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Obama facing the same Rove-like tactics felt by McCain in 2000
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The endless barrage of misinformation and exaggeration hurled against President Obama during his young presidency and the 2008 campaign can be directly attributed to the philosophies of former Bush Advisor Karl Rove. Rove’s belief in “defining a politician before they can define themselves” has continued to be a staple of the GOP playbook. Whether it is attacking an opponent or supporting one’s own cause, this tactic is applied early and often by those who subscribe to this way of doing business. Sometimes this approach is even directed at a political rival within the Republican Party.
The 2000 South Carolina Republican Primary served as the setting for one of the most notable applications of the Rove doctrine. Riding the momentum of primary victory in New Hampshire, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was poised to pull off a monumental upset against then Texas Governor George W. Bush in the Republican Primary, if McCain could win in South Carolina.
McCain and his wife Cindy have an adopted daughter named Bridget. Bridget was brought to the United States from an orphanage ran by Mother Theresa in Bangladesh. The Bush campaign hired a company charged with spreading anonymous rumors throughout the state claiming that Bridget was a black child fathered out of wedlock by McCain. In a close race, set in South Carolina, a charge of this kind proved to be devastating for the Arizona Senator. Bush won South Carolina, leading to his nomination and his subsequent victory over Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential Election.
This tactic was also employed by the Bush Administration during their efforts to sell the Iraq War. Initially, the basis for conducting the pre-emptive war was the existence of weapons of mass destruction and a reported link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. After these ideas began to look less and less plausible, the GOP’s basis for war would evolve into the freeing of the Iraqi population from the clenches of Saddam Hussein and the idea of “fighting the terrorists overseas so we never have to face them here at home.”
The story kept changing as the American people’s doubts began to grow regarding the original rationales for war. The ongoing implementation of the Rove playbook meant a constant revamping of the narrative so the administration’s overall mission could continue to be accomplished.
The emergence of President Obama as a serious presidential candidate and his subsequent victory last November has been the latest target of opposition attacks using Rove’s strategy. The President’s background, personal life and political initiatives have all drawn the wrath of the GOP’s attempts to define Mr. Obama before he can define himself.
The greatest example of this is the ridiculous claims involving the birth location of the President. Despite an official birth certificate, microfiche of 48-year old birth announcements in the Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and confirmations from multiple levels of Hawaiian state government, including Republican Governor Linda Lingle, many “birthers” still insist that Mr. Obama was not born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961.
Easily debunked rumors claiming the President to be a practicing Muslim, who was educated at a Madrassa in Indonesia, were circulated during the President’s campaign for the White House in 2007 and 2008. Outlets like FOX News ran with this story as if it was indisputably true. This ongoing attempt to define Mr. Obama continued long after these claims were proven false. The night the President clinched the Democratic nomination, he exchanged an innocent fist bump with his wife Michelle before his speech in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The next day on “FOX and Friends” host E.D. Hill referred to the fist bump as a “terrorist fist jab.”
This attempt to define President Obama as a foreign, Muslim terrorist has been very prevalent since the former Illinois Senator first emerged onto the national scene. Sadly, many people believe these accusations to be true because of how often these rumors have been treated as fact.
Baseless claims regarding the President’s race have also been a staple of this frequently invoked tactic. Glen Beck accusing Mr. Obama of possessing “a deep seated hatred for white people” and Rush Limbaugh claiming “President Obama’s black and I think he’s got a chip on his shoulder,” are all attempts to define Mr. Obama as someone completely different then the average American. In fact, Limbaugh refers to the President’s race on a very regular basis.
The same Rovian strategy has been employed during the current healthcare debate. The factually untrue rumors of “death panels,” coverage for illegal immigrants, lessoning of Medicare benefits for seniors and government funded abortions are all attempts to scare the public and define the issue. The President’s address to Congress was an attempt to quell these rumors and bring the debate back into reality.
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