From Seven Days…

thu.14

OBAMARAMA
In the realm of politics, U.S. Senator Barack Obama is hot stuff these days. The Illinois Democrat first drew widespread attention when he keynoted the 2004 Democratic National Convention. His hopeful rhetoric, inspiring background and charming good looks have since impressed political wags and grassroots organizers alike. When he stumped here for Bernie last spring, his talk wowed an overflow crowd. Zephyr Teachout and Neil Jensen, former Howard Dean presidential campaign staffers, gather Vermont supporters to urge Obama to declare his candidacy for a 2008 presidential run. If that sounds premature, pragmatic types may say the same of comparisons equating Obama to JFK and MLK. More than words? You decide.

Vermonters for Obama, Thursday, December 14, Euro Gourmet Market & Café, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free. Info, 922-1719.

For the record, I was just a lowly volunteer for Dean during the 2003-2004 primary season. My biggest claim to fame was doing the production work on the individual team raiser bats — including the special Halloween bats.

And this rather vile animation…

Newshounds has done some good work in analyzing some of the genesis of the Obama smear campaign — wrapping together Rezko, Hussein and Tom Delay’s “Marxist” gambit.

Marie Therese writes…

Barack Obama’s meteoric rise from unknown freshman Senator to bestselling author, sell-out speaker and potential Presidential candidate has the power-players in the GOP really spooked. For two days the mix-and-match hosts on FOX & Friends, FOX News’ low-rent version of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, gave us all a little preview of what will ubdoubtedly become a full-blown right-wing media assault against Senator Obama. At one point, in an unsual moment of candor, FOX News admitted that it is Tom Delay who is spearheading the anti-Obama smear campaign.

On Tuesday (December 12th) F&F aired Obama’s really clever and funny ad for Monday Night Football. However, before and after showing the clip, Doocy, Kilmeade and Carlson (sounds rather like a shady law firm, doesn’t it?) began trashing the Illinois senator.

And then goes on to provide portions of the transcript from Fox and Friends, like…

CARLSON: Well, you know what? Obama actually - Barack Obama, we should call him - made a surprise …

DOOCY: Barack Hussein Obama.

CARLSON: Oh. Right. Oh. I forgot about that.

And…

KILMEADE: …He’s got two national bestsellers and now he’s as popular as it gets, but upon further review, he has some holes - some chinks in the armor. Perhaps, his dealings, which he says he now regrets, to an indicted realtor who’s been doin’ some dicey land deals…

DOOCY: That’s an old story. Anyway, the same day that Obama closed on his place, this guy who’s been indicted, bought a big tract of land right next to Obama and then, a couple of months later, Barack decides to expand his yard a little bit and buys a sliver of the land. The guy had paid $600,000 for that land. Mr. Obama wound up payin’ for his portion a fraction of that, just about $100,000. Too cozy.

Newshounds counters…

Steve Doocy implied that Rezko was under indictment in June 2005, when the two pieces of property were purchased, and that Rezko’s purchase occurred after Obama’s purchase, neither of which is the case. Also, Doocy lied and claimed Obama only waited “a couple of months” to buy his “sliver” of land. Apparently Doocy can’t add or subtract the months of the year! Obama purchased the extra tract of land in January 2006. That is six - not two - months later.

And finally, on the Delay front…

Then Steve Doocy said something surprising.

DOOCY: “Now, one other thing. He also urger conser - Tom DeLay himself, seen here back when he used to have a key to that big building - he urged conservative bloggers to investigate Obama because he said that - uh - he condemned Barack Obama for his quote “Marxist, leftist voting record” and accused Obama of trying to hide his liberal leanings while on the campaign trail. Remember, right now, he’s not really on the campaign trail. He’s really out pushin’ a book and so, while he’s in this honeymoon phase with the media, where everywhere Barack Obama goes, they just love him. Tom DeLay says you gotta go check it out.”

Newshounds had the video…

Kevin Drum adds something to the Jeff Greenfield discussion…

He writes…

Bloggers do tend to have hair-trigger instincts, but they’re largely aimed at the media, not their adversaries. Greenfield deliberately illustrated his point with a couple of conspiracy theories that didn’t get much play in the mainstream media, but the last decade has produced a hundred others that never would have crawled out from under their rocks if it weren’t for CNN, the New York Times, and other traditional mainstays promoting them. I’m no Bob Somerby, but even I flinch pretty hard when Greenfield tries to whitewash the media’s own culpability in producing the hair-trigger instincts he derides. Bloggers may overreact to this stuff sometimes, but there’s a reason for that. Maybe CNN ought to do a special about it?

I mostly mention this because in the comments on that post, I came across the intelligent and amusing comments of my old Blog for America blog pal, the notorious B.O.B., aka rmck1, who I haven’t seen around Blogsylvania for quite a while.

And J.D. Ryan highlights the ThinkProgress report on John McCain’s efforts to the kill the free exchange of ideas on the Web.

Ryan writes…

So, all those little photos we like to use that we probably grab off Google Images and such… we’d be in big trouble. I know you’re proably expecting me to say this, but do ya think St. McCain’s proposal has something to do with the impact bloggers are starting to have on the national political climate, one that obviously doesn’t work in his favor? It’s also funny how the Repubs love to use the ‘child pornography’ excuse whenever it comes to violating our privacy on the net, like they did with that Google data grab a while back. Maybe they just want to hoard it all for themselves.

The California Supreme Court ruling that rejected the notion of visitor-generated content leading to a site owner’s liability is a strong precedent that would make a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the McCain proposal very interesting to watch. If it ever gets that far.

UPDATE: Bob Somerby has a great post today that features commentary on David Broder gushing over McCain and Giuliani. And a reflection on Jeff Greenfield’s response to the reaction that followed his Obama attire “joke.”

RE: Broder, Somerby writes…

We’ll note the way Broder crafts pleasing nicknames for the Reps, without quite doing so for the Dems. (“Mr. 9/11?” Good God!) But note the phrase that’s used for McCain: “hero of the Straight Talk Express!” In this phrasing, Broder journeys back six years to recite McCain’s favorite slogan for him. And he elevates McCain to a striking new status—he’s now the “hero” of that much-loved Express.

For the record, it isn’t hard to see why reporters luvved McCain’s bus rides so much. As they themselves endlessly noted, he gave them lots of free, gooey doughnuts; told them about his stripper ex-girl friends; shared thoughts about “what tree would you be;” and even told scribes they were smart. In such ways, he became their “hero”—the remarkable term Broder tosses out in this morning’s column.

RE: Greenfield…

One final note to Greenfield, who is plainly one of our brighter pundits: You sat back—you rarely said boo—while your colleagues staged their lunatic war against Gore. In that way, you took part in the crackpot process which sent George Bush to the White House—and the U. S. Army to Iraq. As such, it’s a little bit late for you to start crying about high-minded journalistic practice. Start by describing what your colleagues did. Then, start to criticize us.