Swiftboating Obama

Media Matters has a nice flow chart of how the right is going about "swiftboating" Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Hussein Obama. Swiftboating, if you don't remember from 2004, was the act by a GOP operative, who had no first-hand knowledge of then Lt. John Kerry's own actions during the Vietnam War, of starting rumors, making innuendo, and successfully calling into doubt Kerry's heroism during the Vietnam War.

This year, the goal is to get enough voters to question Senator Obama's patriotism, American citizenship, religious faith, etc., that he won't win election. This is where we get the memes — often repeated in right-wing blogs and talk radio — that "B. Hussein Obama" is a Manuchurian candidate of sorts for Muslim extremists, among other things.

Media Matters is tasked with calling foul on incorrect things put forth in the media, though they tend to attack right-wing positions more than left. They often target "fair and balanced" Fox News, which is often not fair, not balanced, and increasingly not news. With the "Swiftboating 2.0" article linked above, you can see not just what the memes are, but who is generating or repeating them and how.

See this link for the anti-Obama memes in list form.

To be fair, many of the same usual suspects also went after Senator John McCain when he was running against then-Texas Governor George W. Bush for the GOP nomination in 2000. Had it happened to me, the smear campaign done to McCain would have made me extremely bitter, enough that I might not be able to stand in the same room as the president. But if McCain wants to get elected, he needs to play nice with Dubya and he needs to cater to the listeners, viewers, and readers of the right-wing media that crucified him eight years ago. (Enter Sarah Palin, a darling of Rush Limbaugh who had been pushing for putting her on the ticket.)