Am I surprised?
If CNN sent a camera crew into say, a McCain or a Huckabee campaign office, and found a Confederate battle flag hanging on the wall, it would be a scandal. The left side of the blogosphere would go ballistic. There would be nothing else on television news for days. The orgy of recrimination and self examination would go on and on and on.
No such luck. Instead, we get this.
A Fox camera crew went into an Obama campaign office in Houston, and found a Cuban flag on the wall. One with the image of sadist and mass murderer Che Guevara superimposed. Check it out the video here.
Listen, can you hear it? The reaction?
[Cue dead silence, or crickets chirping, to taste.]
Update: Well, there has been some response on the right side of the blogosphere. I imagine that poster is going to have to come down. Maybe this would be an acceptable alternative.
Posted on February 11th, 2008 by pwyll
Filed under: politics
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Here’s a voice from the left writing: That bastardized Cuban flag has no place in an Obama campaign office because it is an enormous strategic error. I’m sure that Senator Obama would disavow the sentiments it represents.
The occupant of that office clearly has different views on Che Guevera and Fidel’s Cuban Revolution than you do. This is the United States; people get to express different opinions on world affairs. Got a problem with that?
One reason you may not hear much about this from the left is that I doubt many left-leaning news consumers can stomach the “unfair and unbalanced” programming on the Fox News Network.
You have brought the matter to the blogworld. Good job. Let’s see what happens.
“Got a problem with that?”
Hell no. I treasure the unguarded moments when the truth reveals itself. I will never forget the so-called Arab street dancing with joy when the towers fell.
Nowhere on this blog or in my life have I tried to silence anyone, or suggested that anyone be silenced. I will criticize ideas, but I very much want ideas, all ideas, expressed. I want to know my enemy. And you are right, it is a tactical error to hang that thing in a campaign office. I wish more of Obama’s and Hillary’s supporters were as forthcoming with their beliefs. You object to it for the very same reason I try to publicize it: it is a window into actual opinions, the ones not vetted by the campaign spinmeisters.
I have no doubt whoever hung that flag has a different opinion of Che and of Castro than I do. Everyone one is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts. Che was a mass murder, he liked to kill people. That’s a fact. In the end, Che was a dismal failure, even as a communist. The only reason he is remembered is one technically excellent photograph. Ironically, countless capitalists have made money selling that punk’s face to ‘fellow travelers’ and ‘useful idiots’. It’s almost funny.
Don’t give me too much credit for this story. A bit of googling will show lots of bloggers on it. I don’t recall where I first caught wind of it. It may have been on Captain’s Quarters.
‘Nuff said. Facts are facts, opinions are, well, what you are entitled to. Seeing that photo makes my stomach turn. The guy was so scary to Fidel that he exported him to Bolivia, where he feasted on peasant farmers, who had the audacity to pray in church.
The Fox News affiliate eventually ran a retraction of the story referred to here. It turns out this photo clip is from a volunteer’s personal office, not an Obama campaign office. Once the Obama campaign was informed of the matter, the campaign asked the volunteer to remove the flag at issue, deeming it offensive. The volunteer removed the flag.
Source: MSNBC, Countdown with Keith Obermann, 27Feb2008.