A good point from The Nation. The main person spreading the idea that Obama is an “Islamic Manchurian candidate” is Bob Kerrey:
Yet Kerrey’s comments are distinct because he is the highest level Clinton supporter to publicly push the Muslim smears against Obama, and he is also ratcheting up the rhetoric. In a series of high profile interviews, Kerrey has gone out of his way to cover every aspect of the smears – saying “Muslim,” “madrassa,” “Hussein” and that Obama chose Christianity – and also raising traitorous language. Pressed about his comments on CNN, Kerry purported to distance himself from the very smear campaign he was advancing: “There is a smear campaign going on. And people are acting as if he’s an Islamic Manchurian candidate.” That phrase only turns up 29 hits on Google, however, and nine of the references quote Kerrey. So very few “people are acting” or saying that – unless they’re discussing Kerrey’s sly effort to raise the line of attack.
It’s actually worse that The Nation reports. On Google News, a good indication of what’s actually getting reported in main-stream sources, there are only 6 hits, all related to Kerrey’s statement. Searching Google Web, there are 129 hits now, most related to the Kerrey statement.