May 24, 2008

Urban legends help Obama while hurting McCain and therefore our country
by Bill Levinson

We recently showed how the National Jewish Democratic Council cut out part of a statement by John McCain to suggest that he, like Obama, is open to unconditional discussions with terrorists and rogue governments. Half-truths, out of context statements, and blatant falsehoods are the National Jewish Democratic Council’s stock in trade, and we have exposed NJDC for this on many occasions. NJDC is therefore a Republican asset that will do Barack Obama far more harm than good in November. We must caution those who are on our side against the circulation of urban legends and out of context statements, because these will only help Obama. It would not, in fact, surprise us if people on Obama’s side were circulating the more extreme rumors to dilute and draw attention from the very damning truths. These urban legends have doubtlessly wasted tens of thousands of hours among patriotic American bloggers who relied on them without question, while undermining their effectiveness and credibility. It is time to recognize what is going on, and to adjust our strategies accordingly.

Falsis in unum, falsis in omnibus means “False in one thing, false in all.” Consider for example the urban legend that Michelle Obama’s senior thesis says that the United States was founded on “crime and hatred” and that white Americans are “ineradicably racist.” We were unable to find either statement in the .pdf copy of Michelle Obama’s thesis that we downloaded from The Politico. A keyword search of an optical character recognition reconstruction of this thesis found neither “crime,” “hatred,” nor “racist.” The indicated statements are therefore urban legends, and they divert attention from the damning truth. We therefore recommend that material be used only if we can:

(1) Link to an original Web page (e.g. at BarackObama.com or the Trinity United Church of Christ)
(2) Show a screenshot of the material from its original Web page or .pdf document (e.g. Michelle Obama’s thesis)
(3) Provide a verifiable reference, which means a page number for something like “The Audacity of Hope”

Michelle Obama never said that the United States was “founded on crime and hatred,” nor did she say that white Americans are “ineradicably racist.” The following is, however, what she did write, and we can prove it with a screenshot of her thesis. This is the kind of material, and ONLY the kind of material, that we should circulate.

Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would use all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost. My experiences at Princeton have made me more aware of my “Blackness” than ever before.

…These experiences have made it apparent to me that the path I have chosen to follow by attending Princeton will likely lead to my further integration and/or assimilation into a White cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson [Obama], “Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” page 2

“use all of my present and future resources to benefit this [Black] community first and foremost” underscores Michelle Obama’s total lack of fitness to be First Lady of a multiracial and ethnically diverse nation like the United States. Extraneous and false quotations like those we have debunked, under the principle falsis in unum, falsis in omnibus, divert attention and even discredit the truth. If we were managing Obama’s campaign, we might even consider the distribution of false accusations to muddy the waters and dilute the very damning facts. Michelle Obama’s thesis continues,

Elements of Black culture which make it unique from White culture such as its music, its language, the struggles and a “consciousness” shared by its people may be attributed to the injustices and oppression suffered by this race of people which are not comparable to the experiences of any other race of people through this country’s history. However, with the increasing integration of Blacks into the mainstream society, many “integrated Blacks” have lost touch with the Black culture in their attempts to become adjusted and comfortable in their new culture–the White culture. Some of these Blacks are no longer able to enjoy the qualities which make Black culture so unique or are unable to share their culture openly with other Blacks because they have become so far removed from these experiences and, in some instances, ashamed of them because of their integration.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson [Obama], “Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” page 54

These are again the words of someone who is “not one of us,” i.e. someone who does not want to be part of mainstream American society. As opposed to the urban legend quotes, we can prove that Michelle Obama wrote this by posting this screenshot of her thesis. The screenshot allows a reader to verify independently that she wrote the item in question, and that we are not stooping to the National “Jewish” Democratic Council’s standard practice of omitting significant statements or taking words out of context.

Barack Obama’s “Dreams From My Father” reinforces the “Not one of us” perception, and our side merely does itself a disservice with urban legends like this one.

I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.

URBAN LEGEND quote from Barack Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope,” no page number given

Here is the truth, which we verified from our own copy of “The Audacity of Hope.”

Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific reassurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.

“The Audacity of Hope,” page 261 (paperback version)

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, and we agree with it. The United States’ treatment of Japanese-American citizens during the Second World War was shameful and dishonorable. Those citizens would have been their rights to disobey and ignore the Roosevelt Administration’s illegal and unconstitutional relocation orders. It would be similarly dishonorable and shameful to treat all Muslims, many of whom came here to escape the Stone Age barbarism of their home countries, as enemies or even suspects. On the other hand, the following verifiable quotes from “Dreams From My Father” demonstrate that Barack Obama is a Black Identity politician if not an outright Black Nationalist, a perception that the verifiable quotes from Michelle Obama’s thesis reinforces.

I would occasionally pick up the paper [Louis Farrakhan’s “The Final Call”] from these unfailingly polite men, in part out of sympathy to their heavy suits in the summer, their thin coats in winter; or sometimes because my attention was caught by the sensational, tabloid-style headlines (CAUCASIAN WOMAN ADMITS: WHITES ARE THE DEVIL). Inside the front cover, one found reprints of the minister’s [Farrakhan’s] speeches, as well as stories that could have been picked straight off the AP news wire were it not for certain editorial embelleshments (”Jewish Senator Metzenbaum announced today…”).

Dreams From My Father, p. 201

Barack Obama does not praise this hate speech, but he does not condemn it either. This is probably why he was so reluctant to “reject” Louis Farrakhan’s endorsement.

It contradicted the morality my mother had taught me, a morality of subtle distinctions–between individuals of goodwill and those who wished me ill, between active malice and ignorance or indifference. I had a personal stake in that moral framework; I’d discovered that I couldn’t escape it if I tried. And yet perhaps it was a framework that blacks in this country could no longer afford; perhaps it weakened black resolve, encouraged confusion within the ranks. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and for many blacks, times were chronically desperate. If nationalism could create a strong and effective insularity, deliver on its promise of self-respect, then the hurt it might cause well-meaning whites, or the inner turmoil it caused people like me, would be of little consequence.

If nationalism could deliver. As it turned out, questions of effectiveness, and not sentiment, caused most of my quarrels with Rafiq.

–Dreams From My Father, pp. 199-200

Barack Obama’s only quarrel with outright Black Nationalism involved questions of its effectiveness as opposed to morality, right, or wrong–which is pretty typical of everything he does.

That was the problem with people like Joyce [a college classmate of Italian, African-American, Native American, and French ethnicity]. They talked about the richness of their multicultural heritage and it sounced real good, until you noticed that they avoided black people. …The truth was that I understood [Joyce], her and all the other black kids who felt the way she did. In their mannerisms, their speech, their mixed-up hearts, I kept recognizing pieces of myself. And that’s exactly what scared me. Their confusion made me question my own racial credentials all over again. …To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.

“Dreams From My Father,” pages 99-100

Note how this statement is entirely consistent with Michelle Obama’s:

Elements of Black culture which make it unique from White culture such as its music, its language, the struggles and a “consciousness” shared by its people may be attributed to the injustices and oppression suffered by this race of people which are not comparable to the experiences of any other race of people through this country’s history. However, with the increasing integration of Blacks into the mainstream society, many “integrated Blacks” have lost touch with the Black culture in their attempts to become adjusted and comfortable in their new culture–the White culture. Some of these Blacks are no longer able to enjoy the qualities which make Black culture so unique or are unable to share their culture openly with other Blacks because they have become so far removed from these experiences and, in some instances, ashamed of them because of their integration.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson [Obama], “Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” page 54

To this may be added the following verifiable quotes from “Dreams From My Father.”

…I ceased to advertise my mother’s race at the age of twelve or thirteen, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites… (page xv)

I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though… (page 93) [http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/streetterms/ByAlpha.asp?strTerm=B, “Blow” = “Cocaine; to inhale cocaine; to smoke marijuana; to inject heroin”]

Barack Hussein Obama spent his early twenties smoking marijuana, drinking, possibly using cocaine, disowning his mother’s race, condemning a multiracial classmate for “acting white,” and dabbling in Black Nationalism with Rafiq al-Shabazz. Decorated Navy Captain John Sydney McCain spent his early twenties as a cadet at the U.S. Naval Academy, and then as a distinguished Navy officer who suffered years of abuse at the hands of enemy war criminals–the same war criminals whom Obama’s friend Jane Fonda supported during that conflict. The truth will utterly and totally destroy Obama’s campaign between now and November if we foster its growth and dissemination. Urban legends and out of context statements are weeds that obscure, dilute, and crowd out the things that will really help us.

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Additional example: the statement that Obama “won’t say the Pledge of Allegiance” is an urban legend that diverts attention from the truth: he won’t show proper respect for our National Anthem even while everyone around him is doing so. If we were an Obama supporter who wanted to divert attention from one of our candidate’s very real shortcomings, we would make up a false and easily disprovable story like “He won’t say the Pledge of Allegiance,” which could then be ridiculed with “He says the Pledge of Allegiance backward while worshipping Satan.”