Obama’s Thousands of Youthful, Unemployed Supporters Know How to Silence Critics

Throughout the Democratic primary and the ensuing weeks of the general election, I’ve been concerned about the tactics of Barack Obama’s mostly youthful and otherwise unemployed netroots supporters who number in the thousands. I’ve often seen them flood a message board with hundreds of hate-mongering comments the instant a writer says something that dares criticize their idol for any reason whatsoever.

And heaven help the TV pundit who challenges Obama. It was common practice during the primary for debate moderators to ask Hillary Clinton tough questions while going easy on Obama. That changed on April 16, 2008 when ABC hosted the Philadelphia face off between the two remaining Democratic candidates. Moderators Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos asked Obama several uncomfortable questions, which quickly put him on the defensive. By Friday morning, more than 19,800 comments were posted on ABC News' Web site, the tone overwhelmingly negative.

With only a few weeks left before the election on Nov. 4, Obama’s supporters continue the vicious, high-pressure tactics they perfected during the primary. Anne Woolner at Bloomberg.com has posted an article titled Silencing Critics Using the Barack Obama Method and although I certainly deplore the likes of David Freddoso, I’m personally very glad that someone else has finally noticed the threat to free speech by Obama's supporters.

Woolner writes:

“Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama campaigns as if only Thomas Jefferson could match his devotion to free speech and open government.

‘“He co-sponsored a 2006 law that put more government information, such as earmarks, online and now wants to expand it. He says he would ‘shine the light’ on things like how much lobbyists spend to swing which federal contract for what clients and tax breaks for special interest groups. As president, he would post online bills that reach his desk for five days before signing.

‘“And yet, when trying to squelch debate about the more troubling aspects of his candidacy, any Jeffersonian instincts evaporate.

‘“When WGN-AM Radio in Chicago scheduled a two-hour interview last week with David Freddoso, who wrote ‘The Case Against Barack Obama,’ the campaign sent out an alarm to supporters, sparking an avalanche of angry phone calls to the station.”’

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Palins Announce 17-year-old Bristol's Pregnancy

The Obama online shock troops had already become indistinguishable from Rush Limbaugh’s followers. There they were – a few hours after she stepped on the national stage –blanketing the Internet with hate-mongering rumors accusing Gov. Sarah Palin of lying about giving birth to her fifth child last April and suggesting that her son Trig was actually her 17-year-old daughter’s child. Even Andrew Sullivan joined the stampede to ruthlessly destroy Palin’s credibility before her candidacy could get off the ground.

Today, in an attempt to squelch the above rumors, Gov. Palin announced that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. As reported by ABC’s Jake Tapper, the statement from Gov. Palin and her husband Todd reads:

“We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us.”

“Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned," they continued, referring to their 17-year-old daughter. "As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support."

The Palins said that "Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media, respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates."

Tapper added,

“The campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who announced Palin as his running mate just three days ago, said the Palins would have no further comment.”

As to be expected, hundreds, if not thousands, of Obama supporters are piling on in readers’ comments responding to news of Bristol Palin’s pregnancy at leading left-wing Web sites. Needless to say, the barbed remarks from the lefties continue to be indistinguishable from those you might expect from the extreme right if the situation were reversed.

Pundits Continue to Exorcise Their Misogynist Demons by Bashing Hillary

The pundits haven’t quite got their crude misogynist feelings out of their system yet. A competent powerful woman ran for president and garnered a majority of the popular vote – how threatening that must be to the likes of E. J. Dionne, Eugene Robinson, Bob Herbert, David Brooks, Mark Shields, Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, Keith Olbermann, et al, not to mention their codependent female allies, including Maureen Dowd, Arianna Huffington, and Susan Thistlethwaite.

So even after the weaker candidate, Barack Obama, has been handed the nomination, the sadistic, hate-mongering members of the media continue to trash Hillary Clinton for taking a couple of days to process events and prepare for Obama’s coronation.

Yet - even in that cesspool of misogynist gloating over at the Huffington Post - there’s a glimmer of gratitude to Hillary Clinton for her hard-fought campaign. I’m speaking of today’s post by Ilana Goldman, President, Women's Campaign Forum. In “An Open Letter to Hillary,” Goldman writes:

Dear Hillary -

I say this to you almost daily, but since it's normally to you on the TV screen, I thought I should find a way of saying it where you might actually receive the message: Thank you.

Thank you for what you have done. For your sheer tenacity, strength, and stick-to-itiveness. Thank you for working so hard every day when you must have been exhausted. For showing us what leadership looks like: doing something well, with grace, in good times and bad. Most of all, I thank you for not quitting.

Your many supporters will tell you what your race means to them and history will write what it means to the world, but it also means so much to me and to the little world I live in. I thank you on behalf of the women who have been so special in my life:

For my daughter -- who is, as of yet, just an idea in my mind. But I imagine her one day reading the story of this historic campaign. I am so grateful that the story she will read will be of a complete campaign, with the biggest numbers possible -- states, votes, and delegates. That story will show that our first woman presidential contender was truly competitive -- like, nearly won competitive - and show a little girl her own vast possibilities in this country. Thank you for giving her a history worth reading.

For my mother -- who is one of those women who work tirelessly to support her family, worries over rising healthcare costs and frets that her grandchildren may not have social security. She's always been passionately interested in politics, but never before found a politician who she felt understood her. She'll be 65 next year and she wrote the first political check of her life to you. Thank you for validating the day-to-day concerns that she faces.

For my grandmother -- who was, as it was noted at her memorial, "a woman ahead of her time." I think of her every time I see one of your senior women supporters who were born before women first got the vote and were out on the streets filled with hope that they would inaugurate one in their lifetimes. Thank you for showing them that their efforts to make women loud and proud actors in American politics created real change.

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The Obama Campaign’s Idea of the “New Politics”

Photo credits: AP

a. The Obama team unleashes a viciously false negative attack ad in Ohio focusing on Hillary Clinton's universal health care plan.

b. Obama defends the ad during the Ohio debate as “just politics."

a. The Clinton campaign releases an ad legitimately questioning Obama's national security credentials.

b. The Obama camp goes ballistic over Clinton’s challenge to his scant qualifications for the presidency.

a. Throughout the campaign, the Obama team repeatedly plays the race/religion card by distorting and twisting to the farthest extreme possible the words of anyone affiliated with the Clinton campaign.

b. After weeks of non-intervention, Obama finally hangs his head in a televised debate and admits the civil rights record of the Clintons is above reproach.

a. In the aftermath of Clinton’s recent wins in Ohio and Texas, the increasingly desperate Obama campaign once again tries to play the race card by distorting comments by Sen. Clinton on 60 Minutes.

b. MediaMatters.Org and other reputable sources effectively debunk the above distortions of Sen. Clinton’s comments.

a. A senior Obama adviser is caught crossing the line with a derogatory remark about Sen. Clinton in an interview with a Scottish newspaper.

b. Obama supporters on message boards at news sources across the internet inexplicably defend the Obama campaign's right to make derogatory remarks about Sen. Clinton to the foreign press and intensify their typically vile, hate-mongering assaults on Sen. Clinton.

The foregoing is a quick summary of the "new politics" practiced by the Obama campaign and Obama's online supporters.