The left exposes the plot to assassinate Barack Obama

posted at 12:40 pm on February 27, 2012 by Howard Portnoy

In the 1997 film Conspiracy Theory, a nut (played appropriately by Mel Gibson) is convinced that the C.I.A. is after him because he is a former government-programmed killing machine who knows the real cause of earthquakes and other “natural” events.

In a nifty literary conceit, the movie’s title is also the name of a newsletter published by the Gibson character, which has a circulation of all of 5 readers.

The film and the newsletter came to mind this morning when I read an op-ed by the Washington Post’s Colbert I. King that begins, “February is African American History Month. Yet these are days of sadness.” So what is the reason for Colbert I. King’s melancholia? Was the contribution of Nathaniel Alexander, inventor of the folding chair, overlooked in this year’s celebration of earth-altering black achievements?

Nope. King is exercised over an editorial that appeared in the Atlanta Jewish Times more than a month ago. In the article, owner and publisher Andrew B. Adler summarizes the rock and hard place Israel currently finds itself in among its Middle East neighbors, then offers three options available to the Jewish state. It is the third that has raised eyebrows:

[G]ive the go-ahead for U.S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place….

Yes, you read [option] ‘three’ correctly. Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel’s existence.

If you need evidence of how crazy Andrew B. Adler is, look no further than the second part of his plan. Who but a lunatic would champion making Joe Biden the president of these United States?

Granted the Atlanta Jewish Times has more readers than the Conspiracy Theory newsletter, an estimated 3,500 according to the Atlantic Wire. The Washington Post, by contrast, even in the face of a shrinking circulation, has close to 600,000 daily readers. It is doubtful that many of them would have heard of the Atlanta Jewish Times or its editor were it not for Colbert I. King.

But the real point of King’s op-ed is not to tilt at windmills. It is to cry “Foul!” over what he views as the “demonizing of Barack Obama” by the president’s colleagues in the GOP. Before King gets to the specific charges, he greases the skids of the counterargument, noting that commentators from his side of the aisle previously launched “scurrilous attacks on George W. Bush [and] Ronald Reagan.”

This time, though, it’s different, he tells us. The charges leveled at Obama “are rude, disrespectful and designed to question Obama’s loyalty to country and commitment to his faith.”

King provides a number of examples of the “radioactive rhetoric” (a phrase he borrows from fellow liberal John Avlon) that has been used against Obama. He cites the book Impostor: How Barack Obama Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy, whose title is an indictment of his entire presidency. He reminds readers of the time when a member of the opposition party called Obama a liar on the floor of the House of Representatives. He recalls the unseemly efforts, again on the House floor, to introduce articles of impeachment against Obama. And how can anyone excuse the “scientific” claim of a direct ancestral link between Obama and Pontius Pilate, the ancient prefect who sentenced Jesus Christ to death?

Actually, in all of the above examples, the name George W. Bush has been replaced with Barack Obama.

Are some of the actual quotes in King’s article insulting? Yes, but that goes with the turf. Any number of the comments, moreover—such as Newt Gingrich’s characterization of Obama as the “most radical president in American history”—are hardly unique to the candidates. I can appreciate that supporters of the president will inveigh against this charge, but we’re dealing with opinion, not fact. We’ll simply have to agree to disagree.

And if Colbert I. King is interested in ferreting out conspiracy theories that swirled around the last U.S. presidency, he can find a truckload of them here, although to tap the mother lode, he can quote a leading living conspiracy theorist, Louis Farrakhan, who is also caught up in the Obama assassination plot.

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