March 13, 2004 8:23 PM

Muhammad Horton??

Arab-American group slams Bush over anti-terrorism ad

The images in our ads fairly represent the challenges and threats we face in these times of change.

- Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel

Either some folks are becoming a bit overly sensitive, or the Bush campaign is engaging in some not-so-subtle fear mongering. Judging by what Bush and his minions have shown themselves previously to be capable of, I'm inclined to think the worst.

WASHINGTON -- An Arab-American activist group called on President Bush to remove a picture of an unidentified "Middle-Eastern-looking" man from a campaign ad that focuses on terrorism.

"It runs counter to everything the president said after 9/11 about not targeting, about not indicting all Arab-Americans," said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, in a telephone interview Friday.

The complaint is the second in as many weeks from various groups who object to the president's use of images from the war on terrorism in his re-election ads.

Zogby, who described himself as a Democrat but added that his group is nonpartisan, said the brief close-up of a swarthy man's face, just as the narrator mentions terrorism, is "a form of racial profiling."

I'm not sure whether or not that "racial profiling" is the proper description, but it is hard to believe that the depiction of an Arab-looking male in this context was coincidental. In our day and age, you'd think the Bush campaign would be sensitive to recognize what sort of message this issues sends. Then again, it is all about winning, right.

All things considered, this ad is tame compared to the load of negativism were likely to see produced by the Bush campaign. It's only going to get worse. Stable leadership, my @$$....

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on March 13, 2004 8:23 PM.

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