyBean said:

You know, I am very worried about this language.

I think McCain needs to quit it because this is causing crazy people to say things like "kill him" about Obama.

I am very worried some crazy will try to hurt Obama because this person might think it's his duty to save the country from a terrorist or something like that.

To me, it is silly this talk. Obama has been elected a U.S. Senator, for goodnes sake. He is no terrorist. He is NOT the enemy, but merely an opponent of McCain.

uPtoWnNY said:

Measure in Love
"May the voice of the child in you never stop speaking. May it fall like a gift from heaven, offering to dessicated words its splendorous burst of laugher, the salt of its tears, its all powerful wildness." Maurice Blanchot

applekisses said:

uPtoWnNY said:

Measure in Love
"May the voice of the child in you never stop speaking. May it fall like a gift from heaven, offering to dessicated words its splendorous burst of laugher, the salt of its tears, its all powerful wildness." Maurice Blanchot

uPtoWnNY said:

Campbell Brown says race is an unavoidable issue in the campaign, but both sides should be careful.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Look everybody, we all know we are in uncharted territory here. Never before has there been an African-American presidential nominee. So without question, race is going to be a part of the conversation.

Race-baiting doesn't have to be and yet it is happening in this campaign. Twice this week, surrogates for Republican candidate Sen. John McCain have made a point of calling Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama, Barack "Hussein" Obama.

The implication here is clear. It's foreign sounding. It's Muslim sounding. It's un-American sounding. It's dangerous-sounding. What it is, is race-baiting. And that is what is dangerous.

Inciting crowds, encouraging their angry outbursts, McCain supporters shouting "treason" and "terrorist" about Obama at these rallies -- that's dangerous. Earlier in the campaign, McCain denounced this stuff. He strongly denounced it. And today it requires a stronger response, a much stronger denunciation than a campaign-generated paper statement.

But let's also be careful here and use our heads. Some Obama supporters on the left are up in arms over something McCain said at the debate Tuesday night -- when he referred to Obama as, "that one."

I'm surprised McCain's attack dogs took the trouble to veil their attacks.

By the way, here is what Paul Lindsay left unsaid:

You know what Obama's next ad ought to be? It ought to be one in which an announcer says these words:

"My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The '80s were about acquiring — acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul."

And then they put up a picture of Lee Atwater, with a caption describing who he was and what he did.

And then they say:

"Lee Atwater's words were true then, and they are true today."

What's new.

"Shake yer reptile, baby!"

JellyBean said:

uPtoWnNY said:

Are you sure you want to use the word "will stop", its like you already accepting defeat? When Obama is leading in the polls and the electoral college; it could even be GWB in 2004 lose the popular vote and when the electoral college and thus when the election anyway.

HiinEnkelte said:

namepeace said:

HiinEnkelte said:

Hiin, if you can look at the history of the Southern Strategy, or the history of this country, and tell me that Obama's opponents will not fight to make sure that race is a factor in this election, then you're either

. . .

or

. . .

because I'd like to believe you're not a

or a

uPtoWnNY said:

namepeace said:

HiinEnkelte said:

Hiin, if you can look at the history of the Southern Strategy,

Has The Bradley Effect been discussed on here yet?

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...ley_effect

From what the pundits are saying is that Barry has to be above 7-10% ahead before the election for him to win it.

JellyBean said:

namepeace said:

this again?! pulease, while you ignore instant after instant of race-baiting and racist innuendo hardly as cryptically "coded" as the Left's most ridiculous Freudian attempts to find it so "coded" this very election, every other day.

Where on God's Green Earth have YOU been?

http://cancelthebee.blogs...f-day.html





http://thehill.com/leadin...09-04.html

http://www.swamppolitics...._mama.html


If you've seen all this, and still don't believe race has been a factor in this general election, then you really have a lot to learn.

You're seeming to imply an all-or-nothing proposition that anything short of calling a black man nigger isn't racist.

You have to experience racism to recognize its different forms and subtleties. If you don't, then that's your problem. And a tragic one at that. But don't sit here and tell me race hasn't been injected into this thing.




Read my post. Again. "Opponents" need not be the GOP candidates themselves. Though when they hear their supporters calling Obama a "terrorist" and a traitor, and also calling for his death, and say nothing, you know, that's no comfort. And for their silence they should be ashamed. And you have to wonder WHY they were silent?

The language of race is spoken in different forms and cadences. Anyone who's been subject to racism knows its various forms. Anyone who has not experienced it has a hard time accepting this fact.

own your party's own weeds.
and disown this smearing and baiting divisive nonsense where anything and everything by the other side is read as "coded" racism.

See, I did. Millions of others did. That's why the Dems who played racial games were defeated.

And the GOP has played these games for 2 generations, and Obama has been no exception. To say it will continue is simply to acknowledge history, both extended and very recent.

Wake up and welcome to reality. Sometimes it's hard.

And you know what? I bet you're STILL baffled that 9 out of 10 black people vote for Democrats.

I guess that's for no reason.
[Edited 10/9/08 13:34pm]

I'm still baffled at why some of you even entertain Hiin ? You know his stance. You know his motives. Why even ATTEMPT to break it down to him?

New World Order (NWO) - Bboy87 - Timmy84 - LittleBlueCorvette - MuthaFunka - phunkdaddy - Christopher: Deal with it, muthafuckas!

Jealousy/Of what are we/Becomes tendency/For their thievery

Oh no . . . McCain's folks never dangle race in front of the voters.

http://www.huffingtonpost...33369.html

MuthaFunka said:

I'm still baffled at why some of you even entertain Hiin ? You know his stance. You know his motives. Why even ATTEMPT to break it down to him?

namepeace said:

HiinEnkelte said:

namepeace said:

Oh no . . . McCain's folks never dangle race in front of the voters.

http://www.huffingtonpost...33369.html

Frank Keating used to be black?

Graycap23 said:

MuthaFunka said:

I'm still baffled at why some of you even entertain Hiin ? You know his stance. You know his motives. Why even ATTEMPT to break it down to him?

Agreed.