We Smear For Obama

Ever gone to gop.com? Chances are that you haven't, and you're missing out. Really. If you delve deep enough into the Bible, surely there is something about "Know thine enemy" lingering somewhere, and if you go to the website you will immediately see that the G.O.P knows this all too well. In fact, the entirety of the site isn't even directed at the issues themselves, it's all about smearing Barack Obama. Apparently that is all they can do to try to make themselves look better at this point. As the Republican party is being abandoned by the Old Money that embody the nickname "GOP" (see a few entries back), as well as the neo-Evangelicals and other conservative Christians that have come to realize that war wasn't on Jesus' mind, and now by poor people who realize that they need things like health care and jobs, the best they can do is try to run Obama through the mud and hope that anyone still cares.

The main smear today is Obama's links with Tony Rezko. As you probably know, Rezko was charged with political corruption earlier this month and had both contributed $50-$60K to Obama and bought a property adjacent to Obama's in Illinois. (Read more at the Sun Times.) Barack had previously donated all of the Rezko money to charity and explained his involvement with Rezko to the media and to the public, and continues to take the non-smear High Road. The first transcripts of the trial say blatantly:

Obama was a tangential figure at the trial, mentioned only a few times as a beneficiary of Rezko's fund-raising. But Republicans are already exploiting the Democrat's long friendship with a now-convicted felon.

Apparently his name even being mentioned has given the GOP a reason to "question his judgment." Obama has since countered with a message from his campaign saying that any inquiries into his transactions with Rezko or Rezko connections would be no problem. Rather than smear, why not inquire into the facts?

Of course, when you have a candidate as bad as McCain, just one smear isn't enough to cut it. Obama's opt-out of public campiagn financing has fueled the GOP into calling him a two-face, boasting "Obama vs Obama" as a point of their "In The News" link.

What is this Public Financing of which we speak? Literally, it is money offered by the Federal Treasury to finance the campaigns of political candidates. The United States allows both public and private monies to be used in presidential elections at this time, and this would mean that McCain would be taking both money from the public AND from the deep pockets of the Republican National Committee AND from lobbyists. That sounds like Public Usury to me, and of course none of that is mentioned on the gop website. The fact remains that McCain is desperate for cash as the numbers roll in on how far behind he is on fundraising:

CAMPAIGN TOTALS SO FAR

Barack Obama:
Raised: $265m
Spent: $219m
Cash on hand: $46m
Debt: $2m

John McCain
Raised: $97m
Spent: $73m
Cash on hand: $24m
Debts: $968,301

Could it not already be said that Obama is already raising funds from the public? The vast funds already raised by his campaign have been mostly from small contributions from supporters over the internet and there are no lobbyists to answer to, so arguably you could say that his campaign is being run by the people- everyday people who can only donate what they can and their time- and why then run on the Public Finance system as well? As he says:

"It's not an easy decision, and especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections," Mr Obama said in a video message to supporters.

"But the public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who've become masters at gaming this broken system."

He said Mr McCain's campaign was being financed by Washington lobbyists and special interest groups.

No kidding. If Obama does want to win, one way to not do that is by playing the GOP Game.

One visit to barackobama.com shows that he is above the smear, as no attacks appear on his page, only news reports on the issues. In true dirty Rebublican style, the "In the News" focus on demonizing Obama is not enough, and they have even started a direct Site of Smearage, MeetBarackObama.com. In it, I assume it will entail taking, twisting, and running with every possible point of contention that they can possibly dig up. Already you can get your own ticker widget counting down how many days it's been since Obama visited Iraq and since McCain invited him to town hall meetings (two of these meetings are, by the way, listed on Barack's Agenda already).

Why try to drag down a candidate running on Hope? The answer is this: Smear worked for the GOP. Just ask Al Franken, who detailed the horrible smearing of John Kerry's record as a War Hero in his book The Truth: With Jokes. The war in Iraq is still a major issue in the minds of Americans, and now the Democratic party is putting forth a candidate who has consistently been vehemently against the war (as are most Americans). While this is a point of legitimate contention, it is unlikely that the GOP could win on this issue alone this time. Obama's positions are also uniting struggling poor and middle-class workers, who want health care and jobs and financial security. So, the focus is shifting away from the fact that what the Republicans offer is the New Bush and politics as usual to the GOP website putting up a few well-edited quotes tying Obama to Tony Rezko. All it takes is a swift gathering of the facts and presenting them to the media to clear this, and I will make the call to public inquiry to do so. John Kerry's war record wasn't cleared fast enough from the smear and that led in part to his demise, as Al Franken puts it, so let's not let the GOP get away with it this time and clear Obama immediately.