The GOP Swiftboating of Obama has Begun. A Taste of What's To Come

This is rather unorthodox, but I am reposting a diary I wrote and posted yesterday because I think this subject and issue are extremely important. Especially in light of last night's election results.

In 2004, I along with a few others, saw the threat posed by the Swiftboat Liars for Bush well befre even the Kerry campaign did. I still had a blog then, and I sent my readers to the Swiftboat website message boards to fact check and act as a truth squad. Eventually, we were all banned after making ourselves an irritant. I e-mailed people in the Kerry campaign with factual debunkings. I raised the alarm in numerous posts on my blog. But I didn't have enough of a megaphone to get them to pay attention.

Today, I see the strategy the Republicans will take against Barack Obama. They will paint him as a closet leftist. A wolf in sheep's clothing. And they will use anecdotes such as the one described below as a means to undercut Obama's appeal with indepedents and disaffected Republicans. This kind of attack will never make into the traditional media. But it will be circulated and pushed in the conservative media. It already is. We have to counter it. If a rightwing blogger writes about it -- flood his comments sections with rebuttals and defenses of Obama. Write letters and e-mails to newpapers or TV stations that run with the story. Liberal bloggers need to post their own debunking stories and diaries. We have to fight it.

Now, onto the diary from yesterday:

Making the wingnut-o-sphere rounds is a report from the Fox affiliate in Houston depicting a group of obama volunteers with a Che Guevara flag hanging in the office.

You know where this is going, right? The wingnuts will paint Obama's supporters as a bunch of neo-Marxist wackadoos. Actually, what do I mean "will?" They already have! From National Review:

The point is Obama seemed like a guy who seemed particularly moderate, thoughtful, who repudiated the "I Hate Republicans And Everything They Stand For" Howard Dean approach, and who seemed to be keeping a healthy distance from the no-enemies-to-our-left fringe. Seeing him enthusiastically backed by the hooray-for-Marxist-murderers crowd, well, it makes those of us who kind of liked Obama, policy differences aside, wonder if he's just a standard-issue leftist with nicer, deliberately evasive rhetoric.

What does it say that among these Obama volunteers, none of them thought to say, "hey, fellas, you know, this guy ran show trials and executions... Is this really the image of 'change' we want to project to the electorate?"

The Obama campaign says about the flag that:

The office featured in this video is funded by volunteers of the Barack Obama Campaign and is not an official headquarters for his campaign.

Now, whatever you may think about Che Guevara, what kind of a moron doesn't at least take that flag down before letting TV cameras into that office? You know it's got to offend some people. And it forces the Obama campaign to have to either distance themselves from your dumb ass, or go on defense having to explain it.

It may well be that the people in that office put up the flag as an ironic joke about being insurgents or underdogs or even revolutionaries, etc. But that message is too subtle and will be lost on the audience. ESPECIALLY IN HOUSTON!

Use some common sense people. Frankly, I think the Obama people should have the above explanation in a can somewhere ready to produce in the event this things gets blown out of proprtion as this stuff often is.

Especially since Obama is perceived as a more moderate, less divisive politician by even conservatives. This is exactly the kind of thing that could come back to haunt him in a general election campaign. Do not be surrised if this is blasted all over the wingnut-o-sphere and Freeperland.

So, the Obama campaign needs to be prepared to go beyond merely blaming it on some overenthusiastic volunteers. They need to Nip It In The Bud as Deputy Fife would say.

UPDATE: Yup. Its all over the place and is a cause celebre among the usual wingnut suspects.

The Obama campaign needs to nip this in the bud NOW! Or it will gain a pereverse sort of momentum.

ANOTHER UPDATE: This has now spread to talk radio. Reports are that Glenn Beck and Laura Ingraham have already brought this up. Hannity, Limbaugh, Savage and the rest of those assholes will not be far behind. People here and elsewhere who take this lightly, or dismiss it are fooling themselves and doing Barack Obama no good at all.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Even Glenn Reynolds is getting in on the act. Although, in his case, it's rather funny considering that his father was an antiwar protester during the early 70's.