Obama vs. Stupid is as stupid does

Generally, I welcome all comments that are made regardling anything I have written in my blog. I have only had occasion to specifically delete two comments because basically the wording was just completely off topic and unacceptable.

In maybe three circumstances, I have taken the comments and created another blog on the content for reasons that people eventually read of in the blog.

It is clear and important to each person that places a comment that they see this notice - Dear Reader, You are welcome to leave comments which might be used in other blogs. All SPAM reported.

However, today I have a comment on my blog that reads like a reasoned opinion but is crass to the extreme and inane bordering on the contemptible it is a display of ignorance most dark, that one may sympathise, at which point it is beginning to sound like praise. Stop!

I had written a piece last month about CNN's typographic error in captioning a picture of Osama bin Laden with Where's Obama - probably an honest mistake by CNN, like the commenter says; the rest just reads like foul effluent.

The comment - unedited

"sorry but obama's name sounds too much like osama. i am black and i would never want anyone named obama to be elected to the highest office of the US. that name, osama, obama instills terror in people. obama is finished because of his name. sorry obama, but that name is your Achilles' heel. and cnn made an honest mistake which will be made often because the names are just too much damn alike. stop playing the race card, brotha."

Associating names with others

When people go to great lengths to think up such stuff, one has to go to greater lengths to debunk such views. Barack Hussein Obama announced only on Saturday that he is in the race for the Presidency of the United States, he made that announcement in Springfield, Illinois on a cold day where a good 15,000 people had gathered to hear his message of hope.

For a while people have been obsessed with his name, but if we did take it apart, this man is 45 years old, his name in 1962 would have meant nothing than the joy of the parents at his birth and that is now his Achilles' heel as the writer says.

Over the years, Barack could now be associated with Hosni Mubarak, the President of Egypt or Ehud Barak, once the Prime Minister of Israel. Hussein could be associated with the late King Hussein of Jordan who many would remember fondly or Saddam Hussein of Iraq who the Americans supported through many atrocities before they pulled the rug from under him and sanctioned his judicial murder.

Then obviously, CNN has helped to associate Osama with Obama, note that one name is a first name and the other is a surname and let us not forget that once Osama and America were good friends when America aided Osama in getting the Russians out of Afghanistan.

These were names that were once sounded in the corridors of power and received taxpayers funding to perpetrate their deeds on behalf of America.

Stupid is as stupid does

"Sorry, but Obama's name sounds too much like Osama" - That is plausible, but are you so hard of hearing not to note the difference? Come on, if those names were used in any context where they were misplaced, dumb people would almost certainly know that terrorism is about bin Laden and the hope of Presidency is about Obama.

"I am black and I would never want anyone named Obama to be elected to the highest office of the US" - Hopefully, America is populated with people who are smarter, this probably feeds into something else that Chxta raised about Barack Obama, some Americans think he is not black enough, that country is rankled with the politics of race it is unbelievable and then I am accused of playing the race card.

"That name, Osama, Obama instils terror in people" - No doubt, it instils terror in stupid people who cannot see beyond their noses, even I would pray that a greater terror come upon them, we cannot have such people walking our streets; their judgment is impaired, their values are corrupt, their lives reprobate, they are beyond therapy and almost beyond redemption.

"Obama is finished because of his name. Sorry Obama, but that name is your Achilles' heel" - I remember many saying the same thing when he was running for the Senate and he won. Does the name of the commenter mean something like fool or idiot? What if he donned a Klu Klux Klan white hood and called himself Nixon - would he be more electable?

"and CNN made an honest mistake which will be made often because the names are just too much damn alike" - CNN probably did make an honest mistake, a mistake that was carried on newswires around the world despite their apology; having denigrated the man as you do now, it is convenient to paint him as a hate symbol and plead innocence. As for likeness, I made my point earlier. Do I allow the use of D*mn on my blog?

"Stop playing the race card, brotha" - On balance, I would prefer to play the race card than the fool's card, but whoever mentioned race anywhere? This so called honest mistake would have been highlighted for any other person regardless of colour. I think you are suffering from delusions of grandeur to address me as Brotha, we do not think alike and we are definitely not of the same stock. The greater disappointment is in how you highlighted our differences by what is atrocious commentary predicated on ignorance.

Surely, Barack Hussein Obama would be attacked from all fronts, but I hope would be at the higher level of principles, values, ideas, policies and motivation rather than tabloid sensationalism masquerading as informed judgment, it is really beginning to annoy me.