If Barack Obama becomes the next President of the United States, he should remember his enemies kindly. Even before he was officially a candidate (he declared last Saturday) the hysterical fringe of conservative America had him in their sights. Unsurprisingly, they began with his name. Not only was the surname close enough to the mastermind of 9/11 to raise the hackles of any self-respecting bigot, but his middle name, Hussein, set you thinking of that madman in Iraq. Of course, while on the subject of dangerous Muslim types, there was also the allegation- reported in Insight magazine and duly parroted on Fox News- that he had gone to a madrassa school in Jakarta. When this delightful smear turned out to be completely untrue, Fox whispered an apology but Insight magazine retorted that their story had “reveal[ed] a media establishment choosing not to ask the tough questions about Obama’s Muslim past… Were his father and stepfather as secular as he says? What is the exact nature of Obama’s current religious affiliation…?”
Not to be outdone in this race to the bottom, right-wing radio talk show hosts started calling him a “Halfrican American” because of his mixed parentage, and Rush Limbaugh, the malevolence grise of talk radio, took the time to call him “Barack Hussein Odumbo”- apparently because he has big ears. Two weeks ago, a discussion of the Senator’s smoking even led Limbaugh to ask, impelled no doubt by his usual high standards of moral inquiry, “If he’s got fire in his hands, what has he got in his pants?” These are not the thoughts of an isolated man. Rush Limbaugh is syndicated on more than 500 radio stations, heard by 20 million listeners and paid more than two million dollars a month for such judicious commentary.
As if this were not enough, there are rumblings of discontent from within the black community too. Debra Dickerson, a columnist for Salon.com and author of the book, The End of Blackness recently opined that Obama was not really an African-American candidate because his personal history did not allow him access to the humiliations that most black Americans have suffered – Obama’s father was Kenyan and not the descendant of slaves. Her point gathers a certain force when you consider that the Senator used to be a distinguished lawyer, sinking so low as to let himself become President of the Harvard Law Review, that he has also written two bestselling books, and worse yet, appears to be happily married and devoted to his children. He has been known to talk intelligently for hours without having to consult a gaggle of PR consultants and pollsters. How can a man like this carry the burdens of black America? How could he ever hope to rise to the commanding platitudes and fatuous moralising of the Reverend Sharpton? Merely to ask is embarrassing.
A man cannot be too careful in his choice of enemies, said Oscar Wilde. On this basis alone, Senator Obama must be the envy of every other candidate, although Senator Clinton is no slouch in this regard-there are thousands of hate websites devoted to her. Of course, these slurs are offensive nonsense to most voters, but it may play a role at some stage in both campaigns when the Democrats are forced to decide once and for all who is really ‘electable.’ The ‘politics of personal destruction’ is not easily swept away. But perhaps it could be, if normal, decent Americans (thankfully, still very much a majority) decided to ignore these dreadful insinuations and to choose either candidate in the next election. A racial minority candidate or a woman, both smarter, more serious and vastly more engaging than the disastrous incumbent. And both of them capable of speaking to the wider world with a moral authority that America has lacked for several years. Imagine that.
