The comments section on this site certainly is an excellent place to find the kind of people who are into these silly stories. I think Sandra M’s first comment is an enlightening one that is worth deconstructing.
First, you know this is going to be a profound comment when the author feels it necessary to preface by informing you they were in Phi Beta Kappa (O..M..G) as proof of their superior reasoning skills. She goes on to claim journalistic ascendancy through incredible experience such as working for “The Top Ad Agency in the World(tm)”. However, this fellowship deserving “professional writer” certainly casts doubt on her claims by her own writing. Consider this incredible “sentence”:
“One of the rebutted lies on his site concerns a video that may or may not exist of Michelle and Louis Farrakan, in which she ‘might’ have used the term ‘Whitey’ OR was it ‘why did he’ which seemed to fit in context, I decided to wait for video proof, but thought if this is the big October surprise, this is a big nothing.”
Now, I’m not sure, which stylebook, Sandra used in her journalism days, but, it seems clear, that it emphasized, commas, and did not take, a hard line, against, run on sentences. Now, blogging up comments is a much hastier process than writing an article so perhaps this can be overlooked. However, writing ability is not the only place where the journalistic bona fides seem a bit shaky. Consider the skepticism, or rather the lack there of, in this post as well. In Lie 4 Sandra mentions that her google search found that Raila Odinga had “claimed to be Obama’s cousin”. Well and good, how does a top journalist deal with such a claim? Accepting it at face value of course. In the next paragraph Obama simply is Odinga’s cousin! Personally I think Sandra might have wasted her time at USC’s professional writer’s program if all she got out of it was that internet quotes of people claiming something to be true are sufficient to establish fact.
Finally, the icing on the cake, the precise breakdown to four significant figures of Obama’s racial background. Maybe if we dilute his blackness enough we can get him as lying about being black! Just invoke some of those old blood fraction laws. Sandra M, you are definitely not a serious person. Don’t let it get you down, just hang on to that Who’s Who book from high school that your Mom payed to put you in and remember to throw that in there with the Phi Beta Kappa reference next post. Your credibility will go through the roof.
These smears are not something serious people will take seriously. Many, if not most, of the electorate are not serious people. As a strategy spreading rumours like this, much like McCain’s “black baby” back in ’00, are simple ways to influence some of that non-serious electorate. The low-level true believers will continue to do it and let the ends justify the means. Remember the Ron Paul wing of the party with the 9/11 truth and world government suspicions? You will find a very high correlation between those conspiracy loving Paulites and those who actually believe Obama is a Muslim. That may be scary to some but for the win-at-all-costs inclined they vote and that’s all that matters.
More disturbing to me are the people who seem a bit less enthralled with conspiracy theories but are apparently beholden to blood as a person’s identity. Numerous posters claim that Obama’s name and biological father irrevocably make him Muslim. What country are we living in here? Does my Irish last name make me Catholic and violently anti-British for life with no choice on my part? Are we getting worked up because Obama may have been in a mosque between the ages of 6 and 10? Are you kidding me? I hate to break it to some of you but it doesn’t matter who we elect president, there will be whack jobs, including whack job Muslims, that will want to assassinate him.
All that said I can’t help but find some amusement in the whole thing. These types of comments may be sad, but they are also pretty funny. I honestly wonder if any the 9/11 truth and Obama is a Muslim thing can find some sort of middle ground and start claiming Obama was behind 9/11…
