Star One Smart Blog's

From today's Nashville City Paper...

Tennessee Republicans appear to be a divided house over a controversial state party press release attacking Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama.

The ordeal centers on the use of Obama’s middle name of “Hussein” in a Tennessee Republican Party press release issued this week, entitled “Anti-Semites for Obama,” as well as the posting of a picture of Obama in traditional Somali garb.

The GOP’s press release, issued Monday, has caused a national stir and been picked up by some international news outlets.

Nationally, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has repudiated using Obama’s middle name when referencing him, shining more light upon the GOP’s release. The McCain campaign has also been critical of the Tennessee Republican Party.

Much ado about nothing.

Democrats want to insulate Obama from any sort of criticism, and it seems Republicans are so fearful of getting caught in a political correctness trap that they are distancing themselves from anything that might stick to their collective shoes. Democrats cried foul over our Tennessee GOP's handling of Obama, including the Obama-in-a-headdress photo, his relationships with Louis Farrakhan, and his membership in that Racist! Church. All of this happening just after John McCain, titular head of the Republican party (NOT the conservatives, mind you) threw Bill Cunningham under a bus for 'Husseining' Obama.

Karl at PW sees right thru 'em...

"After I noted Josh Marshall’s effort to impose a double-standard on the campaign under which John McCain must ritualistically repudiate any person or any comment about Barack Obama deemed to be inappropriately racial or ethnic, while Obama is excused from discussing his less savory associations, Allahpundit flagged a piece at TNR by Historian4Hillary Sean Wilentz, noting how Obama has played the race card against Hillary Clinton (though I agree with AP that Wilentz overdoes it a bit). Allah writes:

If you want to see a politician remaining ostentatiously above the fray while winking at cretinous race-baiting by his supporters, look no further than the TNR piece about how deftly the “post-racial” candidate has leveraged ye olde racial playbook these past few months.

Obama’s positioning as the “post-racial” candidate is a key factor in the strategy.

When The Future King has no clothes, we are forced to view him as transparent.

Because of his color!

These episodes are simply Democrats digging a moat around Obama, and raising the drawbridges against any criticisms. An opening salvo for their November run for the Whitehouse and Obama's antiness ascension. We are to ignore this Future King's lack of clothing, because of his racial makeup. The mentioning of the unfortunateness of his middle name (and of his familial muslim heritage) is off limits. We can blame his grandmother for the name, his mother for her strange marriages, but Obama is not to be criticized.

Jeff Goldstein seems to realize Obama's exact makeup, and McCain's as well...

"Obama’s experience, such as it is, has been in getting elected to ever-higher offices on the strength of a charisma that, to me at least, is as grating and affected as anything even Mike Huckabee might ooze.

In the end, McCain can certainly show that his experience far outweighs Obama’s — and is of far greater heft, if only for its, um, bipartisan nuance. [cough cough hack]

None of which will matter if this turns out to be a Fox Mulder election, wherein enough voters buy into Obama’s platitudes and conclude, ultimately, “I WANT TO BELIEVE”!"

It's a shame our nation's voting public (and even our Republican party) (especially "Titular Head" McCain) are weak enough to fall for it.

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