In another Blogcritics article and its associated comments, it has been suggested that there have been lots of false accusations concerning Senator Obama. One comment notes,
A) He's an Arab
B) He is related to Osama bin Laden
C) He's going to be sworn in on the Qu'ran
D) He has "ties" to Al Qaeda
E) "Just look at his name. How can anyone vote for someone with a name like that. Besides John McCain is a war hero. Makes me want to run screaming.
The author of the article, in a subsequent comment, observed
That McCain and Palin and the RNC are whipping up such innuendo and misinformation that people are extrapolating all kinds of things, and yes, just such claims have been circulating about Obama all OVER the web and all OVER Fox News and Rush and so forth. In fact, at a Palin rally the guy who introduced her made it a point to use Obama's middle name and emphasize it and there are bumper stickers all over with Obama/Osama on them.
I don't doubt for a moment that such accusations make many people "want to run screaming." Unsupported allegations have a similar effect on me.
Perhaps I might offer an hypothesis as to why the stuff cited in the article and in the comments has some currency. It just could be that there has been so much media bias and distortion that denials are not credited, simply because it is very difficult to accept what the MSM (and to some extent, perhaps Senator Obama) says.
According to a February 2008 Harris Poll, television news has a sixteen percent approval rating, only double that of the Congress, at eight percent, and merely one point above that of the White House, at fifteen percent.
An ABC News op-ed piece (labeled as such, which is refreshing), the author, Michael Malone, notes that there has been very substantial media favoritism during the campaign and, indeed, previously. The article does bear the caveat that This is the opinion of the columnist and in no way reflects the opinion of ABC News.
At a luncheon in Hollywood sponsored by the Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors on 27 October, hardly a rabidly conservative group,
no one seemed inclined to defend MSNBC . . . for what some were calling its lopsidedly liberal coverage of the presidential election.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dr Dreadful
Dan, your teaser for this article on the Politics homepage states: "If misinformation concerning a candidate is to be limited, the candidate should make the facts known."
Have you not come across the website set up by the Obama campaign specifically to answer such misinformation?
2 - Joanne Huspek
I still don't know who he is, and I have read the man's books, as well as everything else I can get my hands on. There are several troubling things about him, including some of the items you mentioned.
I guess we'll have to wait and see.
3 - Lisa Solod Warren
I really did not wish to respond to this article and I really don't want to get into a protracted discussion, but I will say two things:
How many other candidates have written books by their own hand (None. McCain's were ghostwritten)
How much did any of you know about any other candidates? Ever? Any more than you know about Obama? No.
Do you know less about Obama than you do about McCain? Or Palin? No.
Now. Give it a rest. This is getting absurd.
4 - Ruvy
Funny, Dan, you bring up one of the least controversial points about good ol' Barry, his backing of so-called "Palestinian" Arabs and their spurious and illegal claims concerning the Land of Israel, and the Jewish "Obama campaign manager" at this magazine doesn't want to get into it with you....
My cousin on the left coast sent me a video pushing Jews overseas to vote for Obama. If I hadn't watched his speech before AIPAC and seen how he lied there, if I wasn't aware of all the Arabs making phone calls for him from the Gaza Strip, if I wasn't aware of his intervention in Kenyan politics, I might have thought the video was something other than a pack of lies and bullshit.
5 - Clavos
Now. Give it a rest.
Not your call. If you're bothered, don't read...
6 - Dan(Miller)
Lisa,
At least we agree on one point,This is getting absurd.
Dan(Miller)
7 - Dan(Miller)
Doc,
Gosh Darn! How could I have missed it. As soon as I finish hanging my head in shame, I shall repair posthaste to the campaign site. Unfortunately, it may take a while. I am confident that it will answer any questions I might have. Thank you so much for calling it to my attention; I just wish I had known of it before. I mean, really. Would I lie to you? Trust me. I'm a recovering attorney. Honest.*
Dan(Miller)
*Snicker snicker
8 - Dan(Miller)
Ruvy,
Just out of morbid curiosity, why do you label Senator Obama's backing of so-called "Palestinian" Arabs . . . one of the least controversial points? Because they are just guys in the neighborhood, or for some other reason?
Dan(Miller)
9 - Ruvy
Dan,
The thing you have to comprehend is that the Mandate for Palrstine was supposed to createw a Jewish National Home - and that this Mandate, when originally conceived in April, 1920 by Britain, France, Italy and Japan, consisted of Lebanon south of the Litani River, all of transjordan, cisjpordan and the Heights of Golan. By the time the Mandate came into effect in 1923, the British Colonial Office had given most of that land mass away to various Arab countries and waxs in the process of creating rights for the Arabs that were never supposed to even exist. And all this was done by good lawyering and good lying.
Now both John McCain and Barack Obama want to erect a terror state run by the PLO in the midst of the 20% of the Mandate that remains to us and force Israel and all of the Jews out of there. Notice, I said BOTH of them. So there is nothing controversial about Obama being supported by Arabs.
In a while, with G-d's help, there will be a book review posted here explaining that first paragraph. That's all I can say on the matter right now....
10 - Ruvy
One thing I will say "Jewish National Home" was another way of saying "Jewish State" - that was the original intent of the Mandate for all of the land I mentioned in the comment above.
11 - moon
The kicker, Ruvy, was the Balfour Declaration that was part of the Palestine Mandate document:
"Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
The Zionists wanted it all and not any stinkin' Balfour Declaration.
12 - Ruvy
Marthe, the Balfour Declaration was exactly what the Zionists wanted. You give the statement the erroneous reading most people give it, the erroneous reading that Jew haters in the British government of the day wanted you to give it. The perfidious bastards have succeeded in confusing even an intelligent woman like you, and do it from the grave yet! The Balfour Declaration was a golden opportunity. But, typical of ghetto Jews, Zionist leaders like Weitzmann did not know how to take advantage of a golden opportunity. At the time, Ben-Gurion was just a buck private in the Jewish Legion. A real shame.
13 - Dan(Miller)
There are, of course, a few things we know about Him.
Dan(Miller)
14 - Lisa Solod Warren
Well, let's see, Dan. What I read about him (lower case "h") was a very old and oft repeated allegation, and just an allegation, reported by ABC, who did not run the ad because they could not make a deal in time (by the way), about the financing of the campaigns. From what I understand Obama agreed to only discuss the issues. McCain and Obama never came to terms.
Personally, I would rather NOT have campaigns federally financed. I would rather, though, there were a limit on what could be privately raised in total.
I also read in the comments some pretty ugly stuff where Obama was called a monkey and a "friend of the Jews," two things that diqualified him from being president, apparently,
So we know that he (again, lower case "h") stirs up some pretty racist and anti-semitic feelings in people, feelings which I have heard personally from people when I have canvassed. Hmmm, that certainly is something we know. And feelings that both McCain and Palin (your darling) have done their best to stoke whenever possible, as I said in my opinion piece, Character, Assassinated, while your piece on what we don't know about him says essentially nothing at all.....
In fact, you said you were going to disappear for awhile because you were so disgusted, but you haven't done that at all. What you have done, instead, is write pieces that say, well, nothing about anything. And link to nothing about anything.
And I can't figure out why a supposedly smart guy like you, who said he was tired of all the fussin' and fightin' and was taking a break, is doing this, unless he was bored, and decided to come back and try and stir things up.
15 - Zedd
Dan (Miller)
What are you saying?
His style of running the country WILL be the same as when he was at Harvard? Or He was good at Harvard so we should be concerned that he wont be good as President? Or He should have behaved like the President of the United States when he was at Harvard so his fellow students would tell us that he is Presidential?
????
Bush
Prayer in school
The economy
Iraq
Family values
The deficit
More government spending
Palin
Are you kidding me?
16 - Dan(Miller)
Ah Lisa, I just can't stay away. Perhaps it's an addiction. In that connection, it seems that even MSNBC may be trying to affect an aura of being "fair and balanced."
Dan(Miller)
PS. To the best of my knowledge, the "Dan" mentioned in the MSNBC story and I are not related. He is not even a "guy in my neighborhood." He never took care of my kids, and I never met, let alone had dinner with him. Gosh Darn, do you suppose he lives in the highlands of Panama? Nah, I never saw him.
17 - Dan(Miller)
Zedd,
Nope, I am not saying that at all. I am saying, as did many of his colleagues at Harvard Law School, that Senator Obama seems to be all things to all people. I really don't have the foggiest idea what he is or how he would behave were he to be elected President. Perhaps, if the problems cited in the article had been resolved, I might even have voted for him. They weren't, and probably won't be, and therefore I didn't.
Dan(Miller)
18 - Ruvy
Lisa, it looks like you don't want to get into an argument with me either. You defend the fool (Obama) just like my cousin does. I love my cousin, so instead of arguing with her, I sent her my article on how Barry Obama Loves the Jews NOT. I haven't received an answer from her yet. But just to make you happy, I'll send you this piece of schmaltzy bullshit, so you can watch it too.... It's certified truth, coming from the "messiah" hisself and it's grade A kosher stamped by every shrimp-eating, bacon munching Hiloní in the People's Republic of Tel Aviv.
Heck, it should be added to the Tana"kh - NOT!
19 - Arch Conservative
"Lisa, it looks like you don't want to get into an argument with me either. You defend the fool (Obama) just like my cousin does."
Ruvy....you've been around long enough to know that the number of shallow, superficial, idiots exhibiting ignorant groupthink being created by the modern American culture is increasing exponentially.
20 - Lisa Solod Warren
"If the problems cites in the article had been resolved..."
Which problems, Dan?"
Whether Obama IS a Muslim?
Whether he WILL really raise taxes?
Whether Rush Limbaugh is right?
Whether a lifelong Republican can change his spots by listening to Rush Limbaugh? (ie., change his ideology by getting his information from the same place he always has?)
I am NOT saying anyone who does not vote for Obama is a racist. I am saying that some of the comments in the ABC article smacked of racism and anti-semitism.
And that as many "questions" remain about McCain and Palin as remain about any candidate at any point in history....
You have taken a point of view and you are sticking to it in spite of everything.
What you offer as "evidence" is just anecdotal reportage. As a journalist I find it absurd.
21 - Zedd
Dan,
What is wrong with being all things to all people? That is how you get along and are able to make people work with each other without knowing it. Some people have that GIFT.
This guy was raised understanding that being misunderstood hurts. That people get people completely wrong and NOT seeing the complexities in an individual causes you to miss who they are and what their gifts are. Think about how he was able to explain Wright and his grandmother. He gets nuance, many people don't. People, especially Republicans love hard and fast conclusions. That way of looking at the world and resolving matters is easy. But being able to see the details and working based on those revelations is harder and most people don't have the ability to do so. Obama can say, I will talk to our enemies because he knows there is more to them then whatever label we have placed on them. Refusing to find the details is lazy, decapitating and small. This guy is BIG and smart in that respect and it resonates.
Now that you know who he is, go vote for him and stop looking for reasons NOT to vote for him. Come on. Make a relentless amber beauty proud.
22 - Lisa Solod Warren
Check this out,Dan. And why don't you take the tests?
23 - Cannonshop
Okay, this is what I got from one of those Tests, Lisa:
here
Your implicit association results, appearing below, are for entertainment and educational purposes only. The tasks that you tried attempts to assess how strongly you associate the concept "Good" with presidential candidates and racial groups. The assumption of the task is that it should be easier to categorize the words and pictures if the two "focal" groups are associated in your memory. A majority of respondents find it easier to categorize Good words and images of White people together compared to categorize Good words and images of Black people. In the domain of political preference, Democrats may find it easier to sort Barack Obama images and Good words together, whereas Republicans might be faster sorting John McCain images and Good words together.
There is considerable speculation about the role of racial attitudes in candidate preferences for this election. Some argue that race may play a subtle role in voting preference, and others suggest that it is not a factor - especially given other pressing concerns such as the economy. We are testing the extent to which racial associations are related to candidate associations. Your scores are reported immediately below. Are they aligned with your conscious beliefs? With this task we hope to learn when these associations will, and will not, correspond with each other.
The results of your tests are outlined below:
Your data suggests a slight automatic preference for Black people over White people
Your data suggests a strong automatic preference for John McCain over Barack Obama
Depending on the magnitude of your result, your automatic associations may be described as 'slight', 'moderate', 'strong', or 'little to no preference or difference in association'. How implicit associations affect our judgments and behaviors is not well understood and may be influenced by a number of variables. As such, the score should serve as an opportunity for self-reflection, not as a definitive assessment of your implicit thoughts or feelings. This and future research will clarify the way in which implicit thinking and feelings affects our perception, judgment, and action. If you have any questions about this study or if you would like to find out the overall results... (email deleted)
You are welcome to try additional demonstration tasks...(bla-bla-blah advertising blah)
Now...that's a "huh???" moment. I had a hard time telling who was black or white in the pictures. I think they might have a problem in their methodology.
24 - Clavos
I'm amused that because you Democrats find your Messiah so appealing, you insist that a Conservative like Dan(Miller) should also vote for him.
In what way is Obama a Conservative?
25 - troll
...I avoid violent video games - they give me a headache