This is the first article in a series entitled; "Anatomy of an Anti-Obama Smear Campaign". The purpose of this series is to explore the history and impact of concerted efforts by Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff to impugn the reputation of Senator Barack Obama and generate doubts about his electability by means of smear and whisper campaigns.
The 2008 Democratic presidential campaign began on such an inspiring note. The candidate field as a whole was the best in years, and included Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who, in particular, were two intelligent, skilled, historic candidates.
With approval ratings for incumbent Republican president George W. Bush ranking among the lowest of any American president ever, conditions are favorable for the Democratic Party to retain their congressional majorities and regain control of the White House in 2008.
Before the current primary season concluded the Democratic Party seemed positioned to benefits from a win-win situation regardless of which candidate won the presidential nomination.
But unbeknownst to many Democrats, as much as a full year before the first vote was cast in the Iowa caucus on January 3, 2008 faint rumblings of what eventually emerged as a long and sleazy descent into gutter politics was made public in a printed report by CNN.
And now that the primary season has ended and Senator Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic presidential nomination a former top ranking Clinton campaign official has been revealed that he spoke to high ranking Clinton campaign officials who discussed the use of racially divisive political strategies to exploit tensions between Jews and African Americans in order to win the Jewish vote.
The Democratic Party seemed positioned to enjoy a win-win situation regardless of which of its leading candidates won the presidential nomination in November 2008.
But a full year before the first vote was cast in the Iowa caucuses on January 3, 2008 the first faint rumblings of what eventually unfolded as a long and sleazy descent into a brand of gutter politics usually reserved for Republican pols was reported by CNN.
And now that the primary season has ended and Senator Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic presidential nomination a former top ranking Clinton campaign official has revealed that he talked with Clinton campaign officials who discussed the use of racially divisive political strategies to win over the Jewish voters.
In an interview with Newark Star-Ledger, Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J), a superdelegate stated:
"...a Clinton official discussed with him over the phone a strategy that would use tensions between the Jewish and Black communities to Clinton's advantage. Andrews, who was a Clinton supporter, was at the time making a bid to unseat Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.). Andrews lost to Lautenberg in a primary this week.
"Frankly, I had a private conversation with a high-ranking person in the campaign ... that used a racial line of argument that I found very disconcerting," Andrews told the newspaper. "It was extremely disconcerting given the rank of this person. It was very disturbing."
The Clinton campaign issued the following angry response to Mr. Andrews’ allegations:
"Comments like these, coming so soon after Congressman Andrews' crushing defeat, are sad and divisive," said Clinton spokesman Phil Singer.
Rep. Andrews has not retracted his accusation that Sen. Clinton’s campaign discussed using racially divisive political strategies to win the Jewish vote.
Other news sources, however, have confirmed that the Clinton campaign engaged in ongoing efforts to foment racial and Islamophobic anger and to trigger resentment against Senator Obama by various Democratic constituent groups in order to diminish his electability thereby triggering a loss of the 2008 GE in the event he wins the Democratic nomination.
The first evidence of a link between Senator Clinton’s campaign and an anti-Obama whisper campaign appeared in a January 3, 2007 article by CNN News JAKARTA,Indonesia report entitled;" CNN Debunks False Report About Obama".
The article was based on an investigation by CNN of allegations that Sen. Barack Obama was educated in a radical Muslim school known as a "madrassa", CNN’s investigative reporters visited Mr. Obama’s childhood school in Indonesia and interviewed his school master and current students to determine whether the rumor was true. The report concluded that the rumor was false and that it was part of a whisper campaign aimed at fomenting Islamophobic fears and derailing Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign.
Moreover, the CNN report also included the following statement confirming that the rumor was linked to the presidential campaign of Sen. Clinton.
"Insight Magazine, which is owned by the same company as The Washington Times, reported on its Web site last week that associates of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, had unearthed information the Illinois Democrat and likely presidential candidate attended a Muslim religious school known for teaching the most fundamentalist form of Islam."
The next indication of the Clinton’s campaign involvement in an anti-Obama smear campaign appeared in a December 12, 2007 Washington Post article that reported that Billy Shaheen who at that time was the co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign in New Hampshire, raised concerns about Sen. Obama’s relative electability while discussing the Illinois Senator’s past admissions of drug use.
Mr. Shaheen’s strategy and by extension, the Clinton strategy was to engage in pre-swiftboating political strategies using Republican smear tactics to diminish Senator Obama’s relative electability.
The WaPo article included the following statement by Billy Shaheen:
"The Republicans are not going to give up without a fight ... and one of the things they're certainly going to jump on is his drug use,"
The Clinton campaign's smear strategy as executed by Mr. Shaheen provided fodder for Republican talking points in the fall if Mr. Obama won the nomination. Shaheen’s "concerns" about Mr. Obama’s youthful experimentation with drugs was further stoked by major news outlets who picked up the story and ran it through several news cycles.
Shaheen’s successful efforts to bring Sen. Obama’s previous experimentation with drugs to the forefront of public awareness by influencing news reports exemplified the considerable power a political opponent can draw on to inflict damage on a candidate by manipulating public opinion.
Two days after the AP article first appeared, Billy Shaheen resigned from Senator Clinton’s campaign and issued an apology to Sen. Obama. But of course, by that time, the goal of creating doubts about Mr. Obama’s character and electability had already accomplished.
All campaigns perform extensive research into their opponent's voting record and personal life. This so-called "opposition research" involves searching databases, combing through press clips, and asking questions of people who know (and preferably dislike) your opponent. It's not hard to turn up something a candidate would rather not see on the front page of The Boston Globe.
But, for a smear campaign to be effective, it does not have to be entirely true. The most effective smears are based on a kernel of truth and applied in a way that exploits a candidate's political weakness. An example follows.
On February 25, 2008, a photo of Mr. Obama dressed as a Somali Elder, during his visit to Wajir a rural area in northeastern Kenya was published in the Drudge Report The photo served to reinforce the broader effort by the Clinton campaign to foment Islamophobic biases against Senator Obama. Matt Drudge, the owner and publisher of Drudge Report, included the following caption above the photo:
"Clinton Staffers Circulate 'Dressed' Obama". He also included this statement: "In December, the campaign asked one of its volunteer county coordinators in Iowa to step down after the person forwarded an e-mail falsely stating that Barack Obama is a Muslim."
Politicians who become the subjects of smear campaigns must respond quickly and forcefully in order to minimize their impact on public opinion.
Senator Obama’s campaign’s response to Hillary Clinton included the following statement:
"On the very day that Senator Clinton is giving a speech about restoring respect for America in the world, her campaign has engaged in the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we’ve seen from either party in this election. This is part of a disturbing pattern that led her county chairs to resign in Iowa, her campaign chairman to resign in New Hampshire, and it’s exactly the kind of divisive politics that turns away Americans of all parties and diminishes respect for America in the world," said Obama campaign manager David Plouffein an e-mail sent to RAW STORY and other news outlets Monday morning.
This concludes part one of "Anatomy of an Anti-Obama Smear Campaign".
I'll will be away from home running the usual Saturday afternoon errands for the next few hours. I'll check back in when I return.