"What Will Obama Do When There's No Hillary Firewall?" Earl Ofari Hutchinson

[in_cog_ni_to]

What Will Obama Do When There's No Hillary Firewall?

Posted February 14, 2008 | 12:07 PM (EST)

The British newspaper the Daily Squib's tongue-in-cheek fake news report that Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Ron Edwards endorsed Democrat Presidential contender Barack Obama drew chuckles, sneers, and cracks. There was, of course, no such endorsement. But the reason it drew some press attention and momentary belief made perfectly good sense. The dummied up endorsement had nothing to do with any sudden love for Obama but hatred for Hillary Clinton. The fake article trumpeted the hate Hillary crowd's favorite rallying cry -- anybody but Hillary.


The biggest beneficiary of the Hillary loathe has been Obama. But her campaign has been sufficiently subverted and sabotaged by the legions of Hillary haters to the point that it's listing. If her campaign goes down, so will Obama's Hillary firewall. The gloves will be off and it won't be pretty.

There was an early hint of the dirty stuff that will come his way. The instant that Obama announced his campaign last February National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre wasted no words when asked about Obama's strong support for a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons, and severe limits on handgun purchases during his tenure in the Illinois senate.

He called Obama's pro-gun control stance "bad politics." LaPierre's admonition was an ominous warning that the powerful gun-lobbying group would oppose Obama and so would millions of other passionate gun owners that take their cue from the NRA.

That's just the start. His votes and views during his days in the Illinois senate on taxes, abortion, civil liberties, civil rights, law enforcement and capital punishment have so far drawn little public attention, because of the media and a big chunk of the public's obsession with nailing Hillary. But in a head to head match up with the likely GOP presidential nominee John McCain, Republicans and conservative interest groups will surgically dissect his state senate votes and they will find much there to pound him on.

The National Taxpayers Union will pound him for voting to impose hundreds of new taxes and fees on businesses in his last year in the state senate. Though the tax hikes were deemed necessary to help close Illinois's crushing budget deficit, business and taxpayer interest groups screamed foul.

Obama's vote to raise taxes and his consistent pro-labor votes marked him as another tax and spend Democrat with them. This has been the dread label that Republicans have tagged Democratic contenders with in elections past. This always strikes an angry chord with millions of voters that equate higher taxes with government waste, inefficiency and pork barrel favoritism. And even more insidiously, equate high taxes with special interest giveaways to minorities and the poor.

Obama got a perfect rating from the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council. In 2001, he backed legislation that restricted medical support in certain types of abortions where the fetus survives. Pro-life groups interpreted that as a vote to strengthen abortion rights.

His vote and views on choice will make him a prime target for pro-life groups. He got a zero rating from the National Right to Life Committee for voting for stem cell research, for funding abortions abroad, and against parental notification in the U.S. Senate.

Obama's pro-civil liberties votes on capital punishment and police power and the 100 percent rating he got from the ACLU won't help him dodge the soft on crime label on the issue of crime and punishment.

McCain and the GOP hit squads will go for the political jugular and lambaste him as an anti-police, anti-business, pro abortion, pro labor, pro-gun control, tax and spend liberal Democrat. Conservative interest groups will tar him as a liberal Democrat who will bend way over to pander to labor, minorities, and women. Obama's record on civil liberties, civil rights, abortion, and spending issues will endear him to millions of voters, but not in the South and the heartland states.

Then there's the personal dirty stuff. They'll hammer him for his dealings with an indicted Chicago financier, for possible conflict of interests in other financial dealings and legislative votes, and his fuzzy oftentimes contradictory statements and actions on the Iraq war and terrorism. Then there's the ultimate ploy, the race card. The GOP hit squads will dig, sift and comb through every inch of his personal life and poke through his voting record to find any hint of personal or political muck.

As long as Hillary was seen as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Obama's Teflon coat remained relatively unmarred. That will change, and change fast, if Hillary can't right the ship and quickly get back in the hunt for the nomination.

Obama knows what's in store for him without the Hillary firewall. A month ago he loudly declared that he will not be swift boated by the GOP. He will be. The fake Klan endorsement notwithstanding, he can still thank Hillary that he hasn't been already.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Decides the Race to the White House (Middle Passage Press, February 2008).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/what-will-obama-do-when-t_b_86651.html?view=print

[K Gardner]

1. So? Bring it. We have nothing to fear and nothing to hide.

[BlackVelvet04]

9. Remember the last time somebody boasted....

bring it on? Cocky = stupid.

[pnwmom]

23. How sadly naive. What did Gore have to hide? Or Kerry?

Nothing. But that didn't stop them from being shredded by the MSM.

That's the thing about Swift-boating. It took a real live war hero, John Kerry, and turned him into a coward-- and put a lying deserter into the position of position of Commander-in-Chief.

If Obama doesn't fear this, then he's not smart enough to be President.

[midnight armadillo]

40. that's not the whole story

Kerry was Swiftboated because he rolled over and played dead when the attacks started. Kerry should have sued for libel the moment "Unfit for Command" was published, and shown some damn backbone.

[Darth_Kitten]

30. It's okay to be brave when CNN and other media outlets have yet....

to say anything, and I mean anything, uncomplimentary about Obama.

[mondo joe]

2. If it weren't so sad, it would be worth it to see the Obama fans heads exploding when the gloves

come off.

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. I can't wait to hear their excuses when it does happen.

They won't be able to say they weren't warned. That's for sure.

[mondo joe]

7. We'll see how the naive ideas about unity splinter. What the Obama fans have

never understood is that it's not that Hillary is divisive, but that the political process and the smear of the Dems is.

[billbuckhead]

8. Obama is leading Democrats into the biggest media ambush in history.

What should have been a huge victory for Dems will turn into an historic disaster.

[KittyWampus]

41. wtf? your girl can't even manage a campaign, blows through millions, surrounds herself w/incompetent

cronies and you are talking about Obama leading Democrats into ANY kind of disaster?

[mac2]

4. Who cares what the British press says?

We kicked the British corporate thugs out 200 years ago. Are they back?

[in_cog_ni_to]

11. It may help to actually READ the OP. It ISN'T from the British Press.

:eyes:

The Hutchinson Political Report

About Me

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a nationally acclaimed author and political analyst. He has authored ten books; his articles are published in newspapers and magazines nationally in the United States. Three of his books have been published in other languages. He is also a social and political analyst and he appears on such TV programs as CNN, MSBC, NPR, The O'Reilly Show, American Urban Radio Network, and local Los Angeles television and radio stations as well. He is an associate editor at New America Media and a regular contributor to Black News.com, Alternet.com, BlackAmericaWeb.Com and the Huffington Post. He does a weekly commentary on KJLH Radio in Los Angeles.
Blogs

http://www.blogger.com/profile/04327319276889869398

[mac2]

22. The British fake press article?

Who still cares? Obama and Hillary will be friends when the primaries are over.

[in_cog_ni_to]

29. He quoted that article. The OP isn't from the British Press. n/t

[NJSecularist]

5. More fear tactics from the Hillbots

Is that all you have? The GOP smear machine and Karl Rove would be proud.

[ClericJohnPreston]

24. If the NAIVETE of Obamites

weren't so incredibly sad and dangerous, it would almost be laughable. I just can't believe these people are that thick.

[pnwmom]

25. You think it's better NOT to be prepared for the inevitable Swift-boating?

I would like to see some evidence that Obama and his supporters are prepared for this -- so that when he sticks his hand out to the Rethugs, it doesn't get bitten off.

[VolcanoJen]

6. Of course he'll be swiftboated.

The difference is that his campaign isn't being run by nimrods like Bob Shrum who tell him not to fight back.

Bring. It. On. And this time, we freakin' mean it.

[BlackVelvet04]

10. Oh, please....

you guys cry like a bunch of babies if Hillary says anything uncomplimentary about Obama.

[VolcanoJen]

12. "cry like a bunch of babies"

This coming from the most petulant campaign in the history of modern Democratic primary campaigns.

I mean, really?

[BlackVelvet04]

14. Yep, Obama's supporters are the most petulant in the history

of modern Democratic primaries.

I'm glad we could agree on something.

[VolcanoJen]

18. Pithy, much?

I'm looking forward to Hillary telling me "Ohio doesn't count" when we vote en masse for Obama. :-)

[ClericJohnPreston]

27. Not to mention alerting on threads

they can't refute or dispute..... ;)

[pnwmom]

42. Bring it on??? Be careful what you wish for. n/t

[LostInAnomie]

13. Yipes!... Oh wait... this is pretty lame shit.

McCain can't say shit about the "dealings with an indicted Chicago financier" or a little something called the Keating 5 scandal might get brought back up. "Fuzzy oftentimes contradictory statements and actions on the Iraq war and terrorism... LOL! He's going to be running against "100 years" McCain! As far as the "race card" goes, I don't think it is a mystery that Obama is black. If the "race card" were something to fear Obama wouldn't be stomping McCain in EVERY national poll.

The rest of this shit is a laundry list of spooky boogiemen crap that gets brought up every election. Seriously, who is the last Democratic candidate that the NRA didn't oppose?

This shit it a joke.

[Olney Blue]

15. If Obama is our nominee we will rally around him and

crush these attacks.

[stevenleser]

16. Hear, fucking, hear!!!

The rethugs are going down. The train is coming. You can either be on the train with us, or you can be on the tracks. Your choice.

[ClericJohnPreston]

28. Oh boy

this is going to be a hard landing for the great uninitiated first-timers with their mock courage.

[in_cog_ni_to]

31. Hmmm...seems I remember the Kerry crowd saying the same thing in 2004.

That didn't seem to go too well, did it?

[JeffR]

17. What will he DO when (or if)?

He'll win. That's what he'll do.

[babylonsister]

19. Yep. Denial can be ugly, yes it can! nt

[VotesForWomen]

20. this is what obama folks don't have a clue about. it's going to be a rude awakening. nt

[ProSense]

21. Ah, the desperation in reaching for anti-Democrat rants to prove Hillary's weak point:

But the other reason Obama downplays race has nothing to do with what the polls say about white voter attitudes. He's simply following the well-worn political script that Democrat presidential candidates Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004 followed.

The script called for them to try out shout Republicans on national security, defense spending and preparedness, the war on terrorism, and stay mute or cheerlead the war in Iraq. Obama will alter that script a bit this time on Iraq only because the majority of Americans want out. Meanwhile, Democrats said next to nothing about affirmative action, racial profiling, the death penalty, and drug reform. Their great fear is that this would fuel white anger by reinforcing the old perception that Democrats tilt toward minorities and the poor.

Clinton wrote this original flawed script for Democratic Presidential contenders when he virtually excised all talk of racial issues from his election campaigns in 1992 and 1996. But Clinton also hinted that a big part of his winning strategy was to shake the Democrats loose from the grip of Jesse Jackson and the civil rights leaders.

Gore followed Clinton's script to the letter. He spent most of his campaign avoiding appearances in black communities, and was mute on issues such as urban investment, health care for the uninsured, fixing lousy inner-city public schools, racial profiling, affirmative action, the racial disparities in prison sentencing, and the racially marred drug enforcement policy.

Gore got away with this blatant racial patronizing by playing hard on the terror and panic that a Bush White House win in 2000 stirred in many blacks. The Democrats dangled the nightmarish vision of Bush packing the Supreme Court with more avowed enemies of civil rights and civil liberties such as Supreme Court justices Anton Scalia, William Rehnquist and Clarence Thomas. But when blacks scurried to vote for Gore out of fear of a Bush win they gave the Democrats another free ride.

Gore said little about lack of abortion funding for the poor, drug enforcement reform, the glaring race iniquities in the death penalty, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, health care for the poor, increased spending for housing, business development and failing inner city schools.

link

People like Hutchinson could care less about Democrats.

[DemGa]

26. It seems everyone is aware of this except Obama and his followers...nt

[in_cog_ni_to]

32. They're aware. They just don't care if we lose the election. They want Obama to be the nominee...no

matter what. I guess so they can read in the history books that Obama was the Democratic Nominee in 2008, but lost.:shrug:

[ProSense]

33. "so they can read in the history books that Obama was the Democratic Nominee in 2008, but lost."?

Hillary has already been played by the wingnuts

She's got no game!

Listen to Ed Rendell

[in_cog_ni_to]

34. Nice links. Too bad I never bother to read 'em. If you want your info read,

try actually POSTING it here instead of making people follow your stupid links all the time.

[ProSense]

35. "making people follow your stupid links all the time." Fear of links and denial! Classic! n/t

[in_cog_ni_to]

36. Obsessive link posters...CLASSIC!

:eyes:

[ProSense]

37. Links provided for anyone not in denial! n/t

[mmonk]

38. So you prefer him to be a rightwinger?

[Leopolds Ghost]

39. Are you Ashamed of Obama's liberal record? Hmm, are you?

Obama should pull a Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan moved this country to
the right (and convinced everyone that he, not Mikhail Gorbachev, ended
the cold war by affecting a smile and saying "There you go again."

There you go again!