Obama's Kitchen Sink. He originated the Tonya Harding/Hillary Clinton comparison.

[Maddy McCall]

As has been pointed out recently at DU, Obama accuses others of playing the race card, while he himself is the master of playing it. Likewise, the accusations that his opponent plays dirty, while he himself is playing as dirty as any other candidate in this year's primaries.

Oh, and how presidential. To ridicule a woman--an American citizen--by using her as the butt of his dumb jokes.

Obama: Not going to pull a Tonya Harding
December 28, 2007 7:49 AM

ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told a crowd in Vinton, Iowa Thursday that he's not going to pull a Tonya Harding on his rival candidates.

"Folks said there's no way Obama has a chance unless he goes and kneecaps the person ahead of us, does a Tonya Harding," Obama joked, referring to the female skating champion who conspired to harm a competitor during the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

"We decided that's not the kind of campaign we wanted to run," he said.

Obama said his campaign has been trying to point out differences with the other candidates without going negative.

However the Clinton campaign has accused their Democratic rivals of negative attacks throughout the campaign.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/12/obama-not-going.html

[anonymous171]

1. In 2007, when Hillary was WAY ahead and presumed the nominee.

[Occam Bandage]

6. Not to mention that he does not compare Clinton with Harding, but rather

says that he himself will not act like Harding, despite some media figures claiming that's the only way he can win.

[anonymous171]

11. Exactly. If anything, this article proves Obama is better person than she is.

Or at least, better for the party.

[Occam Bandage]

But yet the Hillary brigade rushes in to offer their high-fives, without actually reading the text.

[dchill]

20. Per Usual.

[MonkeyFunk]

48. but by the logic of Obama fans

by specifally NOT mentioning her, he was attacking her.

I know it doesn't make a lot of sense, but I didn't write the rules. If Bill Clinton doesn't mention Obama, it's an attack on Obama. Therefore, if Obama doesn't mention Clinton, it's an attack on Clinton.

[Occam Bandage]

51. That is a very clever angle. I like it.

[Usrename]

80. He said it back in December!

He must have been referring to Hillary!

:eyes:

He knew way back then that his campaign would have crushed her easily by now, and that her only hope would be to kneecap him.

:wow:

[Whisp]

52. that's how I understood it as well. OP is off the mark. nt

[grantcart]

78. He was the first one to utter the words he is phonetically liable for it

if his mouth had never brought it up it would never had gone into anyones brain.

Then when pundits were having random thoughts all of a sudden they remembered him mentioning it.



Its just a shame that his past utterances didn't have that kind of impact on the Iraqi War

[Occam Bandage]

2. How, exactly, is that an attack on Clinton? He's saying that he won't kneecap Clinton.

He made no comparisons between Clinton and Harding.

[Alexander]

7. It's not. Shillbots are so desperate to sling shit that they'll say anything.

[texastoast]

15. Not helpful n/t

[Occam Bandage]

18. If you wish to be helpful, perhaps you could point out where Obama compared Harding to Clinton.

[texastoast]

25. I don't play like that

That stuff is just not helpful for getting a Dem elected. This eating our own makes us look stooopid.

[Maddy McCall]

16. Go ahead. Be deliberately obtuse when it comes to your candidate.

The only woman in the campaign was Hillary. He used another woman to target Hillary with his comment.

If you don't see through this, you need to take a crash course in critical thought.

[Occam Bandage]

21. So when he said he wouldn't kneecap Hillary, he was attacking her, because Harding is also a woman?

I'm sorry, but that's nuts. Believe it or not, one can talk about one woman without talking about another.

[Drachasor]

34. Everyone was in the race at that point. It was before any primaries

Something to bear in mind.

[Occam Bandage]

38. Okay. So, how does saying "I won't pull a Tonya Harding and kneecap the other candidate" constitute

a comparison between Tonya Harding and Hillary Clinton?

[Drachasor]

53. I certainly don't think so, I was just clarifying the situation at that time

[Occam Bandage]

54. Gotcha.

[WolverineDG]

37. I think you're reading a bit too much into that

I'm getting sick of this. If he'd referred to a man, you'd say he was sexist because he didn't refer to a woman. He refers to a woman & you say he's being sexist. :crazy:

dg

[Hugabear]

3. Oh gosh, I didn't realize that Tonya Harding was off limits

Tell me, why exactly did Hillary decide to stop sticking to campaign issues, and start attacking Obama nonstop?

[JerseygirlCT]

73. Really. Why shouldn't he use her as the butt of jokes?

She put herself in the public eye with her attack... Not like she was an innocent bystander there.

[MonkeyFunk]

4. huh... just a few weeks before

the false accusations of racism against the Clintons.

[Occam Bandage]

9. You're usually reasonable. MF, where did he compare Clinton to Harding?

[MonkeyFunk]

41. My point is that he said he wouldn't kneecap

his opponents shortly before he kneecapped his opponent.

[Occam Bandage]

43. Which, in addition to being highly debatable, has nothing to do with the OP's wild claims.

[Maddy McCall]

10. Yep. Gotta give the guy credit.

He's got brass to do this so blatantly.

[dchill]

28. So you're not gonna admit...

that your post is completely off base? Didn't think so. It's not Obama's fault that Tonya and Hillary are both kneecappers.

[blm]

32. SCREW THAT! Hillary=Tonya Harding started HERE at DU. *I* started it Nov2006

as I watched her goons targeting Gore and Kerry to keep them out of the primary - she didn't WANT to be on a debate stage with either.

I ramped it up in Jan 2007 to spread the idea - and took a few suspensions for it, too.

I am PROUD of it - I called it EXACTLY RIGHT, and more Dems are beginning to realize how screwed over the party has been by TeamClinton over the years, including some of our finest leaders.

blm
Sun Jan-21-07 12:44 PM
Original message
My call aka In my opinion.

Edited on Sun Jan-21-07 12:49 PM by blm
Hillary Clinton = Tonya Harding.

Putting her thugs to work to try and eliminate strong rivals BEFORE the competition because she doesn't have the talent and confidence to compete fairly alongside them.

>>>>>>

[Occam Bandage]

35. Speaking of brass, I note y'all are avoiding explaining exactly how Obama compared HRC to TH.

[joshcryer]

12. Yeah. Obama is a genius.

He's a master of double speak.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

45. Pathetic.

"The moon is made of cheese!" makes just as much sense.

[leftofcool]

5. Oh no you didn't just diss Obama!

[Cali_Democrat]

8. Man, Obama is one funny guy. nt

[jgraz]

13. Good for him. Time he started calling it like it is.

[redqueen]

22. No... he's not accusing the Clinton campaign of using this tactic...

he was saying he wouldn't use it.

[Occam Bandage]

31. Unfortunately, he wasn't. He was saying that he wouldn't use that tactic. He never

claimed Clinton was.

[jgraz]

44. Oh well, I wouldn't mind if he did.

[Buzz Clik]

14. And?

[redqueen]

17. Logic.

We need more.

[leftstreet]

19. HRC is kneecaping herself n/t

[PoliticalAmazon]

23. But it was WashingtonPost that called Clinton's sniper lie a "4-Pinocchio" n/t

[WolverineDG]

47. Since Pinnochio was a wooden puppet

OMG! WaPo made an attack on Al Gore! :crazy:

dg

[mrreowwr_kittty]

24. I appears that he is saying the HE won't be Tonya Harding.

He didn't compare Clinton to her at all.

[Occam Bandage]

26. Correct. He made no comparisons between Harding and Clinton. OP either didn't read closely,

or is completely unhinged.

[WolverineDG]

27. How is saying he won't go negative

make Hilliary the butt of any joke, not just dumb ones? :shrug:

dg

[Mooney]

29. If you guys want Obama to lose, you'd better come up with a better smear.

This is just weak.

I thought he was going to destroy the party? So come on, marshall your full fury against him already and terrorize him out of the race. This isn't going to cut it. This isn't even going to reinforce the beliefs of people who would never vote for him at gunpoint.

Is this honestly the best you can do?

[texastoast]

36. Not helpful n/t

[Occam Bandage]

40. I note you have not called the OP "not helpful," despite it being a patently false smear.

[Mooney]

50. Should I have suggested ways in which Obama can be smeared more effectively? n/t

[texastoast]

60. How about trying to smear McCain?

And we leave smearing Dem candidates to the pukes?

[Mooney]

63. I'm not the one smearing.

Talk to the OP.

[texastoast]

65. Done n/t

[BlueIdaho]

30. HRC...

only has one person to blame for her campaign's failure - herself.

[Umbram]

33. This just in: Obama criticized for refusing to engage in Clinton's dirty politics. (nt)

[democrattotheend]

39. He said that in 2007, before the MSM made the Tonya Harding comparison

And he was referring to the advice his advisors had given him to go negative, which he had refused to take. He wasn't complaining about her tactics.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

42. Reading is fun-damental

[superkia]

46. I just asked in another post, could someone list the negative...

things that both campaigns have said and used and when they were done? I would love to see a list of these tactics because I have not seen Obamas campaign throwing around a bunch of kitchen sinks, I have seen some reactions to being hit by sinks but either way would love to see what all has been said and when it was said by both campaigns.

I could be biased to seeing the truth though because I am a nutty Kucinich supporter.

Would anyone like to chime in with some of these tactics and when they occurred and by who?

[Vinca]

49. That fact is, whoever did or did not say Tonya Harding, Obama

is giving the Clintons a great big, giant pass. Has he once mentioned what the Republicans will have as a centerpiece of their campaign if it's Hillary? No. He hasn't. The Clintons have serious dirt and Obama has steered clear of it.

[shockra]

55. Good find.

He also made a similar comment in October.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/us/politics/28obama.html

Obama Promises a Forceful Stand Against Clinton

In an interview on Friday that appeared timed by his campaign to signal the change of course, Mr. Obama said “now is the time” for him to distinguish himself from Mrs. Clinton. While he said that he was not out to “kneecap the front-runner, because I don’t think that’s what the country is looking for,” he said she was deliberately obscuring her positions for political gain and was less likely than he was to win back the White House for Democrats.

[Occam Bandage]

56. So, he twice says he won't kneecap Clinton. How is that drawing a comparison between

Harding and Clinton?

[redqueen]

59. He was using mind control techniques, and secretly convincing

Hillary's campaign to use that very tactic.

:crazy:

[Cant trust em]

57. Tonya Harding is a pretty common phrase at this point

I don't really see it as that big of a deal. That being said, this was said three months ago. Before the nastiness of primary season really started to ramp up. Back then we could talk about Tonya Harding as kind of a joke since the situation wasn't really relevant. It's a little too relevant now.

[karynnj]

58. No Maddy - He said he would not be like Tonya Harding

He did not say anyone else was like Tonya Harding. As to negatively characterizing Tonya Harding - he didn't - assume he said he wouldn't pull a (insert any person with a good reputation). Tonya Harding earned her negative connotation. It seems to me like there is something before that cut out - something like - people tell me that I need to fight dirty or there is no way to win" starting with that sentence doesn't make sense. (Would ABC take sommething out of context? Is the Pope Catholic?)

[Dervill Crow]

61. To my reading, this sounds more like he was comparing Clinton to Nancy Kerrigan.

Any similarities between Clinton and Harding are entirely coincidental.

[texastoast]

62. This is not helpful

This is just not helpful at all. I know you have been here longer than I have and I've loved so many of your posts, but this is the kind of negativity that should be directed against the other party.

[merh]

64. If the skate fits ...

And like Bill said, if you can't take it you don't belong in politics, that's like asking a football player to say he doesn't want to get tackled. :rofl:

[JTFrog]

66. No Rly.

[knight_of_the_star]

67. Not aimed at the OP

But at the thread in general:

[DemGa]

68. What an effing charlatan

The question here is, why do you Obamas go for this double-speak???

[Occam Bandage]

69. Yeah, the OP is pretty shameless. I agree.

[DoBotherMe]

70. It's not that he compares

Harding to Clinton, it's that he used the phrases "kneecaps the person" and "Tonya Harding." He used the phrase in December and then in March we hear from 'someone' in the DNC that the only way Hillary will win this contest is to "kneecap the person" and do a "Tonya Harding."

[NDambi]

71. yawnnnnnnn maddy mad

[workinclasszero]

72. Aww poor Hillary

She threw her kitchen sink and it bounced back and hit her in the face! :nopity::nopity::nopity:

Excuse me while I squirt a few tears for Hillary.:sarcasm::evilgrin:

[stevenleser]

74. This OP is an object lesson in how weeks of losing has had an impact on Clinton & her supporters

and shows how rabid Clinton's candidacy has become. Where is an Atticus Finch when you need one?

[Medusa]

75. Reading comprehension and logical thinking

aren't strong suits of the Clinton supporters.

[Arkana]

76. Reading comprehension is your friend.

Where in that sentence did he compare Hillary to Tonya Harding?

[Chicken George]

77. Barack Gillooly

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[grantcart]

79. some people are not going to realise that you are pulling their legs with this Maddy

[DemBones DemBones]

81. Present. eom

:kick: