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The Fabrication of a New Reality: Willie Horton and Swiftboating, 2008
Modern Conservative ^ | Christopher Cook

Posted on 04/24/2008 7:07:50 PM PDT by connell

By Christopher Cook

The National Campaign Fund has produced a devastating campaign ad exposing Barack Obama's weakness on matters of crime, and positing questions about his potential conduct in waging the War on Terror. The ad can be viewed at the site ExposeObama.com.

After you've watched it, check out these headlines, culled from a single day of reporting on the ad:

How Republicans Plan on Ganging Up on Obama for Being "Weak" on Street Gangs

Obama Gets the Willie Horton Treatment

Breaking... Obama "Swiftboating" Plan Revealed

Conservatives rolling out attack ads aimed at Obama, supporters

Willie Horton Mastermind Takes Aim at Obama

Obama's 'Willie Horton' ad: Soft On Crime, Soft On Terror

An Ersatz Christian Smears Obama with a Willie Horton-type Ad


This is classic headline editorializing, one of the many ways in which the MSM fibricates™ a new reality.

Check out the verbiage...

Republicans are ganging up on Obama for being "weak." Note the "weak" in scare-quotes, and the use of the term "ganging up" to connote unfair bullying

Conservative are rolling out attack ads against Obama AND his supporters. What? Including the word supporters there is a clear appeal to Obama's supporters, many of whom are black: hey guys, Republicans don't just hate Obama, they hate YOU.

The Willie Horton Mastermind... If they could have inserted scary music under the word "Mastermind," they probably would have.

...and don't even ask me where they're going with "Erzatz Christian..."


But the truly insidious aspect of this is found in the use of the terms "Willie Horton-type ad" and "Swiftboat."


Willie Horton

For those of you who don't remember, Willie Horton was a...

(Excerpt) Read more at modernconservative.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; democrats; elections; obama; swiftboating; williehorton
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1 posted on 04/24/2008 7:07:51 PM PDT by connell
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To: connell

As both Dukakis and Kerry can attest, counterattacking a devastatingly true assault does not end well. Even if a more, um, generous meaning gets attached to the situation, it cannot help but raise curiosity about the original message.

People who first heard Willie Horton’s name in the Democrat response either already had the conception that Republicans were racist (and thus were a zero gain) or followed up with the natural question of ‘Who is this Willie guy anyway?’. Once they found that answer Dukakis was sunk.

And with the Swift Boat campaign - no matter how it was spun, the inevitably begged (and never answered) question was if Kerry wasn’t lying like the Swifties claimed, why not just produce evidence that they are wrong and shut them up? The more the DNC screamed about the Swifties without discrediting them, the more apparent it became that Kerry had lied.

Personally I think Obama would be making a huge mistake to resurrect these topics. In doing so he is not just comparing this attack to two of the most effective uses of truth to hobble a political campaign. He is also implicitly acknowledging that he cannot deny the charges. Trying to spin that away will just make it more obvious.


2 posted on 04/24/2008 7:48:23 PM PDT by Antonello (Oh my God, don't shoot the banana!)
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To: connell
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't “Swift boating” mean that someone is telling the truth about a political opponent?

Now other then the truth hurting whats wrong with Swift boating Obamamama.

3 posted on 04/24/2008 7:52:34 PM PDT by skimask (Never argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience)
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To: Antonello
On Willie Horton, supposedly, Dukakis was "only" continuing a policy that was in existence before he took office (again).

But now that I think about it, his one-term Dem predecessor, Ed King, was a former cop, but Dukakis was both Ed King's successor, and one-term predecessor, iirc.

I'd bet the policy started in Dukakis' original first term, under the radar of Ed King.

4 posted on 04/24/2008 7:58:20 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: connell; NormsRevenge; elhombrelibre; Allegra; SandRat; tobyhill; G8 Diplomat; Dog; Cap Huff; ...

Oh, this looks exciting....Obamah is gonna cry for his Momma...


5 posted on 04/24/2008 8:14:35 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (No Burkas for my Grandaughters!)
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To: Calvin Locke
On Willie Horton, supposedly, Dukakis was "only" continuing a policy that was in existence before he took office (again).

But now that I think about it, his one-term Dem predecessor, Ed King, was a former cop, but Dukakis was both Ed King's successor, and one-term predecessor, iirc.

I'd bet the policy started in Dukakis' original first term, under the radar of Ed King.

There are many ways Dukakis could have answered the Willie Horton issue. Attempting to repaint it as an indication of Republican racisim instead of directly confronting and defusing it was probably the worst possible choice.

Passing the buck and then shutting up about it would have appeared flimsy, but the name Willie Horton would not have become a household word. Flimsy you can recover from - loudly and endlessly trumpeting your opposition's message tends to be fatal.

6 posted on 04/24/2008 8:21:33 PM PDT by Antonello (Oh my God, don't shoot the banana!)
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To: connell
Local Talk Radio was talking about The Rev Wright and Bill Moyer interview....from Flopping Aces:

Rev. Wright Steps In It Again

*****************

The mentor of Obama who said the following::

See Link....for Vidoe.,...

******************

Now says that it was unfair to air his statements:

In his first wide-ranging interview since video clips of his inflammatory sermons were aired, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. defended himself over the controversy, saying that his words were twisted.

Mr. Wright, Senator Barack Obama’s former pastor, gave an interview to Bill Moyers on Wednesday, to air on PBS tomorrow.

“I felt it was unfair,” Mr. Wright said, according to excerpts of the interview released Thursday. “I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt for those who were doing that, were doing it for some very devious reasons.”

In Mr. Wright’s sermons, he suggested that Americans bore some responsibility for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, saying “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” He also blamed the government for the spread of AIDS among African-Americans, characterized the United States government as corrupt and referred to the “U.S. of K.K.K. A.”

He did not apologize or back away from his remarks in the interview, instead saying that people wanted to paint him as “some sort of fanatic.”

“It’s to paint me as something — ‘Something’s wrong with me. There’s nothing wrong with this country … for its policies. We’re perfect. Our hands are free. Our hands have no blood on them,’” he said. “That’s not a failure to communicate. The message that is being communicated by the sound bites is exactly what those pushing those sound bites want to communicate.”

When asked what the people who aired the clips “wanted to communicate,” Mr. Wright said, “I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at Trinity United Church of Christ. And by the way, guess who goes to his church, hint, hint, hint? That’s what they wanted to communicate.”

This doesn’t shock me in the least. I never thought the man would back away from his statements because he IS a racist fanatic. What is surprising, and very welcome is this statement from him:

Mr. Wright, who has acted as Mr. Obama’s spiritual mentor and retired in February as pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, said that he has never heard Mr. Obama repeat any of his controversial statements.

“Absolutely not,” Mr. Wright said. “I don’t talk to him about politics. And so he had a political event, he goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician. I continue to be a pastor who speaks to the people of God about the things of God.”

Mr. Obama publicly denounced Mr. Wright’s remarks, a reaction Mr. Wright said “went down very simply.”

“He’s a politician, I’m a pastor,” he said. “We speak to two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. But they’re two different worlds.”

He added, “I do what I do. He does what politicians do. So that what happened in Philadelphia where he had to respond to the sound bytes, he responded as a politician.”

I’m sure Obama appreciated THAT soundbite from his mentor huh?

I love this one also:

I continue to be a pastor who speaks to the people of God about the things of God.

The things of God include the fact that the whites created the AIDS virus to exterminate blacks, to accuse this country of being the United States of KKK, and that 9/11 was deserved?

The man is a loon

7 posted on 04/24/2008 8:21:43 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (No Burkas for my Grandaughters!)
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To: Antonello

Wasn’t it Al Gore himself who introduced the world to Willie Horton during the Dem Primary?


8 posted on 04/24/2008 8:34:38 PM PDT by Ilya Mourometz
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To: Calvin Locke

Dukakis’ furlough program went well beyond his predecessor’s, which would never have dreamed of letting anyone out who was serving a life sentence. Id est, there was a furlough program before Dukakis, but Dukakis expanded it into a warped freakshow menace to society.


9 posted on 04/24/2008 9:02:38 PM PDT by connell (I will not cease from mental fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand)
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To: All
FR threads on the Rev Wright interview to be aired on PBS tomorrow:

Wright Says His Words Were Twisted [“I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue.........]

AND:

Rev. Wright says 'devious' forces behind use of his words against Obama

10 posted on 04/24/2008 9:23:19 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (No Burkas for my Grandaughters!)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; AdmSmith; Berosus; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Fred Nerks; george76; ...

Thanks Ernest. The only ex-Moslems are dead, so...


11 posted on 04/24/2008 10:42:20 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_____________________Profile updated Saturday, March 29, 2008)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

This is very important. As ‘twas said, over here, somebody broke into the testicle lock box in North Carolina. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2006757/posts

One correction I would make...since it’s a female unlocking that box, it would be (as we say) the breasticle box : )

I’m waiting for her to unlock the mystery of the Wilmington Race Riot and NC Eugenics if the left wants to play the race card in NC.


12 posted on 04/25/2008 2:56:46 AM PDT by freema (Proud Marine Niece, Daughter, Wife, Friend, Sister, Cousin, Mom and FRiend)
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To: connell
There were two ads made on the subject, one major ad which effectively damaged Dukakis on the furlough issue but never actually mentioned Horton, and a second made by an independent group that mentioned Horton but was only seen by a few people.

Actually Mr. Cook, there were three ads made about Horton, the very first one was made by Dukakis' primary opponent, old Mr. Honesty himself, Al Gore.

13 posted on 04/25/2008 3:16:31 AM PDT by metesky ("Brethren, leave us go amongst them." Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton - Ward Bond- The Searchers)
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To: connell

Contrast how Dukakis and his supporters reacted to the Willie Horton furlough (turning it around on their accusers and calling them racists) and how Huckabee reacted to the Wayne Dumond parole. Give Huckster credit, he did not try to turn it around on his accusers. He stood up and defended his actions in the pardon. While he may have been wrong in pardoning this monster, he did not try to blame it on someone’s attack machine.


14 posted on 04/25/2008 4:58:31 AM PDT by Old Teufel Hunden
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To: metesky

Right you are! Better to have said “Republican ads”


15 posted on 04/25/2008 6:26:49 AM PDT by connell (I will not cease from mental fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand)
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

Not a big Huck fan, but he deserves credit for some things, and that is among them.


16 posted on 04/25/2008 6:27:30 AM PDT by connell (I will not cease from mental fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand)
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To: connell

One thing that I would love to see is Mike Huckabee debate Obama. Huckabee is so well spoken and great in the debates and lets face it Obama is terrible in the debate format. While Huckabee’s record does not always match up with his rhetoric, he would tear Obama up in a debate. With McCain, it’s 50-50 on who will win in the debate. McCain is not exactly the reincarnation of Clarence Darrow.


17 posted on 04/25/2008 6:47:47 AM PDT by Old Teufel Hunden
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To: Ilya Mourometz
Yes it was. Al Gore raised the Willie Horton issue, the RNC ran a “furlough revolving door” add that didn't mention Willie Horton (and the “prisoners” were actors of appropriately mixed races), I think it was an outside group of supporters who actually ran the “Willie Horton” add.

The funny thing about the issue is that when Michael Moore(on) raised the issue in on of his propaganda films he spliced together the Al Gore add, the RNC add, and the actual Willie Horton add while representing it as being run by the George H.W. Bush team; not inflammatory enough? you ask? Well then he added an (incorrect) caption that said Willie Horton committed murder while out on “furlough”, but his victim didn't actually die. When confronted with this MONSTROSITY of rewritten history, Mr. Moore(on) went back and CHANGED THE CAPTION from murder to assault.

18 posted on 04/25/2008 6:58:18 AM PDT by allmendream (Life begins at the moment of contraception. ;))
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

No, he’s not Darrow, but at this point, I think Mac would have to really stumble. I just don’t think America is going to elect Barack Obama. We didn’t elect Dukakis, Mondale, or McGovern...and Obama appears to carry even more baggage, at least in some ways.


19 posted on 04/25/2008 7:03:17 AM PDT by connell (I will not cease from mental fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand)
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To: Ilya Mourometz

“Wasn’t it Al Gore himself who introduced the world to Willie Horton during the Dem Primary?”

Yes, but you know that the great Gorebull Warming BS artist can not be a racist as he is a DemonCRAT.


20 posted on 04/25/2008 7:26:50 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Hussein ObamaSamma's Pastor, Jeremiah Wright: "God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11")
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