30. Todd S. Purdum, “Striking Strengths, Glaring Failures,” New York Times, December 24, 2000.
31. Joe Klein, “Putting Clinton’s Legacy to a Vote,” New York Times, March 17, 2002.
32. Clifford Krauss, “New York City’s Gift to Clinton: A Lower National Crime Rate,” New York Times, September 1996.
33. Michael Cooper, “DNA Evidence Links Rape Suspect to 17 Attacks in Region, Authorities Say,” New York Times, April 9, 1999.
34. Cragg Hines, “Clinton Details Effort to Halt Police Racism: Plan Follows Incidents of Excessive Force,” Houston Chronicle, March 14, 1999, Sunday four-star edition.
35. Federal News Service, March 25, 1999, Thursday. Weekly Media Availability with Attorney General Janet Reno, Department of Justice, Washington, DC.
36. Weiser, Benjamin, “Final Frisking Policy of the Police Faces Scrutiny,” New York Times, March 19, 1999.
37. Heather MacDonald, “America’s Best Urban Police Force,” City Journal, Summer 2000.
38. “Puerto Rican Demonstrators Demand Pardon for Jailed Terrorists,” The Bulletin’s Frontrunner, August 30, 1999. “Tapes Indicate Prisoners Will Return to Violence.” Newsweek (9/6) reported, “The most damning evidence against the nationalists, Newsweek has learned, is still-secret audio tapes made by the Bureau of Prisons.” The tapes “record at least some of the prisoners saying that ‘as soon as they get out of there, they are going to return to violence,’ one law enforcement official said.”
39. Anderson Cooper, “State of Texas to Retain Polygamist Children: Clinton to Obama: ‘Toughen Up,’” CNN, April 18, 2008.
40. Anderson Cooper, 360, CNN, May 2, 2008.
41. Christopher Andersen, American Evita: Hillary Clinton’s Path to Power (Wm. Morrow, 2004) at 16–17.
CHAPTER 14: DREAMS OF MY ASSASSINATION
1. Steve Kroft, Interview with Barack and Michelle Obama, CBS, 60 Minutes, February 11, 2007.
2. This was a theory pushed by Representative Maxine Waters. See Craig Delaval, “Cocaine, Conspiracy Theories & the C.I.A. in Central America,” PBS Frontline, available at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/special/cia.html.
3. Peter Knight, Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia, vol. 1 (ABC-CLIO, 2003) at 38. “It was suggested that [Church’s Fried Chicken] (whose franchises were located primarily in urban areas and had a sizable black customer base) was owned by racist whites who added an ingredient to the chicken that would cause black men to become sterile. A parallel theory held that the makers of Tropical Fantasy, a low-cost soft drink marketed principally in largely black urban areas, was owned by the KKK and added an ingredient to its product that would sterilize or cause impotence in black men.”
4. John King, “Racism: Personal Safety Factors in Obama’s Deliberations,” CNN.com, January 19, 2007.
5. Frank Rich, “The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama,” New York Times, October 12, 2008.
6. Bob Herbert, “Roads, High and Low,” New York Times, May 27, 2008.
7. “Obama Will Be Assassinated if He Wins: Nobel Winner Lessing,” Agence France-Presse February 9, 2008.
8. Allison Samuels, “Daring to Touch the Third Rail,” Newsweek, January 28, 2008.
9. Jeff Zeleny, “In Memories of a Painful Past, Hushed Worry about Obama,” New York Times, February 25, 2008.
10. Eileen Sullivan, “Obama Has More Threats than Other Presidents-Elect,” The Associated Press, November 15, 2008.
11. Steve Gilbert, “AP: Obama Gets Most Death Threats Ever,” Sweetness & Light, November 15, 2008.
12. Rachel Weiner, “Obama’s Secret Service Agent Most Influential Man in the World,” the Huffington Post, December 26, 2008. Available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/25/idetailsi-obamas-secret-s_n_146325.html.
13. Frank Rich, “The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama.”
14. Leonard Pitts, “Racism Lurks in the Shadows for Obama,” Orlando Sentinel (Florida), May 8, 2007.
15. ABC News Now, Perspectives, “Speak Freely,” May 11, 2007.
16. Jeff Zeleny, “In Memories of a Painful Past, Hushed Worry About Obama.”
17. Matthew Jaffe, “Obama Security Challenge as Popularity Grows,” ABC News, February 28, 2008, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/ story?id=4350538& page=1#.T_ufu45Sbao.
18. Scout Tufankjian, “Guarding Obama,” Slate.com, January 2009. Available at http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/gallery/2009/01/guarding_obama.html.
19. Robert Lindsey, New York Times, November 14, 1979; the Associated Press, November 13, 1979.
20. Katharine Q. Seelye, “Kennedy Comment Sends Clinton into Damage Control,” New York Times, May 26, 2008.
21. Kenneth J. Moynihan, “Was Outrage over RFK Remark Launched by Obama Campaign?” Telegram & Gazette (Massachusetts), May 29, 2008.
22. Kenneth R. Bazinet, “Firestorm? Blame It on Bam,” Daily News (New York), May 26, 2008.
23. Bob Herbert, “Roads, High and Low,” New York Times, May 27, 2008.
24. Roger Cohen, “The Obama Connection,” New York Times, May 26, 2008.
25. Eugene Robinson, “Clinton’s Grim Scenario,” Washington Post, May 27, 2008.
26. Keith Olbermann, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, May 23, 2008.
27. The United States Secret Service and Presidential Protection: An Examination of a System Failure. Hearings Before the Committee on Homeland Security, 111th Cong. (December 3, 2009) (testimony of Mark J. Sullivan, director, United States Secret Service).
28. Newsweek’s Mark Hosenball traced the rumor of increased threats against Obama to author Ronald Kessler, who had claimed in a 2009 book that threats against the president rose by 400 percent after Obama took office, but the Obama-threat hysteria long preceded Kessler’s book. Mark Hosenball, “Threats Against Obama Drop to Normal Levels,” Newsweek, November 9, 2009. Available at http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/blogs/declassified/2009/11/09/threats-against-obama-drop-to-normal-levels.html.
29. “WP Makes Up Hate Site ‘Explosion’ Story,” Sweetness & Light, June 22, 2008, citing Eli Saslow, “Hate Groups’ Newest Target,” Washington Post, June 22, 2008.
30. Ibid.
31. Marisol Bello, “White Supremacists Target Middle America,” USA Today, October 20, 2008.
32. Mark Preston, “White Supremacists Watched in Lead Up to Obama Administration,” CNN, January 16, 2009.
33. Ed Schultz, MSNBC, The Ed Show, June 11, 2009.
34. Kathy Shaidle, “Holocaust Museum Shooter von Brunn a 9/11 ‘Truther’ Who Hated ‘Neo-Cons,’ Bush, McCain,” The Examiner, June 10th, 2009. Available at http://www.examiner.com/conservative-politics-in-national/holocaust-museum-shooter-von-brunn-a-9-11-truther-who-hated-neo-cons-bush-mccain.
35. “When Right-Wing Extremism Moves Mainstream,” National Public Radio (NPR), March 25, 2010.
36. Kirk Johnson and Eric Lichtblau, “Officials See No ‘Credible Threat’ to Obama in Racist Rants,” New York Times, August 27, 2008.
37. See, e.g., Woody Baird and Andrew DeMillo, “Authorities Say Skinhead Plot Wasn’t Fully Formed,” Abilene Reporter-News (Texas), October 29, 2008; Richard A. Serrano,” “Pair Accused of Plotting to Kill Obama, 102 Blacks,” Los Angeles Times, October 28, 2008.
38. Stephanie Schendel, “Election, Economy Spark Explosive Growth of Militias,” MSNBC.com, March 7, 2012. Available at http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/07/10602763-election-economy-spark-explosive-growth-of-militias.
39. “Potok Claims ‘Explosive Growth’ of Militias,” Sweetness & Light, March 8, 2012. Available at http://sweetness-light.com/archive/potok-claims-explosive-growth-of-militias.
40. Leon Wieseltier, “The Extremities of Nicholson Baker,” New York Times, August 8, 2004; Linton Weeks, “A Novel’s Plot Against the President,” Washington Post, June 29, 2004.
41. MacKenzie Weinger, “Bush Decapitated in ‘Game of Thrones,’” Politico.com, June 13, 2012.
42. TV Sound Bite, The Hotline, Octo
ber 9, 2006.
43. James Hohmann, “Nobel Laureate Calls for Removal of Bush: Irish Peace Activist’s Speech at Dallas Event Gets Standing Ovation,” Dallas Morning News, July 12, 2007.
44. Lynn Elber, CBS: “Violent Anti-Bush Graphic Was ‘Regrettable,’” Associated Press, August 9, 2000.
45. “Death Threats Against Bush at Protests Ignored for Years,” ZombieTime.com. Available at http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=621.
46. Jonathan B. Opet, [untitled], Alameda Sun, March 2, 2007. Available at http://alamedasun.com/local-and-hometown/1139-patriotic-artist-gets-read-the-patriot-act.
47. There appears to have been two lone kooks who hung Obama effigies. One was the crazy pastor in Florida who created an international incident by burning a Koran in 2012, and the other was an anti-government nut who hung a slew of politicians (mostly local) in effigy in his yard in North Carolina and on a flatbed truck to protest, as he claims, a government cover-up of several of his family members being murdered by law enforcement officers. He added Obama to his gallery of hanging effigies sometime in 2012. Mike Opelka, “Why Is a Hangin’ Truck Driving Around NYC with President Obama on a Noose?” The Blaze, May 4, 2012.
48. Leon Czolgosz, who killed President William McKinley in 1901, was a socialist; Giuseppe Zangara attempted to assassinate president-elect Franklin Roosevelt because he was a “capitalist.”
49. Lee Harvey Oswald, who shot President John F. Kennedy, was a communist.
50. Senator Robert Kennedy was killed on June 5, 1968, by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian extremist angry with Kennedy for his support of Israel.
51. Charles Manson follower Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, shot at President Gerald Ford in 1975 because she was incensed about the plight of the California redwood.
52. Sara Jane Moore tried to kill President Ford because “the government had declared war on the left.”
53. Alex Isenstadt, “GOP Unnerved by Democrats’ Candid Camera Techniques,” Politico.com, July 9, 2012; “Liberal Media Posts Allen West’s Home Address,” Fox News Nation, June 25, 2012, available at http://nation.foxnews.com/allen-west/2012/06/25/liberal-media-posts-allen-west-s-home-address# ixzz21ChIewuW.
54. Jim Rutenberg, Marilyn W. Thompson, David D. Kirkpatrick and Stephen Labaton, “For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk,” New York Times, February 21, 2008. “Correction:…The article did not state, and the Times did not intend to conclude, that Ms. Iseman had engaged in a romantic affair with Senator McCain or an unethical relationship on behalf of her clients in breach of the public trust.”; see also Clark Hoyt, “What That McCain Article Didn’t Say,” New York Times, February 24, 2008.
55. See also “In It for the Long Haul,” The Hotline, October 16, 2008; “The Journal Editoral Report,” Fox News Network, October 18, 2008; Jack Kelly, “The Media Misrepresent McCain and Palin Rallies,” The Blade (Toledo, Ohio), October 18, 2008; Lou Dobbs Tonight, CNN, October 16, 2008.
56. “Secret Service Says ‘Kill Him’ Allegation Unfounded,” Times Leader, October 15, 2008. Available at: http://www.timesleader.com/news/breakingnews/Secret_Service_says_Kill_him_allegation_unfounded_.html.
57. Alex Koppelman, “Did Anyone Really Yell ‘Kill Him’”? Salon.com, October 16, 2008.
58. Dana Milbank, “Unleashed, Palin Makes a Pit Bull Look Tame,” Washington Post, October 7, 2008.
59. “Hammering Home Their Percentage Point,” The Hotline, October 16, 2008 (“Secret Service spokesperson Eric Zahren said 10/15 that listening to tapes of the Florida rally, the Secret Service heard “tell him” or “tell them,” but never heard “kill him.”)
60. “Transcript: The Third Presidential Debate,” New York Times, October 15, 2008.
61. Mark Hosenball, “The Death-Threat Debate,” Newsweek, October 27, 2008. Available at http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/10/18/the-death-threat-debate.html.
62. Ibid.
63. James B. Jacobs and Kimberly Potter, In Hate Crimes: Criminal Law & Identiy Politics (Oxford University Press, 2000) at 143.
CHAPTER 15: OBAMA, RACE DEMAGOGUE
1. Barack Obama, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (Crown, 2007) at 103. “I read the book to help me understand just what it is that makes white people so afraid. Their demons. The way ideas get twisted around. It helps me understand how people learn to hate.”
2. Quoted in Michiko Kakutani, “The Young Dreamer, with Eyes Wide Open,” New York Times, June 4, 2012 (reviewing David Maraniss, Barack Obama: The Story (Simon & Schuster, 2012).
3. Dreams at 83–85.
4. Ibid.
5. Dreams at 25.
6. Dreams at 65.
7. Dreams at xix.
8. See, e.g., Evan Thomas, “Alienated in the U.S.A.,” Newsweek, March 12, 2008.
9. Dreams at 98.
10. Dreams at 94.
11. Dreams at 85.
12. “White Men Can Vote,” the Economist, July 3, 2008. Available at http://www.economist.com/node/11670719.
13. Julie Mason, “Obama’s Election Year Pitch Leaves Out White Males,” Washington Examiner, April 27, 2010. Available at http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/14619.
14. Mayhill Fowler, “Obama: No Surprise That Hard Pressed Pennsylvanians Turn Bitter,” the Huffington Post, April 11, 2008. Available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no-surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html.
15. Caren Bohan, “Obama Says Republicans Will Use Race to Stoke Fear,” Reuters, June 20, 2008.
16. See, e.g., World News With Charles Gibson, ABC News, July 31, 2008.
17. See, e.g., “Barack Obama Campaign Conference Call: The Launching of a New Website and Discussing How the McCain Campaign Is Taking the Low Road.” (Participants: David Plouffe, Obama for America campaign manager; Susan Eisenhower), Federal News Service, July 31, 2008.
18. Mark Mooney, “Obama Aide Concedes ‘Dollar Bill’ Remark Referred to His Race,” ABC News, August 1, 2008. Available at http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/story?id=5495348&page=1#.T_bYV45Sbao
19. Jim Farber, “Geraldine Ferraro Lets Her Emotions Do the Talking,” Torrance Daily Breeze, March 7, 2008.
20. Josh Drobnyk and John L. Micek, “Skin Color Is Not a Campaign Issue, Obama Warns,” The Morning Call, March 12, 2008.
21. Jayson K. Jones and Ana C. Rosado, “Obama Campaign Criticizes Ferraro Comments,” New York Times, March 11, 2008.
22. Robin Abcarian, “Ferraro Quits Clinton Campaign After Obama Remarks,” Los Angeles Times, March 13, 2008.
23. Jayson K. Jones and Ana C. Rosado, “Obama Campaign Criticizes Ferraro Comments,” New York Times, March 11, 2008.
24. Ben Smith, “A Ferraro Flashback,” Politico, March 11, 2008.
25. Andrew Sullivan, “Goodbye to All That: Why Obama Matters,” Atlantic, December 2007.
26. Obama: How much damage was done, MSNBC’s First Read, March 20, 2008, available at http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2008/03/20/4437326-obama-how-much-damage-was-done.
27. “Transcript: Barack Obama’s Speech on Race,” New York Times, March 18, 2008. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/us/politics/18text-obama. html?_ r =1&pagewanted=print.
28. See, e.g., Neely Tucker, “Descendants Hold to Ex-Slaves’ Dream,” Detroit Free Press, November 5, 1997 “The Rev. David Mwambila, a Kenyan living on the Indian Ocean coast…In 1874, Matthew Wellington, his great-grandfather…had been captured by Arab slave traders.…”; Erica Poff, Country Profile: The Republic of Kenya, Ohio University, Center for International Studies, September 18, 2007 at 4, available at http://www.internationalstudies.ohio.edu/activities-outreach/files/Kenya.pdf. “Arabs had been trading African slaves for over 1000 years, taking them to the Arabian Peninsula, Persian Gulf, and other regions of Asia. European slave traders came later in the 17th century, taking African slaves to various islands in the Indian Ocean and the Americas.”; Cynthia McKinney, Expectations for U.N. Conference Against Racism, CNN International, September 1, 2001; “WALTER MBO
TELA, DESCENDANT OF FREED SLAVE:’…[I]t was a terrible thing what the Arabs did to Africans.’”
29. See, e.g., Erica Poff, Country Profile: The Republic of Kenya, Ohio University, Center for International Studies, September 18, 2007 at 4, available at http://www.internationalstudies.ohio.edu/activities-outreach/files/Kenya.pdf. “One of the most important aspects of early trade and cultural interaction in Kenya was the evolution of the slave trade in East Africa”; Cynthia McKinney, Expectations for U.N. Conference Against Racism, CNN International, September 1, 2001. “To an area when control of what is now Kenya came first under Arab rule, then Portuguese, before Arabs regained the upper hand in the late 17th century. Through it all, Mbasa served as a key port in Africa’s slave trade.”; Kevin Mwachiro, Remembering East African slave raids, BBC, March 30, 2007, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6510675.stm. “There was not much slave-raiding along the Kenyan coast but it was a vital transit point for slaves who were captured further inland, due to its proximity to the main market in Zanzibar”.
30. Results from the 1860 Census, The Civil War Home Page, available at http://www.civil-war.net/pages/1860_census.html; See also Jenny B. Wahl, Slavery in the United States, Economic History Association, February 1, 2010, available at http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/wahl.slavery.us.
31. Ibid.
32. Mary A. Johnson, “Crime: New Frontier; Jesse Jackson Calls It Top Civil-Rights Issue,” Chicago Sun-Times, November 29, 1993.
33. Bernard Goldberg, Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right: How One Side Lost Its Mind and the Other Lost Its Nerve (Broadside Books, 2008). at 30–31.
34. Ben Smith, “Obama on Virginia Tech, and ‘Violence,’” Politico, April 17, 2007.
35. NBC Staff, “Bozell on Hannity ‘Media Mash’: NBC Deliberately Skewed Travyvon Martin Story with Selective Editing,” March 30, 2012; available at http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb-staff/2012/03/29/bozell-irresponsible-media-skewing#ixzz20TrewbRw.
36. Noah Rothman, “MSNBC Primetime Makes Zero Mentions of Trayvon Martin Case After Pro-Zimmerman Evidence Surfaces,” Mediaite.com, May 23, 2012.
37. Jonathan Strong, “Documents Show Media Plotting to Kill Stories about Rev. Jeremiah Wright,” The Daily Caller, July 20, 2010, available at http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/20/documents-show-media-plotting-to-kill-stories-about-rev-jeremiah-wright/print/#ixzz0uI7TXbTr.