NASHVILLE — Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Robin Smith today defended using “Barack Hussein Obama” in a news release criticizing the Democratic presidential candidate despite GOP nominee John McCain’s calling such characterizations “totally inappropriate.”
A news release posted Monday on the state GOP’s Web site, titled “Anti-Semites for Obama,” includes U.S. Sen. Obama’s middle name, Hussein, as it attacks support of the Democratic frontrunner by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, among others.
The state GOP release also features a picture of Sen. Obama, whose father was African, in Somali dress and turban.
In a statement, Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Gray Sasser said “the tone and the accuracy of this release unfortunately is what we have come to expect from the Tennessee Republican Party in recent times, and this release is the worst of the bunch.”
Mr. Sasser said the release “amplifies misinformation, discredited tall tales, and Internet innuendo to appeal to the worst in people.”
During a campaign rally Tuesday in Ohio, a conservative radio talk show host who helped introduce Sen. McCain referred to Sen. Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama,” according to news accounts.
Sen. McCain was quoted by The New York Times saying “whatever suggestion that was made that was any way disparaging to the integrity, character, honesty of either Senator Obama or Senator (Hillary) Clinton was wrong. I condemn it, and if I have any responsibility, I will take the responsibility, and I apologize for it.”
Mrs. Smith said the state Republican Party “stands by that press release.”
“That was simply a response out of this office stating that in this state, in the state of Tennessee, the values of Tennessee are not reflected by Louis Farrakhan and his anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment,” she said. “And when you have someone by the name of Barack Hussein Obama on the ticket, just like Richard Milhous Nixon, like Hillary Rodham Clinton, like John Fitzgerald Kennedy, like Dwight D. Eisenhower, whatever, it’s not the first time someone’s middle name has come into interest.”
McCain spokeswoman Crystal Benton said in a statement that “Senator McCain has made clear that he rejects these sort of tactics and will campaign on his record.”
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.
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For starters, "Hussain" is part of the man's name, just as Hillary's middle [maiden] name of "Rodham" is hers. If either Senator resents or dislikes any part of their name, they are free to change it. Barack was known throughout his "early years" as Barry, although he has apparently dropped that one. [See wikipedia.com]
But let's face it; McAmnesty is on the liberal side of the aisle and if he dislikes or resents us conservatives, then he should stop trying to woo us by using a conservative to introduce him and then throw the guy under the bus for his intro.
Another reason I will write in Thompson or someone...Mac can't be trusted.
Lou Dobbs Considers, Whether To Hussein Or Not To Hussein, Barack Obama
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/25...
On February 27, 2008, Lou Dobbs invited the American public to rename Barack Obama, according to their will, rather than to use the name he calls himself. Conspicuously absent from that invitation was, authorization to call him, Louis Carl Dobbs.
Why doesn’t Lou Dobbs think that “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander?” Perhaps it’s what Jennifer Aniston calls a missing sensitivity chip, but in things racial it's called the legally blonde syndrome.
In the movie, Legally Blonde, millions of Americans watched the only African American, in a law school classroom, get thumped in the head by the instructor, for no reason — But what’s more shocking than what was done, was the reaction to it. There wasn't any. Not in the movie, from the student observers; not in the media reviews of the movie; not in the public discourse. The physical and emotional abuse of an African America, in front of his peers, in a prestigious law school, went unnoticed. The reason is that Americans have been desensitized by a racist culture, and Legally Blonde is an example of the stimuli that produced it.
Telling in the discourse about whether to Hussein, or not to Hussein, Barack Obama is the fact that what he wants to be called never comes up. Instead, the discourse centers around what his name means, where it comes from, how it's perceived, and whether or not people think they should use it. It is as if they don't know that people take, what they are called, personal —
In considering what’s good for Barack Obama, Lou Dobbs forgets what he knows. Namely, that in American culture, individuals are allowed to be in charge of what they are called. Consequently, to us, Tom Cruise is not Thomas Cruise Mapother IV; Halle Berry is not Halle Maria Berry; Gwyneth Paltrow is not Gwyneth Kate Paltrow; Angelina Jolie is not Angelina Jolie Voight and in this political race, Hillary Rodham Clinton is not Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton; John McCain is not John Sidney McCain; Mike Huckabee is not Michael Dale Huckabee; and he is Lou Dobbs and not Louis Carl Dobbs.
Calling people by the name they hold out to us is a matter of respect. Lou Dobbs should practice being respectful to Barack Obama by calling him by the name that he holds out for himself. After all, what’s good for a news commentator is good for a United States Senator. Especially a Senator who is poised to become a candidate for the Presidency of the United States of America.
Kudos to John McCain for taking firm action to uphold the dignity of the first African American to become a viable candidate for the Presidency.