Yet even Bush's Brain will not succeed here. Rove tried telling his party's strategists to avoid demagoguery (though hasn't he used it himself for Bush's benefit?) because it will make the Republican party look racist. Um, Karl, the damage is already done. Despite the GOP's makings of a nasty shipwreck, wingnuts are determined to haul water into the boat instead of out.
From The Atlantic:
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."
"The context was, you're not going to stimatize this guy. You shouldn't underestimate him," one of the executive directors said. Rove said that the use of "Barack Hussein Obama" would perpetuate the notion that Republicans were bigoted and would hurt the party.
Rove also said that Republicans should refer to Hillary Clinton as "Sen. Clinton," rather than "Hillary."
Right wing figures are set to ignore Rove's advice. Rush Limbaugh used Obama's middle name more than a year ago, and Ann Coulter regularly uses the middle name, once calling him "President Hussein." So does Michael Savage, who once asked whether Obama was a "so-called friendly Muslim" or one more "radical."
I guess playing into racially tinged themes is just more fun for the likes of Coulter, Savage and Cunningham. Well I say let them have their fun. If the only downside is that we have to hear the ugly side of America come out a little while those who believe such things are thrown from power....then I say go at it. The country as a whole will take hope for real change over bigotry in a heartbeat.
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