"Barack"

Mike Allen begins the attacks on Barack Obama while pretending to be reporting on the attacks others will be beginning shortly. Allen's first gotcha? "Why has he sometimes said his first name is Arabic, and other times Swahili?" As Brad DeLong points out, he's sometimes said "Barack" is an Arabic word because it is an Arabic word. At other times, he's described "Barack" as a Swahili word because . . . it's also a Swahili word. Yes, yes. Some words are words in more than one language. Shocking stuff. I also enjoyed Allen's account of why Obama is too liberal:

“Audacity of Hope” advocates civil unions for gay people (a position held by most national democratics), declaring tartly that Obama is not “willing to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount.” He says he doesn’t “believe we strengthen the family by bullying or coercing people into the relationships we think are best for them – or by punishing those who fail to meet our standards of sexual propriety.”
He writes that Bill Clinton and conservatives turned out to be “right about welfare as it was previously structured.” He adds, “But we also need to admit that work alone does not ensure that people can rise out of poverty.”

So he has one stand that all Democrats adhere to, but has an unusually compelling, Bible-based rationale for it. That won't fly! Then he says Bill Clinton was right about welfare reform (so very liberal!) but also that "work alone does not ensure that people can rise out of poverty." But does anyone deny this? It's a matter of math. The minimum wage is so many dollars per hour, those dollars per hour times a forty hour workweek equals sub-poverty living for many families. To avoid being objectionably liberal these days we need to pretend all full-time work pays a non-poverty wage even when it doesn't?

UPDATE: Michael Crowley: "if this is the best people have got (which I doubt: the really saucy stuff will spill in more dramatic fashion) then Barack shouldn't sweat." Agreed.

2/10/07 11:59AM del.icio.us this incoming links

Comments

If this is the best a year of opposition research has dug up ...

Posted by: otto on February 10, 2007 12:08 PM

No, to avoid being called lefty leftist liberally liberal one must state that the government doesn't have any business even thinking about the poor unless its as a way to funnel money to churches.

Posted by: Rob on February 10, 2007 12:09 PM

So is Mike a Biblical Hebrew or a Modern English-American name? These are the pertinent questions that need to be answered.

Posted by: Reality Man on February 10, 2007 12:10 PM

Shorter Mike Allen:
Barak Obama's compelling, multi-cultural personal narrative and popular political positions will be an insurmountable barrier to electoral success because I say so, Nyah!

Posted by: justin on February 10, 2007 12:24 PM

If this is the best a year of opposition research has dug up ...

Why think that? Remember how the Swifties made their splash after Kerry was nominated -- with claims of things that supposedly happened 35 years ago but that they forgot to mention during, say, the primaries?

Posted by: DonBoy on February 10, 2007 12:28 PM

"most national democratics"

Did anyone else catch this? Is this the latest petulant, silly, embarrassing iteration of calling Dems the "Democrat Party?" To then use "democratic" in all circumstances, regardless of context?

And, if so, why would Mike Allen think it was in any way, even briefly, acceptable?

I'll admit it could be a copyedit issue. But, if not, Mike Allen needs his ass fired. Like, by Monday afternoon.

Matt, could you use whatever Lexis-Nexis mojo you have to see if this has appeared anywhere else, particularly by Allen?

Posted by: JRoth on February 10, 2007 12:33 PM

"Barack" is an Arabic word because it is an Arabic word. At other times, he's described "Barack" as a Swahili word because . . . it's also a Swahili word.

This is doubly unshocking because Swahili is an invented, composite language that takes in words from many other languages, including Arabic.

Posted by: Antid Oto on February 10, 2007 12:47 PM

Which I see DeLong already pointed out. Duh.

Posted by: Antid Oto on February 10, 2007 12:54 PM

"To avoid being objectionably liberal these days we need to pretend all full-time work pays a non-poverty wage even when it doesn't?"

Well, back in 2002-03, it was objectionably liberal to point out that Iraq was a multi-ethnic society ready to explode into a civil war at the moment it's authoritarian dictator.

It's that simple - they get small stuff wrong, they get big stuff wrong, they get silly stuff wrong, they get important stuff wrong - but they always know the liberals, democrats, and rational are objectionable.

Posted by: MDtoMN on February 10, 2007 01:19 PM

Gotta love the hat tip to distinguished investigative reporting:

"Lynn Sweet, the dogged Washington reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, spotted the disclaimer in 2004..."

What disclaimer did this dogged reporter discover? Oh, yeah...the "little-noticed disclaimer at the front of his 442-page memoir."

The disclaimer in his friggin' book! Wow, watch out Woodward & Berstein!

Posted by: KD on February 10, 2007 01:58 PM

On second thought, a reporter who has apparently read the material about which she writes critically probably is a rarity.

Posted by: KD on February 10, 2007 02:02 PM

They're saving the big guns for the main election. You usually don't want to seem too involved in the outcome of your opponent's primary.

And the fact that Fed policy basically tries to keep unemployment above a certain level pretty much guarantees that there is no way that hard work is enough to lift oneself out of poverty for roughly for 4-4.5% of the population.

Posted by: daveNYC on February 10, 2007 02:03 PM

Soon we will be reminded how easily a person in possession of actual facility with the English language, non-manufactured charisma, and not an unusually high amount of insecurity handles stupid shit.

Posted by: text on February 10, 2007 02:57 PM

The striking thing about this truly pathetic piece of journalism is that Allen organizes it to perfectly exhibit what is either his complete and total disregard for objectivity or simply supreme stupidity. He actually numbers the difficulties that Obama faces. The "Too Liberal" claim (#3) DIRECTLY FOLLOWS the "Anemic Policy Record" claim (#2).

Shorter Mike Allen:
HOWCANWEVOTEFORHIM!?
HEDOESNTPROPOSEPOLICIES!
ANDTHEYARETOOLIBERAL!

Fucking dumb ass.

Posted by: Sam L. on February 10, 2007 04:00 PM

has an unusually compelling, Bible-based rationale for it.

Yes, I can't wait until conservative biblical theologians hear this. They'll be blown away as I'm sure they've never thought of it before.

Posted by: Mark Adams on February 10, 2007 04:27 PM

Regarding the comment that full time work does not pay a living wage, the truth about maintaining any standard of living is that most families must have at least two full-time workers to maintain whatever standard (poor, working class, middle class, etc.) with which they identify. Single people must work two jobs, or much overtime, to maintain a decent standard. It's time to recognize that the 40 hour work-week is a myth. To recapture that dream would require the re-unionization of the work force. Even union workers, it must be recognized, put in far more than forty hours in order to afford their "life-styles." This is certainly so at the major New York teaching hospital where I am employed.

Posted by: Albert Savoy on February 10, 2007 08:08 PM

Yes, yes. Some words are words in more than one language. Shocking stuff.

Next up, Allen discovers what the word 'gift' means in German, and unveils the shocking War on American Giftgiving, at 11. Back to you, Matt.

Posted by: fishbane on February 11, 2007 04:39 PM

Sohbet thank you

Posted by: sohbet on September 22, 2007 07:53 AM

Thanks
Best regards
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