April 10, 2008

Obama’s Moderators Rush to Sanitize Campaign Site in Wake of Hate Speech Exposures
by Bill Levinson

We have written frequently that the first backward step in the presence of the opponent is usually the prelude to total collapse. Some time on April 9, the Obama campaign took the ominous backward step that shows that IsraPundit, Grizzly Groundswell, Atlas Shrugs, Little Green Footballs, Free Republic, The Husaria, and other patriotic blogs have inflicted massive damage on Obama’s Presidential ambitions, and that an all-out push is now in order.

Consider, for example, Ted Belman’s “Liberal Jews support Obama in part because they blame the Jews too,” which discusses Tony Wicher’s anti-Israel material at my.barackobama.com. Tony Wicher and his anti-Israel hate speech are now gone–but, thanks to the pages and screenshots we downloaded with this possibility in mind, not forgotten. Now for the comprehensive progress report.

“Obama Campaign Blog Consistent with Jeremiah Wright’s Hate Speech” summarizes blog entries at my.barackobama.com that contain various forms of hate speech. First and foremost, we have Tony Wicher of the Network of Spiritual Progressives (the Michael Lerner crowd). Wicher is the individual who used the phrase “Zionist thought police” while quoting Desmond Tutu on the “Jewish lobby.”

(1) We cited Mr. Wicher’s profile, which showed his point score as a my.barackobama.com participant. We now get Profile Not Found: The Profile URL you have entered does not exist.
(2) “A different relationhip with Israel: key to Middle East peace” called Israel “apartheid” and said that terrorism is justified. Now we just get ERROR: invalid page requested.
(3) “Worse than Apartheid” also comes up as ERROR: invalid page requested.
(4) Tony Wicher’s Blog for Peace: ERROR: invalid page requested.
(5) The same for Wicher’s other posts

Key talking points

(1) It has been argued that Obama’s campaign has not been harmed because his deletion of the offending material prevents us from using it further against him. This argument has the following defects.

(a) It has been accepted for centuries that the side that leaves the battlefield, whether physical or political, to keep from getting hurt is the loser. The side that has possession of the field when the sun goes down is the winner, and we have possession of the field. Obama had to give ground by modifying his Web site in direct response to our actions. When a contestant must modify his actions in response to such pressure he has, as Helmuth von Moltke would put it, “submitted to the law of the opponent.” We won, Obama lost, end of story.
(b) The hate speech has all been downloaded, and we can still propagate it under Obama’s name and picture.
(c) Whatever damage Obama mitigated by deleting Wicher’s material is offset by the implicit admission that this material has hurt his campaign badly. The first rule of swimming with sharks is not to get bitten. The second rule is, if you do get bitten, don’t show it by bleeding. The Obama campaign’s blood is in the water, and now is the time for a feeding frenzy. We must intensify this line of attack with the material we have already archived along with whatever else we might find at my.barackobama.com.
(d) We can now proclaim that Obama threw the Network of Spiritual Progressives under the bus, i.e. use Obama’s deletion of Tony Wicher’s Blog for Peace to humiliate some of Obama’s constituency.

(2) Obama’s supporters may argue that his deletion of this material shows that he did the right thing. We remind them, and our readers, that Wicher was posting this kind of material for more than a year, and Obama’s staff acted on it only after it became an Internet-wide scandal–just like the New Black Panther Party page at my.barackobama.com. We also remind our readers that Obama “rejected” Louis Farrakhan’s support only after Tim Russert and Hillary Clinton cornered him on national television. Obama gave ground on Wicher and the other hate mongers only because the aforementioned blogs and bloggers cornered him as well. Doing the right thing only because one gets caught and cornered doesn’t count.

Tony “Zionist Thought Police” Wicher is not the only Obama blogger to bite the dust,* or at least have postings deleted:

(1) “Hillary vs Obama: The Slavery Perspective” called African-American Clinton supporters “house slaves.” ERROR: invalid page requested
(2) “Free the Palestinian People” (the name speaks for itself) touted Walt’s and Mearsheimer’s “The Israel Lobby.” ERROR: invalid page requested
(3) Ruben’s “Ward Connerly is an Uncle Tom” ERROR: invalid page requested The same for his 9/11 conspiracy theories.
(4) “Jews Cannot Afford Not To Support Obama” (see IsraPundit), ERROR: invalid page requested
(5) Able Tuno’s blog that referred to Jews as “puppet masters.” The author of this blog has not yet written any posts. Please come back later, but here are screenshots of his material and another entry that says Jews control the media.

Now let us take a look at what was not deleted. Noting the massive effect that exposure of the material cited at IsraPundit and elsewhere had on Obama’s official campaign site, our readers should appreciate the desirability of circulating these stories as widely as possible.

(1) Dr. Levant, whose 2403 points put him/her in my.barackobama.com’s top decile, accuses the United States and Israel of waging war on civilians.
(2) Anna Hussein accuses Israel of “murdering” Rachel Corrie. Hussein’s blood libel of Israel states, “She was a peace and social justice activist that was purposefully run over and brutally killed by an Israeli Defense Force Caterpillar bulldozer when she was in Palestine trying to prevent a house from being bulldozed.” At least she did not claim that the IDF soldier made her blood into matzohs afterward.
(3) Announcement for the Wheels of Justice Tour, citing the International Solidarity Movement.
(4) “Perspective on why it is time for Barack Obama“ implies that African-Americans for Obama are “field Negroes” and Clintonites are “house Negroes,” and “Negroes” is not the word he uses.
(5) “The modern Uncle Tom is next to you!” denounces African-American Clinton voters as Uncle Toms.

These revelations hurt Obama’s campaign because they are consistent with his own behavior and history:

(1) Obama’s Dreams From My Father shows his involvement with Black identity politics, if not Black Nationalism.
(2) Obama chose to join the Trinity United Church of Christ with the full knowledge that Jeremiah Wright was already consorting with Louis Farrakhan, and had even accompanied him to Libya to meet with Moammar Khadafy. Obama says Wright is like a beloved uncle who often says things with which he disagrees, but we don’t choose our uncles. We do choose our pastors.
(3) Obama remained in a church, and then took his family to a church, whose pastor published (either personally or in the form of guest columns from extremists) blood libels of the United States and Israel while calling upon God to curse his own country. Then again, noting TUCC’s “non-negotiable commitment to Africa,” we wonder if Wright really thinks America is his country. Wright also publised an opinion piece from a Hamas terrorist named Marzook, along with the phrase “state” of Israel–as in “so-called state of Israel.” Obama’s hate-spewing pastor also suggested that the United States somehow deserved 9/11, much as Ward Churchill called the terrorists’ victims “Little Eichmanns.”
(4) Obama endorsed and promoted Al Sharpton and his National Action Network, whose records of inciting hatred of white people and especially Jews are well known.
(5) Obama refused to “reject” the support of the anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, and racist bigot Louis Farrakhan until Tim Russert and Hillary Clinton pressed him on it three times.
(6) Obama solicited and accepted the endorsement of MoveOn.org, whose record of welcoming anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic hate speech was amply demonstrated in 2006. MoveOn.org also published an anti-Catholic hate cartoon of the Pope waving a gavel in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as a vicious insult to a distinguished officer of our Armed Forces.

Had he quit TUCC (or not joined in the first place), rejected Farrakhan’s support the instant he mentioned it, refused Al Sharpton’s invitation to the National Action Network meeting last April, and refused to have anything to do with MoveOn.org, a rational person would probably have to conclude that the hate speech at Obama’s Web site was inconsistent with his beliefs, values, and actions. Since the opposite is true, however, we must conclude that the hate speech that Obama has only now decided to clean off his Web site is entirely consistent with his own behavior and actions.

* Mr. Wicher may have a new profile as “Anthony from Ontario CA,” and we will keep an eye on what he posts. He is still promoting Michael Lerner, but there is no overt anti-Israel or anti-Semitic hate speech in his recent post. Note also “Citizens of the World” for Barack Obama. Perhaps Obama would be happier as Secretary General of the United Nations than President of the United States.