10/9: Fear And Loathing In The Conservative Blogosphere

Now that Barack Obama appears to be a strong favorite to win the election, conservative bloggers are growing increasingly frustrated. Many of them are convinced that Obama is a stealth radical who is concealing his true views from the electorate. Righty bloggers are accusing Obama of being a "socialist" and a "wild-eyed radical" who seeks to "infiltrate bourgeois institutions in order to change them from within". They're also complaining that John McCain isn't doing enough to draw attention to Obama's ties to William Ayers -- an association that they believe "disqualifies Obama from being president". Liberal bloggers are accusing conservative bloggers of "going completely around the bend" by positing "delusional" theories that Obama is a secret socialist.

The other target of righty bloggers' rage is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, which has been conducting "a voter registration drive targeting battleground states Obama needs to win the White House". Conservative bloggers are convinced that ACORN is deliberately submitting fraudulent voter applications in a massive effort to help elect Obama. Liberal bloggers are responding by arguing that "registration fraud and voter fraud are two distinct things" and by pointing out that the latter is rare. They're also accusing conservative bloggers of tossing around allegations of voter fraud because they want to "cast doubt on the election results and prepare the rhetorical ground for post-election recounts".

OBAMA: Is America Going To Elect A Socialist President?

Conservative bloggers are stepping up their criticism of Obama's personal associations and his alleged radical politics:

• Roger L. Simon: "There's nothing wrong with being a socialist. I called myself one for the better part of twenty years. Millions of people have and many still do. But there is something very wrong with hiding who you are or who you were from the electorate -- especially if you want to be President of the United States. Yet that seems to be a habit of Mr. Obama's, with the collusion of the press."
• Dan Riehl: "ObaSocialist [is] still lying about his past. [...] Frankly, the public education system in America has dumbed down voters so much and our capitalist economy has provided the ability for people to enjoy so many distractions from serious issues, I'm not even certain enough voters appreciate the significance of Obama's past -- let alone seem upset that he lies about it so much. [...] I guess we'll find out on November 4 if the fundamental principles that have made America great are still appreciated by enough of the electorate. Perhaps they aren't. What a joke it'll be watching these dummies whine when they experience the watered down standard of living and services a socialist tilt will bring."
• Power Line's John Hinderaker: "This may be a case of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. The political, media, cultural and social establishments are determined to elect the pro-status quo, anti-change candidate, Barack Obama, as President. The power and money arrayed behind Obama seem unbeatable. At the same time, it is inconceivable that the American people would elect a socialist President. So, if this report is correct, something's got to give."
• RedState's Erick Erickson: "As the nation moves closer to the election, it is clear that Obama chose to affiliate with assorted anti-American radicals. [Niccolo] Machiavelli once noted that we can know a leader by the people he surrounds himself with. What does that say about Barack Obama, who chose to surround himself with people committed to overthrowing the United States and capitalism?"
• Ace of Spades: "Obama's communist mentor, Frank Marshall Davis -- admitted by Obama to be his mentor in his books, but only naming him as 'Frank,' and forgetting to mention he was a lifelong radical and communist. The speculation is that Obama met Ayers at Columbia because proxy father Frank Marshall Davis told his ersatz son he'd connect him up with 'the right people.'"
• Townhall's Amanda Carpenter: "The guy who is currently ten points ahead in the presidential polls worked as a community organizer for a fraudulent, corrupt GOTV operation called ACORN, pushed fringy educational reform issues and secured money for a known terrorist to create a UN-like 'Peace School' in Chicago, lies outright about his record on infanticide, attended a radical church for 20 years that spews anti-American hatred and we're supposed to look the other way? [...] Obama says it's a 'distracting' tactic of 'guilty by association.' Yes, it is guilt by association. Totally. Obama hung out with these people and accepted them and never spoke a word against their terrible deeds. That makes Obama guilty."

OBAMA II: Stealth Radical?

The bloggers at National Review's The Corner are blasting Obama for his alleged radicalism:

• NRO's Mark Levin: "How can anyone who actually follows this stuff, who reads [David] Freddoso, [Stanley] Kurtz, and scores of other reliable sources of information, conclude that Obama is not some wild-eyed radical?"
• NRO's Andy McCarthy: "Obama's radicalism, beginning with his Alinski/ACORN/community organizer period, is a bottom-up socialism. This, I'd suggest, is why he fits comfortably with Ayers, who (especially now) is more Maoist than Stalinist. What Obama is about is infiltrating (and training others to infiltrate) bourgeois institutions in order to change them from within -- in essence, using the system to supplant the system. A key requirement of this stealthy approach (very consistent with talking vaporously about 'change' but never getting more specific than absolutely necessary) is electability. [...] This is why Ayers is so important: it is a peek behind the curtain of Obama's rhetoric."
• NRO's Ramesh Ponnuru: "The positions [Obama] has taken in this campaign, combined with his past, leave open at least two possibilities. One is that he has quietly ditched his former radicalism for a more mainstream left-liberalism. Another is that he remains as radical as he was years ago but is concealing his basic orientation for political reasons. There is a question mark here, and it is one reason many people ask 'Who is Obama?'"

The Cornerites are also arguing that McCain must step up his criticism of Obama's ties to Ayers:

• NRO's Jonah Goldberg: "It seems to me indisputably true that Obama is the most leftwing Democratic nominee in a generation. And that's why I think the Ayers' card is not only legitimate but potentially effective. The American people have been sold a bill of goods on Obama. He is not the candidate he makes himself out to be with the record he claims to have."
• NRO's Peter Kirsanow: "Obama consorted with a terrorist who brags about planting bombs and whose organization planted hundreds of bombs. Some were meant to kill cops. Some were meant to kill soldiers. Some were meant to kill civilians. Let's put this quite simply: This is an abomination. This alone disqualifies Obama from being president. Even if he can heal the planet. Even if the Dow tanks to 5000. Even if he puts a unicorn in every garage. A majority of Americans will not vote for a candidate who they know has had a working relationship with a terrorist -- foreign or domestic. But they must know it."
• NRO's Victor Davis Hanson: "Why in the world was Barack Obama still communicating on the phone or via email with Bill Ayers up until 2005 -- when in 2001 Ayers gave widely publicized interviews claiming he had no regrets about the bombing, indeed regretted that he had not done enough, and did not necessarily have any remorse either about his Weathermen career? [...] That is a damning indictment of his judgement -- among other things -- and it is no 'smear' to raise the issue."
• NRO's Ed Whelan: "I'd be a lot more optimistic if John McCain showed the ability and inclination to highlight the hard-left alliances of Barack Obama that make him so alien to most Americans. Surely, it was the anti-American screeds of Obama's longtime pastor and spiritual mentor Jeremiah Wright that caused so many Democrats to wonder who Obama really is. Why isn't McCain making full use of Jeremiah Wright, not to mention Bill Ayers and various other radical associates? When has McCain mentioned Obama's stance on the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act? When has he highlighted Obama's support for the California supreme court's decision inventing a right to same-sex marriage? And so on."

OBAMA III: Get A Grip, Cornerites!

NRO's David Frum thinks his fellow National Review bloggers are placing too much emphasis on Ayers:

"American voters are staggering under the worst financial crisis since at least 1982. Asset values are tumbling, consumer spending is contracting, and a recession is visibly on the way. This crisis follows upon seven years in which middle-class incomes have stagnated and Republican economic management has been badly tarnished. Anybody who imagines that an election can be won under these circumstances by banging on about William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright is...to put it mildly...severely under-estimating the electoral importance of pocketbook issues. We conservatives are sending a powerful, inadvertent message with this negative campaign against Barack Obama's associations and former associations: that we lack a positive agenda of our own and that we don't care about the economic issues that are worrying American voters. [...] If we couldn't beat [Bill] Clinton in 1992 by pointing to his own personal draft-dodging and his own personal womanizing, how do we expect to defeat Obama in a much more anti-incumbent year by attacking the misconduct of people with whom he once kept company (but doesn't any more)?"

Meanwhile, liberal bloggers are portraying the bloggers at National Review's The Corner as unhinged -- particularly McCarthy:

• Mother Jones' Kevin Drum: "As regular readers know, I'm a fan of NRO's The Corner, which I think of as sort of a direct pipeline into the conservative id. Lately, as an Obama victory has become more and more likely, the Cornerites have started going completely around the bend, venting their frustration in lunatic conspiracy theories and manic love notes that are increasingly untethered from the real world."
• Obsidian Wings' hilzoy: "The crowd at The Corner seems to have gone well and truly insane. [...] So, if I understand this correctly: Barack Obama is in fact a radical; if not himself a Maoist, then at least someone who 'fits comfortably' with people who are 'more Maoist than Stalinist.' But he is disguising this fact in order to infiltrate bourgeois institutions and implement his radical vision from within. [...] There's only one problem with that hypothesis: if Obama were as stealthy as that, if he had lived a secret life for decades, completely concealing his inner Maoist, he would never, ever have blown his cover by getting on a board with William Ayers. Corner: you're getting into When Prophecy Fails territory. Get a grip."
• Ezra Klein: "Is it weird that I far prefer parts of the Barack Obama of Andy McCarthy's fevered imagination to the one we actually have? I mean, it would be nice if he actually wanted to nationalize health care. Instead he just wants to do some tinkering. Meanwhile, it would be useful if conservatives were a little clearer on what 'surrender' entails. It's not obvious to me what McCarthy is talking about when he says Obama would 'surrender to terrorists,' but he presumably doesn't have documented instance of Obama drawing up legislation that would see America formally submit to al Qaeda and install Osama bin Laden atop our governance structure. That doesn't seem like the sort of scoop McCarthy would keep a secret. Meanwhile, earlier today McCarthy called Obama a 'terrorist sympathizer,' and it's unclear how you surrender to your allies. Is Obama trying to surrender to himself? It's all very confusing."

ACORN: Massive Voter Fraud?

Conservative bloggers have lately been directing a lot of fire at the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, which has been conducting "a voter registration drive targeting battleground states Obama needs to win the White House". Conservative bloggers are accusing ACORN of deliberately submitting fraudulent voter applications in an effort to help elect Obama:

• RedState's Pejman Yousefzadeh: "There really cannot be enough attention paid to groups like ACORN, that are quite clearly engaged in voter fraud. [...] ACORN claims to have sought to alert officials in Nevada about voter fraud and swears that it is innocent of any charge that it sought to pass along fraudulent voter applications as being genuine. Funny thing, of course, is that ACORN's hands are being caught in all sorts of cookie jars."
• Hinderaker: "In most states, hardly any serious effort is made to prevent voter fraud. If more fraud does not exist, it is only because the effort required to cast a fraudulent ballot is more trouble than most people think it's worth. But when a well-funded national organization gets into the act, targeting the swing states that Obama needs to win to assure victory, the potential exists for significant harm to the integrity of the ballot."
• The Weekly Standard's Brian Faughnan: "I don't think many of us expect perfection, but it would be encouraging if it didn't look so much like ACORN was facilitating fraud. Reports of fraudulent registrations by ACORN have come in for years, and they are legion in this cycle. There are accusations of fraud against ACORN in Connecticut, Wisconsin, and Nevada. That's four states in less than one week."
• NRO's Jim Geraghty: "ACORN members have been convicted in Wisconsin and Colorado, and had various forms of reprimand, investigation, indictment, and other run-ins with the law and state election authorities in Virginia, Texas, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Ohio, New Mexico, North Carolina, Missouri, Michigan, Florida, and Arkansas. Yes, this is the ACORN that Obama worked for."
• Glenn Reynolds: "If Baptists were doing what ACORN has been doing, the press would be all over it, 24/7..."
• Michelle Malkin: "I hope Sarah Palin will start talking about this. You know John McCain won't. Wouldn't want to be labeled a RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACIST."

Righty bloggers are also focusing on Obama's alleged ties to ACORN:

• Hot Air's Ed Morrissey: "Barack Obama helped run an ACORN unit, represented them as an attorney, and is now a client of ACORN. He needs to answer for their fraudulent tactics. His money helped fuel the organization, after all, and there is little doubt that they are working on his behalf. Their fraud intends to get him elected President. Will he denounce it, and demand prosecution? Or will he keep pretending that he doesn't know them?"
• Malkin: "Despite his adamant denials of any association with the group (his Fight the Smears website now claims 'Barack Obama never organized with ACORN'), Obama's political DNA is encoded with the ACORN agenda. The Obama campaign's 'Vote for Change' registration drive, running parallel to ACORN/Project Vote, is an all-out scramble to scrape up every last unregistered voter sympathetic to Obama's big-government vision. [...One] homeless man targeted by the registration drive...exulted that he was voting for Obama because 'I want him to do his thang. You know, do his thug thizzle.' 'Thug thizzle' is street slang for performing your trademark move. Obama and ACORN have practiced their thug thizzle together for years: organizing an ever-expanding community of ineligible and marginal voters to expand the Democratic power base. Rules be damned."

ACORN II: The Netroots Push Back

Liberal bloggers are pushing back against the right's "voter fraud" accusations, arguing that voter fraud is "practically nonexistent" and that voter intimidation is a much bigger problem in this country:

• Daily Kos' Adam B: "Republicans want to kick up as much sand as they can about so-called 'voter fraud,' in order to cast doubt on the election results and prepare the rhetorical ground for post-election recounts. [...] As for the current ACORN issues, well, obtaining 100% quality control from low-paid part-time workers is impossible, and from everything I've read, ACORN has been aggressively reviewing workers and its applications, flagging the bad ones, but under state law you're generally required to turn in all applications that you collect because, otherwise, you're just opening the door to ridculous chicanery. As long as ACORN continues to cooperate with every legitimate investigation, then it's all a big nothing -- especially without evidence that people are showing up to the polls claiming to be 'Mickey Mouse.'"
• TAPPED's Adam Serwer: "I don't really have an opinion as to whether or not ACORN is guilty of registration fraud, but given the hysteria on the right over this issue it's worth pointing out that registration fraud and voter fraud are two distinct things. What people refer to as registration fraud can be as simple as filling out a form incorrectly. It's certainly true that you can fill out a form for a potted plant or your dog. What is far more difficult and rare is actually getting a registration card for your plant or your dog and then showing up to vote more than once on Election Day. Fortunately registration fraud is far more common than voter fraud, since the latter is practically nonexistent, and without it, the former is basically meaningless. A far greater threat to fair elections are the kind of voter intimidation and caging schemes that we've seen applied in past elections, and that some organizations are aggressively fighting this time around."

Open Left's Paul Rosenberg accuses the ACORN critics of having ugly ulterior motives: "There's NOTHING conservatives hate more than poor people voting. Except, of course, poor people of color voting. No wonder they hate ACORN and Project Vote."

MCCAIN/PALIN: Stirring Up Lynch Mobs?

As we observed yesterday, liberal bloggers are buzzing about the various reports of ugly outbursts occurring at McCain/Palin events:

• Open Left's David Sirota: "What we are watching more generally is an attempt to turn the Republican base into a 21st century lynch mob. Whether it's using Obama's middle name to imply he's a Muslim, or McCain and Palin saying nothing when a frothing crowd screams 'kill him!' or 'terrorist' in reference to the Illinois senator, the right is doing everything it can to stir up a violent mob. And it's working. [...] I fear for Barack Obama's safety in these final days. I really do. The conservative movement is not going to go down quietly -- and with this upsurge in unbridled anger, I'm worried we're going to see some violence. I really hope I'm wrong -- but I'm concerned."
• Firedoglake's Ari: "I like negative politics. Defining your opponents is a vital part of winning elections, but there are lines that should never be crossed. When a campaign is so negative that it inspires crowds to spew racial epithets, you've probably gone to far. Right now, John McCain has sunk so far down in the mud that pigs are complaining he's messing up their sty."
• The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates: "I've been thinking about this McCain-Palin Obama 'palling around with terrorist' idea more lately. [...] When the McCain campaign cast the spell of diabolical jingoism, they have no idea of the forces they are toying with. We remember Martin Luther King's murder as a sad and tragic event. Less remembered is the fact that ground-work for King's murder was seeded, not simply by rank white supremacy, but by people who slandered King as a communist. [...] The Muslim charge, the 'Hussein' thing is nothing more than today's red-baiting, and it is what it was then -- a cover for racists. You may say I'm overreacting, and I really hope you're right. 999,000 out 1 million times we'll go on like normal and proceed to Election Day. But if some shit pops off, the thug and thug-mongers will not be able to throw up their hands and say 'How could I have known?' Ignorance will not save them. Their stupidity is a scourge on us all."

dday analyzes McCain's campaign: "John McCain has a problem. He isn't trusted by the base and so he must appeal to their darkest instincts, but every time he does so he turns off independents. Indeed, during the debate, every time he launched an attack, such as they were, the dials plummeted. But without his base he's sunk and he has no ground game, so attack he must. That's why Sarah Palin is taking the [Spiro] Agnew role and whipping crowds into a frenzy (and Joe Biden is right to call her on it), but McCain is backing away and hedging. That's why his campaign is taking tentative steps in the water with the Ayers and [Tony] Rezko and Wright stuff but never full steps. They know they must take the campaign into the gutter, but every time they do they destroy this carefully cultivated 'honorable' brand [...] The end result is that you get this lurching, haphazard, erratic campaign. Last night we saw the 'compassionate conservative' asking for the government to buy out struggling mortgages [...] And by this morning, there are Ayers attacks and new ads calling Obama 'secretive'."

MCCAIN/PALIN II: Twice Is A Pattern...

Liberal bloggers are criticizing the McCain camp after "two pre-rally speakers in the last three days have invoked Sen. Barack Obama's middle name 'Hussein' in their warm-up speeches at McCain and Palin events":

• TPM's Josh Marshall: "Seems like almost every day now there's a McCain-Palin rally where the campaign has the candidates introduced by someone who hits on 'Barack Hussein Obama'. [...] After the fifth or sixth time you pretty much know on the orders of the campaign. It is obviously with tacit approval (to believe anything else is to be a dupe at this point); and quite probably on the campaign's specific instructions."
• The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen: "To be fair, a [McCain] campaign aide later conceded that this was 'inappropriate rhetoric.' But the trend nevertheless seems to point in one direction: whipping the angry, far-right Republican base into a frenzy. That includes the increasing frequency of 'Hussein' references, but it also includes looking the other way while campaign supporters exclaim 'treason!,' 'terrorist!,' and 'kill him!' during official rallies.
• The Huffington Post's Sam Stein: "McCain has distanced itself from the deliberate and malicious use of Obama's middle name in the past. When a conservative radio talk show host first discussed Barack 'Hussein' Obama in February, the campaign said it was inappropriate and not reflective of the race they are seeking to run. But it is hard not to notice how rabid the crowds have recently become at McCain events and how demonstrative they have been in their disdain for Obama. In addition to introductory speakers raising the Senator's middle name in the form of an insult, audience members have screamed out, during recent events, 'terrorist,' 'treason,' and 'kill him,' when the Illinois Democrat's name has been discussed."

Balloon Juice's John Cole doesn't think the repeated "Hussein" references will damage Obama: "While it is certainly annoying, and it most definitely is not an accident, I have a hard time imagining that this nonsense will really have any impact on the race. After five million chain emails from right wing dads across the nation, thousands of blog posts by the folks like NoQuarter and the Free Republic and elsewhere, daily announcements on talk radio, everyone on the planet is pretty much aware that Obama's middle name is Hussein. Those people who are not going to vote for Obama because his middle name is Hussein are already [supporting McCain]. [....] To me, the accusations of terrorist coddling and hating on the troops are a different matter, but at this point, the Hussein nonsense is accomplishing nothing but pushing the middle more towards Obama [and] firing up the Democratic base..."

MCCAIN: Freudian Slip?

Liberal bloggers are mocking McCain for referring to Americans as "my fellow prisoners" during a speech yesterday (video here):

• Marshall: "For what it's worth, my own hunch is that McCain's just gotten so in the habit of peppering his speeches with gratuitous POW references that it's hard to keep the two things separate."
• Daily Kos' Plutonium Page: "EPIC FAIL, Senator McCain."
• MyDD's Todd Beeton: "I sort of don't even know what to say about McCain's little slip up on the trail today. It appears that instead of saying 'my fellow citizens' or 'my fellow Americans' he said 'my fellow prisoners,' perhaps a Freudian slip revealing that he feels like a prisoner in his own presidential campaign. If he could get out, he would but he can't."
• Oliver Willis: "Don't worry John, soon you will be able to go home and take a nice long nap."
• Mark Kleiman: "All right, candidates misspeak. But 'my fellow prisoners'? That's not like saying you've visited 57 states when you mean you've been in 57 delegate contests, or conflating 'green' and 'wet behind the ears' as metaphors for inexperience into the Martian-sounding 'green behind the ears.' That's just weird. And note that McCain doesn't correct himself."

Open Left's Matt Stoller thinks McCain's health is becoming an issue in the campaign: "Today we find out that McCain is taking a supplement that is also used for Alzheimer's and dementia while saying 'my fellow prisoners' instead of 'my fellow Americans'. And then there's the question of anger and mental stability. These are all reasonable questions and concerns for the Presidency, considering [Ronald] Reagan's legacy of having dementia while in office. It's good to see them out there so the public has a choice on the matter."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The McCain-T.I. Connection

Yglesias:

"Thinking about John McCain's Foo Fighters problem, some of the issue here is that not only are there few contemporary rock bands that are inclined to support McCain, but there are few contemporary rock songs that are thematically appropriate to the McCain campaign. [...] This problem goes back, of course, to Ronald Reagan's (mis)appropriation of 'Born in the USA.' It's somewhat counterintuitive, but I think conservative politicians would actually do better to turn to the world of commercial hip-hop, where key conservative values like greed and violence are frequently lauded. Consider T.I.'s 'Rubber Band Man':

Ay, who I'm is?

Rubber band man

Wild as the Taliban

9 in my right, 45 in my other hand

Who I'm is?

Call me trouble man, always in trouble, man

Worth a couple hundred grand, Chevys, all colors man

That's the McCain message. He's a maverick ('wild as the Taliban'), endorsed by the NRA ('9 in my right, 45 in my other hand'), understands the need to cut marginal tax rates on the most productive Americans ('worth a couple hundred grand'), and owns thirteen cars ('Chevys, all colors man')."

LEST WE FORGET: Presidential Badassery

Cracked's Daniel O'Brien lists "The 5 Most Badass Presidents of All-Time." Andrew Jackson is #5:

"...When [Jackson] wasn't busy shaping the Presidency as we know it today, you could find him out back dueling. In case you haven't been to the 18th century lately, this unmanly sounding activity actually involves standing across from an armed man and shooting at him while he in turn shoots at you. The number of duels that Jackson took part in varies depending on what source you consult; some say 13, while others rank the number somewhere in the 100's, both of which are entirely too many times for a reasonable human being to stand in front of someone who is strying to kill them with a loaded gun.

On one occasion, he challenged a man named Charles Dickinson to a duel, (the reason behind it wasn't important, not to us and certainly not to Jackson), and Jackson was even kind enough to give Dickinson the first shot. We're gonna go ahead and repeat that: In a duel with pistols, Jackson politely volunteers to be shot at first. Dickinson happily obliged and shot Jackson, who proceeded to shake it off like it was a bee sting. When Jackson returned the favor, Dickinson was not so lucky, and that's why his face isn't on the twenty. The bullet, by the by, remained in Jackson's body for 19 years because, we assume, Jackson knew that time spent removing the bullets would just fall under the general category of 'time not dueling,' Jackson's least favorite category."