The assault on Obama

By Michael J.W. Stickings

You've got to feel sorry for Barack Obama.*

Last month it was just a crazy and bigoted wingnut blogger, Debbie Schlussel, going after him on account of his middle name (Hussein) and his familial ties to Islam. She impugned not only Obama, who is not Muslim, but also Muslims generally. To their credit, many on the right distanced themselves from such idiocy.

But now it isn't a crazy and bigoted wingnut blogger but the crazy and bigoted FOX News that is going after Obama. This time because he attended a Muslim school, a madrassa, in Indonesia when he was a child. One of the ignorant Fox & Friends hosts, Steve Doocy, pointed out that such schools are anti-American. Did any of that rub off on young Barack? Maybe, he implied. In fact, "maybe [Obama] doesn't consider terrorists the enemy". And then came the callers. And yet more ignorance and bigotry. Think Progress has the video and transcript here.

Obama only attended that Muslim school for two years, beginning when he was six years old. And he had no choice. But then he moved on to a Catholic school. And, not that it really matters to anyone but the bigots, but Obama is a practising Christian, not a Muslim. And yet somehow we can't be sure he doesn't side with the terrorists? We'll just have to "see about that," in the words of FOX anchor Brian Kilmeade?

Outrageous. But there's FOX News for you. And it's targeting Obama.

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* Yes, this is outrageous, and I have nothing but contempt for Schlussel and FOX News and all the other wingnuts going after him, but I don't feel all that sorry for Obama. Or, rather, I'm sure he can handle himself and respond accordingly. Unfortunately, this sort of thing comes with the territory.

Right now Obama is the Democratic celebrity who can do no wrong. Except for that dubious property deal in Chicago, but that really wasn't anything of significance. And so, exploratory committee established, he's saying all the right things and doing so with truly uncommon eloquence, just as he has since he first entered the national scene on the national stage of the '04 Democratic convention in Boston. He impresses, let me put it that way.

Still, co-frontrunner though he may immediately have become, I have my concerns and reservations. Plus, I like Edwards. All I can say about Obama is that he has a lot to prove, not to mention some awfully lofty expectations to live up to. He won't be on that pedestal for much longer.

And yet there is no excusing the assault on Obama from the right. It is truly despicable. It's one thing to question his positions on the issues, as Democrats themselves will begin to do more and more, quite another to subject him to such ignorance and bigotry, to impugn his character, question his faith and patriotism, and essentially call him a traitor, a supporter of terrorism.

And the campaign hasn't even started yet in earnest. The assault will continue. And it will only get worse.