Obama’s Smear Staff

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It’s hard to say (and not worth the effort) who was in the wrong in yesterday’s bitchfight between Barack and Hillary (for everything you need to know about it, see the Top Story box of MoJo‘s News and Politics page). Sure, former Clinton-backer David Geffen’s comments about Hillary and Bill were pretty personal—and IMHO, Maureen Dowd was off the mark to publish them. But Hillary’s campaign exaggerated Geffen’s position on Barack’s staff. So call it a tie. But it turns out that Barack (I’m going to call him by his first name since everyone calls Hillary by hers) executed his response based on the advice of Robert Gibbs, whom DailyKos calls “a well-known smear-meister best known for his work trashing other Democrats”—this from a guy who talks about keeping it positive. End result: Bleh for them both.

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