Letter From America
Barack Obama's Willie Horton
AFTER the Democratic Party National Convention in Atlanta in July 1988, nominee Governor Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts held a 17-point lead over the Republican nominee, Vice-President George H. W. Bush. History was not on Bush's side; no serving vice-president had been elected president since Martin Van Buren in 1836.
Dukakis went home and basked in his unearned glory, while Bush's campaign manager Lee Atwater and media consultant Roger Ailes went to work. Their polling showed that people knew very little about Governor Dukakis. They decided to fill in the blanks. Their first ad, accusing Governor Dukakis of polluting the Boston harbour, did not have much traction.
Their second was a winner! Wille Horton, a black, convicted felon serving a life sentence without parole for murder, and incarcerated in a Massachusetts prison, was released on a weekend furlough program on June 6, 1988. He escaped to Maryland and commited armed robbery and rape. Governor Dukakis had originally supported the program enacted by a previous Republican governor, but he abolished it on April 28, 1988.
Roger Ailes salivated: "The only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it." Atwater and Ailes ran vicious TV ads featuring the mugshot of a menacing-looking, bearded Willie Horton. Lee Atwater predicted that "by the time this election is over, Willie Horton will be a household name." He was right! The subliminal message to the whites was: Dukakis, with a foreign-sounding name (he is of Greek heritage), had no problem with blacks murdering white men and raping white women. That ad destroyed Dukasis's quest for the presidency.
Shortly before he died of brain tumour on March 29, 1991, the "happy hatchet man" and the mentor of Karl Rove and George W. Bush, Lee Atwater aplogised to those who he had destroyed during political campaigns, including Governor Dukakis. Roger Ailes, on the other hand, went on to found the Fox News Channel in 1996, which is currently dedicated to destroying the candidacy of Barack Obama through Willie Horton-like tangential smear tactics.
Obama's Willie Horton is Reverand Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor. Fox Channel, especially Sean Hannity, runs Reverend Wright's incindiary rantings, "God damn America," "the US of KKKA," and his post-911 comment, reminscent of Malcolm X's after the JFK assassination, "America's chickens have come home to roost," incessantly. I can predict that in the Republican TV commercials this fall, a ranting and raving Jeremiah Wright's face will morph into Barack Obama's.
Fox News has an ally in the supporters of Israel. Israelis believe that America's presence in Iraq is good for Israel. That is why they prefer John McCain for the US presidency, even over a proven friend like Hillary, who, under pressure from Obama, now favours a US withdrawal. As if on cue, most prominent Jewish Americans (Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, California Senators Feinstein and Boxer, New York Senator Chuck Schumer who actually hates Hillary, Hillary's communication director Wolfson and surrogate Lanny Davis, Steven Spielberg and Barbra Streissand) are all Hillary supporters.
Senator Liberman, 2000 Democratic vice- presidential candidate and an uber Iraq hawk, is now an independent supporting John McCain! The question is: Is it not unpatriotic to ask America to sacrifice its sons and daughters and squander its resources for the benefit of another nation?
Historically, among white Americans Jews have been the staunchest supporters of the blacks. In June 1964, Jewish students Andrew Goodman and Mickey Schwerner, along with African American James Chaney, were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan as they were attempting to register black voters in Mississippi as a part of "Freedom Summer."
Things have changed. Most African Americans now sympathise with the suffering of the Palestinians, as does Barack Obama. Many Jew are one issue voters: security of Israel. Although Obama professes unwavering support for Israel, his sympathy for the Palestinian suffering makes Jews question his commitment to Israel. Jews consider only those who support Israel 100 percent as real friends; 99 percent support is not enough. A Jewish website puts it more bluntly: "Once a Muslim, always a Muslim. Cannot trust anyone with Muslim blood flowing in his veins." Although Obama's father converted to Catholicism, his Kenyan ancesters may have been Muslims. Ten percent of Americans still believe that Obama is a Muslim!
Ed Rendell has said, a la Republicans against Dukakis, that 50 percent about Obama is unknown, suggesting he may be harbouring dark secrets. Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, representing a heavily Jewish district, has chastised Hillary Clinton for not using Reverend Wright to bring down Obama
Ed Rendell also said that working class whites would not vote for Obama. Fox Channel's job is to make sure they don't. Working class whites love America, and they do not like blacks playing the victims. In their hearts, Obama-detractors know that he loves America. Obama has publicly urged blacks to stop blaming the whites for their troubles, and to take responsibility for their lives. Unlike Hillary's Bosnia snipergate, since Obama cannot be faulted for what he has said, Obama haters are using Reverend Wright as his spokesman.
They have raised questions: Why does he not disown Wright? Why did he not leave his church? Why did he not speak up before? etc. etc. Preachers have a captive audience. It is a one-way traffic: preachers speak, the audience listens, but cannot respond. Many a times preachers say things the congregation is unconfortable with. Has anyone seen members of a congregation confront a preacher after a sermon? People go to pray and leave after prayers. To make Obama responsible for Wright's unpatriotic, anti-white and anti-Semitic sermons is the worst case of guilt by association.
The real purpose behind the smear campaign is to give working class whites and Jewish voters who do not want to vote for Obama anyway, a perfect excuse not to do so. This allows them to say: "I am not voting for Obama not because I am a racist, but because his previous association with Reverend Wright proves that he is unpatriotic, anti-white and anti-Semitic."
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