How evil can Obama get?

As regular readers of this blog will know, I'm not a big fan of Helen Clark. Little things like the seabed and foreshore rip-off, New Zealand's role in the invasion of Afghanistan and other parts of Bush's War of Terror, and Labour's pathetic failure to use their nine years on the treasury benches to make serious inroads into problems like poor housing and poverty all make me less than keen on the MP for Mt Albert.

My heart softens, though, whenever I see Ian Wishart or one of his disciples in the Kiwi blogosphere condemning Helen for being a childless mother, or an atheist, or a woman who would have preferred 'living in sin' to marrying, or - and this is where the Wishartian discourse always seems to go, as soon as it builds a head of steam - a lebian feminist witch bent on forcing a totalitarian Nanny state on Kiwi blokedom. When Clark is attacked simply for differing from the stereotype of the 1950s Kiwi woman, then I tend to think that she does represent something progressive - not because of her policy programme, but simply because of who she is.

I'm developing somewhat similar feelings towards Barack Obama, whose eloquent but fairly middle of the road campaign for the US Presidency was ambushed a month back by a very unsavoury alliance. With their scurrillous rhetoric on the campaign trail, Bill and Hillary Clintons have made common cause with the type of people who think that the disappearance of segregated loos from the American South represented the beginning of the end of Christian civilisation.

In the aftermath of her dismal election results the other night in North Carolina and Indiana, Hillary's rhetoric has become even more extreme. In statement after statement she talks about Obama's supposed inability to attract the support of white voters. At a rally yesterday she reportedly said that Obama cannot possibly appeal to 'hard-working Americans, hard-working white Americans'. It's difficult to see such a formulation as anything but an appeal to unsavoury old-time southern stereotypes about them damn lazy negro folk.

A visit to the comments boxes on the blog of one of Hillary's die-in-the-ditch supporters, the rather over-excited Taylor Marsh, makes for even less edifying reading. Here are a few not-unrepresentative remarks left by Taylor's patrons, in the aftermath of the results in North Carolina and Indiana:

I would vote for McCain/Clinton. I would not vote for Obama/Clinton...

i can not believe my COUNTRY is allowing this person to run for president...

Between now and the convention the GOP (bless them. they can't help themsleves) will start blasting O. By then he ( O ) will have more negatives than the devil himslef. The party will have no choice than to pick a better candidate...

I wonder of there are any pictures of Obama with a certain Rev. Louis [Farrakhan]...one does wonder what all the rumors are about re: an Obama 'October' surprise..or if it's more a superdelegate worry than reality...

Maybe the media will actually ask what kind of a relationship Obama and Farrakhan actually have?? Or maybe about Obama's staffers in IL who were Nation Of Islam members themself??

Or Barack and his black liberation theology-- he speaks of it in his book -- Sean Hannity has played audio of it... Hannity is supposed to be investigating all this...

Can anyone confirm for me whether Obama's cousin is really Odinga, and that Odinga is really trying to impose Sharia Law in Kenya?

...Have you guys read up on how CODE PINK support Obama and have donated money to his campaign $60000 (I believe)-- CODE PINK is that anti-war movement that apparently felt the need to give Iraqi insurgents $600k worth of weapons to use on our soldiers!

Obama is funded and backed by major corps and the extreme left...

believe it or not, all of this is old news -- farrakan, code pink, odinga etc. it just doesn't get coverage and hillary can't push it either, because then she looks bad. it is the party that is screwing up because the republicans will talk about all of it...

It would be tedious to counter all these canards, which are worthy of the likes of Ian Wishart, not rank and file members of the more liberal wing of America's two party state. I can't resist mentioning, though, that Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga is an Anglican, not a Muslim, and that the anti-war group Code Pink has never donated so much as a water pistol to Iraqi insurgents. Why let the facts get in the way of a good delusion, though?

Marsh's blog advertises an even more imaginative critique of Hillary's opponent called Obama - the postmodern coup: making of a fascist candidate. According to the author of this tome, who has the unfortunate name Webster Griffin Tarpley, Obama is a 'deeply troubled megalomaniac' who was recruited into a sort of secret society by a former aide to the Carter administration a quarter century ago. Obama's long game is pretty ambitious, according to Mr Tarpley:

Obama's economics are pure Skull & Bones/Chicago school austerity and sacrifice for American working families, all designed to bail out the bankrupt Wall Street elitist financiers who own Obama. Obama's lemming legions and Kool-Aid cult candidacy hearken back to Italy in 1919-1922, and raise the question of postmodern fascism in the United States today. Obama is a recipe for a world tragedy. No American voter can afford to ignore the lessons contained in this book.

For me, Tarpley's frenzied synopsis hearkens back to the anti-Obama message that a messenger for God left the other here the other day in the comments box under - of all things! - my post on a food bar in Putaruru:

GOD WANTS YOU TO PASS THIS MESSAGE ON

I have felt for sometime now that Obama is the one person that ‘Frightens Me’...

we are AT WAR with the Muslim Nation, whether our bleeding-heart, secular, Liberal friends believe it or not. This man fits every description from the Bible of the ‘Anti-Christ’!

...Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background. ALSO, keep in mind that when he was sworn into office he DID NOT use the Holy Bible, but instead the Koran [hmm - so much for the deep cover as a Christian thing, eh? The Antichrist ain't too smart].

Barack Hussein Obama will NOT recite the Pledge of Allegiance nor will he show any reverence for our flag. While others place their hands over their hearts, Obama turns his back to the flag and slouches [he slouches? That settles it! Shoot him at dawn!]. Do you want someone like this as your PRESIDENT?

Give Taylor Marsh and her commenters another month and she might well be writing like this. Just as the Kiwi left should defend Helen Clark from her sexist detractors, while carefully and critically examining her record in power, so our counterparts in America should defend the first serious black Presidential candidate against racist attacks, without surrendering their critical faculties by succumbing to Obamamania.

I think that, whatever the shortfalls in his policy programme, Obama's strong showing in this week's primaries was a victory against the sort of discourse to which the Clintonistas have stooped. It does seem that a significant number of voters have been more offended by the cynicism and hubris of Hillary than by the young Obama's shocking and shameful support for black liberation and religious diversity.

The most unintentionally hilarious comment on Taylor Marsh's blog is full of disappointment, as well as anger, and expresses quite sublimely the sense of entitlement which has so characterised Hillary's campaign:

What is truly sad about this, is Hillary has been preparing for this role- to be President, to lead our country in the right direction for YEARS!! read her book 'Living History' if you doubt me. She's worked in many campaigns, worked in Bills' many campaigns- her accomplishments are endless (I'll leave them for the book)-- anyways back to my point, she's worked her arse off for this "role" if you will- then some pompous and very arrogant newbie jumps into the scene and thinks he's better qualified, or more deserving?? are you kidding me??

And you wonder why you've lost...