One of the conservative movement’s more odious rhetorical practices involves speculating about how our national enemies support Democratic candidates. A Fox News Interactive Poll recently asked “Who does Usama bin Laden want to be the next president?” According to the poll, 30% believe that Osama wants Obama to win. We saw a version of this last year when Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage – speaking on foreign soil – said that terrorists in Iraq “are trying to influence the election against President Bush.” Dennis “the weasel” Hastert chirped that al Qaeda, “would very much like to defeat President Bush.” Tom Cole (who once compared the privatization of social security to the Civil Rights Act) similarly declared, “If George Bush loses the election, Osama bin Laden wins the election.”
Turn around is fair play, so I want to publicize Dave Neiwert’s highly scientific survey revealing that 9 in 10 people believe that Hitler would watch Fox News as his network of choice.
Likewise, Justin Webb has a piece on the BBC News site titled Al-Qaeda's choice. He writes that Al-Qaeda “want suffering - among others and their own people alike. They would surely surmise that McCain will give them what they want. . . . I think al-Qaeda would back McCain.”
I wondered, how would this argument play in the wingnut-o-sphere?
Weasel Zippers had a fun thread on the matter. The author of the Weasel Zipper post was offended by the BBC item and criticized the BBC’s “insanely hard-left slant.” Many of the commenters agreed.
The conflation of masculinity and anti-Arab eliminationism is not uniquely American, except in the U.K. they use the word “bloody.” Rubin writes, “The Socialist within the BBC are doing their bloody best to bleed every drop of testosterone from the British Culture, and replacing it with the fluff of Homo-Sissy-Hood*. *LOL*” Downstream, keyboard commando Daddy-O tells us to “Fight! Grow balls, toughen that spine, and fight! ...I for one would rather die doing some good for myself and my children, than allowing evil to continue without resistance.” Of course, I appreciated incomplete hellhole’s post pointing out the obvious contradiction in Rubin and Daddy-O’s call to arms: “i am not sure when the land of the free and home of the brave became a country of fat wimps afraid of their own shadows, but somehow it happened. someone explain to me how the chest-thumpers of the right are apparently afraid of every shadow in their bedroom. why don't you hear liberals campaigning on fear? oh, right, because we're not afraid!”
Warpublican review posted the best comment on the thread:
“of course al Qeada wants McCain - the last Warpublican has been unwilling (or unable) to capture him for seven years - and, let's face it, Bush has been the best recruitment tool for buin laden since the State of Israel. The problem with the right wing is that they can’t keep their fear mongering straight - do the Muslims WANT to die for Islam - or not? If they really want peace, then Obama is the man - if they want their seven virgins, then McCain - and his 10,00 year occupation, wins the day...”
-- temperance
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