We have regularly reported on President Obama’s perpetual campaign organization, Organizing for America (OFA), and the need for him to abandon this campaign and move on to leading the nation. OFA is an off shoot of the Democratic National Committee, operating under the website www.BarackObama.com, and it is explicitly designed to maintain the President’s 2008 campaign into 2012. It is headed by some of the President’s closest political advisors, including David Plouffe and Mitch Stewart. In August, the Heritage Foundation uncovered an invitation to an OFA event which likened conservatives to “domestic terrorists” and the “heirs to Bin Laden.” Later, in September, OFA Maryland State Director, Jason Waskey, invited OFA members to a rally with the President himself, in which he referred to all conservatives as “swiftboaters” who are “spreading lies and stirring fear.” Not a very classy track record so far, for an organization directly tied to the President of the United States.
Today, Politico reports that one of the twenty finalists in a health care video contest run by Organizing for America is film of an American flag being spray painted onto a building and then desecrated with graffiti before being “ultimately obliterate[d].” The video is produced by Daniel Lahoda and Saber, and is to be ultimately judged by Plouffe, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine, Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-PA), singer will.i.am and Hollywood stars Rosario Dawson and Dule Hill. The idea that the desecration of the American Flag is either entertaining or helps sell liberal health care reform should be universally admonished.
In fact, an anonymous liberal entrant to the contest even told Politico that “a video ‘defacing the flag’ won’t do much to help President Barack Obama or the Democrats sell health care reform.” A truer statement could not be found. President Obama had come under previous ‘flag scrutiny’ for refusing to wear an American flag on his lapel which he explained by saying it “became a substitute for I think true patriotism.” He later began wearing a pin.
We take the President at his word when he says, “I don’t want to pit Red America against Blue America. I want to be President of the United States of America.” The President’s campaign should immediately denounce this video, and remove it from its list of finalists. Then, President Obama should again heed the call to reconsider this perpetual OFA campaign his organization is running. The President has too often been attached to hateful language and rhetoric emoting from Organizing for America and it’s time for him to lead the nation, not a campaign.
(In fairness, we have included the video below so you may judge for yourself.)
Click here to view the embedded video.
Two weeks ago, we alerted you to an event invitation on President Barack Obama’s ongoing campaign website, barackobama.com, which used startling language to describe the opposition. The message urged Americans to call their U.S. Senators on September 11 and “fight back against our own Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists who are subverting the American Democratic Process, whipped to a frenzy by their Fox Propaganda Network ceaselessly re-seizing power for their treacherous leaders.” It went on to call conservatives the heirs to Bin Laden. After we reported this, the posting was removed and the President’s campaign team chalked it up to an independent poster who had no affiliation to the website and was akin to a harmless comment on a blog.
Well, they’ve done it again, only this time the invitation comes directly from Jason Waskey, Maryland State Director of Organizing for America (OFA), and President Obama is headlining the event so it cannot be dismissed so easily. Yesterday, OFA members received an email inviting them to a health care rally with President Obama at the University of Maryland on Thursday at 9:00 a.m. In the invite, Waskey compares opponents of the President’s health care agenda to “swiftboaters” who are “spreading lies and stirring up fear.”
This type of language may be acceptable, even expected, during a political campaign, but as we pointed out two weeks ago, now is not that time. An invitation to see the President speak, any President, was at one point in America a treasured gift. Gold embossed stationary, or simply tickets with the presidential seal or a picture of the White House have been framed and hung on walls across America. Guests of all political persuasions ask the President to sign them if they’re lucky to be close enough. Even in an electronic age, invitations from the President should carry some weight or at least a healthy respect for the office. This invitation does not come close to meeting Presidential standards.
In his speech before Congress last week, President Obama said: “But what we have also seen in these last months is the same partisan spectacle that only hardens the disdain many Americans have toward their own government…Too many have used this as an opportunity to score short-term political points, even if it robs the country of our opportunity to solve a long-term challenge.” Mr. President, you are correct, and this type of partisan campaign invitation is exactly what Americans disdain, and is exactly what makes bipartisan reform so hard to achieve.
When conservatives rightly point out that liberals have consistently defeated health care amendments that would protect against taxpayer funded abortions or against abuse by undocumented aliens, they are not lying, they are pointing out legislative facts. When conservatives rightly point out that tens of millions would lose their private coverage under your plans, even if not by government “force” or “requirement,” but merely by design, they are not “spreading fear,” but merely helping educate a very well-informed populace.
It is often said that nobody wants to see how the sausage is made. When the debate is whether to overhaul one sixth of our economy and put control over a vast amount of American income into the hands of the government, trust us, Americans want to see the details. By discussing the details on both sides, this is not “swiftboating” as the President’s Maryland State OFA Director calls it, but having a transparent debate.
As we said two weeks ago, the time has come for the President of the United States to embrace the office he holds, and end the perpetual campaign. Speaking to the American public via whitehouse.gov and via barackobama.com sends mixed messages that add credibility to the charge that the President only cares about the people who voted for him in November. A positive step towards a bipartisan debate, and as Obama said last week, “[a] recognition that we are all in this together” would be to shut down the barackobama.com website which seeks to alienate voices in this nation and divide Americans as either for him, or against him.