We had begun seeing the hatred well up almost from the day that Obama cinched the nomination. You first saw it from the radio and television talk show hosts, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, and the like. As soon as that happened, it started spewing up from every conservative website and forum. Some of the crap spewing out was unbelievable, going apeshit over the possibility Muslims and blacks were going to take over the country and rape their daughters.
"What's up, Carl?", asked John, when he settled himself in my office.
"It's this birth certificate nonsense coming out of the base of the party, that and the crap over Obama being a secret Muslim. Have you been following this?"
He nodded. "I get it in passing. It's not coming from the campaign, though. I'm not even sure it's coming out of any 527 groups. I think it's simple ranting from the mouth breathers."
"Do you like it?"
"Not particularly, but I don't know as we can stop it, either. As I say, it isn't coming from the political side. It seems to be coming from the entertainment side. Fox loves this stuff. It keeps their ratings high. MSNBC, too, now that I think about it. It gives them something to scold the Republicans about."
I snorted at that, and rolled my eyes. "That may be, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Remember during the last election when you asked me what I was going to do about the Swift Boaters? Shoe's on the other foot, John."
McCain gave me a shocked look at that. "Like I said, Carl, this isn't anything organized. I can't go in front of the American Legion and say a specific group is wrong. This doesn't have an address on it. I can't show up on their doorstep and tell them to behave. The ones spouting this stuff don't like me to begin with. They don't like you, either, just to mention it."
That gave me a certain feeling of disgust. My Vice President was correct in saying that there wasn't anybody we could point a finger at and say they were the one responsible for this. What I wasn't hearing was any expression that he wanted to do something about this. That bothered me. "This is why I have told you we have to watch these guys carefully. Just as bad, however, you have to watch the damn consultants you hire. They like this, believe me!"
"Carl, I don't..."
I didn't let him finish. "Yeah, they like it. It's the perfect negative campaign. You don't have to spend a penny on it. You don't have to say anything positive about yourself. You don't have to make any statements as to what you would do or who you are. There is nothing that can come back to bite you about what you've done. You just have to let other people tell lies about the other side while staying out of it. It's the textbook definition of what is wrong in American politics today."
"You want him to win?! This is not going to be easy! I spent a lot more money fighting Romney and Huckabee than I should have, mostly because the base was fighting me. For once they actually get to do something positive for me!", he replied, getting a little hot about it.
I didn't need this to get pissy. "This is going to bite you in the ass, John. Listen, the only way you or me or any of us get elected is by winning the middle, the independents and the moderates. The base of the party wouldn't vote for Jesus if he ran as a Democrat. You could say the same thing about the Democrats if Jesus was a Republican. All of the money you spend, all of the ads you run, all of everything you do is aimed at the people in the middle. If you don't come across as somebody who can be trusted and is willing to stand up for a principle, you lose the middle."
"That is easy to say when you aren't facing this. People love this guy. He is going to have more money than God going into this. I am going to need every vote I can scrape up."
I sighed and nodded. "I know. Believe me, I know. He's a new and shiny toy straight out of the box, a magical Negro able to cure the problems of the nation with a single wave of his hand. He's not some old fuddy duddy who probably can't remember how to tie his shoes." John groaned at that one. "All I'm saying is that it isn't impossible for you to beat this guy without playing these games. Sure, he gives a hell of a speech, but so what? What's he actually done? You can't answer that, since he hasn't done shit!"
"That's true enough.", John agreed.
"I have to tell you something. Sooner or later somebody is going to ask me what I think about this crap being stated about Obama, and when they do, I am going to tell them, and I won't be pulling any punches. You know that sooner or later this is going to happen. Do you want to be ahead of the game or behind?"
McCain made a rude gesture, but one without any heat. "I hear you. I will talk it out with some people. This won't be easy. The base already hates us. Now they are going to want to tar and feather us!"
John might not like it, but this shit hurt us just as much as it hurt the Democrats. Negative campaigning worked, but it was a devil's bargain. When you did nothing but complain that the other guy was bad, it brought him down, but it also brought you down by a certain amount. When both sides do it, everybody ends up in the basement. When I had faced down the Swift Boaters, it actually helped me more than it helped John Kerry, since it showed I had 'character' and 'integrity', both qualities more notable for their lack in American politics.
Unfortunately, John was right about there being nobody you could pin this on. This crap was like a boiling pot full of raw sewage, bubbling up from the bottom. I could easily envision a scenario, following a statement by me that Barack Obama was an American and a Christian, and an appeal to broadcasters to stop repeating lies that they knew were lies. All it would take was for Rush Limbaugh to repeat my statement on air, and ask for comments.
Rush: "So President Buckman says that he doesn't need evidence that Barack Hussein Obama is actually an American and isn't a Muslim. What are your thoughts on this? Let's hear from some listeners!"
Listener: "That's not true! He wasn't born here! He was born in Kenya, and was raised a Muslim! You have to see the evidence!"
Rush: "That's not what President Buckman is saying."
Listener: "Carl Buckman is a murderer. You can't trust a word he says. He's really a Democrat, and you know it! His whole family is a bunch of liberals! He's not even a Christian himself. He doesn't go to church!"
From there it would just get worse. Any vestige of principle I had would be swallowed up with this.
I talked to John again a day later, as more of this crap began to surface. I didn't need my Veep pissed at me, but he had to know what I was going to say if I was asked, because I would surely be asked. Worst of all, was the fact that the people who were most likely to believe and spout this stuff were simply not going to be swayed by truth or logic. They knew what they knew, and if you disagreed with them, you wouldn't convince them, but you would definitely piss them off. The best that John or I or his campaign people could come up with was a statement along the lines that, 'I don't know who told you Senator Obama was [fill in the blank] but they were mistaken. I know the Senator and he isn't.'
One of the problems we had, not just as politicians, but as Americans, was the multitude of all news channels. You had Fox on the right, MSNBC on the left, and CNN in a diminishing middle. There were a lot of people who watched nothing but news shows all day long. I even saw this in my own family; since he had retired, Big Bob, Marilyn's dad, watched nothing but CNN when he watched television. Five hundred channels, but he only watched one; the others could all be taken off the tuner. Since the news channels couldn't possibly come up with actual breaking news every second of the day, they didn't even try. A typical 24 hours of 'news' was actually only 5-6 of what Walter Cronkite would recognize as news. The other 18-19 was actually commentary, talking heads just like the Sunday morning news shows, only with their pet commentators and lobbyists looking to push their paid interests.