Karl Rove: Don't "Hussein" Obama

The Atlantic:

No less an authority figure than Karl Rove has warned Republican operatives from demagoguing Barack Obama's middle name.

At a closed door meeting of GOP state executive directors in late January, Rove said the safest way to refer to Obama would be to use his honorific, "Sen. Obama."

Read the whole story: The Atlantic

Comments

[HuffingPuffing]

07:51 PM on 03/03/2008

Ok - thanks Karl. In return we'll have to make sure that no-one calls you a treacherous, law-breaking sonofabitch who by any other reasonable measure should be a couple of years into a long jail sentence by now. Fair trade?

[writechic]

06:46 PM on 03/03/2008

So, Karl Rove is posturing as if one can sink too low? This from the man who invented John McCain's illegitimate black baby with a prostitute, no less, Ann Richards' and Hillary Clinton lesbian rumor, and wanting to take naked gay pictures of Alabama's Democratic governor.

http://writechic.wordpress.com/2008/03/03/karl-rove-wanted-the-gay-sex/

[isis]

01:39 PM on 03/03/2008

Doesn't Hussain mean "handsome"? Just as "Alan" does. We are not all Dunkin Donuts customers. Some of us can appreciate diverse languages and find them interesting. To be honest, I bet the GOP doesn't want people reminded of how they set up an evil dictator with that name and then smeared him and killed him.

[greenpagan]

10:42 AM on 03/03/2008

If you’re a rabid racist Republican with a peanut-sized brain you must obey MC Rove…

(Leave the snotty remarks for Hillary...)

http://greenpagan.newsvine.com

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[Davwbaird]

02:57 AM on 03/03/2008

so there you have first haND FORECASTING.

[Davwbaird]

02:30 AM on 03/03/2008

Rovian language folks really means use it all you want. Don;t be fooled by evil itsdelf.

[YRM]

11:14 PM on 03/01/2008

Karl Rove has been secretly backing Obama's campaign since he ran for senate in 2004. The Illinois G.O.P. forced his challenger to drop out of that race and replaced him with an unknown, non-Illinois resident. Now why would they give up a seat in the U.S. senate unless they had bigger plans for Sen. Obama? According to an article in Time last fall, several Bush fundraisers and strategists have supported his presidential campaign. Early on they organized massive crossover voting drives in the red state caucuses. (CNN says it expects 10 percent of the Texas G.O.P. vote to be crossover as well, since it's an open primary.) In other words, Rove is pushing Republicans to treat Obama with kid gloves until he gets Clinton knocked out of the race, which is the G.O.P.'s primary objective in this election. They can't beat her in November but think they can easily beat him. If you don't believe it, try watching the Fox News Channel for an hour on any given day. It turns out that Obama's speechwriter Ben Rhodes is the brother of Fox News VP David Rhodes. It has been an ingenious plan, but with so much data available on the subject, it's hard to understand why progressives and anti-establishment youth and the yuppie Starbucks crowd are gobbling up this ecoli-laden bait still. Even the usually astute Bill Moyers has resigned himself to wasting program after program discussing tangential minutae regarding the election with a single ivory tower academic. At any rate, I've posted an article at thecityedition.com which looks at the election in-depth and links to relevant sources. Here's a direct address.
http://www.thecityedition.com/Pages/Archive/Winter08/2008Election.html

[kirksong]

01:33 AM on 03/02/2008

Interesting conspiracy theory? Why then does Senator Obama consistantly out poll Senator Clinton when matched against Senator McCain? As Ralph Nader says, if the Dems cannot trounce the Republicans this election, they should fold up and go home. Give Senator Obama a little credit - he is doing a great job of communicating, organizing, inspiring, and winning! Why give credit to the dark side?

[greenpagan]

10:57 AM on 03/03/2008

Meanwhile didn't Murdoch contribute to Hillary's campaign? (Even if his NY Post did endorse Obama...)

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[hoodrat]

01:21 AM on 03/01/2008

Fade In: Sounds of huffin' and puffin' echoing through the Alabama pines, swing camera to visage of a porcine man, with urine soaked pants screaming "but I followed the orders of my President" the fat man sobbed between gasps for air. Ten paces behind, calmly tracking his "quarry", a man in military uniform that covers his prosthetics chambers a round with his fake hand, while he steadies himself on his new "legs" he was just outfitted with. As he takes aim, the camera pans away to take in the pine forest - when suddenly with the gunshots you hear a squeal, reminiscent of Deliverance.......Karl who?

[aigeanta]

07:07 AM on 02/29/2008

Typical Rovian/1984 tactic: say the opposite of what you mean, i.e. "No Child Left Behind" (every child left behind), "Clear Skies Initiative" (polluted skies inertia), "Department of Peace" (department of war), "Mission Accomplished" (invasion forever), etc.

[John1001]

09:20 PM on 02/28/2008

Couple of things -

Not that it matters much, but Barack's middle name is Husein not Hussein.

It might be good for Barack to remind folks of our history with one of our strongest allies - King Hussein of Jordan. A photo op with his delightful queen, Queen Noor, who attended our daughter's school in Concord, Ma, and then Princeton, might be good too.

[research]

01:42 PM on 02/29/2008

I cut and pasted "Husein" from your comment and Google has never heard of the name. The Obama site does not list his middle name.

[JMEB]

10:10 AM on 03/01/2008

It's transliterated from Arabic, so there is no difference at all between Hussein, Husein, Husayn, etc.

[isis]

01:49 PM on 03/03/2008

Good thinking about King Husein of Jordan.

[tbone99]

06:21 PM on 02/28/2008

Karl Rove: Don't Call Obama "Hussein"

Thats his offical stance to the newspapers anyway.Meanwhile, he's got a factory in China churning out t- shirts of Obama in his kenyan garb with Barack Hussein Osama under it.

[caywen]

04:44 PM on 02/28/2008

Sigh - I ran for city council one time against an incumbent who actually was in a permanent coma. I would have won if my mother had not made "Iamgonnakillyoumofo" as my middle name.

Dammit!!

[research]

02:27 PM on 02/28/2008

Say it proudly:

President Barack Hussein Obama!

[JMEB]

10:12 AM on 03/01/2008

Hear hear!

As a person with a non-Anglo name that is constantly mispelled and mispronounced, I love the symbolism of having a man with his name leading the US.

[EinChicago]

12:37 PM on 03/03/2008

Sounds nice. Shame it will never happen. Unfortunately, I think the closest he can actually get in reality would be the sentence "Barak Hussein Obama, the reason we have a President John McCain."

[PhilosophicalPotato]

12:50 PM on 02/28/2008

Don't people realize that the name "Hussien" is the common equivalent of "John" in the Muslim/Arab/African World? Woopdi-freaking-do. I bet the rest of the world is looking at the Right Wingers and raising their eyebrows like: "Are you serious?"

[pinkerman2]

09:01 PM on 03/01/2008

Hi Potato, I just look at the right-wingers, and aside from the profanity; the best that I can say is "are you freakin serious?" Sadly, they always are. They are so afraid of Senator Obama that they are soiling themselves. Their dirty tricks will continue with or without the ugly troll Rove, he's only a phone call away! I wonder where Jeff Gannon took to ground? Have a feeling Mr. Rove knows.

[Geoffreys]

11:59 AM on 02/28/2008

Its not often I find myself agreeing with Karl Christian Rove - but on this I do. It will only make the Republicans look petty and stupid.

Now, all I have to do is find myself agreeing with Rush Hudson Limbaugh III and Ann Hart Coulter on something and I'll be certain it is a sign of the apocalypse.

[DavidPerkins]

04:28 PM on 02/29/2008

Oh My Gosh! Ann Coulter has a "hart?" Who knew?

[YellowDogInRedCounty]

06:54 PM on 03/02/2008

She's also got a penis....SHE'S A MAN BABY!!!