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One Week from Judgment Day, Clinton Steps Up the Attacks
The conciliatory moment at the end of the Democrats' debate last week in Texas wasn't a sign of things to come. In fact, it was more of a head fake by Hillary Clinton, who has launched several attacks on Barack Obama in recent days, some of which are downright nasty. The remaining week before the primaries in Texas and Ohio may be a slimy one for the Democrats.
It started last week when the Clinton campaign attempted to connect Obama to two Hyde Park radicals that were part of the domestic terror group known as the Weather Underground. The pair, who are unrepentant about setting bombs in government buildings in the 1960s (possibly because they took care to avoid harming any bystanders), hosted an event at their house in the mid-1990s that Obama attended. One of them donated $200 to his state senatorial campaign. The connection is a weak one; there is no evidence Obama has a relationship with these people. What's more, Bill Clinton pardoned a different member of the Weather Underground, also unrepentant, who had served 16 years in prison on federal charges. The attack didn't get much traction in the press, but will undoubtedly be raised again by the McCain campaign should Obama win the Democratic nomination.
The Clinton assault on Obama then moved to Ohio.
On Saturday, Clinton went nuclear on Obama for distributing two mailers in the Buckeye State that she feels unfairly represent her positions on health care and NAFTA. Video of the tirade (and I don't use that word in a pejorative sense; objectively speaking, Clinton went on a tirade) can be seen at right. The sniping back and forth on these two issues has gotten so vicious that neither campaign has clean hands, though in my judgment Obama is mostly right about Clinton's record on NAFTA (she pushed it, along with other Clinton administration officials, when her husband was president) while Clinton is mostly right about health care (Obama's claim that folks who are unable to afford health care will have their arms twisted by an H. Clinton Administration until they pony up is fear-mongering about a core progressive objective). Factcheck.org has already done the heavy lifting on this subject, so I'll point you to it: go here for an analysis of the campaigns' disagreement over trade, and here for the same on health care.
After the diatribe in Ohio, Clinton moved to Rhode Island on Sunday, where she mocked Obama's message of unity and hope. With the video at left, you can judge for yourself if she crossed the line. It's safe to say that Clinton oversimplifies Obama's approach to government and theory of change. It also belittles inspiration and unity's power to push an agenda. The best that can be said of it is that it contains no factual errors and is probably par for the course in a presidential campaign.
And then, finally, we've got the Drudge photo (below). Just before 7:00 am this morning, Drudge posted a photo of Obama in Somali garb with the headline "CLINTON STAFFERS CIRCULATE 'DRESSED' OBAMA." Circulating the photo is dirty politics at its worst: It provides fodder for the wing-nuts who are making the case, in emails and fliers, that Obama is a secret Muslim who doesn't say the pledge of allegiance and was educated in madrassas. If you don't think that photo will be passed around every day until the general election, you're crazy.
We don't know for a fact that Clinton campaign is in fact distributing the photo. Drudge doesn't substantiate his claim that "stressed Clinton staffers circulated [the] photo over the weekend." Obama's top folks are attacking the Clinton campaign for passing it around, but in a conference call this morning Obama surrogates couldn't definitively state that the Clinton campaign is behind it. The Clinton campaign released a statement about the photo, saying:
If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.
This is nothing more than an obvious and transparent attempt to distract from the serious issues confronting our country today and to attempt to create the very divisions they claim to decry.
This, of course, is nonsense. The Clinton campaign knows that Obama dressed in stereotypically African or Muslim gear plays different than Clinton dressed in the same. Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson shuffled when he was asked about the statement's lack of a clear denial in a conference call with reporters this afternoon. "No," said Wolfson when asked if someone in the campaign had sent the photo to Drudge. "Not to my knowledge." Later, he was asked if he would press the staff to reveal if they had sent it. He responded by citing the size of the campaign. "I'm not in the position to ask 700 people to come in and answer questions about [the picture]," he said. "I was not aware of it, the campaign didn't sanction it, and did not know anything about it." In other words, it's not that they didn't send the photo; it's that they don't know if they did. But they would be angry if they found out that they had.
It's possible the Clinton campaign isn't behind this. But the campaign has a history of trying to use racism against Obama. It's not a stretch to think in these desperate days it would use xenophobia as well. Moreover, the timing of the photo's release fits into a pattern of attacks that the Clinton campaign has orchestrated over the past half-week. With Clinton's chances of winning the nomination diminishing, the campaign may have decided it is going to go nasty before it goes away.
EVERY DEMOCRAT SHOULD DEMAND THAT HILLARY CLINTON APOLOGIZE AND THEN DROP OUT OF THE PRIMARY RACE!!!
No democrat wants a bigot for a nominee! This is an all-time low, even for Hillary Clinton. She is using race, religion, and smear emails to swiftboat a FELLOW DEMOCRAT! Apparently, the only demographic she has left is white women over 80 and the KKK. Wow, Hillary, you must be so proud!
Are you kidding me? Now I don't just want her back in NY... I want her out of the US Senate. This woman is devious and hateful!
I am more determined than ever to stand for change! The only good news is that Hillary's cheap shots and low blows are driving more and more voters to Obama.
Shameful, hypcritical, and desperate. The way she has been running her campaign is what lost her my vote.
Amen, Shoemia! If HRC gets the nod, I'm voting for Nader. The Clintons are mean, hateful people.
By the time Hillary Clinton is hauled off in a straight jacket the Clintons will have thrown everything possible at Obama. what left will there be for the Republicans? Once he gets the nominationhe'll have manuevered the slime tactics.
She's not just finished in this campaign, I think she's finished politicall. Barack Obama is really one of those once in a generation figures a political party can build its self around. My guess is that March5 will be the day the party leadership turns on her. If she doesn't drop out, my guess is also that the Democratic party will field a well funded candidate to knock her out of the senate when she's up for re-election.
Why, why, why?! I thought the Clinton "machine" was a more formidable force...the best they can do is these underhanded, sleazy attacks on Obama's character? Why not talk about YOUR approach to the issues, rather than basing your campaign on ad hominem attacks. Doesn't she realize that this is exactly why her campaign is struggling? Democrats perceive that she has nothing to say for herself, and nothing to offer besides repeating the Willie Horton tactic again & again.
Furthermore, that photograph is simply funny, maybe even a little cute...but nothing that should discourage voters.
The Clintons should have a higher opinion of voters in both Texas and Ohio. Not everyone is that gullible, Hillary...
If you vote for rhetoric instead of record, you'll put the USA in the same place that France is in now. Please check out the political scene in France to get a coming attraction of how smooth talk translates into governing.
Kathy what is your point. Are you comparing Obama to Sargosy?
The rhetoric versus rhetoric arguement is a straw man. Are you saying you support Hillary? You may recall that Bill, who did well did not have a big record but boy did he have the rhetoric down. A record doesn't really mean much if you cannot articulate well. One does not trump the other. It seems like a desperate attempt by hillaryites to turn attention away from ideas. I like ideas and good rhetoric and i think a leader should have both and i think both are better than a record. Get real and quit whining.
Are you kidding me? The Obama campaign plays the race card every chance they get.
And, it it was the Obama campaign that pushed the race issues in South Carolina, not Clinton.
Check out Tim Russert catching Obama in Obamas lie about racism in the campaign. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQY_9ZcsjpQ&feature=related%3cbr
How can a story that has been circulating in the public and on the web for months be "Leaked" just now by the Clinton campaign? This story has been out since Obama announced his candidacy.
And Obama is a Christian because he attends a Christian church? Oh yeah sure.
Take a closer look at the so called church he attends, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. tucc.org
A report in Investor's Business Daily, pointing to the Black Value System of Obama's Church, Trinity United Church of Christ, concluded that there is "little room for white Christians at Obama's church."
Black conservative pundit Erik Rush said the church has embraced "things African above things American," and he claimed that this should be as alarming as a Republican presidential candidate "belonging to the Aryan Brethren Church of Christ."
The TUCC supports the Nation of Islam and it's Minister Louis Farrakhan. And, just today Farrakhan said that presidential candidate Barack Obama is the "hope of the entire world".
Tucker Carlson of MSNBC described Trinity as having a "racially exclusive theology" that "contradicts the basic tenets of Christianity." Sean Hannity of Fox News confronted Wright on TV and asked how a black value system is any more acceptable than a white value system. Hannity also suggested that Trinity's emphasis on black values contradicts Martin Luther King's famous hope that people would be judged "not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
The "Christian Church" that Obama belongs to is an all Black church with an "African Centrist" doctrine. Trinity United Church of Christ, tucc.org, does not allow white members and places Black Africanism values above American values.
How can we have a Commander in Chief that is uncomfortable wearing an American Flag lapel pin, but is right at home in Muslim garb?
Now that the press has decided to look into his Church and it's Nation of Islam ties, Obama is furious. Who can blame him, these facts hurt his claim that he is for "All Americans".
Are you really this racist Johnny? So what if the church espouses African values? What you obviously want to believe is that white churches don't reinforce white values. There is a distinct African diasporic tradition within Christianity for the purposes of liberation theology. Christianity within this tradition is a response to the power of racism, a racism that is just more insidious in the color-blind society. There is nothing on tucc.org that would suggest that they are racist; the fact that they recognize a specific cultural experience based on social relations of power is a way of confronting racism in solidarity with an understanding of shared interest. Why don't you think a bit harder about this before you spout this nonsense?
So, since the media is so cozy w/ Obama, maybe the Obama campaign can let us all know which public photos and public statements of his are off limits and which are OK. Otherwise how are we to know which of the things Obama has said and done must no longer be spoken about or shown anymore, because it is hard for the average person to know how looking at an photo or clip of Obama doing something is racist or not?
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This still had NEVER been proven, and is a fabrication spread by the Obama MSM. Stop stating your speculative beliefs as fact.
Hey, he pulled the race card if you want to call it that because Bill was belittling a states vote just because there was a large black vote you idiot. Hillary knows that ignorant people like yourself are will take this and run with the idea that Obama is a terrorist in hiding.
I hope the general public is appalled by the tactics of the Clinton campaign. It is racist, divisive and generally destructive. I hope Americans have moved away from this kind of hateful political atmosphere. This IS NOT the way to get anything down. It just brings the American people, who are already suffering, down.
If Hillary gets the nod- which I doubt- and will donate, call, canvas etc. to prevent from happening I am either voting for Nader of McCain. I honestly think they would make better presidents than she would. Is this how she would run the white house?
Hillary Rodham Clinton often invokes her "35 years of experience making change" on the campaign trail, recounting her work in the 1970s on behalf of battered and neglected children and impoverished legal-aid clients.
But there is a little-known episode Clinton doesn't mention in her standard campaign speech in which those two principles collided. In 1975, a 27-year-old Hillary Rodham, acting as a court-appointed attorney, attacked the credibility of a 12-year-old girl in mounting an aggressive defense for an indigent client accused of rape in Arkansas -- using her child development background to help the defendant.
Its time for poor Hillary to quit but she is the Mike Huckabee of the Democratic race. She will not quit until a nominee gets 2025 delegates. Keep trying Hill.. try even more cheap shots.
I don't want to dance on Hillary's grave. I just want her and Bill to sink into political limbo and suffer there, crying into their pillows every night, for many, many years.
You are NOT going to wave a magic wand and have the special interests disappear! Come on....this clip about the sky opening up was humorous...there are a lot of Obama's supporters who think he's God. Maybe he is, but count me out,...his good Christian values aren't impressive. In fact, maybe he should be Huckabee's VP.
for someone who wants to be President who will restore America's prestige around the world, Obama seems very thin skinned about his non-white, non0Christian heritage. Why can't he be proud of this picture? what will he say to the Somali President in 2009 when asked why he was so ashamed of being dressed as a Somali elder? Why is he so upset everytime someone mentions his muslim, polygamist father and grandfather? why was he upset at being compared to a black civil rights leader?
Makes one wonder at his determination to deny his black civil rights and non-Christian heritages. Is he man enough to be POTUS?
All of this just goes to show democrats what republicans have known for years.
The Clinton's are nothing more than destroyers of America interests.
They left Army Rangers to be dragged naked through the streets of Somalia.
Bombed the Chinese embassy in the Balkans.
Called Rwanda any thing but what it was, genocide.
Wasted American lives & treasure in Haiti and Kosovo. Cut the military in half directly leading to the inability of the military to respond to emergencies today directly limiting America to the nuclear option to stop Iran.
Policies that changed the Guard & reserve from a strategic to an operational Reserve causing the greatest threat to our ability to respond to terrorist attacks and natural disasters here at home.
Ready from day one?
Ya, ready to destroy America and hand us over to our enemies.
Hillary.
YOU have caused the deaths of over 3,00 Americans and the maiming of thousands more just so you could look tough on national security.
You are a disgrace to America and all it stands for.
Billary may still have a trick up their sleve.
Its called "surrogate fund raising". It would be where the Clinton machine (mainly lawyers) raise and donate money to super delegates all over the USA. In return, they vote for Billary. If she does not beat Obama smartly in Ohio and TX and yet she refuses to concede, there is a good chance such is afoot.
HRC is a sad joke. Which leader in the world will take her seriously again? Do you want Putin to laugh at us Americans having this pathetic woman as our president? Anybody and anything in America is better than her!
Everyone needs to stop and take a breath. Why on earth would Hillary's campaign ever put out such a photo? As Clinton's campaign acknowledged wearing traditional garb on a visit is not divisive. In fact she has done the same in similar situation. She can only look bad by "leaking" such a photo, because it will clearly come back to her if the email says its from a Clinton staffer. It makes absolutly no sense. We are talking about smart politicians with decades of experince I find it very hard to believe that they would do this the morning of a big foreign policy speech, where Hiliary greatly surpasses Obama in both substance and experince. Prehaps we all shouldnt automatically assume the validity of this report.All of us democrats need to take a second before we make rash judgements and assesments about this race. Being hateful and begrudging does not help the democratic party in Nov. Threatening to vote for a republican if you dont get your way is childish and self-serving. Our belief cant merely be in a canidate it must also be in the process and our fellow democrats. Either way after the convention we are all going to need to come together and prehaps its not the best tactic to be burning bridges. I have good reasons for supporting Clinton and I have friends who have good reasons for supporting Obama. Different choices dont mean wrong choices. We should remeber that we all want the same thing in Nov.
I'm no longer surprised that this farce of a website continues to spew propaganda forwarding its own agenda. Apparently, agenda item #1 is to elevate Obama to saint status.
What happened to "Smart, Fearless Journalism?" b/c it's not here.
Also, to all of you who sit in front of your computers pontificating all day, naive optimism is for college kids and the out-of-touch elite. Everyone else, go ahead and pull your heads out of your asses, any day now....really, it's okay, it'll only hurt for a minute.
KM:
Was it something I said???
Hillary is going out like a punk.
The only candidate she's helping is Sen. McCain. She is almost certainly ruining her career and is making a good stab at ruining Sen. Obama's. If her dirty tricks end up working, Obama's youth vote on election day is likely to either stay home in disgust or turn to Nader out of spite.
Margaret Thatcher always said "Its not enough to be nice".
You need to be a little ruthless in Politics to win. Better he get a warm-up with Hillary, before McCain releases his own dogs on him.
"Take Me To Your Leader" is my response to Barack Star & his Oprahpalooza Tour. Ask the people in Massachusetts what they think about the oh-so-inspirational Deval Patrick now that he's been elected and has to show up for work every day.
Very well put!!!
I say shame on you MoJo readers, I have always thought you were a bit more progressive. It was the kids in the 60's & 70's who were not afraid to take to the streets for issues that mattered to them, for women's rights, for racial equality. Not like the kids today, sitting back, pontificating on their laptops, oooooooohhhh, is that daring or what???!!!!! Or grooving (if you could even call it that) to the Black Eyed Peas at an Obama rally, wow, I am way impressed! "Take Me To Your Leader." Alas, I do understand that kids are more medicated today than ever.
Like Tina Fey said, "Biotch is the New Bolack." You go girl.
Troll- no, and this may be hard for you to hear, but it's not about you.
but since you asked, I find horrifically misogynistic of you to constantly refer to Billary. So a woman is no more than the man she marries? god forbid she have her own identity.
If Obama gets the nod, I'm voting for Nader. NAH, NAH, NAH, Nah, Nah, NAH!!!
You do not need to believe me. See Obama say it for himself.
Check out Tim Russert catching Obama in Obamas lie about Obamas racist campaign - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQY_9ZcsjpQ&feature=related%3cbr
Please name me one Christian Church that allows Whites Only.
We've been blinded by our guilt over slavery and white racism that we don't recognize it when the racists are Black.
This only once again proves that the Clintons and some of their supporters are more racist then any republican. Hillary can not win another election ever, she will now not even win a re-election to the senate.
Thanks you,
I am mortified at Hillary's paternalistic tone towards the first biracial candidate in the US - not to mention her husband's earlier mistaken insults that managed to raise the issue of race.
And now Obama in an ethinic outfit. This is the Helms campaign yet again.
From a Democrat.
When will the DNC take charge in some way so that no one is hurt and the party takes a high road that is sinking fast.
I was supporting Hillary, but as of now I don't know if I can ever vote for her for anything. She has gone too far. This isn't the values of the Democratic party.
I am really disappointed in Hillary, and this is one Ohio vote she has lost. It is different if the republicans do this kind of thing it is wrong when we are doing it to ourselves. I have defended her and have said she isn't like this, but when it happens over and over it tells something about the individual.
The reason she is losing her mind is the polls. In the polls showing her with a lead, the data is sometimes up to a week old. The ones using the latest data and her own internal polls are showing she is losing Texas and leading but within the margin of error in Ohio. She is pulling out all the stops to try to hold on to what she thinks is hers, she thinks she is owed the nomination. Maybe if we are lucky she will crawl away in a few days. With her high negatives I don't think there is any chance she will ever win a national election. This was her chance to change the opinion most people had of her and go out classy, she has only reenforced peoples opinions.
fido....you're exactly right...the slight insults he gets from Hillary are the tip of the iceberg....Obama is in for a big surprise when the ruthless Republicans come calling.
About time she put the trash in his place. Ain't no way a muslum is gonna be President. If she damagas him enough he will lose to MCcain and Hillary will win in for years after the country is more screwed up by the republicans. It don't matter how umpopular she is now, in for years the country will elect anyone not a republican. So hurt him bad so he can't win Hill!
Hillary '12!
Funny thing...
The 'Karl Rove playbook' Clinton erroneously refers to about Obama's flier came directly and was written primarily by the 'Bill Clinton playbook' of Clinton v. anyone who stood in his way.
Hypocrisy is ugly on any side, but seems to radiate greatly from the Clinton camp.
She is doing the country a favor. We don't want no black President, although at least he wouldn't be on welfair. They shouldn't even let blacks vote if they aren't gonna vote right. At least the mexicans ones know how to vote, they know their place and vote how they are told. Hillary don't need to run later she is gonna win this year.
I am glad the Clintons told this group to take a hike, what are they gonna do vote republican? I am tired of them always crying and wanting special treatment. Mexicons don't whine and are dependable, usually. I only hire mexs, blacks won't work like mexs. I can hire 3 mexs for what 1 black person wants to be paid. I love the Clintons and they will always get my vote.
I find some of these Hillary supporters disgusting! I guess we have found out something about our own party and it isn't pretty. If this kind of thing continues I can see the Democratic party losing people. Maybe a third party needs to be started, I don't recognize the Democratic party.
Wow, Kathy, does that mean we could have a functional, fair healthcare system and a government that was wise enough not to go to Iraq?
"Biotch is the new Bolack!" My little take on Tina Fey's comment makes me feel almost as hip and cool as the people groovin' (I guess you could call it groovin') at an Obama rally to the Black Eyed Peas. Don't you all think we need another Black Eyed Peas song? Way cool, dude. Don't call me, Dude!!!
Thank you Hillary! We will win the White House again. You Democrats are idiots, you have more registered voters and can't win a national election. This should have been an easy year. and even if we screw things up more, by the end of McCains first term is ending the economy will be improving AND you all will probably nominate Hillary and over half the population hates her so we win again.
NO - The Clintons did not insert race or racism as an issue in this campaign. The media did, and that is exactly what this article does again. If there is no evidence to substantiate the Drudge Report assertion, why even bring it up here. Shame on the media. And shame on all of those of you who have wagging tongues looking for another reason to demonize the best candidates the democrats have. If this bothers you, just wait until the general election when it will get 100 times worse. Obama can't storm a republican assault. Wake up Democrats. Vote for Hillary.
Wow. Obama is a real uniter isn't he?
If Hillary had nothing to do with this then why didn't they deny it? The clintons have proven time and again they are racists. She will do anything to anyone to get what she wants, even if it hurts the party or country.
Hillary has ruined the Clinton legacy and any chance of her winning a national election. Her "dislike" numbers are reaching 60%! Like someone said before, I could see her even losing her Senate seat after this. Hopefully they will crawl back to Arkansas and no one will ever hear from them again.