If Barack is the nominee, how would the Repubs attack him?

[kentuck]

Would they say he went to a "madrasas" Muslim school? Would they subtly suggest to less naive voters that his middle name is "Hussein" but that he is really not related to Saddam Hussein? Of course, as we all know, the American voters are too smart to buy into any of the Republican crap? Right?

Perhaps, the Repubs would do none of the above? Perhaps, they would look at the "nominee" as the best qualified candidate to be President and, for once, would not resort to any character attacks? Or they would let their mouthpieces in the corporate media do their dirty work for them?

How do you think the Repubs might attack Barack if he is the nominee? Just asking? I would not want to see anyone fall into a trap into which they might not be able to escape...

[Warpy]

1. "Too young, no experience, MOSLEM middle name"

plus anything they care to make up, secure in the knowledge than no Democrat has ever had the guts to sue them for libel.

[LSK]

2. probably all of the above + the inexperience factor

They will also probably dig up some vote or amendment vote and make it seem bad on something.

[Norquist Nemesis]

10. Yes. They'll also try to use the same playbook for

land deals as they did with the Clintons. Before you know it, Obama will have committed murder and taken bribes to feed a cocaine habit. He smokes, afterall!

[skipos]

11. It is easy to smear senators that way.

That's why only 3 people have gone from the senate to the Whitehouse since Lincoln.

[twilight_sailing]

3. They will use thinly veiled racism.

[TransitJohn]

4. That's an easy one.....RACISM.

Remember what they did to Ford? The GOP plays the slimiest politics there are.

[Jim Warren]

6. Yupper

We're talking Virginia Slims here.

[idealistMO]

17. Halfrican

....as Limpballs calls him

[ChairmanAgnostic]

23. yup, and madrasas skuling, and librul, and more

no lie will be too slimy, no falsehood too unreal.

then again, that goes for any Democrat Party Nominee

[MasterDarkNinja]

28. I don't know about that, racism in a national election could backfire

In heavily GOP states like the south racism may work to get out the voters, but in the rest of America if they did that it would open them up to attacks of using dirty attack ads that appeal to racism and attacks of being a racist, which would certainly hurt their candidate in a lot of states.

The probably wouldn't need racism in their attack ads to win the states in most of the states where it would actually work.

[hippiechick]

5. choose ...

... there are several, IMO.

[emulatorloo]

7. They will slime any of our candidates. None of them will escape.

If we are looking for a candidate they won't slime, we are wasting our time. Because the right wing lie machine will work in overdrive on any of them.

[politicasista]

24. Spot on!

:hi:

[zulchzulu]

29. You took the keyboard letters right out of my Return key

Any and all candidates running for President will be thrown into the mainstream media meat grinder with the willing hands of the GOP.

I personally think that of all the declared top-tier candidates so far, Obama would be hurt less. It's a matter of how he (or whoever responds) back...

I say attack them first and ask questions later. If you look at the Tom Harkin template and how he's won many terms, you see how it's done. I saw him speak last fall and his strategy was to immediately attack his opponent...and ask questions later. Smashmouth politics...

[madame defarge]

8. They'll attack...

regardless of who the nominee is. Hopefully, the Dems have learned something from the Kerry campaign -- don't wait to respond & don't be nice with the response.

[Double T]

9. All previously mentioned. YOU haven't seen 'swift boating' till YOU......

see how THEY would annihilate HIM.

[AndyTiedye]

12. They Will Rally Their Base

[EstimatedProphet]

13. All of the above, plus a lot more

Isn't that what they've been doing already?

As far as them actually supporting Obama, fat chance. There is no such thing as a Republican who isn't racist.

[Treclo]

22. Ok- how can you say that?

I know many people who vote republican who I would not qualify as racist.

[caledesi]

33. I haven't met ONE Repub who thinks that the Civil Rights Act

was a good thing. Racism? Think about it.

As an aside, was talking w/ a 90-yr old Repub years ago who loved to golf. I asked her whether she thought Tiger Woods was good. Her response "Yes, I hope it doesn't go to his head, though." That's when I was introduced to Repub racism.

Take a stroll to FR...they refer to Muslims as "ragheads, towelheads, muzzies" etc

[EstimatedProphet]

34. I haven't met one that I would qualify as non-racist!

that's what I base it on. I think the party has become dominated by the dixiecrats that left in the 60's, and Nixon's southern strategy has become so ingrained in Repub methodology that it's second nature to them now.

[caledesi]

35. Good point EP. nt

[Colobo]

39. Mmm...

I was a Republican for several years, and I'm a Latino of African descent. Many Republicans are racists, but not all of them. In fact, I would many of them are not.

As the saying goes: "Not all Republicans are racist, but..."

[EstimatedProphet]

43. OK, that's one.

Nice to meet you!

[Tom Rinaldo]

14. Above ground or below ground?

They will be much nastier below ground with no tracable finger prints; expect chain mail emails with no tracable sources. They won't say a black shouldn't be elected President, they will "remind" people who's "welfare state" agenda Obama will be a slave to - ugly pun intended.

Above ground they will paint Obama has a liberal to the republican base, and as a boy being asked to do a man's job to moderates and independents.

[Totallybushed]

15. Nah.

They would just remind everybody how "articulate" he is. That should do it.

[kentuck]

16. Maybe the Repubs want Obama as the nominee...

Everyone will talk nice about him, even the Repub talking heads on the corporate media...until he is hte nominee?

[WI_DEM]

18. they would play the race card--same as they did with Harold Ford, Jr.

but I think that Barack Obama is too smart for them and will be ready.

[DavidDvorkin]

19. They'll make stuff up

And then they'll repeat it loudly and endlessly, in tones out outrage and self-righteousness. The media will cooperate, and eventually enough of the public will believe the invented stories.

That's what they'll do, whoever the candidate is.

[jobycom]

20. Not "would," but "will"

Keep in mind, they don't want to distort the truth about him. They want to fabricate completely a fantasy about him that will make people despise him. Look at what they did to Kerry and Gore and Clinton. Look what they are doing to Hillary Clinton now. Look at Harold Ford.

The Repubs will play the race card, subtly on the surface but agressively underneath. But that's too obvious, and some people would feel wrong if that were there only reason not to vote for him. So they will play into stereotypes. They will create some crooked land deal or some abuse of power. They will portray him as the head of some criminal network where he is using his position to enrich family and friends. Or protect them. They will create stories of womanizing. The usual stuff. Anything they can to portray him as the bad type of African American they all fear--one who likes white women and runs a crime network.

The only way the Republicans can win is by making people more afraid of our candidate than of theirs, so they have to demonize our candidate in the extreme. No normal mudslinging will be bad enough.

And people will buy it. Even some DUers. The rest of us will be horrified that Americans could sink so low.

[DavidDvorkin]

21. They'll make stuff up

And then they'll repeat it loudly and endlessly, in tones out outrage and self-righteousness. The media will cooperate, and eventually enough of the public will believe the invented stories.

That's what they'll do, whoever the candidate is.

[Nye Bevan]

25. Lack of experience with national security issues

which he should address with his VP choice. Wesley Clarke would be one possibility here.

[flowomo]

26. look here for some answers:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2694.html

[FyurFly]

27. Obama is a gun grabber n/t

[caledesi]

30. I lurk sometimes on FR.....they are saying the same things:

Empty suit
No Experience
Madrases
A Muslim
Big ears- Not too superficial (from the conversation he had w/ M. Dowd bec she wrote about a piece and mentioned his ears and Barack saw her and told her he was very sensitive about his ears).
Flash in the Pan
His middle name is HUSSEIN; doncha know?
They call him Osama of course
Shady land deal....debatable
He's a "Halfrican-American" (coined by their idol, OxyRush)
Did drugs, coke and stuff (Yeah, when he was a teen!)
He smokes. (BFD, like it's illegal....hey look at Laura B.still smoking away)

They are oh so angry bec they don't have dirt on this guy. They were even talking about someone digging up "dirt" on him. They are so sick.

Edit: forgot stuff.

[Radical Activist]

31. In ways that will alienate moderates.

People won't want to associate themselves with the racism that is sure to come.

[Radical Activist]

32. His background as a radical left winger will be attacked.

People here attack him for being too moderate, which is a joke, because they don't know his background. He worked for ACORN, for crying out loud. If you aren't familiar with them just realize that this is a very left wing organization. He had one of the most liberal records in the Illinois State Senate. That was fine since he represented a district where socialists have monthly meetings.

This will all come out in time. The fact that he was a "Community Organizer" and Civil Rights Lawyer sounds innocent until you look into what exactly he was doing. I like how liberal he is but sooner or later people who don't like it will use that to their advantage.

[blogslut]

36. They'll do it sideways

And pin the swift boating on Dems. I give the recent Insight magazine BS about the Obama/Madrassas rumour eminating from the Clinton camp as an example.

[amandabeech]

37. They'll say that he did not grow up in the real America, and thus

doesn't understand the "real America."

They'll talk about Hawaii and how exotic it is.

They'll talk about living as a native in Indonesia.

They'll talk about an exclusive private school.

They'll talk about the fact that his early male authority figures, his father and his step-father, did not live here for any length of time.

They'll ask what factors in his mother's personality led her to marry two non-Americans, and how those factors affected Barack.

They'll talk about how he went to Kenya before he completed a thorough tour of the U.S.

They'll ask whether his complex background has scarred him in some way that will become obvious later at a bad time.


I've already heard these comments from independents who can't stand Bush and are seemingly reasonable people otherwise. Some think that he's all hat and no cattle or an empty suit. These same folk don't care for Hillary, either, but can't remember much about Edwards. All others are off the radar.

[BlooInBloo]

38. Kinda the way DUers attack him. Go figure.

[GreenTea]

40. "He treated me like a damn colored boy".

As Vida Blue once said when meeting with known republican tight wad Charlie O Finley...Finley wanted Blue to change his name to a good old slave name, "True".

[Colobo]

41. Willie Horton Style!!!

"Obama is the man young white females should be afraid of!!!"

[treestar]

42. Their number one path of attack will be that he is "foreign"

They will harp on his Kenyan father and his years in Indonesia and keep calling his school that he went to a "madrassa." Repukes will not need their racism, they will use xenophobia).

Repukes are superficial.

His youth and "inexperience" will come next, along with the accusation that women will vote for him for his looks (when they tried with Dan Quayle, it didn't work that well and it pisses them off. They still maintain JFK won just for his looks. As if anyone couldn't beat Tricky Dick).

Senator Obama need only keep talking and showing up everywhere, so the People see he is not "foreign." Also bring out his black and white relatives where possible (the black ones if they are Americans now, not saying anything against them that they are black, even to repukes that is nothing compared to their being "foreign.")