Media Rooting for an Obama ‘Tragedy’?
Barack Obama can take heart in one possible result of his unexpected New Hampshire loss Tuesday; perhaps his friends and supporters in the media will quit spending so much time and energy predicting and promoting his assassination.
Dark fantasies of Obama’s pending death have been brewing for over a year, well before his win over Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucuses on January 3. His recent success has proven to be fertile ground for those promoting more paranoia.
A day after the Iowa caucuses, Huffington Post contributor Joseph A. Palermo wasted no time in stating that Obama might be assassinated, and went so far as to preemptively assert blame:
In 2008, Obama is gaining momentum, and hopefully people inside his organization are cognizant of the fact that he constitutes a very real threat to the likes of Blackwater, Dyncorps, Halliburton, and the hundreds of other private companies currently profiteering from the Iraq occupation…
… Let’s hope that the Blackwater elements can be thoroughly flushed out of the federal security services. Let’s also hope that the Secret Service does a better job protecting Obama in the coming election year than Pakistan’s ISI did in protecting Benazir Bhutto, who didn’t live to see election day.
Two days later another Huffington Post contributor, Robert Brustein, carried the assassination meme forward:
After the recent murder of Benazir Bhutto, we realize once again that nothing excites the forces of hate and fear more than the prospect of decency and reconciliation. And if Obama wins the New Hampshire primary, as now looks likely, the incidence of violence on the campaign trial will increase exponentially.
On the day of the New Hampshire primary, numerous polls (wrongly) indicated that Barack Obama would defeat Hillary Clinton by a substantial margin. Three foreign news organizations used the occasion of a pending Obama victory to push the meme yet further.
Phillip Adams of The Australian opined:
BARACK Obama is crazy brave. His victory in Iowa puts him in the crosshairs of many a gun-toting racist for whom the thought of a black president is an abomination.
The prospect, even the likelihood, of assassination played a significant role in Colin Powell’s decision — and that of his wife — to abandon any thought of a presidential run.
They were thinking hat-trick: Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Colin Powell. As was Ted Kennedy when he abandoned any White House ambitions: Jack, Bobby, Teddy.
Across the US, a fatalism was provoked by a culture of pervasive violence, hundreds of millions of guns, conspiracy theories, and bitter experience.
Just how Mr. Adams knows a hypothetical assassin was thinking “hat-trick” goes unexplained. Nor did he explain how he arrived at the determination that “many a gun-toting racist” is actively targeting the Illinois senator. Perhaps he had John Edwards channel that for him, as evidence for that charge is certainly lacking elsewhere.
From Toby Harnden of the British Telegraph, we find this gem:
A few voters even say they are reluctant to vote for Mr. Obama because a Southern racist might shoot him.
“There are people in this country who will not accept a black president,” said Marvin Henderson, 32, at a Bill Clinton rally in Amherst, New Hampshire. “Even before he got elected, I think some redneck or the Ku Klux Klan would try to do something about it.”
Any possible assassin may be racist and is therefore Southern according to Harnden, who goes quite a bit further than the generalized “some redneck” of the person he interviewed. We have found our bigot; it turns out that he is a reporter armed with little more than a dulled mind.
By comparison, Diane Francis was sedate in her Canadian National Post column:
It is hardly surprising to learn that Barack Obama now enjoys the same level of Secret Service protection that President George Bush does. It’s also a necessary development.
The blogosphere is buzzing with threats and fears about his safety and the speculation has more to do with his religion than with his race. It represents a notably frightening development.
But where are these threats against Barack Obama coming from in the blogosphere and on other corners of the internet, and who is making them?
The simple answer is “the usual suspects” — the pundits themselves.
The first 100 results of a Google search for “Obama assassination,” along with the first 100 results of a Yahoo! search for “assassinate Obama,” lead to news articles discussing vague claims of online threats against Barack Obama, and the response of bloggers talking about the vague threats mentioned in the news articles in an apparently baseless, self-feeding cycle. There is no “there,” there.
Like the myths of his messianic ascendance, rumors of Barack Obama’s pending martyrdom are greatly exaggerated.
Bob Owens blogs at Confederate Yankee.
Forget home-grown racists. How about Muslims who could do something because Obama is a ‘lapsed Muslim.’ That is actually more likely!
Unfortunately, for many of these sickos in the press and elsewhere, vindication of their world view is the most important thing.
For them, this story is like putting one chip on a number at the roullette wheel: the prognostication comes up big if it hits, not a big deal in the likely event it doesn’t.
It’s up to readers to “up the cost” of such unseemly speculation by denouncing how casually irresponsible it is when used like this.
Once again — after a long hiatus — I come over here for this trash? You cite a few blogs and other “media” I’ve never read or heard of. The truth is that PAJAMAS MEDIA is the sleazy blog trying to grab a sensationalist angle and get some attention. Listen, next time you go after a real scoop (for example, reporting the death of the Ayatollah, again) get it right. Then maybe you’ll earn the right to be read. Good luck.
They were thinking hat-trick: Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Colin Powell. As was Ted Kennedy when he abandoned any White House ambitions: Jack, Bobby, Teddy.
ROFL.. That’s really why Ted Kennedy gave up his presidential aspirations? Really?
I don’t even have a joke here, the quote above is funnier than anything I could have possibly come up with.
Hmmmm, magical thinking abounds!
First we anoint Obama as JFK, then wait for some redneck to assassinate him. When that happens, BLAM-O! Jim, Jimi and Janis return from the dead, David Crosby’s liver regenerates and Keith Richards becomes coherent! Yes, Folks, it’s return to the Sixties! Let’s all drop acid and head for Woodstock! No, ma’am, no need to worry! This is extra-strong ju-ju! We sacrificed the Black one first this time!
Or something like that….
Sirhan Sirhan still locked up?
And once again it’s the loony Left that fantasizes about a black candidate getting gunned down. The racism on the Left should be startling, except that it’s just so pervasive.
Has anyone actually found a racist site advocating an Obama assassination? I only ask because it takes about 10 seconds to google up hundreds of Leftist sites advocating a Bush assassination.
Who’s kidding whom?
It would be interesting to watch how the media would spin that TeachESL. On that same note if it was a muslim extremeist who assassinated Obama we really would see a spike in anti muslim violence as the black community would go off on them. That would also present the msm with a large problem of how to cover it.
So let’s see, of the killings mentioned, King, Robert Kennedy, JFK, Malcolm X, one killer was a Southern racist (King’s). JFK was killed by a communist, Robert Kennedy by a Palestinian, and Malcolm X by a black Muslim.
How ’bout: Jack, Bobby, Chappaquiddick?
Makes much more sense to me.
All the examples are from the HuffPo or foreign press. I think this shows more about the mindset of reporters/commentators about the “red state” American stereotype than it does about modern race relations and poltics.
Adams mentions Malcolm X? So he thinks Black Muslims will kill Obama?
The morons are astride the saddle of history.
Chris Rock used to have a routine where he talked about why we’ll never have a black vice president, because some black would then kill the President, go to jail and be king of prison. It was funny.
Truth is if Obama is afraid of assassination he should balance the ticket by picking Colin Powell as his Vice President. That would give him international credibility and both of them the security neither might have singly.
Paranoia is freqently generated by a desire to attribute to others an unacceptable wish that we ourselves possess. I believe the phenomenon is called “projection”.
His biggest security threat comes from an Arkansas crime family by the name of Clinton.
I don,t want to mention this becouse its little too early to pridict he may win the race but we,ll see the last run and who will wins?
This most recent idiocy is further evidence that Barack Obama, whether he likes it or not, has become the “black candidate.” He may have desired for his campaign to transcend the issue of race—but that has turned into wishful thinking. Ultimately, many blacks will stay home if Hillary Clinton wins the nomination. This will result in a Republic victory in November. One should never forget that only a small drop in black participation dooms the democrats. Some estimate that a drop of a mere six percentage points is enough to do the trick.
Violent radicals of the KKK type are getting pretty rare these days. After Oklahoma, the govt keeps a pretty close eye on them. The Black Muslim scenario is actually the most likely. According to Daniel Pipes, Obama is probably viewed as a Muslim apostate by at least some Muslims. I really doubt that the Secret Service would allow any Middle Eastern Islamofascist type folks to get close enough, but Black Muslims would be viewed as a natural part of his base.
If Clinton wins the nomination based on the overwhelming support of White Democratic voters, it will send the message that, according to the White liberal masters, the Black man must get in line behind the White woman, because it’s not his time yet, because THEY say so.
Jewish Democrats in states with large Jewish populations will vote 95% for Clinton. This will really P off Blacks, who in the aftermath of the whole Black Power movement of the 60s, have become the most antisemitic group of Americans.
Anyone out there remember the Crown Heights riots? Liberal identity politics is gonna blow up in the Democrat’s faces big time. After over 30 years of making politics aoout good guys vs. bad guys, victim groups vs. “the man”, as opposed to actually debating issues and ideas, the Dems have really stepped in it by pitting Hillary against Obama. The Dems will destroy each other, and Main St. America will be reaching for the barf bags.
“Once again — after a long hiatus — I come over here for this trash? You cite a few blogs and other “media” I’ve never read or heard of.”
We can sleep easier in our beds, now that The Huffington Post, The Australian, The Telegraph, and The National Post have been revealed to be the mouthpieces of fringe lunatics with no following on the responsible Left.
I have lived in several states, both Red and Blue, including VA, NC, MA, MN, PA and TX. By far, the most rascist was The Peoples Republic of Massachusetts. The police were some of the worst.
“…at a Bill Clinton rally…”
Ah, the wishful thinking of the eurotrashpinkopress!
And still, the lone voice in the woods.
OBAMA IS NOT BLACK!!!! Figure it out.
Ah yes, media pundits once again get the opportunity to speculate that “racist” Americans are out to get anyone who does not conform to their red necked vision of life.
Yet when one looks at assasins in America’s history, less than red necks get just as much credit (or balme if you are a rational human being), as the red necks do.
The media appear to “want” Obama to be assasinated. The blood leads concept is thus substantiated and justified, in their narrow minds.
(And they say red necks are uneducated hicks with few morals!)
If you don’t think there is still a problem with racism in this country then you need to pull your head out of the sand and look around because I see racism all around and there are plenty of wackos that would kill a black president and be proud of it. Just watch the news and see the skinheads and white supremacist and such and ask yourself how likely an assassination might be.
The media would love for someone to try a shot at Obama, that would validate their perception of the America as a racist society. Wonder what the mainstream media’s spin would be if the assassin was a black man, a white liberal, an illegal alien or a Muslim jihadist instead of the stereotyped Southern white bigot of their dreams.