Ayoon wa Azan (Wishful Press )
Jihad el Khazen Al Hayat - 19/08/08//
I do not have a personal choice in the US presidential elections, but others may choose for me. Senator Barack Obama is under fire from known enemies of Arabs and Muslims and from right-wing media, in spite of his full proclaimed commitment to Israel. Therefore, I prefer him based on who opposes him.
In America, there are the New York Sun and the Washington Times. They always publish negative news on Obama and come up with opinion polls that show John McCain preceding or catching up with him. In London, the Sunday Times and the Sunday Telegraph record his mishaps, falls or waning popularity.
These are wishful press that I once wrote about. The article reflects the wishes of its author rather than the actual truth. As for Obama, his advantage over McCain is limited but steady.
I do not guarantee that Obama will stay ahead. The campaigns targeting him now resort to racism and lies, in a manner that only the US right and the pro-McCain war gang of pro-Israelis are capable of. Their first target is to strike Iran, unless the Bush Administration moves in this direction in its last months in office.
McCain himself started this trend when he saw himself lagging behind his opponent. He got himself a new advisor, Steve Schmidt, who came up with the idea of video clips that focus on McCain's experience and Obama's ignorance in foreign affairs. In the first clip, he turned Obama into a mere celebrity just like Paris Hilton and singer Britney Spears known for her scandals more than her songs.
Paris Hilton, who claims she is model, answered McCain with her own video in which she read her platform as candidate while reclining beside a swimming pool in a skimpy bathing costume. Paris, 27, focused on McCain, the "wrinkly white-haired guy who comes from the olden days."
However, the gravest danger to Obama came in the form of a book entitled "The Obama Nation" by Jerome Corsi, a right-wing journalist who co-authored "Unfit for Command" about John Kerry. The book was unsubstantiated; it included countless lies and exaggerations to the point of casting doubts on Kerry's military record in Vietnam where he won medals, in contrast to Bush who ran to the safety of Texas and did not take part in any real military action. The book introduced the term Swift Boat, a type of US military boats heroically driven by Kerry during the Vietnam War. Now the term means distorting someone's reputation through lies.
The new book must contain the same kind of lies if not more. The author wonders if Obama was still on drugs; if he is Christian despite his "extensive connections to Islam," which the author considers as an accusation.
Published in summer 2004, the book on Kerry was loaded with claims that were proved wrong when the damage was already done. The right-wing media promoted such claims and planted them in the minds of voters. Now it is trying to repeat the same scenario with Obama.
I do not know enough to deny or confirm what I read. However I noticed that US blogs attacked the book and its author; some of the information was immediately uncovered, the rest is sure to follow.
Nevertheless, the book remains important and influential. Like its predecessor, it is in the New York Times best-seller list. In other words, it is appealing to the public and it must turn into a conviction for some.
What precedes is intentional to keep US voters busy with inconsequential issues; the basic elements in the presidential election campaign have not changed. Both candidates support Israel. No change or moderation is expected in the US policy no matter who wins. McCain wants war on Iran; Obama prefers negotiations but does not rule out the military option. In the recent crisis between Georgia and Russia, McCain seized Obama's vacation to threaten Russia and underline his long foreign experience against Obama's shallow experience.
I have been following McCain's work for years now and I do not see his detainment in Vietnam as an experience. I also do not see his extremism and military solutions as positives. He is only left with lying about opponents. It worked in the past and it might work next November.
|
