23 Jan '07 - 170 W - + 8 - 4 ... And They're off!
Via
CNN today, I find an article by the Washington Times' (read: Reverend Sun Myung Moon's) Insight Magazine
saying Barack Obama attended a Madrassa. The gem? The source is supposedly a staffer for Hilary Clinton's campaign. Well, there's actually two gems. The other is, according to CNN, the article is entirely false; Hilary's campaign never said anything of the sort, and the schools Obama attended are actually secular.
So, let's see. We have an article in a paper owned by a right-wing loonie accusing Hilary of sniping a potential opponent, while simultaneously insinuating that said opponent is (*GASP!*) a Muslim. Now, never mind that both claims are false - such things really don't make much of a difference in the end, as the Swiftboating of Kerry demonstrated. What shocks me is not that such falsehoods are being printed, it's that they're being printed so long before the primaries even begin. The smear campaign is starting more than a year early. Be prepared for a bumpy ride, folks.
Indeed, it is only going to get worse. The entrance barrier to nomination is tremendous (due to the increasing costs of campaigning, the messed up primary system, etc.), and so it’s easy to already narrow down the possible candidates on both sides (or at least the dems) to a pretty short list. Character assassination can start earlier than ever. Hell, we could probably even start insulting candidates for the 2012/16 elections already too (something like “Spitzer was a baby eater”).
Aaron (URL) - 24 January '07 - 12:59