As the Presidential election comes in for a landing, last minute efforts are being made to poison public opinion against the likely winner. LIV’s or Low Information Voters are being targeted with viral campaigns intended to spread fear, hatred and confusion. Since LIV’s are the least likely to vote, this viral campaign won’t actually change the outcome but it will instigate misguided outrage and deep seated panic.
What I hope to do in writing this piece is to clarify these aberrational fears and put them to rest. Low Information Voters are not stupid people, they have simply been fed malicious gossip during an important period in our nation’s history. The lies told to them concerning Barack Obama are as follows:
He is an Arab
He is a Muslim
He is a Black Nationalist
He took an oath to hate white people
He is a Manchurian Candidate
He is a Baby Killer
He is a Socialist
He is a Terrorist
There are probably far more but rest assured I can disprove most of them right now. What the fear mongers don’t want LIV’s to know is that Barack Obama has been vetted by the FBI. This vetting process is used to ensure that candidates running for Federal office are not credible threats to American society.
Here is how the process works. When a citizen wants to run for Federal office they have to fill out a series of forms that ask them their name, address, DOB, social security number, family members, job history, school history and organizational associations. Then it goes on to ask if they have been convicted of a crime. They ask if any family members or friends have been convicted of crimes. If so, what was the crime and when did it happen? They ask about the candidate’s credit rating, past financial history, assets and financial relationships. They ask if the individual has ever been part of any organization that promotes the violent overthrow of the United States Government.
After the paperwork has been completed, a file is developed on the individual by the FBI. It is filled with copies of his writings, law cases (If they are any), internet related pages (Including Wikipedia and MySpace) and medical records. Federal agents then travel to the candidate’s house and interview his family, friends, neighbors, work associates, pastor and parishioners, his accountant, his bankers and his garbage man. Okay, the garbage man, that only happened once.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - RJ Elliott
Low Information Voters = "moderates" and "independents" and "undecideds." In other words, ignorant people who will decide a close election. Scary.
2 - RJ Elliott
That being said, Obama really is a:
- Former Muslim (in his childhood)
- Former member of a Black Nationalist church (in his adulthood)
- Opponent of a law that could have saved the lives of babies who suffered from botched abortions
- Socialist (more liberal than avowed socialist Bernie Sanders)
- Friend of unrepentant communist domestic terrorists
- Corrupt Chicago politician
- Supporter of violent and radical left-wing extremists in sub-Saharan Africa
I would be happy to provide cites to document and support each of the above allegations. They are all true.
3 - Dr Dreadful
They are all wishful stretches of the truth, at best, RJ. I'll happily provide citations too... that aren't from right-wing blogs/newswires.
4 - Cannonshop
There's a right-wing newswire?? WHERE???
Blogs? no question, blogs are products of the Internet and not to be trusted solely on their own.
But I'd be absolutely FASCINATED to discover there's a wire-service that's right-wing.
5 - RJ Elliott
#1: Obama is a former Muslim (in his childhood):
From here:
As a boy in Indonesia, Barack Obama crisscrossed the religious divide. At the local primary school, he prayed in thanks to a Catholic saint. In the neighborhood mosque, he bowed to Allah.
...
"To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago," Gibbs' Jan. 24 statement said. In a statement to The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, the campaign offered slightly different wording, saying: "Obama has never been a practicing Muslim." The statement added that as a child, Obama had spent time in the neighborhood's Islamic center.
His former Roman Catholic and Muslim teachers, along with two people who were identified by Obama's grade-school teacher as childhood friends, say Obama was registered by his family as a Muslim at both of the schools he attended.
...
The childhood friends say Obama sometimes went to Friday prayers at the local mosque.
...
In his autobiography, Dreams From My Father, Obama briefly mentions Koranic study and describes his public school, which accepted students of all religions, as "a Muslim school."
...
"His mother often went to the church, but Barry was Muslim. He went to the mosque," Adi said. "I remember him wearing a sarong."
...
"At that time, Barry was also praying in a Catholic way, but Barry was Muslim," Dharmawan said in Obama's old classroom, where she still teaches 39 years later. "He was registered as a Muslim because his father, Lolo Soetoro, was Muslim."
...
Bugs have eaten Obama's file in the school's archive, said Vice Principal Hardi Priyono. But two of his teachers, former Vice Principal Tine Hahiyari and third-grade teacher Effendi, said they remember clearly that at this school, too, he was registered as a Muslim, which determined what class he attended during weekly religion lessons.
"Muslim students were taught by a Muslim teacher, and Christian students were taught by a Christian teacher," said Effendi, who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name.
Is the LA Times a "right wing blog" Doc?
6 - RJ Elliott
#2: Obama is a former, but recent, member of a Black Nationalist church (in his adulthood):
Here is the website of Obama's church of 20 years. I link to an archived version of the website, because of all the editing/deleting that has occurred since he announced his bid for the Presidency. If you don't have a problem with the words used on the church's "About Us" section of their website, just replace the words "Black" and "Africa" with "White" and "Europe," and imagine what would happen if John McCain, or any Republican, attended religious services at such a place for two decades.
7 - RJ Elliott
#2 (continued):
Or try the Rolling Stone article on Obama:
The Trinity United Church of Christ, the church that Barack Obama attends in Chicago, is at once vast and unprepossessing, a big structure a couple of blocks from the projects, in the long open sore of a ghetto on the city's far South Side. The church is a leftover vision from the Sixties of what a black nationalist future might look like. There's the testifying fervor of the black church, the Afrocentric Bible readings, even the odd dashiki. And there is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a sprawling, profane bear of a preacher, a kind of black ministerial institution, with his own radio shows and guest preaching gigs across the country. Wright takes the pulpit here one Sunday and solemnly, sonorously declares that he will recite ten essential facts about the United States. "Fact number one: We've got more black men in prison than there are in college," he intones. "Fact number two: Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run!" There is thumping applause; Wright has a cadence and power that make Obama sound like John Kerry. Now the reverend begins to preach. "We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training of professional KILLERS. . . . We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. . . . We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. . . . We care nothing about human life if the ends justify the means!" The crowd whoops and amens as Wright builds to his climax: "And. And. And! GAWD! Has GOT! To be SICK! OF THIS SHIT!"
This is as openly radical a background as any significant American political figure has ever emerged from, as much Malcolm X as Martin Luther King Jr. Wright is not an incidental figure in Obama's life, or his politics. The senator "affirmed" his Christian faith in this church; he uses Wright as a "sounding board" to "make sure I'm not losing myself in the hype and hoopla." Both the title of Obama's second book, The Audacity of Hope, and the theme for his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 come from Wright's sermons. "If you want to understand where Barack gets his feeling and rhetoric from," says the Rev. Jim Wallis, a leader of the religious left, "just look at Jeremiah Wright."
Is Rolling Stone a "right-wing blog" Doc?
Or maybe The New Republic:
After many lectures like this, Obama decided to take a second look at Wright's church. Older pastors warned him that Trinity was for "Buppies"--black urban professionals--and didn't have enough street cred. But Wright was a former Muslim and black nationalist who had studied at Howard and Chicago, and Trinity's guiding principles--what the church calls the "Black Value System"--included a "Disavowal of the Pursuit of 'Middleclassness.'"
Is TNR a "right wing blog" Doc?
8 - RJ Elliott
Do I really have to post citations for points 3 through 7, or are you willing to cede the point?
9 - El Bicho
nah, go back to posting all the polls percentages like you used to when McCain had a lead.
10 - Dave Nalle
I'm willing to admit that most of the accusations against Obama are gross misrepresentations or largely irrelevant. However, the claim that he's a socialist is indisputable. His record confirms it, his proposed policies confirm it and his public statements make it very clear.
Alex makes much in the article of the fact that Obama has been 'vetted' by the FBI. But the fact is that most of those accusations he brings up are NOT things which the FBI would investigate him for because they are just not relevant to his ability to qualify for a security clearance. It's not illegal to be a muslim or a black nationalist or a socialist or in favor late term abortions, even if those things are true about Obama.
As for your 'LIV' population, these are people who are often too busy to vote and not sufficiently convinced that their vote can make a difference. One of the goals of these last minute, high-intensity campaigns is to convince them that their vote CAN make a difference, and in the larger picture isn't that a good thing?
And BTW, the left is operating just as intense a campaign to get these LIVs out and voting for Obama with just as many lies and distortions about McCain. I'm on the MoveOn.org email list so I get daily emails making outrageous claims about McCain, Palin and the Bush administration and literally threatening me if I don't vote for Obama.
To be absolutely frank, I'd class anyone who votes for Obama as a 'LIV', because I can't imagine how anyone who is properly informed about Obama's background, associations and beliefs could vote for him in good conscience. But maybe they should be called SIVs - Selective Information Voters - since they just ignore the facts which don't fit their emotionally based preconceptions about Obama.
Dave
11 - RJ Elliott
#3: Obama is a pro-abortion extremist, and was even opposed to a law that could have saved the lives of babies who were the victims of botched abortions.
From OnTheIssues.org:
Obama received the following scores on NARAL Pro-Choice America's Congressional Record on Choice:
* 2007: 100 percent
* 2006: 100 percent
* 2005: 100 percent
Obama opposed a ban on partial-birth abortion. The late liberal Democrat Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once referred to the practice as bordering on infanticide.
Most appalling of all, Obama even opposed protecting born-alive survivors of abortions. That is so ghoulish, it goes beyond merely bordering on infanticide; it pretty much is infanticide.
12 - RJ Elliott
#4: Obama is a socialist.
The non-partisan and highly-respected National Journal ranked Obama as the most left-wing member of the US Senate in 2007, the most recent year in which complete figures are available.
That puts Obama to the left of:
Barbara Boxer, Chuck Schumer, Teddy Kennedy, Russ Feingold, John F. Kerry, and even Bernie Sanders.
Who is Bernie Sanders, you ask? Well, he's an independent Senator from Vermont, and the Senate's only avowed socialist.
What do you call someone who is to the left of a socialist? A communist? A Marxist? A leftist? A Trotskyite? Or just a well-meaning liberal who wants to "spread the wealth" around a little, while battling the rural rubes who suffer from "false consciousness" and cling mindlessly to their guns and their God?
Obama wants to raise taxes, increase government spending, and transfer wealth. He's a fan of Saul Alinsky. He's worked with ACORN. He's a socialist. Deal with it.
13 - RJ Elliott
I have to get some sleep. Points 5-7 are still valid. All it takes is a little research. If you're sincerely interested, you can do it yourself. I recommend Google. :-/
14 - Lisa Solod Warren
RJ the post abortion bill was already on the books... and would have negated right to choice laws already on the books, ie., there were life-saving measures already in place for botched abortions, no need to put them in place again. He voted like other legislators AND doctors.
Who cares of if he is a Muslim or how he worships?
The socilialist this is a red herring. His politics are just not as conservative or right wing as Bush's and McCain's.
And none of those things disqualifies him from running. They just mean he won't get your vote.
Dave, what kind of outrageous claims is Move on making? Would love you to illustrate, thanks.
15 - Dave Nalle
MoveOn has a campaign get out the vote video going out right now which states pretty clearly that if elected McCain will nuke Iran within a matter of days and Pakistan shortly thereafter.
And the socialist thing is only a red herring in the sense that socialists are reds and so are red herrings. If you believe the line Obama is spreading in the campaign and choose to believe it over his record and past statements, then YOU are one of the LIVs in question.
While 'socialist' may not actually be a code word for 'black', there's no question that 'progressive' is a code word for 'socialist'.
Dave
16 - Clavos
MoveOn has a campaign get out the vote video going out right now which states pretty clearly that if elected McCain will nuke Iran within a matter of days and Pakistan shortly thereafter.
That clinches it. I'm definitely voting for McCain.
Bomb,bomb,bomb...bomb Iran.
And Saudi Arabia too.
17 - Dave Nalle
Oh, I forgot the best part of that MoveOn video. It also tells me that if I don't vote for Obama dead babies who starved to death will blame me for it.
Hell, watch the video yourself - hateful though it is, it's fairly cleverly done.
Dave
18 - Dave Nalle
Oh, the dead babies cursing me part is actually in the links on the page where the video loads, not in the video itself. Same for much other hateful content.
Dave
19 - Cindy D
Bernie Sanders is the only politician I've seen so far who is worthy of calling himself a representative of the people.
Bernie's testimony on the bailout.
20 - Cannonshop
#16 Oh, Clavos, you want to bring them sunshine and light? (okay, it's Canned sunshine, and the light's ten thousand degrees C, but still...) It's a very spiritual thing, helping folks get to heaven.
We just gotta make sure that someone in the vicinity has issued a Fatwa of Holy War against the United States, it would be a shame to send some of those folks to Islamic Hell instead of Islamic Heaven. They could even re-allocate the motto of SAC for this, instead of "We Protect the Peace" it could be "We help Martyrs find Heaven."
Of course, we wouldn't be able to enjoy the sunsets for long afterward-I'm sure the Former Soviets, Chinese, and a good chunk of Europe would then assist US in going to Heaven (regardless of how it might impact Global Warming!), probably by providing US with some additional sunshine in those winter months...
On second thought, screw 'em, we should not be in the national business of saving souls.
21 - Clavos
Yeah, you're right, Cannon, but it's fun to dream.
"Visualize whirled Arabs"
22 - Lisa Solod Warren
Interesting, Clav, that the ones who have given so much power to Saudi Arabia in the first place are the Bush family. Who are, BTW, Republicans.
23 - Lisa Solod Warren
Oh, Dave, you little trickster! Good on you!!!!!
24 - Cindy D
RE #17
Dave that video is the proof that you are absolutely at fault.
I knew the truth would come out.
It's Dave's fault. (The bastid.)
25 - Clavos
I'm not a Republican, Lisa, never have been, though I generally vote for 'em, coz there aren't too many conservatives with a "D" after their names.
I'm a fiscally conservative, socially liberal, small government libertarian (small "l") - neither party appeals to me much.
The Saudis (who are basically, rich nomadic camel herders) have been assholes since Royal Dutch Shell found oil on their land, long before they got involved with the Bush assholes.