(HOST) Barack Obama has a lot to talk about these days but commentator Bill Seamans says that what’s being said *about him* may be even more provocative.
(SEAMANS) It has not taken long for Barack Obama to be introduced to the dark side of presidential campaign politics. The drivers of the conservative Mean Machine have so far been unable to find a juicy Obama scandal. In frustration, they appear to have delegated their smear campaign to the conservative slash and burn radio talk show hosts who have responded with all the sophistication of primary school spit ball shooters.
Barack Obama has so far mostly ignored the efforts of the Mudfellas – thus depriving them of much of the sleazy publicity they are trying to generate. But what we see is another sad commentary on the shabby state of civility in the American political dialogue. Obama’s campaign advisors may well be reading the intense efforts to defame their man as a barometer of the impact of his popularity.
That Obama and his wife were super attractions at an A-level Hollywood fund raiser the other day sent the most aggressive radio talk show voice (I won’t mention his name as a public service) – sent him into a spasm about how left wing Hollywood celebrities are jumping on the Obama bandwagon. A paparazzi photo of Obama, the hottest new presidential hopeful, in close conversation with his new best friend, George Clooney – the hottest movie star, was just more than a Mudfella could take.
This talk show host, who represents himself as the champion of the conservative cause has, among other things, called Obama a saint “who appears Godlike to the godless.” He repeatedly refers to Osama Obama and to his middle name – Hussein – then really reaches bottom referring to Obama’s ears by calling him Dumbo.
And then we heard the allegation by a conservative web site that Barack Obama is, in fact, a stealth muslim educated in a radical madrassa in Jakarta. CNN sent a reporter to Jakarta and found it was a secular public school that taught both boys and girls. Obama, who is a professed Christian, is said to have been put in the school when he was six and was transferred to a Catholic school two years later. The website as expected refused to give its source for the discredited story.
One could only agree that this mud storm is indicative of the threat old line politicians see in the enormous enthusiasm Obama has generated – especially among those who are fed up with a bipartisan status quo and who see Obama as a young hope for the future.
Finally, we recall that President Bush in his State of the Union address mentioned the need for civility among legislators. But as the conservative reaction to Barack Obama’s presidential aspirations indicates, the word “civility” is hard to find in the Washington political lexicon.
Bill Seamans is a former correspondent and bureau chief for ABC News in the Middle East.