Little Green Footballs

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Charles Johnson's Obama Derangement Syndrome

Charles is really worried about Obama. Hillary, he can handle. There's plenty of ammo on Hillary: years of wingnut talkshow memes to be recycled endlessly over the next year, should she get the Democratic nomination. The Republicans stand a strong chance of winning against Hillary.

But Obama scares Charles. He scares Charles so much that Charles has to resort to desparate tactics to smear Obama every which way. It would be laughable, if it didn't indicate the level to which the wingnuts will stoop should Obama be nominated.

You see, CJ is remarkably bad at discussing real politics. Charles is a product of the soundbite age, when you snatch up one sentence - or one word - and hold it up as evidence of some horrible thought-crime. That's why Charles likes quoting people out of context, and it's also why he has taken to sniping at everybody around Obama (his wife, his foreign policy advisor, his grandma for chrissakes!) yet rarely directs his vitriol at Obama himself. Because Obama just isn't very good at producing those quotable quotes that wingnuts so love to tear to shreds.

And when it does look like there might be an opening to take a quick potshot at Obama, Charles Johnson can only do so by telling half the story. In effect, Charles lies to his readers about Obama.

Take the Farrakhan 'endorsement'. Charles made a big thing out of the fact that Obama didn't denounce Farrakhan, after the latter said he would support the senator's campaign.

Later, Charles grudgingly updated his post to note that Obama renounced Farrakhan "in a closed meeting with Jewish community leaders in Cleveland".

What Charles didn't tell his minions is what they could have seen and heard for themselves if they'd bothered to watch the televised Democratic debate in Cleveland. During the debate, Obama was repeatedly pressed on Farrakhan.

Obama's response was that he would "reject and denounce" Farrakhan's views and endorsement. How much more public and explicit can you get? Yet Charles doesn't report it. That's because Charles is in the business of lying to his readers, just as wingnuts are in the business of lying to the American people, to achieve his ends. Expect plenty more falsehoods from LGF in the months to come.

1 comment:

. said...

I'm about to finish covering Charles' despicable blogging behavior during the 2004 election (excepting his typewriter coup, perhaps the one piece of real news he's generated).

Expect more of the same this year, even if Charles has to hold his nose and support John McCain.