Former Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey should be fired from the Clinton campaign after his comments in Iowa yesterday. In a passive-aggressive performance worthy of an Oscar, Kerrey told reporters:
"I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim," Kerrey is quoted as saying. "There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal."Get it? Kerrey isn't repeating slurs that have been used, non-stop, by GOP operatives (and Hillary's own staff) knocking Obama for having the middle name of one of the most hated men in America and for having family members who are Muslim. Oh no. Kerrey is complimenting Obama, and is simply repeating racist anti-Muslim slurs against Obama in an effort to praise him. Kerrey comes not to bury Obama, but to praise him. (After the jump: What if Obama were to repeat the current rumors about Hillary and Bill (and there are new rumors) - in order to praise them, of course?)
It would be like an Obama surrogate repeating all the slurs against Hillary, repeating the current crop of rumors about her and about her husband, and saying that those are positive things because they make Hillary more human and more empathetic to the voters. Perhaps, but were I to repeat those rumors I'd actually be hurting Hillary by in fact spreading the anti-Hillary slurs (and that's why I won't even repeat the details of the rumors themselves in my example for you today).
Now keep in mind, this isn't the first time that Hillary's supporters have stooped this low. There was the chair of her campaign in New Hampshire who was recently fired for making passive-aggressive slurs about Obama. Then there were the three Clinton campaign staffers who involved in forwarding those anti-Obama, Republican-talking-point emails about him allegedly being a Muslim (he's not):
A third volunteer for Hillary Clinton's campaign was aware of a propaganda e-mail alleging that Barack Obama is a Muslim who plans on "destroying the U.S. from the inside out."And Bob Kerrey, who is no idiot, repeats the biggest slurs about Obama out there (that he isn't just black (which Kerrey also noted yesterday, by the way, in case anyone forgot), he's brown too), and we're to believe that it was innocuous at best and a simple misunderstanding at worst. Yeah right.
"Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential Candidacy," the email reads. "Please forward to everyone you know. The Muslims have said they Plan on destroying the U.S. from the inside out, what better way to start than at The highest level."
Two Clinton volunteers, Linda Olson and Judy Rose, have already been asked to resign from the campaign for their roles in forwarding the e-mail. The AP reported yesterday that Olson, a volunteer coordinator in Iowa County, sent a version of the e-mail to 11 people, including Ben Young, a regional field director for Chris Dodd's campaign. Young passed it on to the AP.
It should be noted that Obama has himself referred to the fact that some of his family members are Muslim.
Referring to the time he spent in Indonesia, Obama said: “I have lived in the most populous Muslim country in the world, had relatives who practiced Islam. I am a Christian, but I can say I understand your worldview, although I may not agree with how Islam has evolved. I can speak forcefully about the need for Muslim countries to reconcile themselves to modernity in ways they have failed to do.”But, I suspect that Obama is talking about this simply because he was forced to, in order to respond to the GOP slurs that are already out there about his childhood in Indonesia. So rather than Obama making the issue fair game, Obama is simply responding to the slurs others started (it would be like publishing a slur about Hillary, Hillary responding to the slur, then saying "look, she started it"). Second, there's also the "your momma/my momma" question. I can make my fun of my mom, you can't. When Obama talks about his family's Muslim ties, he's obviously not slurring himself, slurring Muslims, or using them as an epithet. When Bob Kerrey talks about Obama's family being Muslim and - and here's the key point - mentions that Obama's middle name is "Hussein," it strains credibility to believe that he wasn't trying to scare the bejeesus out of the voters.
Some in the comments to this post are saying that it's good that this all come out now. The Republicans are going to be using these slurs, non-stop, if Obama gets the nomination, so why not get them out there, and put them to rest, now? It's not a bad argument, and yes, Obama needs to figure out how to stop these rumors in their tracks. But that doesn't excuse Hillary's people for pushing these slurs out there.
Others in the comments are saying that this is politics, it's hardball, get used to it. Look, I get that politics is hardball. And trust me, I want people like Hillary and her team working on behalf of the Democratic candidate because they're the only people in the party who know how to fight like Republicans. They're the only people who know how to fight back against the very tactics they're using. But still, something about this being used against a fellow Democratc doesn't feel like hardball politics. It feels slimy. Am I wrong about this?
