Joe Wilson: "Smears and Tears: How Obama's National Security Week Turned Into the Mendacity of Hype"

[Perry Logan]

Smears and Tears: How Obama's National Security Week Turned Into the Mendacity of Hype
Joseph C. Wilson

"The Obama campaign pushed a compliant press corps, all too eager to do its bidding rather than maintain its standards of objectivity and skepticism, into hyping a mini-pseudo-scandal: whether Hillary "misspoke" about being under sniper fire when she paid a visit to Tuzla in Bosnia in 1996. In fact, the then-First Lady was told the plane was diving to land to avoid possible sniper fire. Whether there was or not is irrelevant. Anybody who has been involved in these situations, as I have, knows this. The threat was apparently real enough for U.S. military on the ground, the pilot and her security detail to engage in evasive procedures. That should have been the end of the matter. But the cable TV talking heads nattered the Obama campaign talking points endlessly.

Obama's week of rolling out national security surrogates and talking points was not a pretty sight and turned out to have almost nothing to do with bolstering his thin credentials. His distracting efforts were a clear attempt to deflect attention from them, in fact. In response to Hillary's detailed, substantive speech on Iraq, Obama replied with ad hominem insults. Instead of presenting his own plan, his campaign indulged in character assassination.

...

The real subtext of the Obama campaign was to attack Hillary in order to distract from Obama's association with his anti-American preacher. National security went un-addressed. Rather than filling in his largely absent record, Obama had his surrogates engage in what can be termed the mendacity of hype.

...

Bill Clinton, of course, was not using "McCarthy-like tactics," but the Obama campaign was eager to smear him. Which was guilty of "McCarthy-like tactics"? Attack the character of your adversaries; demean them; turn them into caricatures; while lying about someone, claim they are liars.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-wilson/smears-and-tears-how-oba_b_93525.html

[saltpoint]

1. Joe's an effective ally for HClinton -- in fact she should probably have

hired him and Valerie Plame as her campaign directors and dumped Mark Penn early on -- and so she should be grateful to have Wilson's articulate support.

If I was up against the wall I'd want the Wilson/Plame team in my corner.

[shaniqua6392]

Very good point.

I am impressed by Wilson and Plame. They are great Americans.

[Perry Logan]

2. Yes. The Wilsons are a formidable pair.

[Tom Rinaldo]

5. I too agree with this observation

He and Valerie know how to fight and a political campaign needs that, no way around it, but they do so articulately and passionately. They come across as peoople who are fighting for someone who they really believe in, for reasons that they really believe in, rather than simply as political spin meisters. Hillary could have used more of the former and less of the latter. She has some supporters like Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, but they are far from being the public face of her campaign. They should be.

[merh]

12. I agree

But that doesn't mean I share his opinion of the candidates

[saltpoint]

15. Me neither, merh, but as alllies go, I'd take Joe and Val any day.

I like Sheldon Whitehouse. A lot. He's endorsed Clinton. I can navigate that.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

33. Joe Wilson is doing to himself what Colin Powell did to himself

supporting the wrong person and the wrong story line.

Colin Powell hurt himself by reinforcing Bush's lie to war.

[flor de jasmim]

3. With all due respect to JCWilson...he should read the reports of the military who were there --

NO sniper fire anywhere in the area, or they never would have taken the First Lady AND DAUGHTER anywhere near the area.

[niceypoo]

25. Show us the 'reports'

...and read the article...

"possible sniper fire"

[ElsewheresDaughter]

35. report: "possible sniper fire"

[journalist3072]

4. Excellent read by the former Ambassador. I'm glad he's calling the Obama camp out on their

Slimeball tactics.

[CTLawGuy]

6. Joe Wilson = noble teller of the truth

who has now become nothing more than Hillary's Jeff Gilooly...

[olkaz]

10. Whoever he supports, he is a good man.

We shouldn't trash him. I fall on the opposite side of the aisle too, but he and his wife are really good people.

[leftofcool]

7. Oops! Joe's under the bus. The bus is getting full

[stillcool]

45. why?

[Pooka Fey]

8. K&R

[dansolo]

9. Joe Wilson has lost what little credibility he had left

He is contradicting the account of the actual pilot of the flight. This is bullshit.

[indimuse]

14. NO. he has NOT!

I heard that pilot on a radio show clip! And while trying to tear Hillary down...He only admitted...THEY WERE in some kind of danger! There WERE Helicopters looking out for sniper movement on the ground...they had tanks etc, surrounding the airfield. millions 0f $$$ in military protection..they had to make a strange maneuver landing..(which he stated was norm for that area..but did they tell Hillary that?)

[GodlessBiker]

28. If you were president, would you send your spouse and only child to such a dangerous place?

[Major Hogwash]

11. Joe, you're full of shit.

Go back to wherever you came from never to be heard from again.

[niceypoo]

20. Now Joe Wilson will be treated like shit....

...by Obama's supporters AND the Neocons

[Arkansas Granny]

30. Yes, even people who have been formerly respected around here can lose that respect

just by standing up for a Democratic candidate. Sad turn of events.

[MethuenProgressive]

23. That's a Dick Cheney quote, isn't it?

You should use quotation marks.

[indimuse]

13. I'm gonna KICK ALL DAY!

REC!!!!

[stahbrett]

16. Wilson conveniently forgets the "running with our heads down", the "canceled greeting party", etc.

And she "misspoke" (aka "lied") about this episode multiple times, not just one time.

[dailykoff]

17. clown,

nt

[niceypoo]

19. This is the type of reaction your stuck with when you have no ammo...

...one word slurs. Hense the failure of Obama to define himself via his policy positions.

[niceypoo]

18. This has been Obama's MO for a long time...

...Hillary talks about Obama, and policy, and Obama reacts to whatever Hillary says and avoids policy.

[MethuenProgressive]

21. Joe Wilson knows more about this issue than the sum of all DUers combined.

It's always amusing to see the writings of decent, brilliant, and patriotic Americans like Joe Wilson spat upon by Internet typists unequipped to understand Ambassador Wilson's words.

[yodermon]

34. I respect Joe Wilson a lot. But does he know more than

Hillary's C-17 Pilot?

[BeyondGeography]

22. Him again?

[niceypoo]

24. Well that was a well reasoned, well thought out, reaction...

...Obama sure has left you guys with some rich material with which to fire back...

[BeyondGeography]

26. Wilson has penned another piece of pure pro-Hillary hackery

The graph on SniperFib is so laughable as to not even merit a response. This is the same guy who once wrote that Obama was running for the Senate in 2006. He's sloppy and a liar.

Joe Wilson will be begging Samantha Power to take his phone calls in a year. That will be amusing.

[GodlessBiker]

27. While Wilson says that Congress, including Clinton, was lied to by Bush & Co. ...

into going to war in Iraq, there were more than a handful of Congress members who saw through the lies. Clinton didn't have that the judgment to look beyond the hype.

[MadBadger]

29. Joe, Joe, Joe...you and I both know that wasnt the BS part of her trip.

[Raffi Ella]

31. .

I thank Our lucky stars for Joe.

[Bad Thoughts]

32. Hyperbolic: "all too eager to do its bidding "

The press, which was not necessarily hard on Clinton as it was soft on Obama, has given up being in love with both Democratic candidates. Saying this, at this stage, in the current environment, is patently absurd and greatly undercuts Wilson's credibility.

[DemGa]

36. Joe Wilson has this sham Obama nailed

You can smear Hillary all you want -- the voices of truth cut right through your petty antics.

[dchill]

40. No, he doesn't, and the "voices of truth" are not...

on your team's side. Get your facts straight, or else you are the smearer.

[PBS Poll-435]

37. Doesn't Count

He asks questions.

[Usrename]

38. What a total hack!

All he can do is bitch and whine about all the mudslinging while he slings more mud.

There is nothing substantial in this hatchet piece at all. Just more BS from our man Joe.

He still owes Obama an apology for calling him a coward.

[dchill]

39. When Joe Wilson says....

"In fact, the then-First Lady was told the plane was diving to land to avoid possible sniper fire." - he is grossly abusing the phrase "In fact." In fact, the pilot of the plane Clinton was on says that the steep descent (not dive) was due to the fact that the airstrip was between two mountain ranges. He further said that no one was directed to the cockpit or told to don their protective gear. I admire Joe Wilson, but he is trying to stretch a truth that DOES NOT EXIST. Snap.

[Liberal Veteran]

41. Not too put too fine a point on it, but the pilot, the video, everyone with her, and even Hillary...

...beg to disagree with you.

Perhaps he should have checked in with the Clinton camp before he wrote this piece?

[ProSense]

42. The entire Bosnia train wreck:

Video: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com">TPMtv: Summa Bosniatica

[Azathoth]

43. If Obama's wife was an undercover CIA operative, Joe Wilson would be the first to out her

A lot of people, including myself, defended him when he presented himself as a non-partisan ex-diplomat whose sole objective was to ensure that the American public was fully informed before we invaded Iraq. The right-wing lunatics responded that he was nothing but a partisan operative looking to curry favor with the Democratic establishment.

I guess we see who was right. Sigh.

[TeamsterDem]

44. With the respect due Joe Wilson

His argument is fundamentally flawed. He says it's "unimportant" as to whether or not there was real sniper fire on the ground, his basis being that the plane took evasive maneuvers regardless of whether or not the threat was real. The problem, though, is that Clinton said they "ran to their cars" upon landing and that the ceremony was canceled, so at the very least that means she "misspoke" about at least that part of it. I'm not entirely sure how that equates to the press doing Obama's bidding, but I guess in his mind it does.

When some people find themselves in a hole they prefer to keep digging, I guess.

[FogerRox]

46. Obama will be the nominee, plain and simple.