The Nasty Campaign Rhetoric-- Some History, Pros and Cons

It's time to dispel all claims that Barack Obama is a Muslim terrorist.

Yusuf Garaad Omar, head of the BBC's Somali Service, writes that:
These are the normal clothes that nomadic people wear.
The head turban is especially used by elderly people as a suggestion of respect. It is something that has no meaning whatsoever in Somalia culture.
If you see someone dressed like that in Somalia, you think it is a nomadic person -- that is all. There is no religious significance to it whatsoever. It is mainly the nomadic people who use it. Some of them are religious, some are not.

Does this current propaganda remind anyone of the Red Baiting or, more recently, the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth charade? This is exactly the type of hate-speech that ProgressiveU and Barack Obama combat with a format for change.

No doubt the rhetoric that flies around is unforgivable but I might argue that this early attack campaign by Hillary Clinton simply creates an uber-Obama for the general election. There's also no question that her campaign is initiating their last strategy by releasing nasty rhetoric for short-term, Democratic Convention, gain. It's almost as if she's dubbed herself the defensive trapped squirrel in your backyard--she's going to fight dirty to get out (into the finals).

We cannot treat these candidates as if they are fragile. We can predict, having seen the public image implosion of Michael Dukakis and John Kerry--each of which had strong stances on important issues.

For those of you who do not know, I'll let Wikipedia reveal the inner truth.

 

 

Dukakis has been blamed for allowing "liberal" to come to be considered a derogatory term. He was criticized during the campaign for a perceived softness on defense issues, particularly the controversial "Star Wars" SDI program, which Dukakis promised to scale down (although not cancel). In response to this, Dukakis orchestrated what would become the key image of his campaign, albeit not for the reasons he intended. In September 1988, Dukakis visited the General Dynamics plant in Michigan to take part in a photo op in an M1 Abrams tank. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher had been photographed in a similar situation in 1986, riding in a Challenger tank while wearing a scarf; [7] although somewhat out of character, the image was effective and helped Thatcher's re-election prospects. Dukakis's "tank moment" was much less successful. [8] Footage of Dukakis was used in television ads by the Bush campaign, as evidence that Dukakis would not make a good commander-in-chief, and "Dukakis in the tank" remains shorthand for backfired public relations outings.