The Obama Haters: Behind the Right-Wing Campaign of Lies, Innuendo & Racism

1 How an Unknown Inspired Hope in Millions and Became a Target for Hatemongers

1 How an unknown Inspired Hope in millions and Became a target for Hatemongers The Internet and the kind of unfiltered, unedited junk that travels from coast to coast and around the world in the blink of an eye encourages some of this [violence]. It really feeds the crazies . Often people get this nutty stuff and they actually believe it. They think that the stuff being said is true, and, of course, it isn’t. —Larry Sabato most Americans felt good about the election of Barack Hussein Obama as the forty-fourth president of the United States on November 4, 2008. The nation had finally overcome its most hurtful, shameful, and enduring legacy—the enslavement of one group of people by another. Even after emancipation, there continued to be decades of denying equal rights, prejudice, overt and hidden racism, and lynching. The heirs of slaveholders, and everyone else, agreed to be governed by a man sharing racial heritage with former slaves. The vast majority of Americans were ready to do what Martin Luther King Jr. preached a half-century before: to judge a person by the content of his character and abilities without regard to race. Americans, seeking a change from the past, entered a new era. Or so they thought. Yet the shape of things to come became obvious before the votes were counted on election night, when people started getting e-mails linked to an “Impeach Obama” website. Simultaneously, racist websites attracted record numbers of readers. 1 2 — — — — — — tHe oBama HateRs Obama was the least likely of candidates. Born in Hawaii as the son of a Kenyan immigrant and a young white woman from Kansas, he spent part of his youth in Indonesia. He studied on scholarships at Occidental College, Columbia University, then Harvard Law School, and was only forty-seven years old when elected president, before completing even one full term in the U.S. Senate. Previously, he served for eight years as an Illinois state legislator. He faced an array of stunningly qualified top-tier candidates for the 2008 Democratic nomination. Hillary Clinton had completed seven years in the Senate and, as former first lady, was privy to valuable inside knowledge about the White House. Telegenic John Edwards had been the Democratic nominee for vice president four years before. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson had a lengthy, highly impressive résumé as energy secretary, ambassador to the United Nations, congressman, and crisis troubleshooter around the world. Joe Biden had been a senator since Obama was in grade school, was an expert on just about everything, and knew most world leaders personally. Christopher Dodd was also a fixture in Congress for many years and was respected by people across the political bandwidth. At the start of the campaign, this youthful relative-unknown appeared to be a featherweight dwarfed by the Spanish Armada of political heavyweights. Still, the most impressive résumés can be trumped by personal characteristics such as charisma and emotional factors. How else would someone with George W. Bush’s mediocre résumé have topped the eminently betterqualified Ann Richards, John McCain, Al Gore, and John Kerry? Voters, political know-it-alls, and professional bookmakers laying real money on the race presumed Clinton would easily win the Democratic nomination with an excellent chance to become the first female U.S. president. Nonetheless, Obama captured a hard-fought nomination running on a platform of restoring hope and opportunity to a disillusioned populace. He nabbed 365 votes in the Electoral College and more than 69 million popular votes, or 52.9 percent, against 45.7 percent for McCain, his vastly experienced Republican opponent. As primary season neared, Clinton’s right-wing enemies sharpened their fangs, salivating at the chance to harass another chief executive for four or eight more years. After forcing the impeachment and humiliation of President Bill Clinton over a personal indiscretion, they couldn’t wait to dig their HoW an unknoWn InsPIRed HoPe In mILLIons — — — — — — 3 claws into fresh carrion. Presumably, Obama’s short résumé left little to exploit , except his lack of experience and race. While race-baiting was still popular among the dwindling ranks of never-give-an-inch racists, most Americans rejected such attacks. So there seemed little to target. Obama attracted voters who were disgusted by the same old crowd running Washington. Many Democrats, worn out by the drama surrounding the Clintons, were weary of right...