A Riot in the Shami Campaign?

I am not at all concerned with this fracas that has emerged in the Farouk Shami campaign because as you can see from the thumbnail on the left, I support Bill White for Democratic nominee for Texas Governor. But just as I was rapt with attention as news came out of infighting in the campaign of Hillary Clinton a couple of years ago, I am now amazed at some inconsistencies within the Shami campaign that now appear to be coming out.

The Dallas Morning News came out today with a story on how the mainstream media is being labeled as racist from within the campaign.

From the Dallas Morning News:

“Shami campaign director Vince Leibowitz said that the Houston businessman has been treated differently, that he has a compelling story of success, and that he has ideas for Texas that are not being adequately covered by the news media.”

“Leibowitz said many news stories point out that Shami was born outside of the U.S., yet the birthplace of Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't merit such attention when he was running for governor in California.”

[Not true, by the way]

“Leibowitz also said that the Anderson County Democratic Party chairman displayed obvious racism when he sent the Shami campaign an e-mail last week that said ‘nobody is going to vote for anyone named Farouk’ in today's post- 9/11 political climate.”

“The campaign manager also took issue with the Statesman's recent editorial interview with Shami, who was asked about state government in a rapid-fire series of questions. While Shami knew the state budget, he failed to recall that Susan Combs is the state comptroller and Greg Abbott is the attorney general.”

“His inability to name state officeholders became a news story.”

“‘The Austin American-Statesman put him literally through a police-style interrogation asking him all those questions,’ Leibowitz said. ‘What they did was unconscionable. The question is, did race have something to do with it? Is it because he's a Palestinian-born candidate?’”

All of this, it seems to be stemming from a comment by the candidate himself that when Bill White, in his television ad, mentioned that he was born in San Antonio, Shami said “I take that as a racist comment.”

Meaning, I guess, that since he himself couldn’t claim birth in Texas (as I can’t as well), Bill White’s statement on his birthplace was a racist remark.

How all of that translates to the Texas press also being racist, however, is a little too much for me to take. Dick Nixon finally found out that you can’t get into a pissing contest with the press; the campaign manager of Shami’s foundering campaign should realize that as well.

Because it is not racism to say that there are a lot of Texans with racist tendencies and they will avoid checking off the name Farouk Mohammed Shami just as they disdained the name Barack Hussein Obama.

That’s just common sense.

Statewide, Shami hasn’t a prayer.

Farouk Shami: First Do No Harm.

Medical doctors, since the beginning of their science, have been admonished by their philosophical progenitor, Hippocrates, about the ethics of their medical practice. The Hippocratic Oath, as it is called, was boiled down by French clinician Auguste Chomel to this choice phrase: Primum non nocere.

First, do no harm.

Ronald Reagan, much later, applied this medical dictum to his political colleagues in the GOP in his (appropriately for the Party of God) Eleventh Commandment:

“Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”

Now while I don’t advocate this one hundred percent, and believe that a primary challenger should use what he or she can to get the voter to see reason in supporting them over their opponent, there are limits to how a fellow Democrat should act in this vein.

And I think that gubernatorial candidate wannabe Farouk Shami has just crossed over that line.

Farouk Shami should listen to sage voices of the past: First do no harm.

Do no harm, for instance, by using the Rasmussen Poll recently released that shows how Bill White, his opponent in the Democratic primary, will not win against any of the three Republicans who are competing for the same nomination in the Republican party.

According to the poll, as reported on Shami’s own campaign website, Bill White would be defeated by Rick Perry by 9 points, 48% to 39% (5% for another candidate and 8% undecided), by Kay Bailey by 13 points, 49% to 36% (7% another candidate, 7% undecided), and now also defeated by Medina, the Teabagger, by 3 points, 41% to 38% (6% other, 16% undecided).

Shami seems to gloat in this result.

"I may be an unconventional candidate but Texans are ready for some fresh ideas. That's evident in how Debra Medina's numbers are improving. The establishment needs to listen up, because Texas Democrats aren't buying the goods they are selling anymore"

And in doing so, Shami does a disservice to one who will undoubtedly be the Democratic nominee.

This poll will make enough news without Shami jumping on the bandwagon.

And really news is what this poll is all about. Newsworthiness is reason enough to doubt the poll.

Rasmussen, it seems, has evolved since its inception as Rasmussen Research. Rasmussen has become a self-promoting entity that thrives when its polling makes the news. Rasmussen has evolved to the extent that its polling is being driven toward what will make the biggest news splash.

The biggest news splash like how the Democrats are going to get a pasting in 2010.

Davie Weigel at the Washington Independent has it exact, I think:

“In the book [A Better Deal! Social Security Choice] — not a huge seller, but promoted by Rasmussen at an August appearance at the libertarian Cato Institute — the pollster argued that ‘giving workers more control over their ‘contributions’ will put the ‘Security’ back in Social Security.’”

“Since then, Rasmussen’s business has boomed, aided in no small part by those “newspaper” questions that are blasted out to reporters and frequently buck up the Republican spin of the week. ‘Every pollster wants to promote his own research,’ said Brent Goldrick. ‘It makes sense for Rasmussen to promote questions that are more newsworthy.’”

In short, Shami uses a poll that was constructed to get a response in tune with what would make a great headline. A headline with the name Rasmussen in it.

Shami, in short, prostitutes himself to Rasmussen, who is the pimp. Rasmussen displays his wares, Shami snaps up the Johns.

Shami neglects to mention how he himself would do in a race against any of these three Republicans. You know why? No one has done a poll on that.

That poll wouldn’t be very newsworthy, would it.