Young Obama supporters = Hitler Youth

Great Debates
1

This is the second video I’ve seen on Drudge in a short while that is ostensibly meant to scare/give vapors to voters through the suggestion that Obama isn’t just a demagogue with a Messiah complex, he’s actively building an insurrection and independent army.

In it (for those who can’t/won’t click on video), several black teens dressed in dark blue T-shirts and camouflage pants march into a room and chant an Obama-centered cadence with accompanying hand and body gestures. It’s almost drum and bugle corps-like sans instruments. Aside from the words (and the lack of guns), it has a very paramilitary-like appearance.

A week or so ago, there was another video of (IIRC) a group of children singing at their ? preschool? Babysitter’s house? Music Teacher’s? I don’t know, I didn’t see all of it. Anyway, it was a group of kids in Obama-wear singing about him. The Drudge report captioned it something like “Kids sing praise of their Dear Leader”. While I’m paraphrasing the gist of the title, the key term used was definitely “Dear Leader”, tying Obama to North Korea.

These were just a couple brief outlines for the video-less. Please feel free to add to my descriptions if I’ve mischaracterized or otherwise misrepresented the videos.

So … excuse me?! What the hell is going on here? Does anyone know the actual provenance of these videos? I may be jaded, and I apologize to our right-wing cohorts who are partial to the Republican platform but not their compatriots’ machinations, but it wouldn’t surprise me if one or another of these videos were produced by a right-wing organization with the express intent of scaring voters.

Ok, maybe they’re just overzealous (or just zealous) videos made by earnest Obama supporters. Given their placement and titling (and despicable or not, the Drudge Report does get an enormous amount of page views by both sides of the spectrum), are they likely to have any effect? Are they further alarming the Obama=Muslim or Obama=radical Marxist crowd or are these going to reach new audiences?

Obama or McCain supporter, do they disturb you at all? I must admit to a bit of creepyness to them. I guess if I picture a David Duke for Congress rally with similar actors I’d be creeped out.

Lastly, I can’t help but consider the wide-scale dissemination of these, especially the second one, almost explicitly racist. However, that’s my knee-jerk reaction to seeing an anti-black candidate ad that’s filled with militant-looking black teens pledging their support to him. It’s far beyond that “hey, call me” ad with the blonde, and so far gets my nomination for the most despicable attack of the campaign. But I’d be interested in hearing other opinions.

Thoughts?

2

Can’t speak to the paramilitary video, but my understanding of the provenance of the kids-sing-Obama’s-praises video is that it was genuine; the woman who made it have come under some fire for the creepiness and the story about how she decided to help make it having gotten some play already.

3

McCain’s team already said that they were going to “go negative”. This is just the tip of the iceberg, Sonny Jim.

4

It’s my understanding that McCain is a lizard warrior from Betelgeuse, who plans on enslaving humanity.

(in other words, can you find a cite please Bricker? Ta.)

5

I’m sorry, but if you’re going to say that the pro-Obama video was created by the McCain campaign, you’re going to need to back that up, Euphonious Polemic.

6

I do have to say that rationally it’s much more likely (IMHO) that both videos were not affiliated with McCain/McCain supporters in any way (Occum’s Razor and all). It wouldn’t surprise me if that were not the case, but that’s just the jaded too-many-years-of-Rovian-politics talking. I know he didn’t invent negative campaigning (or was he responsible for spreading that rumor that there was a secret shipment of slaves found in Tennessee with Polk’s initials branded on them?), but he’s been the most prominent lightning rod of late.

7

I don’t doubt there’s extremists for Obama.

8

The Obama-Hitler Youth hook looks to have already been glommed on to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH-2Fwx5RU0

9

Did you see those boots? ***GOLD BOOTS! ***My God! They’re BLACK and EMPOWERED and GAY! AAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!

::Faints away from the vapours::

10

That video is bizarre, but I don’t hold Obama accountable for this any more than I hold McCain accountable for that video of the drunken country folk saying they wouldn’t for for Obama, because why would they make an Arab president when we’re fighting a war with the Arabs?

11

This “messiah” business means nothing but that the Pubs are pissed off that the Dems have finally found their Reagan – a figure they can not only vote for but feel enthusiastic about at a visceral level. Plus Obama actually has brains.

12

The song with the little kids hardly “resembles” the Hitler youth clip tagged onto the end of it. Unlike the Hitler song, there is no description of Obama as Savior and Hero or claims that the kids will live for him or die for him. In fact, the whole song is about the movement and about what “we” will do without a single hagiographic reference to Obama. The comparison is ludicrous.
As to the clip in the OP, the only “military” thing I saw in the clip was the final “Drill team, retreat” order. The rest of it looked just like a pep rally. Again, the kids all talked about what they could do because they were inspired by Obama; they made no claim that Obama was any sort of messiah (or Fuehrer). I suspect that someone could come up with a similar pep rally clip for McCain–although it would not be as intimidating to various people because it would feature cute little blonde girls instead of black, male teens.

If MoveOn.org had produced a similar clip linking various McCain or Palin rallies with similar rallies in 1930s Germany, folks on the Right would be screaming to the heavens about the illegitimate comparison.

Beyond that, of course, no candidate controls every action of every supporter, so even if there was some sinister motive behind the routines, it would hardly reflect on Obama (unless one wishes to suggest that McCain is behind every Obama=Musim video that is wandering around the net).

13

Neither video is associated with the Obama campaign in any way. Supporters, on their own, are doing this stuff. That fact, in itself, invalidates the asinine “Hitler Youth” comparisons. This is not the leader or the state demanding fealty. It’s spontaneous, unsolicited shows of support. Calling it “creepy” is just seething jealousy disgused as fake forboding.

You want to se creepy, read this.

This kind of thing is ubiquitous on the right and is more disturbing than a few people getting isnpired by Obama by several orders of magnitude.

14

Wasn’t Obama involved in the design of the Volkswagen, though?

15

Why should I care what these people do? They could be rounding up Jews and invading Poland, it’s not going to affect my vote unless their actions are sanctioned by a candidate.

16

That is the silliest instance of Godwinization I’ve seen since Bill O’Reilly compared DailyKos to the Nazis.

17

Well, the Nazis were mammals, after all. And the similarities don’t end there! :eek:

18

[utl=“scoopthis.org - This website is for sale! - scoopthis Resources and Information.”]This link is typical, although I don’t suggest it’s unbiased; still, in terms of factual assertions, the claim that the video’s creator, Kathy Sawada, is a Democratic supporter can be verified by any number of means, including checking the FEC donation database.

MOre detail is cramped by the fact that the Obama website, which did contain a link to the video, has removed it, and the domain name used for the video has been yanked as well.

19

It’s pretty creepy for sure, but then again so are High School pep rallies.

20

Creepy. They say in the video that they want to be responsible for their own actions, and they want to be lawyers and stuff. Ick.