Let the gutter balls begin

So this arrived in my e-mail this morning from a co-worker:

Probable U. S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black Muslim from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white atheist from Wichita, Kansas. Obama's parents met at the University of Hawaii.

When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a radical Muslim from Indonesia. When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to Indonesia. Obama attended a Muslim school in Jakarta. He also spent two years in a Catholic school.

Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, "He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school."

Obama's political handlers are attempting to make it appear that Obama's introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son's education. Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Osama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta. Wahabism is the radical teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the
western world.

Since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when seeking major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background.

Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential candidacy.

It's good to be reminded that gutter politics has found a new, more viral and more dangerous home on the Internet.

I don't know enough about Obama to be starry-eyed about him as a fair chunk of folks seem to be. I have my doubts about someone who serves less than a term in the Senate before hearing the call of the White House. But that's neither here nor there. What is relevant is that many of the folks circulating this would probably rise to the call of "patriot." It's hardly patriotic. It's innuendo and insinuation, in my book the definition of cowardice. It's also ripe for journalists to monitor vigorously. 2008 promises to be a dirty campaign the likes of which haven't been seen before. Let's hope journalism is able to rise to the challenge of helping us judge people on their ideas and their merits, not their religion and skin color. As journalists, we should be able to do it. It's not like we haven't been this way before -- I seem to recall this guy named Kennedy in the 1960s and something about his being Catholic ...