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Clinton Ad With Osama bin Laden: Meh
The Clinton ad at right is getting a ton of play because it includes an image of Osama bin Laden. Obama fans and some other portions of the left are questioning whether it is tantamount to waving a bloody flag. The outrage writes itself: Using images like this one to scare voters is a Karl Rove tactic!
Personally, I don't think it's all that bad. The point is that the next president faces immense challenges — finding bin Laden and stopping men of his ilk are two of those challenges. I understand the subtext is pernicious: the whole ad relies on fear, and it paints the likely Democratic nominee as soft on terror (or at least softer than Hillary Clinton). But politics ain't beanbag, and frankly if I'm going to get all worked about fear-mongering, it's going to have to be a lot more blatant than this.
What do you think?
Update: The Obama campaign blitzed reporters with this October 2004 quote from Bill Clinton: "Now one of Clinton's Laws of Politics is this: If one candidate's trying to scare you and the other one's trying to get you to think; if one candidate's appealing to your fears and the other one's appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope. That's the best."
You have to think that Mrs. Clinton is still the best qualified candidate we have. We also have to remember just because she is white, she cannot claim Florida. She won in that state and that should be considered. If it is Obama, I bet you he will not stop until he claims the states he won. I think we have to count Florida for Hilary.
The Bin Laden video was a gaffe. I'm reasonably sure that including Bin Laden with pictures of Pearl Harbor and gas lines was just an attempt to bring a contemporary reference to a series of crises. However, Bin Laden and 911 have been used frequently by Republicans against Democrats in an attempt at fearmongering, whereas Pearl Harbor doesn't have the same partisan connotations. It might be overreacting to say "How dare you!" over this ad, but that the Clinton campaign didn't realize that is a mistake like the "bitter" gaffe. It unfortunately plays into the complaint that Clinton is running a Republican campaign against Obama. If she hadn't been doing things like bringing up Farrakhan out of nowhere in the debate, it might not matter.
"I'm Hillary Clinton and I approve this message."
What message?
Senator Clinton said that she would totally obliterate Iran with a nuclear holocaust(if they attacked the Jewish State). Clinton is a warmonger. If we attack Iran, Iran would destroy one of our cities.
Israel has no oil. We lose a city. The Arabs have the oil, Israel just has some religious sites that the Christian Zionist wackos value. Senator Clinton must be in the pocket of John Hagee like Senator McCain. Vote for Obama for a real change.
Count Fl for Hillary, lvida? She won by default on name recognition by the kind of margin that Obama has proven able to easily eliminate with an actual campaign. I as a Floridian would never vote for a candidate like Clinton who has shown again and again in this campaign that she has an amazing ability to crawl through sludge muck and trash while trying to damage her opponents. She positively thrives on garbage and lies, and given that you are what you eat, well... you know the rest. Why would anyone still want to hand the campaign to someone who has consistently lost and who is so disliked and divisive?
I'm a long time reader and Mother Jones fan. I'm a bit surprised at how biased MJ has been with Hillary bashing. Please try a little more objective reportage.
Hillary's supporters appreciate her and are helping her win by not stepping up and allowing her to use race, religious differences and fear mongering to win an election. Unfortunately this is the same tactics that the GOP uses. This is what happens when people cannot intellectualize the facts. I really think we will loose the country to these type of people since they put Bush in office 2x. They dont want change, if Obama is going to win he has to mobilize his base and get the young,over 70 and african american vote to vote in force. Hillary got her base to come out and support her better than Obama did.