Hating Thy Neighbor? Retired Billy Graham Aide Likens Obama To Adolph Hitler

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- An e-mail that is credited to Bill Brown, former president of Graham's ministry, is now being circulated by the Christian right. A copy landed in my mailbox Sunday. It is a bareknuckled attack on Sen. Barack Obama that -- among other criticisms -- compares Obama's talent for oratory to the Nazi tyrant. Yes, the Christian Right has managed to link Obama and Hitler in an attack piece:

"His speeches have inspired millions and yet most of his followers have no idea of what he stands for except platitudes of 'Change' or that he says he will be a 'Uniter'. The power of speech from a charismatic person truly can be a powerful thing. Certainly Billy Graham had charisma and both his manner of speech and particularly the content changed millions.On the extreme other hand, the charisma of Adolph Hitler inspired millions and the results were catastrophic."

Brown does allow that Obama isn't Hitler yet. But why bring up the worst villain of the 20th Century in the context of a U.S. presidential campaign? The Democratic Party is not in jackboots, nor is it clicking its heels Prussian style. Obama's call for change certainly does not echo Mein Kampf, nor has the Illinois senator declared that his followers comprise a superior branch of mankind, a master race. There is no talk of a Final Solution, gas chambers or world domination. Dragging Hitler into the campaign is the worst and lowest kind of politics. It is a nauseous cup laced with e. coli, and cheapens the author, who should wash his hands in Clorox immediately.