The Clinton Smear Campaign Against Obama

[New Dawn]

This is a must read article by Stephen Zunes: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/30/8623

Here is an excerpt:

Indeed, Clinton has attacked what she has called the “activist base” of the Democratic Party, particularly MoveOn, which has been credited for bringing many millions of dollars into Democratic campaigns and thereby lessening the party’s dependence on the corporate donors long favored by the Clintons. Blaming the group for many of her electoral defeats, she has complained of the way they have mobilized grass roots activists which have “flooded” state caucuses as a result of their ability to “turn out in great numbers.” Emphasizing her differences with MoveOn’s liberal positions on foreign policy and national security, she has tried to depict the group as far to the left, even resurrecting the long-discredited claim by Karl Rove that MoveOn opposed the war in Afghanistan.

Underscoring indications that Clinton might prefer to have the Democrats lose the presidential election in November if she isn’t the nominee, journalist Celeste Fremon has noted how “Clinton’s remarks depart radically from the traditional position of presidential candidates, who in the past have celebrated high levels of turnout by party activists and partisans as a harbinger for their own party’s success - regardless of who is the eventual nominee — in the general election showdown.”

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. A member of the "Me" generation??? One can only guess. n't

[guyanakoolaid]

2. No surprise from the former President of the Wellesley Young Republicans

or from the candidate who's screaming nonsense about imaginary Iranian nuclear weapons.

[msmcghee]

3. Intro to Politics

If your electorate is a bell curve with a bump in the middle - and your opponent stakes out a position that is decidedly left or right of center - then you win by positioning yourself just inside your opponent and a bit closer to that center. You now have more "area under the curve" - or votes.

That's what it will take to win the GE (as usual) - harvesting the votes in the middle. By staking out a decidedly right position McCain has left himself vulnerable to any Dem who understands this, despite the rightward shift always caused by having troops in combat. Obama has placed himself decidedly to the left of both Clinton and McCain. That might make DU'ers happy - but it gives McCain the best shot at beating him. They are both essentially leaving the center up for grabs.

Hillary, by emphasizing her centrist qualities (the qualities that makes so many DU'ers despise her filthy guts) has already set herself up to take those middle voters from McCain and win. It's now going to be a difficult task for Obama to change that. By his own doing and his own words he's already been closely associated with an America-hating leftist - and in the primaries for Cripes sake. If he and McCain battle for those middle votes McCain has a good shot at them. Obama will be a lot smarter in eight years and maybe ready for the NFL - if he plays his cards right now and stops playing the race card and the blue meanie card.

Note: I'm just spouting crap that seems logical to me and no-one should expect that I have any idea I know what I'm talking about when it come to politics. That said, I will be very surpised if the Repubs don't successfully paint Obama as the consummate shifty politician completely lacking in principles. I don't think that about him. I just think he needs more life experience.

[Uncle Joe]

12. What if all three are to the right of the political center? n/t

[msmcghee]

16. Have your scale calibrated. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

19. Maybe the corporate media and their brain washing ways need calibrating. n/t

[redqueen]

17. Newsflash: they will paint ANY and EVERY Dem that way.

Have been for years. (Besides Joe... and now Hill. Funny coincidence, that.)

[tabasco]

4. The Clintons don't care about the country.

In her despicable "clouds will part" tirade, Hillary even berated Obama for his "higher calling."

A desire to serve the country is a higher calling. Hillary has ho higher calling. The Clintons have been corrupted by wealth and power, and only seek to serve themselves.

[msmcghee]

6. I heard she . .

. . is a "lesbo" and she killed Vince Foster too.

[EFerrari]

11. You're spending too much time at Free Republic.

Although these days, that may be a good place for Hillarians.

[paulk]

13. unity! hope! change!

LOL!

[blm]

18. no - but she DOES suppress black votes in states where they effect the outcome.

And Clintons DO protect the Bushes. The many serious BCCI matters outstanding when Bill took office didn't deep-six themselves did they?

[msmcghee]

20. She suppresses black votes? I think you mean . .

. . that in states where blacks have high populations and have bought in to the "great Clinton racism scam" put out there by the Obama campaign - that they'll stay home rather than vote for a vicious racist like Hillary Clinton. Yeah, she and Bill kept their racism secret all these years when he was governor of Arkansas and then through two terms as POTUS - and earned the honorary title "first black president" just so they could finally reveal it before the SC Primary.


Man, are they a twisted pair or what?

:rofl:

I think that what we are going to see here is that by playing the race card in SC - events were put in motion including giving Jeremiah Wright a political opening to reach for personal glory by exploiting those conditions - that will result in setting race relations in this country back quite a bit. So much for transcending politics as usual.

[blm]

21. No - where Clinton campaign has set up ROBOCALLS targeting black voters - just like BushInc.

.

[msmcghee]

22. Several problems with your argument.

1) AFAIK Robocalls are a legal way to contact voters to get your message out. Like any medium it can be abused. I condemn deceitful campaigning by anyone using any medium.

2) There is no evidence that the Robocalls I heard about have any connection to the Clinton campaign. I'd be very surprised if they did.

[blm]

23. They do - and those Dems who KNOW how Clintons work are NOT surprised, at all.

.

[msmcghee]

24. I guess I missed your evidence in there some place. n/t

[blm]

25. go to any of the threads on NC robocalls...they have links to the ongoing discovery

here's one...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5769438&mesg_id=5769438

and here's another useful link for updates on the matter...

http://www.ncvoter.net/

[msmcghee]

27. I have gone to some of those links. I see that some people . .

. . who are associated with Clinton's campaign are supposedly involved with that organization. Since it's a Dem group I'd suspect that half of the members are probably for Clinton and half for Obama. It says that they are attempting to register AA voters in NC and ten other states. There is no evidence that they are trying to get anyone to vote for a particular candidate. That's looking at the anti-HRC websites posting this information.

If that info is true, why would a pro-HRC group try to increase AA registration in NC. The odds of creating more Obama votes by that effort are very high as I understand it.

Perhaps you can show me the smoking gun here. I don't see it in the links you provided.

[blm]

28. The calls went out AFTER registration deadline and most of those called were registered already.

Telling people to vote AFTER they signed a registration card they needed that was coming in the mail?

Telling Virginia authorities investigating the exact same misleading robocalls that next time you perform such a 'service' you will state your affiliation and then NOT STATE the affiliation in NC, yet again?

The 'service' was misleading for voters and TARGETED AA voters already registered and you know it. Spin away - but if this was a GOP operation you certainly wouldn't be so casual about it, would you?

[msmcghee]

30. I am not arguing that this was not an attempt to mislead or . .

. . cause confusion. I don't fully understand that part of the story.

I do say that if it was then I don't see where this is part of the Clinton campaign and was done at their request or that they paid for it, etc. I think it would be really stupid for them to so that.

It could be but I didn't see any functional connection in the links you provided. The fact that Maggie Williams was supposedly associated with the group last year does not seem relevant. I assume about half the members of any Dem partisan group would be for Clinton and half for Obama and I assume high level Dems would be interested in supporting groups that would register voters.

It's possible that what you say is true. I'm not refuting it - I just haven't seen any clear evidence. the spokesperson said that she notified the AG that they were doing the mailing. It sounded like they added the calls later to get better response from the mailing but did not notify the AG about the calls. It's not clear that they realized that was necessary - so it could have been an oversight.

You may be right - I just haven't seen the evidence yet. Maybe it will come out as you say. I just hate to see accusations like this before there is clear evidence of intent and wrongdoing. If it turns out as you say - then hell yes, prosecute whoever was involved.

[New Dawn]

14. Good points

Money and power is all the Clintons care about.

[Thickasabrick]

5. The woman will never be POTUS. The Hillary hate is too strong.

[EFerrari]

7. Anyone who believes Clinton isn't trying to suppress the vote in NC

only has to read this quotation. She as much as said so. :puke:

[MarjorieG]

9. Clintons/Rendell did suppress the vote in Philly. None of her wins clean.

Osama Bin Laden ad, Ohio's Naftagate, which may very well have started with Bill in Canada. Globe and Mail said their campaign was the wink-wink-no attention to what we say.

[EFerrari]

10. I bet if we ran down the list of states WVWV is "working" in,

we'd find a trail of ugliness.

[BlueIdaho]

8. When you care enough to smear the very best

Send for the Clintons - they have electrolytes!

[quantass]

15. Interesting read

[AZBlue]

26. She's worse than the GOP. At least they don't eat their own.

[Coexist]

29. ...