Commentary: Did Russert’s Playing the Farrakhan Card Have an Impact on Tuesday’s Primary Contests?
Date: Thursday, March 06, 2008
By: Gregory Kane, BlackAmericaWeb.com
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama lost three of four states in Tuesday’s primaries. Could the various “cards” his opponents are playing on him be working at last?
First there was the “Obama is a Muslim” card, the blatant falsehood being spread around the Internet. That was started by elements of what I call the Looney Right. Obama won 11 straight primaries in spite of the Muslim card, so apparently it didn’t work.
Then the Looney Right, obviously forgetting that the Cold War is over and that America won it, tried to play the “Red Scare” card. There were e-mails all over cyberspace questioning Obama’s patriotism and proclaiming that, horror of horrors, one of his campaign offices in Texas had a picture of Che Guevera on the wall.
The Looney Right did its best in trying to have a field day with the Red Scare/Che Guevara card. They went on a rant about what a mass murderer Guevara was for executing all those members of the Fulgencio Batista regime after Cuban rebels, led by Fidel Castro, came to power in 1959. They screamed about what a brutal communist dictatorship Cuba has been under Castro.
Unfortunately for the Looney Right, the facts tripped them up, and the Obama train kept right on chugging along. The few Americans who’ve visited Cuba -- and most haven’t, thanks to the Looney Right and a tiny mob of anti-Castro Cubans who control the entire state of Florida -- know the vile, despicable, unspeakable things supporters and soldiers of the Batista regime did to Cubans during the war that brought Castro to power. It wasn’t so much mass murder as mass justice.
Besides, what could be more unpatriotic than letting the anti-Castro nut jobs in Florida hijack American foreign policy toward Cuba for nearly 50 years? And that’s just what the Looney Right -- whose minions will be casting their votes for Sen. John McCain in November -- has done.
But it wasn’t the Looney Right who played the latest card, the one that seems to have worked. It took the ever-reliable media to dust off and play what may be one of the oldest and dirtiest tricks around: The Louis Farrakhan card.
During a debate on MSNBC last week, moderator Tim Russert questioned Obama about Farrakhan’s supporting his run for the White House (Farrakhan is losing his caginess; he’d have really started some ruckus had he uttered the four words, “I support Hillary Clinton.”). Here’s what happened next, according to a Chicago Sun Times editorial written by Deborah Douglas.
“Obama’s simple and articulate rejection of Farrakhan’s record of hateful rhetoric just wasn’t enough. Russert felt the need to repeat, blow by blow, some of Farrakhan’s more odious statements about Jews. What was he expecting Obama to say? Was he looking for Obama to say he agreed with some of the statements? Yeah, right.”
Then Clinton tried to split hairs on the subject by claiming that Obama should reject Farrakhan, as well as denounce him. Obama replied that there was no significant difference. But the question Russert should have asked both candidates was if either supports Israel’s 41-year military occupation of the West Bank that clearly isn’t working.
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen actually played the Farrakhan card in early January (Mind you, there have been no significant news stories about Farrakhan in the mainstream press for several years.). Cohen wanted Obama to express “outrage” about Trumpet Newsmagazine bestowing the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Trumpeter Award on Farrakhan.
Wright is the pastor of Obama’s church. Wright also has two daughters who are the magazine’s publisher and executive editor. When Farrakhan received the award, the magazine said that he “truly epitomized greatness.”
Cohen’s problem with Obama, the Wrights and Farrakhan boils down to this: Obama knows a Somebody A who knows a Somebody B who likes a Somebody C, who is a person of ill repute and bad character. But ALL of us, including Cohen, know a Somebody A who knows a Somebody B who likes a Somebody C, who is a person of ill repute and bad character.
I’d like to think that smart voters of all races, ethnicities and religions will see that the media dredging up the Farrakhan card just after Obama had won a string of victories just doesn’t pass the smell test (And mind you, I’ll be writing in Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s name when I cast my ballot for president in November, no matter who the Democratic nominee is.).
But playing the Farrakhan card may have worked to perfection in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island on Tuesday.
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