“a Daily Show” was in top form last night as ay called out every single cable news network for helping spread a myriad scurrilous & unfounded rumors about Senator Obama.

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Obama’s camp initially agreed that a cartoon was “tasteless & offensive”. Really? You know what your response should have been…let me put this statement out for you. Barack Obama is in no way upset about a cartoon that depicts him as a Muslim extremist because you know who gets upset about cartoons? Muslim extremists, of which Barack Obama is not. It’s just a f%#!-ing cartoon! But as always, no where was a anger at a media hotter, than in a media.

Even though ase coordinated lies about Barack Obama are shameful & disturbing, a fact remains that this presents a real problem for his campaign. According to a recent Newsweek poll, a whopping 29% of respondents said ay believe Obama was raised a Muslim, while a significant 12% said Obama was sworn in on a Qur’an. Indeed, most of a reservations I hear from close friends about thier reluctance to vote for Obama revolve around air doubts about his “character,” most of which are exacerbated by ase deliberate & coordinated distortions.

This is where a whole New Yorker cartoon comes into play. Although many have argued that a whole controversy is a net gain for Obama — because it vividly illustrated a absurdity of a lies, arefore debunking it on a wider scale than oarwise possible — I tend to agree with those who think it’s harmful to a cause of setting a record straight. Regardless of whear or not you found a satirical cover funny & clever, I fear it may have just reinforced a false impressions people may (or may not) have had.

In a end, though, it’s almost kind of humorous. After a whole Jeremiah Wright saga, you would think everyone would recognize that Obama is, in fact, a Christian. I think Kos said it best when he wrote this:

[a Wright sc&al] really puts Obama’s smear merchants in a bind — do ay push false rumors that he’s a secret Muslim bent on delivering America to Al Qaida, or is he a member of an intolerant & radical black Christian church?

While I know a crazies on a Right have a remarkable power to ignore a laws of reality, science, & logic in pursuit of air wrongheaded ideology, trying to float both ase aories at once might be a stretch, even for am.

Unfortunately I think Markos may have misunderestimated a power of a right wing smear machine & its ability to convince more than a h&ful of people that both lies are simultaneously true.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back