Now that the media have begun to turn on Senator Obama, it's as good a time as any to say, we told you so. And, it's a good time to recall that Obama, Obama's campaign and Obamafans have used the most rabid of rightwing talking points, helpfully supplied by 'our friends' in the media, against Hillary Rodham Clinton, and, yes, against Bill and his entire presidency.
Bloggers who call themselves progressive, have gone so low as to campaign for Obama by embracing the most Limbaugh-esque of anti-feminist terms, such as the despicably insulting: Billary.
And these people call themselves Democrats? Were they born yesterday?
From Obama's charge that Hillary is too divisive and polarizing to win an election, to Obama's infamously divisive campaign ads, charging that -- Hillary will do or say anything to get elected! -- one has to wonder exactly which rightwing think tank supplies Obama's talking points. But, of course, Obama and his fans can always construct their hit pieces merely by relying on 'our friends' in the media.
A quick check with Bob Somerby reveals that back in 2000, our friends in the media told us that 'Al Gore would do or say anything to get elected!'
As many of us have warned, the media always turns against Democrats. They vilified Al Gore, Howard Dean, John Kerry and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the woman who as First Lady was repeatedly compared to Eleanor Roosevelt. Yes, in her day, Eleanor Roosevelt had plenty of haters, but I seriously doubt that so very many of them were on the left.
The media has even demonized Bill Clinton as racist! And many of our 'progressive friends' over there in the Obama camp have joined them! Frankly, I don't know why the Clintons don't pick up and move to Canada. They'd get better treatment in virtually any nation other than this adolescent cowboy country. But I certainly know why Al Gore is not running for president of the United States.
But now, it's your turn, Senator Obama. Only give them a wee bit more time, and soon you too will be viewed as polarizing, or maybe you'll only be perceived as 'creepy.'
From the esteemed Bob Somerby, who does an outstanding job of documenting the vile rightwing and/or media excrement for us:
HOW HILLARY GOT TO BE POLARIZING
[S]ome pols are “polarizing” because of things they have done; others are “polarizing” because of what’s been done to them. Our question: What did Clinton do in the past fifteen years to put herself into the former category? Say that she could have stayed home and baked cookies? Hillary Clinton is a “polarizing” figure in that a lot of dumb-asses irrationally hate her—just as they were later trained to hate Gore. But that’s because Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Pat Buchanan spent fifteen years talking trash about her. (And of course, because she’s a multiple murderer. . .
How did Clinton become so “polarizing?” Here’s Pat Buchanan at the 1992 Republican convention in Houston. When you say that Hillary Clinton is “polarizing,” this is pretty much what you mean:
BUCHANAN (8/17/92). . . "This—this, my friends, this is radical feminism, the agenda that Clinton and Clinton would impose on America: abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat units. That's change, all right, but that's not the kind of change America needs, it's not the kind of change America wants, and it's not the kind of change we can abide in a nation we still call God's country."
I fully intended, I desperately wanted, to be in the camp of progressives who could happily support either Obama or Hillary as our nominee. But I read too much. And if Paul Wellstone, himself, came back from the grave to run on a campaign of trashing Hillary and Bill -- our only Democratic president in lo these many years -- I would renounce him too. But Paul Wellstone was a wise and progressive man. He would never ever do it.
It appears that our unity candidate is about to get an education. Rightwingers have been hard at work, and our media knows a sensational story whenever the Right hits them over the head with it. They may well tag Obama, not with the pejorative term polarizing, but with the even more scary, creepy:
Video via Crooks and Liars
"And what makes Clinton more ambitious than Edwards? Or than Obama? Clinton? The person who spent the first thirty years of her adult life deferring to somebody else’s ambitions?"-- Bob Somerby
See: The Right Stuff: Obama's Talking Points
Hillary Clinton Messiah Barack Obama Cult News Politics Media Al Gore Pat Buchanan Republican Attack Machine Wisconsin Democrats Bill Clinton
