I suppose that if Obama had attended a school in Spain that it would have been natural for Kerrey to refer to Obama's education in a "secular escuela"? I mean, "escuela" just mean "school" in spanish. Right?
I haven't seen the actual footage, but based on the text it's difficult to resist the belief that this is part of a dog-whistle strategy. Why say "madrassa" when someone like Kerrey surely knows the predominant english meaning of the term (islamic school) and the prior attempts to associate Obama with a muslim-centric education?
Kerrey probably said "secular madrassa" for two reasons. One: to distinguish Obama's school from the common American sense of the word "madrassa" as a religious school, and two: to make his stated point, which is at the core of Obama's argument for his foreign policy experience, that being educated in the Muslim world would be a big advantage for a president given the challenges we face.
If our major challenge was reconciling with the Spanish speaking world then yes, having attended an "escuela" would be an advantage in a president and one might use the spanish word to emphasize the point.
Kerrey had to know that "madrassa" is such a loaded term. If we assume that Kerrey is aware of the hazards surrounding that term, then we are legitimately left to wonder why the hell he didn't just say that Obama attended grade school in Indonesia, a country with a substantial muslim population. Either he was being remarkably careless or he was intentionally trying to taint Obama's goodwill.
Whatever, I don't think this is the biggest deal. But, it fits with a pattern we've seen recently from various voices in the Clinton campaign--including Bill.
I'd like you to expand a little more on what you mean about Bill, because a lot of Obama supporters at this blog have sort of been dancing around the accusation, in my view.
I'm actually a little busy at work at the moment, so I'll have to give a more substantial reply later. But, I'm esstentially refering to several dishonest characterizations of Obama by Bill during the Charlie Rose interview.
To be clear, I'm not suggesting that Bill has explicitly made any references to muslim/race issues, although his "rolling the dice" comment may have suggested those issues. But, I think his rolling the dice comment was more vague and not really directed at those kinds of considerations so much.
Full disclosure: I don't like Bill Clinton. I actually like Hillary much more than him.
