Swiftboating the Presidency
The rabid right made mincemeat out of John Kerry’s war record. Expect more of the same dirty tricks during this election campaign.
2008-05-19
By Monroe Anderson

The number 527 may not mean much to you, but this should: Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. They were the rightwing group that, along with the help of the rest of the Republican echo chamber, turned John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War hero, into something akin to a national disgrace. It didn’t matter that Kerry was awarded two purple hearts and that his opponent, George W. Bush, was a frat boy who used his daddy’s political connections to get a safe and sound assignment in the National Guard and Vice President John Cheney was a draft dodger—the swift boaters were successful in turning a Big Lie into their Grand Truth.

Listen up and watch out. The Republican Party and its right-wing smear machine is about to play the dirty dozens on Barack Obama.

It has no choice. The Republican brand is ruined.  The party’s presumptive presidential nominee, John McCain, is fine for a stroll down memory lane but will be hard pressed to run a fair race on Bush’s shattered and tattered eight-year record. So the radical right will do what it does during good times and bad: A sleight of hand trick through word of mouth.

The GOP will attempt to divert us from the real issues that have real consequences by cracking on Obama, on matters that mean nothing, with charges that aren’t true.

It’s going to talk about his white momma. It’s going to rant about his former minister. It’s going to steadily signify that he’s either a Muslim or a cult Christian but definitely not a true red-blooded American.

It’s going to make way too much out of far too little. The right-wing echo chamber will label Barack as too liberal, too green, too lightweight, too lucky, too black, too white, too intelligent, too aloof, too soft, too young, too natty, too cool, too elite, too rock star and too good to be true. It’s all going to be too ugly for words.

The Bush legacy leaves the Republicans with one foot over a cliff and the other on an oil slick. America’s 43rd president, who will go down in history as the worst ever, has popularity ratings that reflect his two-term performance. We’re in a recession and world opinion of our nation is in a free fall.  Many Americans now find themselves forced to choose between gasoline and groceries. Many more want the Iraqi occupation, which has lasted longer than World War II, to end.

Painfully aware that this is not their year and that they are poised to lose the presidency and suffer greater loses on Capitol Hill, Republicans are scrounging around in their bag of dirty tricks, out to win ugly. Blogs, such as Rightwing Nuthouse, Ankle Biting Pundits and Red State, are furiously posting their conservative blather while the usual perpetrators, Fox Cable News and radical rightwing radio, are broadcasting ideological talking points for the party faithful.

Twenty years ago, when George H.W. Bush was running to become president number 41, the Republicans destroyed the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer, Michael Dukakis, with the now infamous Willie Horton political ad. A convicted murderer who had been released on a 48-hour furlough from a Massachusetts prison while Dukakis was governor, Horton went on to pistol-whip and cut up Clifford Barnes. When Barnes' financee later arrived at his Maryland home, the escaped prisoner raped her twice. His black face was plastered all over attack ads sympathetic to daddy Bush, making him the poster child for why America needed a Republican returning to the White House.

Of course, the Horton ad was before talk radio, Cyberspace or the 24/7 news cycle. It was before YouTube or the 527 organizations.

This presidential election promises some sort of sequel. One of the early indicators was the Rev. Wright attack ad aired during the North Carolina primary. Floyd Brown, the creator of the Horton attack ad, also created the one that ran in North Carolina, featuring Wright’s “God damn America” soundbite. Brown has also formed a 527 organization called Citizens for a Safe and Prosperous America, to slime Obama any way it can.

There’s also the truth-challenged video entitled “A Viral Portrait of Barack Hussein Obama” now creeping through cyberspace.

“Let’s connect the dots. With the assistance of Dr. Cone, Rev. Wright and other divisive figures Barack Obama has been discipled in a racist, Marxist, quasi-Christian, anti-Semitic ideology for over 20 years,” says creator/narrator Lome Baxter in the video, as he begins his summation of why America shouldn’t even consider Obama as its leader.“ After that much indoctrination, is it surprising that he won’t wear an American flag?  Is it surprising that he won’t put his hand over his heart during the national anthem? Is it surprising that his wife has never been proud of America until it looked like her husband had a shot at beating Hillary?”

Hillary has been beaten. The radical right blog, stophernow.com has morphed into stophimnow.com. It’s Barack’s turn to take the incoming sludge slung by the slanderous radical right.

Remember to warn yo’ momma to hold her nose and cover her eyes.

Monroe Anderson is an award-winning journalist who penned op-ed columns for both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. Check out his blog at monroeanderson.typepad.com