No problems.
Regards,
Shodan
The claim made in wikipedia is not cited, though, so there is no way to verify it. And if you read the discussion page for that entry there is considerable disagreement about the factual nature of that claim.
So getting back to the next so-called “Willie Horton” ad …
Let’s say that you believe that there are voters out there who think that Obama has a special quality that will help him to bridge the gap and solve all of our racial problems.
Let’s say that you think you can sway some of those voters by pointing out that he had a great opportunity to counsel his own pastor and mentor but apparently didn’t make the effort.
So you make an ad and you show the clips of the Rev. Wright in his African clergy garb saying “God Damn America” and “USA of KKK”.
Would you hear the screams of “Willie Horton!!” “Willie Horton !!”??
It’s called a “double standard.”
Obama has made an entire campaign out of it (well, that, and a speech).
If you did, you could brush them off. One might argue that someone shuffled thru a lot of inmates to get to Willie Horton and chose him because he looked like a scary Black guy. But Obama has had only one pastor/spiritual mentor over the decades. Willie Horton isn’t the be all and end all of negative campaigning.
Were there other candidates to use as examples of the failure of the furlough program? A convicted murderer getting out for the weekend who then commits rape? What did the list look like that they had to choose from?
I have no idea. But it doesn’t matter in light of the question. Bringing up Reverend Wright as a negative campaign issue just isn’t like the Willie Horton ads (no matter how they got his mug), so it’s not a good comparison.
African clergy garb?
I’m screaming exactly that, but the Reverend Wright lynching-by-proxy is worse. As I said upthread, at least Horton was a genuinely bad person. All Wright did was drop a little too much truth at the pulpit now and then. His criticisms about America were accurate (except for the AIDS thing, but his paranoia was not entirely unjustified considering stuff like Tuskeegee), he never said anything racist, he isn’t a criminal and he has done many good things for his community. His demonization is even more cynically racist than the Horton ads.
It’s worse because Wright is not a murderer who they sought to associate with Obama. They deliberately morphed Wright into something he isn’t in order to frighten white voters and it worked. Lots and lots of people actually now believe that Jermiah Wright is a dangerous, Black Nationalist, America-hating terrorist (and never mind that Wright is a former Marine and a Vetnam Vet. Military service is a sign of unimpeachable virtuem but only if you’re a Republican). It’s not the association of Wright with Obama that’s racist, it’s the villifcation of Wright in the first place.
Right. They associated themselves with each other.
Good thing Obama had the integrity to recognize that and kept him on in the campaign. Or was it racist of him to get rid of Write? You gotta help me out here… I’m having trouble keeping track of all the race issues.
One strategy that has successfully been used in the past is to find a candidates strength and use it against him, even if you have to exaggerate and/or make stuff up out of whole cloth. (Swiftboaters anyone?)
Hillary has already tried this to an extent (Obama’s “not the same old Washington way” being cast as “inexperience”) There is a limit to how much this can be done in a primary, however.
In an Obama/McCain battle, I suspect McCain’s team will dig up the “inexperience” issue, and they’ll do it quickly. They will want to position themselves so that any dig at their candidates age will be seen as simple “tit for tat politicking”. Some of the media will focus on his popularity as a negative. (What is the real story about this “cult” following that Obama seems to have? Story after these messages) (Obama; cult leader or shallow charmer? We report, You decide!)
Of course, there will be subtle digs at the race issue again and again (and again). They will try not to cross the line, but:
Watch for the worst of the race issues to be brought up by “unrelated” third parties.
Watch for a reprise of a version of theTennessee “call me” ad
Watch for Obama to be portrayed in advertisements with a very poor lighting/altered colors that show him to be very “dark”.
Watch for the use of racial code words in blogs and other places (maybe Obama will like Canadians a bit too much…
Watch for “We’re not ready for… a president like him” “Those people don’t understand us” (what? by “those people” we meant Democrats! really!)
Anybody else agree with Dio the C that a Wright ad is worse than a Horton ad?
Why hasn’t Wright been out defending himself and Obama if he isn’t what he’s been made out to be??
I heard he’s going to do an interview with catholic hater Bill Maher… that’s sure to be hard hitting!
Probably because he’s at least politically savvy enough to know it would be futile.
Maher is an atheist who hits all religions, even if he sames some special vitriol for the pope and other Catholic clergy due to the child molestation scandal.
Does that mean he will interview Wright on an atheist-vs.-preacher basis?
(I hope! 
)
So perhaps a better question is … why isn’t ABCNNBCBS after him demanding an interview??
I don’t know what his angle will be, but he’s an unabashed Obama supporter and virulently anti-Hillary and anti-McCain. The audience seems to lean strongly towards Obama, too. It’ll most likely be some form of a love-fest.
WTF?!
How do you know they’re not?