Demonizing a President

This groundbreaking political expos scrutinizes the motivations behind the unparalleled attacks on President Barack Obama that attempted to undermine his eligibility to lead the country. The ascendancy of the first Black president was a watershed moment in American history. In response Obama''s adversaries engaged in relentless and systematic mudslinging throughout his campaign and well into his presidency othering him as a foreign and dangerous political figure. Never before has a presidential candidate been so maligned by so many in such a variety of waysand yet won. This provocative study investigates the unrest behind the Obama campaign and election and the controversial political machine that caused it. Martin A. Parlett himself a former campaigner for Barack Obama examines the role identity politics and racialization played in the anti-Obama movement shows how foreignization is the latest tool for political dissent and discusses the ways in which Obama successfully used the outsider label to his own advantage. The book questions the popularand often contradictorynotions of Obama as illegitimate Muslim Marxist/Communist socialist Kenyan terrorist and angry African American. Additionally chapters trace political marginalization and race throughout history from slavery to Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement concluding with the culture of distrust in the American political psyche since the events of September 11 2001.