Three ghosts haunt Barack

Boston Herald ^ | August 31, 2008 | Michael Barone

[Presbyterian Reporter]

Democrats charge that Republicans make illegitimate attacks on their candidates, attacks that imply that they are far out of the American mainstream. The two examples they cite are the “Willie Horton” ads against Michael Dukakis in 1988 and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads against John Kerry in 2004.

But both attacks were well within the bounds of fair political comment. Dukakis supported for 11 years a policy of granting weekend furloughs for prisoners sentenced to life without parole. Willie Horton, one of those furloughed, fled and committed another violent crime.

There’s a reasonable argument for granting weekend furloughs to prisoners scheduled to be released in six months or so. Voters may not agree, but few will consider the policy outrageous. But there is no rational argument for letting loose a prisoner who is supposed to stay behind bars the rest of his life. Democrats now criticize Dukakis for not fighting back. But what argument could he have made?

As for Kerry, I listened respectfully to the majority of his boatmates who said that he acted heroically and to the majority of the larger squadron who said that he did not. They were talking about events that happened long ago, in sudden violence, and I found myself unable to say those on either side were lying.

But I also saw Kerry’s campaign abandon his claim - that he said on the Senate floor in 1986 was “seared, seared” in his memory - that he was in Cambodia at Christmastime 1968. And I never heard him repudiate his 1971 Senate Foreign Relations testimony - featured in the ads - that our soldiers committed “crimes . . . on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.”

I used to be a Democratic campaign consultant. In that capacity, I would have advised the Dukakis campaign to admit early on that the furlough policy was a mistake. I would have advised the Kerry campaign to go before a veterans’ group early on and apologize for the Foreign Relations testimony. Voters understand that candidates sometimes make mistakes and that young men say outrageous things that in time they come to regret.

Which brings us to Barack Obama. He has three major vulnerabilities here as I see it. One is his 20-year relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Polls suggest he has sustained some damage on this and it’s not clear whether video clips of Wright saying “God damn America” will inflict more in the fall despite the candidate’s repudiation of those comments.

Another problem is Obama’s relationship with the unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist bomber William Ayers. In an April debate, Obama portrayed Ayers as a casual acquaintance. But Ayers was co-founder of the $49 million Chicago Annenberg Challenge education program and Obama its chairman of the board. The Obama campaign has sued to take off the air ads highlighting the Ayers relationship and tried to intimidate a radio station for hosting a conservative who is examining the Annenberg documents in the Richard J. Daley Library.

Finally, there is Obama’s 2003 vote against a bill, “virtually identical” as the Obama campaign admits, to one that passed the U.S. Senate 98-0, banning the killing of fetuses who have survived abortions.

Liberals like Obama tend to go over the line between positions and associations that most voters find reasonable (though they may not agree) and those they find outrageous. They assume, usually correctly, that mainstream media will be reluctant to report on the latter, as has been the case in all those mentioned above. Conservatives take more care to separate themselves from the outrageous because they know mainstream media will pounce on them if they don’t.

On Ayers, the Obama campaign has tried to suppress discussion. But it will likely fail. The emergence of new media and the First Amendment mean that is like stopping the Mississippi River from flowing to the sea. If I were advising Obama, I would tell him to confess error, as he arguably has on Wright, on both Ayers and the Born Alive Protection Act, lest they cause his campaign as much damage as the furlough ads caused Michael Dukakis and the Swift Boat ads caused John Kerry.

Michael Barone is a columnist for U.S. News & World Report. Talk back at letterstoeditor@bostonherald.com.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

Slowly like the Mississippi River the "old" media is publishing stories about Ayers and Obama.

"""""On Ayers, the Obama campaign has tried to suppress discussion. But it will likely fail. The emergence of new media and the First Amendment mean that is like stopping the Mississippi River from flowing to the sea.""""

[ari-freedom]

If I were advising Obama, I would tell him to confess error, as he arguably has on Wright,

yeah but he did that because he saw it as an opportunity to give a ‘historic’ speech on race

[all the best]

We have to see that people know how radical Obama is. WE. Don’t count on the media. We have to become the media.

[imintrouble]

As with all things of emptiness - they will float to the top for everyone to see.

BO is the standard bearer of emptiness.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Any one of these three things could sink Obama, which is why the media are ignoring them now. Wright only got aired because some lib presstitutes wanted Clinton to win.
More needs to be done by the McCain campaign. These points aren’t going to come up naturally from debate moderators or mainstream puppy training materials.
Especially the Ayers issue. Pure kryptonite for Obama.

[Need4Truth]

A repentent Obama? Could he redefine himself yet again?

[Americanwolfsbrother]

This election is going to ruin both BO and Ayers. It is a great time for America.

[raybbr]

BO is the standard bearer of emptiness.

Oh no. Obama "completes" us.

[Veto!]

There’s so much more on Obama, Barone’s piece seems like a diversion.

Obama, OPEC’s candidate, would keep us from drilling. As for developing other energy sources, those take much more time.

There are probably some serious ties to OPEC money that various new media people are investigating. Too soon to quote chapter and verse.

[Nathan Zachary]

Democrats charge that Republicans make illegitimate attacks on their candidates, ... examples they cite are ...the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads against John Kerry in 2004.

What a bunch of nonsense. Swift boat veterans for truth ads were not "Illegitimate attacks" on John Kerry. They were simply ads that showed the TRUTH of what really happened during John Kerry's less than honorable service, a testimony from those who were there and saw what really happened, which was in complete contrast to John Kerry's version of events.

MSM needs to quit propagating these lies that the swift boat ads were anything but the truthful testimony of events.

[sphinx]

Liberals like Obama tend to go over the line between positions and associations that most voters find reasonable (though they may not agree) and those they find outrageous. They assume, usually correctly, that mainstream media will be reluctant to report on the latter, as has been the case in all those mentioned above. Conservatives take more care to separate themselves from the outrageous because they know mainstream media will pounce on them if they don’t.

This happens not just on positions and associations, but also on rhetoric and ethics. Democrats have operated for many years on the assumption of media cover. Republicans always assume the Predators are circling overhead. This colors everything.

[svxdave]

“What a bunch of nonsense. Swift boat veterans for truth ads were not ‘Illegitimate attacks’ on John Kerry.”

Having served in Vietnam not too long after Kerry left, I am proud to say I was one of those who donated to the Swift Boat Veterans. Funny thing, though, I didn’t contribute to any presidential candidate. I was more interested in getting the truth out, I guess.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Obama has put his vast experience to work thus emphasizing Gov. Palin's lack of similar experience.

He's directing a campaign of community organizing and mau-mauing. The best public example to date is his efforts to "intimidate a radio station for hosting a conservative who is examining the Annenberg documents in the Richard J. Daley Library."

Off camera are the efforts to criminalize even mentioning Bill Ayers vis-a-vis Obama in public.

There are those pesky twin threats, the rise of new media and the First Amendment. But Obama's education and training can handle those once in power.

Gov. Palin wouldn't have a clue (nor the need to conceal).

[FrankR]

"...as he arguably has on Wright... "

I don't know about that. I think all he did was get Wright off the front pages of the news, to help the campaign. It's funny how Wright suddenly just dropped out of sight (after obamamamamam finally got him to shutup). I don't think obamamamama has disowned him, I think he just "put him on a shelf" until the election is over.

I'm sure as soon as "O'biden" would win the election and becomes dictator, he would make Wright secretary of state, or something like it.

Don't underestimate daddy cool obamamamama...still waters run deep, and there's something about him that we still shouldn't trust. He is surrounded by people to either hate the U.S. or hate the white man, or both. He had a pretty f**ked up upbringing, which I'm sure affected his psyche in some way or another.

Then, when you fold in the fact that he is the most liberal, leftist, Senator in the Congress, you've got a problem.

They are floating the notion that if he isn't elected it will be because of race. I submit that if he IS elected, it will be because of race. I couldn't be about anything else...because there is nothing else.

If you are white and think obamamamama won't throw you under the bus if elected...well, he (who is only 1/4 African) did a pretty good job of throwing his white mother and grandmother under the bus to gain "creds" with the black community.

I pretty much subscribe to the old "if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...chances are, it's a duck." theory. He can read "I'm not a duck" off his teleprompter all day long, but that doesn't change anything.

Since Palin was chosen as McCain's VP, the issue of "qualifications" has been somewhat amplified. Palins qualifications are there for the world to see (and admire). Other than being a "community organizer" and a Jr. Senator (with 143 days in the senate), all obamamamama has said is "Hope-change, Hope-change, Hope-change ad infinitum.

Oh, we've had his laundry list of liberal doctrine, like raise taxes, redistribute wealth with a bevy of new entitlements, appease dictators, blah, blah, blah. But, has he said anything that would make anything BETTER? No, all of his proposals are to soak the haves, and give it to the have-nots. No one ever stops to think how many government programs, private charities, and individuals who are already doing that very thing. Give a mouse a cookie, he'll want a glass of milk.

[Roses0508]

My cousin is a Swift boat veteran and served with Kerry. You have to know my cousin, he’s pretty laconic by nature. He doesn’t exactly hate Kerry but will tell you in very few and very specific words that Kerry had no discipline and had no understanding of working for the common good and no ethical grounding. Kerry hasn’t done anything in the intervening years to make my cousin reconsider his evaluation.

All I needed to hear, because I know what kind of man my cousin was then and is now.

[mplsconservative]

I'm looking forward to Rev. Wright's book coming out in October.

I wonder if he'll throw Obama under the bus. Yes, I am being hopeful. It just seems the “good” Reverend doesn't take to kindly to being dissed, which is essentially what Obama did to him.

[mplsconservative]

to kindly = too kindly Whoops!

[impeachedrapist]

yeah but he did that because he saw it as an opportunity to give a ‘historic’ speech on race

But when that speech didn't stop the damage, B. Hussein Obama did throw the racist Rev. Wright under the bus.

[impeachedrapist]

McCain, to his campaign’s credit, has been pushing the Ayers issue.

[himno hero]

lets not overlook the upcoming release of the path to 9-11 and its force on the democratic party,

and that dodgy Rezko file. The cumulative upshot of these ghosts will be catastrophic.

let alone when Hussein is recognized as muslim/ per his school records