"The Manchurian Candidate"

I guess there are depths of political slime that, in my naiveté, I didn't suspect existed. Probably this has been true in every election, but reading about it for the first time still hurts your belief in American democracy and fair play.

It seems that waves of emails are pouring across the internet claiming that Barack Obama was raised a Muslim, studied in an Indonesian Muslim "madrassa," and may well have been "programed" to implement the goals of Islamic terrorists once elected.** The prevalence of these rumors may explain why Rush Limbaugh insists on including Obama's middle name whenever he refers to him: "Barack Hussein Obama." Rush is sophisticated enough to avoid committing libel. He doesn't need to. He just needs to feed the paranoia of his pathetic followers with the occasional code word, and allow them to draw their own bizarre conclusions.

Andrew Romano, writing in his Newsweek blog "Stumper," observes that it's not necessary that voters actually believe the entire absurd Manchurian Candidate scenario. They need only have their prejudices tweaked, to suspect that where there's smoke, there's at least an unacceptable risk of fire. He describes a conversation he had recently with a Florida school teacher:

Take Vicki Hercsky, 47, a teacher from Boca Raton, Florida. "Obama, I don't even know how he got where he is," she told me after a Rudy Giuliani event late last month. "Why do you say that?" I asked. "He's Muslim," she replied, matter-of-factly. I stammered. "Well, um, his father was raised Muslim but was an agnostic by the time Barack was born," I said. "Obama is a Christian." Hercsky wasn't swayed. "Yeah, but he has it in his blood," she said. "You can't take away what's given to you. It's given to you for a reason, and that's who you are. That's who he is."

As Romano observes, this is nonsense. But "people do stupid things when they're scared," he observes. There are people today who are as scared of the "threat" of Islamic penetration into American society as their grandparents were in the 1950's of the threat of Communist government infiltration.

Such people will always exist. They existed for John Kennedy in 1960, whispering among themselves that, as a Roman Catholic, Kennedy would move the papacy from Rome to Washington, D.C., once he was elected. Kennedy won the election, of course, and Benedict XVI remains in the Vatican, but no one doubts that these paranoid fantasies cost him votes in what was a close race. But we simply have to hope and trust that free and open debate and discussion, and our country's basic common sense, will neutralize such absurdities.

But fires can burn themselves out, or they can be fanned into new life. Rush Limbaugh might try, for once in his life, to behave like a responsible political pundit. He could clearly state to his adoring audience that, whatever his dislike for Democrats in general, and Obama in particular, the Manchurian Candidate rumor is totally absurd and not worthy of consideration by voters who are proud to call themselves Conservatives.

Don't hold your breath. I guess that's not how politics is played in this year of our Lord, 2008.

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**Obama lived in Jakarta between the ages of 6 and 10. He attended a Roman Catholic school during first through third grades. He attended fourth grade in a predominantly Muslim public school. The school, founded by the colonial Dutch, was considered one of the best in Jakarta. Each child received two hours of religious training a week. Muslims received training in Islam; Christians received training in Christianity. The atmosphere of the school was secular.

"I was really trendy, for example, no sleeves, and miniskirts," recalled Tine Hahiyari, 78, a Protestant who was the school's headmaster from 1972 to 1989. "When I taught sports, I wore shorts."

Kim Barker, Chicago Tribune(3-25-07). From 5th grade through high school graduation, he attended the Punahou School in Honolulu, the most prestigious private school in the Islands.