Once Barack Obama became a viable option to win the Democratic nomination I began wondering how the Republicans were going to go after him. They had a trunk full of old crap that they were going to throw at Hillary Clinton but what exactly would be the ammo to blast Obama with?
The first thought I had was maybe they’d use their tried and true race baiting tactics but I quickly dismissed that as an option because, while it may work in smaller contests there is no way to successfully pull off, on a national level, the overt racism they used in 2006 against Harold Ford. So the question still remained as to how they would deal with Barack Obama?
For about a year now there have been small attacks on Obama coming from the conservative holy trinity (blogs, radio and Fox news): Obama won’t wear the flag pin; Obama won’t put his hand on his heart during the national anthem; Obama is a Muslim. It was a steady buzz from the right that never really caught on with the rest of the country. Then came Michelle Obama’s comments where she said that “for the first time in her adult life she was proud of this country” which set off a firestorm of outrage from The Right. But while the outrage was loud the incident seemed to blow over and Obama seemed no worse the wear for it.
Then came the Rev. Wright videos and it all fell into place…the Republican Party has their plan of attack and it is to frame the Obama's as angry, militant black folks who hate America and ya wanna know something scary? This plan of attack is going to work like a charm. The ammo is all there and even better they have video! The attack ads this fall are going to make the Swiftboat stuff pale in comparison. If they could make the public at large think a decorated war hero was an anti-American then making the black guy who attended the "racist church" for twenty years look anti-American will be a cakewalk.
Don’t believe me? Just take a look at the amateur vids that have already popped up and tell me that this won’t be a disaster for Obama once the professionals start putting these ads together.
