Why the Petty Attacks? Here's Why...

Clinton is turning me off with the way she campaigns (3.00 / 1)

I was neutral on her going into this year, but her sleazy campaign tactics is turning me against her to the point where if she wins the nomination the only thing I'll do is vote for her holding my nose.

If she wins through shenanigans with Michigan and Florida, I'll consider voting for McCain.

"I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."- James A. Baldwin

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by: Timothy @ Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 19:33:15 PM CST

Hillary for President! (1.00 / 1)

I'm voting for Hillary - She is the better choice by far. Obama has everyone fooled - if you thought Bush was bad - Obama will be even a worse president.

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by: Melissa @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 09:28:15 AM CST

[ Parent ]

What's at Stake (0.00 / 0)

This is Charles Soechting.  I was and still am a huge fan and believer in John Edwards..., but the time to make sure your vote counts is right now.  Tomorrow I will go bright and early to vote for Barack Obama.  Tonight in San Marcos we had a organizational rally and meeting for Barack.  On just a days notice about 150 people showed up, people of all ages, gender, race, you name it they were there. As I left people were still coming in.  What this has to do with Glenpost is this....People are sick and tired of the old style BS campaigns, underhanded attacks and juvenile tactics. They used to work but no more.  We are ready for a change and I am more convinced every day that Barack can and will give us that change.  Thanks Glenn  

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by: charless @ Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 20:34:19 PM CST

No, thank you, Charles (0.00 / 0)

So good to hear from you, and, as usual, what we hear from you is right on the money.

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by: Glenn Smith @ Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 21:00:31 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Me too (0.00 / 0)

I'm voting early for Obama.  Maybe not at 7:00 am but I will vote tomorrow.

Then there's all those UT Dems camped out just to vote.  Now they rock!

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by: sonia @ Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 21:28:02 PM CST

[ Parent ]

I'm here with them now (2.00 / 1)

It's rocking! Reports coming soon!

Please read the Community Guidelines and How to Rate Comments.

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by: Karl-Thomas Musselman @ Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 23:03:05 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Still an Edwards fan (0.00 / 0)

And I'm holding off my vote until tomorrow, just so I can see what happens in Wisconsin and Hawaii.  I don't understand well what's happening in Washington state.

In any regard, I've been so head-down in other races that the top of the ticket is almost an afterthought.  It's quite disorienting.

Thanks for weighing in.

Full Disclosure: Former Political Director for Lee Leffingwell for Mayor of Austin

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by: sccs @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 08:52:54 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Welcome to the party (0.00 / 0)

After days of stories all over the press about how Mark Penn's comments show blah blah blah, you finally get fed up with the childishness when it happens to your guy?  I hope this finally  shakes him out of his aloof inability to respond to things.  The republicans already have him defined as an anti-american, che-loving muslim, and there is no response.  He should learn to throw some elbows like Hillary does or he is never going to survive the general.  If he can't get out form under something this tiny, what is he going to do when the swift-boaters come along?  Perhaps he will talk to them about building a coalition.

While you were whining about this today, McCain was laughing about how easily he baited Obama into losing a petty media fight on public financing.  On both of these, Obama seems to be having trouble deciding whether he wants to take the Kerry "just ignore it and it will go away" route or the Gore "there is no controlling legal authority" route.

I am ready to see a candidate who will fight the republicans.  That's how Ann was (and not just with her fabulous "silver foot" comment).  That is Hillary (and was Edwards).  It is clearly not Obama.

Next year we can all sit around blogging with pride about the fabulously decent race he ran in the general election between posts about how unhappy we are with President McCain.

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by: rico @ Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 21:44:17 PM CST

Bravo, (0.00 / 0)

and right on!  Mr. Obama is possibly "aloof and cool" as everyone claims....or maybe he is just perplexed at how to respond to being attacked. Well, he better hone that skill, because one Karl Rove & Co. is just waiting for this neophyte to get nominated. Why do you think Rove quit the Bush administration months and months ago?  To go on a mediterranean cruise???

Above all, I want the next President to be a Democrat. Hillary is smart, experienced, all that stuff, sure...but she also knows how to deliver a swift kick to the Rove groin, and would never be afraid to do so. Nothing has shown me that Mr. O would be able, or willing, to do the same.

Now, Michelle Obama....there's the pants in that family.  

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by: Judith Ford @ Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 22:01:53 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Yet, Obama is beating the Hillary attack machine (2.00 / 1)

Obama seems to be surviving and beating Hillary's desperate Rove-lite smear tactics with intelligence and grace.

"I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."- James A. Baldwin

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by: Timothy @ Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 23:29:34 PM CST

[ Parent ]

You guys are killing me (0.00 / 0)

I work with right-wingers at this job and at my last one - and they don't despise Obama; many of them probably wouldn't even bother to show up to vote against them.

However, these guys would walk ten miles uphill in the snow to vote against Hillary. Twice.

Get outside the center-city sometime and talk to some suburbanites who are actually swing voters, too. It will prove instructive for many of you.

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by: m1ek @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 10:31:42 AM CST

[ Parent ]

If Obama is so bad at this... (0.00 / 0)

...exactly how is it that the Clinton campaign is getting its clocked cleaned by him? How is it he's beating McCain in the heads up polls around the country?

And, seems pretty much like this stupid "teacher, he copied" silliness has been successful countered and put to bed. So don't mistake artfulness for ineffectiveness. Think Kevin Durant.

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by: Glenn Smith @ Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 22:18:14 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Maybe the Right type of Fighting is the Subtle Stuff (0.00 / 0)

Obama has subtly fought some accusations.  For example, he worked with the Jewish community to calm down "muslim" worries.  He didn't need to be very public about it, except once or twice in getting the facts straight.

Perhaps the way to fight silly Republican attacks is in this way.  Perhaps it is staying up above the fray and presenting the truth that is actually most effective.

"Let us tenderly and kindly cherish therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write."  -  John Adams

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by: Michael Hurta @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 01:46:28 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Besides the fact that (3.00 / 1)

HRC has co-opted several obvious Obamaisms at various times.  I remember she was "fired up and ready to go" and "yes we can" get healthcare.  Obama and Patrick said in the Boston Globe in early '07 that they shared stories and material.  They are close friends. Running as a reformist, change minded, black candidate lends itself to the statement in question.  This is no big deal.  I also remember thinking that Hillary's rhetoric on multiple occations has borne a strikingly close relationship to another politian....her husband.

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by: BJazz @ Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 21:59:15 PM CST

Well... (2.33 / 3)

I did not want to get into this, but "fired up and ready to go" and "yes we can" are hardly original "Obamaisms."

"Fired up and ready to go" has been used by the South Carolina NAACP for years and years.

"Yes, We Can" -- in its original Spanish form, "Si Se Puede," -- was created in part by Dolores Huerta, who I was lucky enough to meet a couple days ago at the Clinton HQ in Austin. She commented in her speech how Senator Obama had "borrowed" the phrase she helped to coin. She wasn't mad about it, but she did point it out.

Let's all just take a deep breath. To call this "Rove-lite" is pretty ridiculous.

My father was unfairly and maliciously targeted by Karl Rove and his FBI henchman Greg Rampton in 1980s and early 90s. They did horrible, horrible things that will never forgotten by me.

So when I hear someone compare this to Karl Rove, its hard to take it too seriously. Let's try to get some perspective here.

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by: David Mauro @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 03:54:50 AM CST

[ Parent ]

to a large degree (1.00 / 1)

One must assume that both campaigns (and those that dropped out) were getting back similar polling and focus group data.

That similar data would almost certainly produce similar thematic direction and, therefore, similar (and some cases identical) threads, slogans, calls to action, etc.

Plagiarism is a big deal in politics (ask Joe Biden back when he actually had a shot), but I've seen the same 15 slogans used 15,000 times. I know one firm that uses the same 5 slogans on EVERY campaign.

In the late 90s I remember a race where a former state employee ran for office and the incumbent used the former state employee's policy work products from his old job as the incumbent's platform. No attribution, whatsoever.

You don't always get credit for good ideas...or good lines. It kind of goes with the territory.

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by: colin @ Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 22:49:09 PM CST

The Biden case was totally different (2.50 / 2)

Joe Biden took a Neil Kinnock speech about his family's true history mining coal in Wales and turned it into an untrue story about the Biden family's mining coal in Pennsylvania! It wasn't just taking Kinnock's best line -- it was appropriating Kinnock's story as his own.

Barack Obama took a few of his friend's lines -- with his permission -- and used them to make the exact same case that his friend had made. And the lines themselves were references to well-known speeches. There's no falsehood here, just the sincerest form of flattery.

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by: LSadun @ Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 23:29:42 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Yes, but how do we know (0.00 / 0)

how many more he has lifted.  I would prefer to hear him. Did he trace his research papers from the encyclopedia?

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by: Jim Beard @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 19:31:54 PM CST

[ Parent ]

A beautiful temple (3.00 / 1)

"Nothing is sillier than this charge of plagiarism. There is no sixth commandment in art. The poet dare help himself wherever he lists, wherever he finds material suited to his work. He may even appropriate entire columns with their carved capitals, if the temple he thus supports be a beautiful one. Goethe understood this very well, and so did Shakespeare before him."

- Heinrich Heine  

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by: Ed Cognoski @ Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 23:13:02 PM CST

Obama has fought back (0.00 / 0)

In fact, he fought back so well from being way behind in the polls early in this campaign that the Clinton campaign is resorting to this kind of garbage after they couldn't end it on Super Tuesday as planned.

Besides, Obama didn't need to get baited into a street fight with a fellow Democrat to put this trash to rest. That's smart politics, not weakness.

Please, Hillary supporters, you have a fine candidate, so why not just be for her without this silly thread about "he can't fight back" or "he won't take a punch," etc.?

This man worked in the South Side of Chicago, and both life and politics there are hardball.

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by: getreal @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 01:12:13 AM CST

Please... (1.00 / 1)

...if you think Hillary's attacks are anywhere close to what the Republicans will do to Obama then you have got your head in the clouds.

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by: Jobu @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 09:28:06 AM CST

[ Parent ]

I don't get it (2.00 / 1)

Why is everyone so scared of Republican attacks? Does everyone seriously believe that a country that is so anti-Bush and has gotten so sick of Republicans -- not to mention their tactics -- is going to get all nervous at a time when the country is more politically involved than it has been in 40 years?

Now, a very great man once said that some people rob you with a fountain pen.

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by: Phillip Martin @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 10:35:47 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Desperation... (3.00 / 1)

When one candidate only knows how to attack
the candidate that is building people up, you
can smell the desperation in the air.

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by: salsal @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 08:24:32 AM CST

Kind of like... (3.00 / 1)

Dan Grant's petty attacks on Larry Joe Doherty.

Aren't we done with this sort of campaigning yet?

Meanwhile LJD hasn't expressed any sort of animosity towards his fellow Democrat and is focusing his energies on the main adversary:  McCaul.

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by: MeanRachel @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 09:12:09 AM CST

setting the record straight (1.00 / 1)

I find it amusing that whenever Barack is questioned by the Clinton campaign or the media, on rare occasions bu the media, it is always labeled an attack. I know if the same thing were done by Hillary it would be "World shattering News" and just another one of those "Clinton scandals". I remember clearly Ronald Regan being labeled the "Teflon President" because none of the numerous allegaions raised against him seemed to ever stick. The same appears to be true of Barack. I believe it is more a "blind eye of the media and his supporters" rather than being teflon coated.
I heard last night on Lou Dobbs of CNNsor news that Michelle Obama made a statement in which she said, and I paraphrase, I am finally really proud of my country.  I would like to read or hear the context of that speech before rendering an opinion. Can anyone please find the quote in its entirety or direct me to where I can find it??
Thanks

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by: pices312 @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 10:28:18 AM CST

Michelle's gaff (1.00 / 1)

I heard the entire quote from Michelle's Milwaukee speech. I will borrow a quote from that great politician Ricky Riccardo ( for those too young to remember I Love Lucy) "... Michelle you got some splainin to do...".

It is sad that none of the "un-biased" news stations like CNNsor News or C(what we want you to see and hear)NBC, or any of the Independent thinkers like Jack Cafferty, Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, or Wolf Blitzer have been talking about her questionable comments and I paraphrase Michelle " for the first time in my adult life I am finally really proud of my country...". I found it on FOX aka WGOP.
What will the Obama camp say to spin this one??
There has been nothing in the last 27 years, the period of time since her 18th birthday, to be really proud of Michelle. You aspire to be the "First Lady"?

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by: pices312 @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 11:18:33 AM CST

Eye roll (0.00 / 0)

Every comment you've made has been negative about Obama. At one point you said you'd no longer vote for Democrats.

Excuse me if I don't take your comment that seriously.

Now, a very great man once said that some people rob you with a fountain pen.

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by: Phillip Martin @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 11:22:50 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Your eyes may cross (0.00 / 0)

because my 80 year old mother who loved FDR and Lyndon Johnson, who has NEVER voted for a republican, can not bring herself to vote for Obama.

Sorry folks, a lot is going to depend on how heavy the various age groups turn out.

The the fire goes out before the general election and the youth stay home, a Republican will definitely win if the nominee is Obama.

I'm 60 and am having trouble seeing how he will win a General election 8 months away.

This is the gut truth. Please respect that.

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by: Jim Beard @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 19:37:51 PM CST

[ Parent ]

My comments (1.00 / 1)

You can ignore my comments if you like I ask that you don't ignore Michelle's. I guess you are a supporter of Barack and Michelle, don't you want to know all about them and their views?
BTW I never said  I wouldn't vote for Democrats. I said that i wouldn't be able , for the first time in over 40 years, be able to vote for the Democratic nominee for President. I fully intend, as I have always done, vote for the Democratic slate just not for Sen. Obama at this time. I bet if you count up the negeative comments made towards Sen. Clinton it would be far greater than the few I have made towards Sen. Obama. I don't chose to ignore your comments or the others. I read them, digest them, and sometimes agree with them. Convince me that your candidate is worth voting for. To borrow a phrase. Show me the Beef!!!

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by: pices312 @ Tue Feb 19, 2008 at 12:27:10 PM CST

Sounds Like Maxey's Campaign Against Nelda Spears (0.00 / 0)

When I read Glenn Smith's excellent, principled remarks, I thought, "Gee, doesn't this apply to several campaigns, especially the pitiful attacks by Glen Maxey on Nelda Spears?"

Then I saw SALSAL's comment:  

When one candidate only knows how to attack the candidate that is building people up, you can smell the desperation in the air.

Yep, it's time for Democrats to set a higher standard for politics and reject the Rovian tactics by people like Glen Maxey.

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by: Justice @ Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 10:18:58 AM CST