Criticisms of Barack Obama from Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been pretty tough the past several weeks — up to and including discussion of his teenaged drug use — but neither Clinton nor any of her associates have been willing to take on the bogus Muslim email myth. When two Iowa officials were caught disseminating the nonsense, the Clinton campaign quickly fired both.
So, it was hard not to notice that former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D), who offered Clinton a high-profile endorsement over the weekend, praised Obama in an interesting way.
After the event, he mused about her chief competitor, Sen. Barack Obama.
“The fact that he’s African American is a big deal. I do expect and hope that Hillary is the nominee of the party. But I hope he’s used in some way. If he happens to be the nominee of the party and ends up being president, I think his capacity to influence in a positive way without spending a penny the behavior of a lot of underperforming black youth today is very important, and he’s the only one who can reach them.”
Kerrey continued, “It’s probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There’s a billion people on the planet that are Muslims and I think that experience is a big deal.” He added, “He’s got a whale of a lot more intellectual talent than I’ve got as well.”
Now, at face value, Kerrey’s comments were entirely complimentary. On the surface, these remarks don’t constitute an attack; they’re practically praise.
But then there’s that context that makes one wonder if there might be a little more to Kerrey’s comments than meets the eye.
Indeed, the people generally most likely to refer to “Barack Hussein Obama” are Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and most of the right-wing blogs. And yet, there was Kerrey using it, ostensibly as an accolade.
Likewise, the right-wing smear about Obama being a secret Muslim is obviously beyond-the-pale for polite society, but Kerrey emphasized Obama’s Muslim lineage quite a bit, again, ostensibly in a positive light.
ABC’s Jake Tapper suggested this might be “a clear attempt to raise an issue while pretending not to raise it,” but Kerrey told him that wasn’t the case.
“[H]is name is Barack Hussein Obama. I know that middle name is seen as a weakness by Republicans, but I don’t think it is. I think it enables him to speak to a billion Muslims around the world.”
Kerrey said he’s spoken to Obama and his staffers and told them to “lead with it as a strength. There’s this nonsense out there about him being a Muslim Manchurian candidate. He should do a commercial, look the camera straight in the eye, and say, ‘My wife Michelle and I are Christians, but my father was a Muslim and my paternal grandfather was a Muslim, and that fact and my name means I can speak to a billion people around the world” who need to hear from the United States.
I don’t have reason to doubt Kerrey, necessarily, and I don’t want to get to a point in which every innocent comment is scrutinized for some kind of hidden agenda-driven meaning.
But there’s a context here, and I still think the Clinton campaign needs to be careful about pushing the envelope. Billy Shaheen talked up the drug issue, Mark Penn not-so-subtly threw around the word “cocaine” on MSNBC last week, Clinton herself warned of unidentified “surprises” from her rivals, and now a prominent Clinton supporter talked up Obama’s middle name and his Muslim relatives.
It could be completely innocuous. Or it could not. I report, you decide.