The Rightwing Nuthouse. . .
. . .has the best take I've read on the idiotic attempt by the Clinton machine to tar Obama as a crypto-Islamist. It really is one of the most absolutely mindless political moves I've seen in a long time, and the rush to exploit it among some conservatives is a source of embarrassment.
But is it new? Of course not. It's been a staple of certain corners of the right blogosphere from birth. However, it gained a certain degree of "respectability" in another shameful incident that happened two years ago, almost to the day: the collapse of the Dubai Ports World deal. Of course, the full ramifications of allowing this sort of howling yahoo-ism to dictate policy wasn't known until Rowan Scarborough uncovered it in the process of writing his book, "Sabotage: America's Enemies Within the CIA".
Now, we've reached the point where this kind of hyperventilating, paranoiac raving among some conservatives could cost us much more than "just" a valuable opportunity to gain intelligence in some of the world's most crucial and sensitive fronts in the struggle against radical Islamic terrorism. It could cost us a hard-won victory in the seminal front in that struggle in which we've invested so much of the best of America and her resources.
Obama will shrug this off publicly. But, behind the scenes, he will wield this to his advantage in much the same way that the Clintons wielded the "mysterious deaths" lists. And, it won't matter that this particular bit of nastiness was placed before the public by his rival Democrat. So was "The Infamous Willie Horton" ad, and the Democrats have used that to great effect for a couple of decades now.
The American electorate can be broken down into two groups: (1) Those who believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim who has pulled the wool over the unblinking media eye and will never vote for him, and (2) People who have heard those suspicions and rejected them. The former is a rather small but vocal group. The latter is a rather large group who, for the most part, finds the former to be a disturbingly ridiculous coterie of mouth-breathers.
The problem that group one faces is that, as time goes on, there will be some who move from Group 1 to Group 2, and there will be virtually none who will gravitate the other way.
H/T -- Lucianne.com
But is it new? Of course not. It's been a staple of certain corners of the right blogosphere from birth. However, it gained a certain degree of "respectability" in another shameful incident that happened two years ago, almost to the day: the collapse of the Dubai Ports World deal. Of course, the full ramifications of allowing this sort of howling yahoo-ism to dictate policy wasn't known until Rowan Scarborough uncovered it in the process of writing his book, "Sabotage: America's Enemies Within the CIA".
Now, we've reached the point where this kind of hyperventilating, paranoiac raving among some conservatives could cost us much more than "just" a valuable opportunity to gain intelligence in some of the world's most crucial and sensitive fronts in the struggle against radical Islamic terrorism. It could cost us a hard-won victory in the seminal front in that struggle in which we've invested so much of the best of America and her resources.
Obama will shrug this off publicly. But, behind the scenes, he will wield this to his advantage in much the same way that the Clintons wielded the "mysterious deaths" lists. And, it won't matter that this particular bit of nastiness was placed before the public by his rival Democrat. So was "The Infamous Willie Horton" ad, and the Democrats have used that to great effect for a couple of decades now.
The American electorate can be broken down into two groups: (1) Those who believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim who has pulled the wool over the unblinking media eye and will never vote for him, and (2) People who have heard those suspicions and rejected them. The former is a rather small but vocal group. The latter is a rather large group who, for the most part, finds the former to be a disturbingly ridiculous coterie of mouth-breathers.
The problem that group one faces is that, as time goes on, there will be some who move from Group 1 to Group 2, and there will be virtually none who will gravitate the other way.
H/T -- Lucianne.com
posted by MsFalconersCabanaBoy @ 4:01 PM
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