Local GOP attack on Obama uses age old tactics

The Livingston County Republican Party's letter writing team continues to use the Daily Press & Argus as a launching pad for false attacks against Democratic Presidential nominee Barrack Obama, and the latest false attack is from Brighton Township resident Randy Kniebes.

Although this latest attack from the county Grand Oil Party isn’t as racist as some have been in the past, it has elements of that as well as the misinformation and misdirection that we have come to expect from the loyal opposition.

The misinformation begins with the first sentence: “Most Americans do not know much about the character of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., despite nonstop glowing coverage from an adoring media.”

The reality is the right wants to define his character, and if anyone – and I don’t see how anyone with an email account hasn’t - has seen some of the ugly and racist emails that are floating around cyberspace, you know these experts at character assassination are pulling out all the stops. We have heard he is a Muslim, he attended a "radical madrassa” or he was sworn into the U.S. Senate using the Koran. As for the adoring media, a new study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) found “Barack Obama is getting more negative coverage than John McCain on TV network evening news shows.” It is true that he is getting more overall coverage, but that’s not surprising when you consider the corporate media is in the business to make money above all else, and they obviously want to go where there is a fresh, exciting candidate who is drawing huge crowds and excitement instead of a tired, old politician who has been doing the same things for almost 30 years and is an exact replica of the failed Bush Administration.

What is different is the right is pulling out their old “liberal media” strategy, and the corporate media is criticizing Obama to shake the false tag that they are giving him “glowing coverage.” Hey, it has worked for the last 40 years, why stop now?

Then we get this gem:
“First, even liberal media outlets now acknowledge that the "surge" strategy in Iraq has been a huge success. Obama strongly opposed the surge. When Obama was asked in an interview if, knowing what he knows now that the surge was a big success for the United States, would he have supported it — his answer was "no." Think about that.”

Think about why we started a war that should never have been started, and every single day more and more evidence of the deception the Bush “team” used to con the public into supporting this unnecessary war that hinders are real fight against terrorism comes out. Also, there is no such thing as the liberal media.

“Knowing he had a sure success for the United States (the premise of the question), he would have instead chosen defeat and humiliation for the United States by surrendering Iraq to the terrorists. Having to choose between what is best for the United States or admitting that he was wrong, Obama chose his own interests over his country's best interests. A big warning sign.”

First, Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism. It’s difficult to sum up an unnecessary war that has gone on longer than World War II to a few black and white sentences, but right-wingers do it all the time, I guess I can too. The so-called surge was a temporary measure designed to give the Iraqi government the space and time to make the hard choices and decisions that only the Iraqis can make for themselves. That has not happened. Anyone could have predicted that the sudden infusion of large numbers of the best fighting force in the world would reduce violence, albeit temporarily. No one has yet defined what victory means in Iraq or who decides when we reach victory. The so-called surge is not the only reason violence has fallen off in Iraq, and that was just one factor. However, just last week on one day 87 Iraqis were killed and 288 were wounded. I would call that violence. If it is going so well, when are the troops coming home?

In addition to the so-called surge, ethic cleansing has worked so well it’s getting harder to find targets. The Iraq fiasco has led to segregated neighborhoods where they all once lived peacefully together. In other words, some neighborhoods are now exclusively Shi'ite and others are Sunni.

We are also paying people who once shot at our troops. Some 91,000 former militants called “Concerned Local Citizens” (CLC’s) or “Sons of Iraq” have put aside their anti-U.S. operations in exchange for cash. And of course, these contracts come at a cost. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the U.S. is paying about $16 million a month.

The next salvo is the age old GOP tactic of taking a quote completely out of context to say something else:
“Secondly, Obama told a group of a (sic) Democrats that "his candidacy was the moment the whole world was waiting for." Moreover, Obama declared that "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to its best traditions." What breathtaking arrogance and hubris from a one-term senator whose only significant accomplishment has not been any legislation but his own biography!”

This is from Grampy McSame’s most recent attack ad known as the Messiah ad that tries to make it seem like Obama thinks he is the second coming of Jesus Christ. Somehow, Grampy’s people think it’s a bad thing to inspire people and have our allies like and respect our leader for a change. But the full quote makes it clear that people are excited about change and restoring the country to what it was before Bush made us the guys in the black hats, who torture people, take away rights, spy on our own citizens and thumb their noses at the law.

We keep hearing this word “arrogance” attached to Obama from the right. Some how it’s arrogant to campaign for president and demonstrate you are presidential. Grampy is doing the same thing, but he has not been called arrogant. I wonder if arrogance is a code word for “uppity?” Below is the full Obama quote:

“It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It's about America. I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.

Then the attacker ends with the told tried and true attack when he uses this quote out of context.

“For the ordinary Americans who Obama thinks just cling to our guns and religion, these are some things to consider before we vote.”

The full quote is, “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." Obama was talking about the 3 million people who have lost their decent paying industrial job under Bush. To me, it’s accurate because the Republican strategy of fear and dividing people is always at work.

But Mr. Kniebes earns a gold star from party chair Allan Filip for another letter-to-the-editor full of misinformation, false talking points and half-truths.