BASHING OBAMA

From Media Matters for America courtesy of Eschaton:

In a December 18 column headlined "Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, Always A Muslim" and posted on her website, right-wing pundit Debbie Schlussel argued that because Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) middle name is Hussein, his late, estranged father was of Muslim descent, and he has shown interest in his father's Kenyan heritage, Obama's "loyalties" must be called into question as he emerges as a possible Democratic presidential candidate. In the column, Schlussel asked: "So, even if he identifies strongly as a Christian ... is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father's heritage, a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?" She ended her column by asking if Obama becoming vice president instead would be acceptable. Answering her own question, she wrote: "NO WAY, JOSE ... Or, is that, HUSSEIN?"

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And this Schlussel pundit-person isn't the only one jumping on the smells-Muslim bandwagon. The Media Matters piece lists something like nine more instances of corporate news media robots either directly stating or implying some kind of connection between Obama and Islamic extremists, and I think it's safe to expect a whole lot more to come. Obviously, this is extraordinarily trashy and wrong, nothing but bullshit below the belt mud-slinging, worse, even, than the kind of shit they threw at Kerry because it has massive overtones of racism.

You know, I don't even like Obama. As far as I've been able to tell, he's just too conservative, too religious, for my tastes, much more of a scolder than a man who can inspire a nation--I mean, this is all on a sliding scale, of course; he's waaay better than pretty much anything the Republicans are going to be offering up in '08, but for what I want out of a Presidential candidate, he doesn't really fit the bill. But who knows if he's even going to get the nomination? I suppose the conservatives think they know, so here I am having to defend a candidate I don't like. But, what the fuck, this smear attack is just fucking awful. I'd be condemining this shit even if it was directed at a Republican.

One further thought: if Obama seems too Muslim to be President, does that mean that the people making this "argument" disagree with Article Six of the US Constitution which states that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States"? It sure sounds like that's the case. Bunch of fucking anti-American fuck-heads.

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