Rush: Obama Is Race-Baiting

Radio host accuses Dem of taking him out of context
By Gabriel Winant,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 19, 2008 12:13 PM CDT
Rush: Obama Is Race-Baiting
Protesters march past Invesco Field during an immigration rally at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008.    (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Rush Limbaugh, himself the frequent target of race-baiting charges, has turned the tables on Barack Obama. In a Wall Street Journal essay, Limbaugh says Obama is distorting his words to create a misleading Spanish-language ad about immigration that he likens to "vile fear-mongering" of the "old segretationists." The ad uses two Limbaugh quotes, which the radio host says were obvious attempts at parody in full context.

"What kind of potential president would let his campaign knowingly extract two incomplete, out-of-context lines from two radio parodies and build a framework of hate around them in order to exploit racial tensions?" In one, Limbaugh refers to "stupid and unskilled Mexicans," but he says in the full 1993 monologue it was clear that he was poking fun at NAFTA opponents' arguments, not immigrants (More Rush Limbaugh stories.)

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