Last week, I diaried here on the coming coordinated attempted swiftboating of Obama by Republicans, with a message of Obama's supposed "softness" on security issues. Such swiftboating is also, currently, being echoed by Hillary's campaign, in her desparate attempt to wrest the nomination away from Barack. Already, then, we are seeing this smear campaign by, among others, unindicted political criminal, Karl Rove, one of the leakers against Valerie Plame's covert CIA status and an architect of the political firings at the Justice Dept, and also - it should be added - a source of authority by Hillary. Of course, Hillary also has taken, in the past, political advice from this man.
Anyway, here is a recent attempt by Rove - with approval by the McCain campaign - to swiftboat Obama.
At the NRA convention in Kentucky this afternoon, Karl Rove portrayed Barack Obama as an effete, South Side liberal who claims he's immune to criticism and and who would confiscate guns by the barrel. The gun stuff is much less important than Rove's general line of argument; Rove has a direct line to McCain advisers Steve Schmidt and Charlie Black and has been pushing the campaign to make these sorts of contrasts.
Through a transcription provided by the wonderful Jamie Farnsworth of CBS News, it seems that Rove pulled the old anticipate-the-response card: "We know what he's going to say-- it's divisive, distractive, keeps us from coming together. After all, he says, we are the change we have been waiting for. what the heck does that mean?"
"Does it mean we've been keeping ourselves waiting? Why was change late anyway? I don't get it. let me tell you what's divisive. It is divisive to undermine the Second Amendment, to undermine to constitution of the United States."
More Rove: "It is divisive to say one thing and do another, to belittle the values of the people -- which is exactly what Obama was doing in San Francisco. Our answer is no we won’t."
This is so full of horseshit, that it is no wonder that Rove is called Turd Blossom by those at the White House whom he serves, but the not so bright Bush/McCain base will eat it up, nevertheless, and the corporate media will echo it, as mindlessly as they did previous GOP/Hillary attack lines.
As far as Obama claiming to be "immune from criticism," I'd remind everyone of this little moment.
Pressed to respond to critics who say he is ignoring the advice of respected former military commanders, Bush vigorously stood by Rumsfeld.
"I listen to all voices, but mine is the final decision," he said. "And Don Rumsfeld is doing a fine job. He's not only transforming the military, he's fighting a war on terror. He's helping us fight a war on terror. I have strong confidence in Don Rumsfeld.
"I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."
But the gist of this is to suggest that Obama is out to undermine to constitution of the United States. The gall of Bush's key advisor - of all people - feigning outrage at an undermining of the Constitution, when Rove/Bush have done all that they can do destroy the Constitution themselves, is just so blatantly apparent to anyone with a functioning brain. It would be nice to see the networks call Rove on his lies and his hypocrisy here; of course they won't bother.
Here is flip-flopping McCain also addressing the NRA.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Senator John McCain reached out to the National Rifle Association on Friday and warned 6,000 people at the group’s annual convention that a President Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton would put the rights of "law-abiding" gun owners at risk.
In a speech in one of two states where political primaries are to be held on Tuesday, Mr. McCain mocked Mr. Obama before the gun lobbying group he has tangled with in the past, but whose endorsement he now needs to help shore up conservative support.
"It seems every election, politicians who support restrictions on the Second Amendment dress up in camouflage and pose with guns to demonstrate they care about hunters," Mr. McCain said, "even though few gun owners fall for such obvious political theater."
While guns are obviously a wedge issue, easily distorted by lying scum like Rove or opportunistic panderers like McCain, here, in his own words, is what Obama actually believes about this issue. His stance seems pragmatic to me, rather than ideological and/or pandering.
Henderson: "I'm wondering if what happened at Virginia Tech, in your opinion, might alter the debate about gun control."
Obama: "It's early to make a full assessment on how this changes our politics and the public mood. I think all of us are still just overwhelmed with grief for the families and for Virginia Tech and obviously people here remember what happened at the university and how painful it can be (a reference to the shootings at the University of Iowa). I do think that the evidence so far at least indicates that you've got a young man who was mentally deranged, was identified as such, was temporarily committed and was still able to obtain handguns and so one critical question is, 'What happened to our background check system? Why did it fail?' and it seems like we should be able to come to some bipartisan agreement on making that background system, background check system work. The second area which may be fought by the NRA, but I think has to be looked at is the availability of 19-round clips. I'm a strong believer in the rights of hunters and sportsmen to have firearms. I'm a believe in homeowners having a firearms to protect their home and their family. It's hard for me to find a rationale for a 19-clip semi-automatic. I said at a forum earlier this week, 'If you need 19 rounds to shoot a deer, you probably shouldn't be hunting' and so that I think is something that we should be able to have a reasonable conversation about."
Henderson: "Do you think this is a prickly issue for Democrats?"
Obama: "The problem that we've had is that the overwhelming majority of gun owners use those firearms safely, secure them properly and I think would be amenable to reasonable gun control laws. The NRA's attitude has been that any restriction is an infringement on the rights of gun owners and you know because of the breadth of their membership and the large amounts of money that they have at their disposal, I think they are oftentimes able to scare law-abiding gun owners into thinking that Democrats are going to take away their rights and part of what I think we have to communicate is that we are committed to maintaining the rights of lawful gun owners, but that doesn't contradict the need to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill or put limits on the accessibility of semi-automatic weapons or make sure that straw purchasers aren't dumping firearms into our inner cities."
The Republican campaign, of course, has now reached the point of realization of Obama's inevitability as the nominee, and, predictibly, they are going after him with guns blazing (including somewhat literally, by this particular idiot.)
But as a reminder to the GOP, I'd repeat a point made recently by Frank Rich at the NY Times, that the Rovian attacks, while appealing to the Republican base, may not go over so well with more moderate and independent voters.
Hard as it is for Mr. McCain to run from the Bush policies he supports, it will be far harder to escape from Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney themselves. When Mr. McCain accepted Mr. Bush’s endorsement at the White House in March, he referred three times to the president’s "busy schedule," as if wishing aloud that the lame-duck incumbent would have no time to appear at, say, get-out-the-vote rallies. Alas, Mr. Bush and company are not going gently into retirement.
Just look at Mr. Rove. Some Democrats are outraged that he is now employed as a pundit by Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal as well as Fox News. Instead of complaining, they should be thrilled that Mr. Rove keeps inviting Republican complacency by constantly locating silver linings in the party’s bad news. His ubiquitous TV presence as a thinly veiled McCain surrogate has the added virtue of wrapping the Republican ticket in a daily and suffocating Bush bearhug, since Mr. Rove is far more synonymous with his former boss than Mr. Obama is with his former pastor.
Indeed!
Anyway, in my earlier diary, I had said that "faced with a weak candidate and a frightenengly strong opponents, along with a political climate that works against them, the GOP, through slimeball operators like Charlie Black, David Bossie, and Floyd Brown, are prepared, yet again, to engage in the filthiest possible campaign tactics. This has worked well for them in the past; we cannot let it do so this time, however."
I think that, quite simply, it's just a matter of calling bullshit as soon as the Rovians drop it. Hillary's dropping out of the race, hopefully a done deal soon, will help, as it will then give the Democrats a chance to unify as a party. While the outcome of the election may hinge, ultimately, on external events, the control of the message is also important. While luckily for us, we will have a very smart, very principled candidate, behind whom there appears to be a large reservoir or good will, we still need to continue to respond to slime by the Republicans.