TN GOP GETS TRIPPED UP WITH THE “H” WORD
February 28th, 2008, 1:59 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Dan Lehr
The Tennessee Republican party has drawn flack for a press release it issued earlier this week making repeated use of Barack Obama’s middle name, Hussein.
The release ostensibly questioned Obama’s commitment to the survival of Israel, a question Obama answered in Tuesday’s debate:
This answer makes Wednesday’s brouhaha all the more questionable. The Tennessee GOP went ahead & released the charge, despite the fact that the candidate seemed to answer most of the questions about his commitment to Israel & his credits to American Jews who have helped him on his campaign.
With that arrow taken out of the quiver, what remains is the releases repeated use of the candidate’s full name, including Hussein. The photo accompanying the release also makes the implication that Obama is some sort of “secret terrorist.”
Later in the day the TN GOP defended the release and the use of the name, saying “Richard Nixon often went by Richard Milhouse Nixon, and Hillary Clinton often went by Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
Again, this was all on the same day that presumptive GOP nominee John McCain repudiated similar comments made by a right-wing radio talk show host in Illinois made on the stage where McCain was about to appear. (hear more of that part of the story here & hear the criticism that host, Bill Cunningham, received from his own side of the aisle here).
McCain showed some much-needed leadership in criticizing the Tennessee GOP for the release:
“If I am the nominee of the party, I will obviously assure that everyone within my party knows that this has got to be a respectful debate.”
But it was Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander who gets the most credit for playing the adult here. He personally asked the TN GOP to remove the picture & reference to “Hussein” from the website.
Obama has no reason to be ashamed of his name. It happens to be one of the most common names in the Muslim world, but that in no way reflects on whether or not he’s a Muslim.
Republicans, you have every reason to have hope that your side will win this year. Trying to tie Obama’s middle name to radical Islamic extremism only hurts your cause. If Republicans win this year, it will be on the issues, & not using tactics like these.
Don’t take my word for it; take Karl Rove’s, as reported by the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder:
No less an authority figure than Karl Rove has warned Republican operatives from demagoguing Barack Obama’s middle name.
At a closed door meeting of GOP state executive directors in late January, Rove said the safest way to refer to Obama would be to use his honorific, “Sen. Obama.”
“The context was, you’re not going to stigmatize this guy. You shouldn’t underestimate him,” one of the executive directors said. Rove said that the use of “Barack Hussein Obama” would perpetuate the notion that Republicans were bigoted and would hurt the party.
& please don’t think this post is an attempt by Vote08 to promote one side or the other. This message should be heard by both parties. Liberals who thought they were promoting Democratic causes late last year actually hurt their cause when they published the “General Petraeus-Betray-Us ” ad in the New York Times. Frankly, Petraeus, not Vladimir Putin, deserved to be named Time’s Man of the Year this past year for what he has done to improve the situation on the ground in Iraq (& far more importantly, how he has successfully changed the mindset of those who are prosecuting that war).
Vote08 is in favor of civil discourse between both sides. We can have a presidential contest without stooping to this level.
Late this afternoon, the Tennessee Republican party issued a press release about some GOP state lawmaker’s long term health care plan, & how it contrasts with the one touted by (Democratic) Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen. Bredesen’s middle name, Norman, was omitted.
