CNN: "Did the Obama campaign know about Edwards?"

[trof]

Slimeball CNN anchor John Roberts: "All the Democratic campaigns did exhaustive opposition research on all the other campaigns. DID THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN KNOW ABOUT EDWARDS' INFIDELITY?"
(paraphrased)

Yeah, let's throw THAT speculation out there.
Woohoo.

If so, so what?
Is you implication that the Obama campaign was less than forthcoming?
That they're guilty of a coverup?
That they should have ratted Edwards out?
Oh that would have played well in the national media.
"DIRTY POLITICS"
"POLITICS OF PERSONAL DESTRUCTION"
"OBAMA A SNITCH"

And on and on, ad nauseum.
<cue limbo record>
How Low Can You Go, CNN?

[jobycom]

1. Good God. And it's going to get worse. nt

[RayOfHope]

2. I'm with you, so freaking what if they did? Not their business, as he's not VP pick n/t

[greguganus]

3. Crappy News Network. n/t

[KayLaw]

4. Big deal.

Everyone knows about McCain's infidelity and no one seems to care. So, whether or not Obama knew about Edward's affair is supposed to be an issue? Too silly.

[trof]

22. Roberts on McCain's infidelity: "Ancient history."

That's what he said when the Dem commentator brought it up.
We already knew that.
Nothing new to see here.
Move along.

[seasat]

26. My reply to that is why was where Obama went to elementary school an issue?

Seriously, when it's a Repug, it's ancient history. When it's a Democrat, then it's relevant to who they are now.

[Cosmocat]

32. MEANWHILE ... they give airtime to William Ayers ...

BO was in elementary school when OTHER people did what WU did ...

But, by 6 degrees of seperation, and 40 years later, they give the repukes air time about William Ayers ...

Ds HAVE to keep pushing McCains' infidelity to make the MSM drop Edwards ...

[ErinBerin84]

5. my gosh, how desperate!

I turned on GMA this morning at 7, and their Edwards headline of choice was "Edwards affair...WOULD CLINTON HAVE WON THE NOMINATION???" Uh, ok GMA. There are several scenarios that could have played out, it's typical that they would try to spin it in a way that spurs resentment.

[Dollface]

6. CNN is slipping. It took them 3 days to come up with a way to tie it to Obama.

cnnis a waste of the airwaves. Whatever disease Faux had, they caught it a while ago.

[Bolo Boffin]

9. Well, they were trying the "is Edwards gonna speak at teh convention" route first.

Wringing blood from stones takes time.

[Cosmocat]

21. I posted last week ...

People WANTED to believe that Edwards' infidelity would be something that "hurt" McCain ...

I repeat ... The MSM will cycle though ANYTHING it can to somehow skunk BO with this, until the dots start to connect to McCain ... Then, it will be immediately spiked as a story ...

[jbnow]

23. Took puma about a minute to blame Obama

In comments after articles some posters claim 'that thug Obama' blackmailed him out of the race and then blackmailed him to force the endorsement.

Who was Obama going to tell they don't explain...National Enquirer already had a couple articles. Have a press conference to declare he believed the article?

[onehandle]

7. Counter question: "Did the McCain campaign know about McCain?". nt

[Barack_America]

8. Does McCain remember his own infidelity? nt

[DFW]

10. The McCain campaign will keep their lips zipped about this

They don't want to invite unfavorable comparisons with the behavior of their
own man. It's an easy tack to take when every TV channel out there is willing
to do your dirty work for you for free.

Arm's length and free of charge. Such a deal.

[geiger]

11. How old are these incompetents? If anyone knew about it, it was the Clintons.

They and their helpers are the masters of opposition research. The only difference they couldn't go out and "discredit" the woman this time; they had to sit on their honches. The thought of that gives me no glee. I wonder what they think they have on Obama. I used to be their biggest fans. Daily, they discredit themselves, more than I ever would have thought, e.g. insinuations/comments about roll calls and Mr.Obama not ready to be President. They have become shameless. Like Obama said about midway thru the primaries, they learned the WRONG lesson. They still want to engage in the politics of smear and innuendo, and still think it will work. How narsisctic they have become. Sad, sad, sad. I wish they weren't showing up at the convention instead of the Edwards. I wouldn't be surprised with the timing, if they weren't the ones that leaked this, to get more "show time," "told you so" time. This is sickening.

[leftynyc]

38. That's pretty funny

Attributing narcissism to the Clintons when the story is about Edwards. Do you have any idea what would have happened if edwards has been the presumptive nominee when this story came out? Talk about narcissism. If edwards even shows his face at the convention, I'll never forgive him.

[geiger]

43. u r not funny. delusioned, would b more like it. eom.

[leftynyc]

47. Wasn't trying to be funny

NOthing funny about John Edwards running for the nomination with this story just waiting to explode. He could have destroyed the party and people like you still bitch about the Clintons. THAT I find very amusing.

[geiger]

56. and so why didn't they just explode it? not blackmail you think? that is naive.

[leftynyc]

58. Why didn't who explode it?

I'm guessing English is not your first language and that's fine but you're not being clear in who you're accusing of blackmail. And it's been around 30 years since someone has called me naive.

[Skittles]

67. hatred of all things Clinton is reaching epidemic proportions on DU

[leftynyc]

74. Look behind you

That line was crossed long ago. Remember all the crap about Hillary staying with Bill even after his infidelity(ies)? I'm not hearing a fraction of that regarding Elizabeth Edwards and she was fighting cancer at the time. The hypocrisy is overwhelmingly amusing.

[book_worm]

12. If the media dares bring Obama into this then Obama campaign must hit McCain on his

affair with his barbie doll wife while married to a sick spouse.

[elehhhhna]

13. Serpenthead said this a.m. that it's JE's "fault" that HRC lost the primaries.

puh-leeze. IT'S OBAMA'S FAULT, silly! HE RAN & WON.

[ErinBerin84]

17. is serpent head James Carville?

I saw that too! I thought maybe he would say "Well, you can't speculate about things in the past" or something, but of course he said "Yes, I think that we could definitely speculate that! I think that she WOULD have done better!"

[elehhhhna]

46. LOL HRC thwarted by a sleazy married man, again. How karmic.

[PurityOfEssence]

50. She doesn't deserve that kind of ugliness

Whether one likes her or not, once upon a time she actually risked her political future to do something good and decent for the American people. For this, she was roundly trounced and humiliated, but she DID it. That's more than anything that can be said about Mr. Obama: he's NEVER taken a risky stand that benefitted the common folk. Never. Period.

For people to revel in her embarrassment at the hands of her husband is just filthy. She stood by her man and she was publicly vilified for it. The jackals who asked her in public about Spitzer not only have no manners, they have no souls.

Add up her whole political career, IWR and all, and stack it against Obama's, and it's remarkably similar. Take a away the IWR, for which he was not called to account, and hers is more populist than his, and that's a damning thing to say.

Glorying in her further humiliation from a man's infidelity is out of line, to put it delicately.

(edited for spelling)

[elehhhhna]

55. true, she doesn't deserve it, but she evidently attracts it.

[CottonBear]

57. That's his nickname given to him by, I believe, his wife, Republican strategist Mary Matalin. n/t

[zulchzulu]

25. I knew this BS would be brought up... n/t

[TechBear_Seattle]

14. Who the F. cares if the Obama campaign knew?

The media knows about McCain's affair, and they are actively supressing the story. Who is the complicit party in marital infidelity here?

[geiger]

66. Except it's the Clintons that acted on it, and now all the rats are jumping the ship.

Obama is in the clear on this one, no doubt about that.

[TechBear_Seattle]

15. Self delete

Double post, sorry about that. :blush:

[wyldwolf]

16. it had been a rampant rumor - even on DU, since at least last November

[Fleshdancer]

18. Obama campaign: We didn't know about Edwards, but we do know about McCain

Would you be interested in hearing more? ;)

That would be my suggested response anyway...

[KayLaw]

28. Heh heh . . .

Good answer, Gloria. :thumbsup:

[leftynyc]

49. Great framing

That would be the PERFECT response.

[JaneQPublic]

19. MSM policy: Obama guilty for the sins of others, while McSame gets passes for his own sins (nt)

[rox63]

20. Even if they did know, it's not their place to alert the press

Especially because, after NH, Edwards was not a serious threat.

[Inuca]

29. Can you imagine the

(well deserved) outrage if they did?

[Phredicles]

62. Exactly so. If they'd disclosed it, they would have been guilty of dirty

campaigning. Similarly, Biden had to drop out in '88 over the plagiarism revelations, but the Dukakis campaign's reputation was sure not enhanced at all.

[zulchzulu]

24. John Roberts: Does the CNN staff know about McCain's infidelity?

Certainly if we feed off Edwards or Rev. Wright, then we can certainly look at how McCain was able to snag a marriage license with a $100 million beer heiress WHILE he still wasn't divorced from his first wife, who he was cheating on and called fat after she was in a car accident.

If Obama had gotten a marriage license before he got divorced, I can only imagine the shark attacks from the media.

[npincus]

27. Did the McCain campaign know about it? And who gives a shit?

Guilt by association? F-you, you stuffed, made-up DUMMY.

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

30. He took off in the national polls when Edwards dropped out.

If they knew, they kept it secret for all the right (non-political) reasons.

http://www.pollster.com/polls/us/08-us-dem-pres-primary.php

[karynnj]

37. Obama was surging through January

because of the Iowa win, the Kerry and Kennedy announcements and the big SC win. Look at the graph there is no discontinuity at January 30 th. It did help his numbers increase because some came to him - and some to HRC. There was no certainty which way the ewdards people would go.

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

51. look at the graph. the slope steepens at the end of january.

Could he have done it with Edwards in the race? Perhaps. My point is that the steepest increase came when Edwards dropped out after SC, and possibly continued longer because he dropped out. Again, though, it's possible Obama's rise could have continued with Edwards in the race.

[karynnj]

61. That is also when the Kennedys endorsed him on Jan 28th

The fact is that Edwards was already off his peak - and some of his supporters stayed with Edwards, some went to undecided, and some added to both Clinton and Obama. You are only speaking of at most 10% - and they didn't all go to Obama.

[Changenow]

31. Did the Clinton campaign?

Clinton supporters published it, which would indicate they wanted it out.

[TexasObserver]

33. Since the Obama camp stayed away from Edwards as VP, maybe they did.

Everyone in the campaigns knew about John getting challenged last fall on having a girlfriend. He denied it, but I'm sure folks in Obama's campaign sniffed it out. They may have put a question mark beside his name because of it.

The Obama campaign is smartly run, and that includes knowing what is going on around them.

When John got busted at 2 AM in the hotel by the tabloid media, that's when I knew it was all true.

[krawhitham]

34. Goes both ways

Did Hillary know?

What was the talk about after the debate?
Why did Edwards suddenly drop out after the talk with Hillary just before Super Tuesday?

[darius15]

35. I told you guys

that the dumbasses in the media are going to try to connect Obama & Edwards.

[karynnj]

36. Did the RNC?

Which was likely putting together portfolios on all three starting in 2006 or 2007.

[berni_mccoy]

39. Clinton Had Far More To Gain than Obama by Keeping Edwards In The Race. Why don't they ask that?

[JVS]

40. I don't know if the Obama campaign did know about it. I'm pretty sure the Clinton campaign didn't..

know about it before the IA caucuses. If this would have come out in December, then Edwards' assumed dominance in Iowa would have been over.

[BeyondGeography]

41. Assholes...it took the National Enquirer following him to a hotel at 2 in the morning to break this

Whatever.

[Dinger]

42. I Have A Pic Of Edwards With His Arm Around Me, Does That Count?

From 2004 campaign.

[otohara]

44. Maybe, But CNN Knew & Said Nothing

like the rest of the MSM - or maybe like me, Barack Obama had the feeling Edwards was lying.

[Occam Bandage]

45. If so, it's to his credit that they didn't run negative.

[Median Democrat]

48. Exactly - If Obama Did Know, Then He Took The High Road

[Ganja Ninja]

52. What if he did?

First of all Barack Obama is not John Edwards confessor or keeper. Second if Obama did know he may have decided that it was not up to him to set the record straight on Edwards. He may just have decided that it's none of his business.

[PurityOfEssence]

65. Not necessarily

What if they forced him out over this, promising to keep it quiet? Not only would that not be above the fray, it'd be pretty creepy.

Obama's campaign is based on an extreme altruism and the sheer glory of his sterling personality. He's already played the "I didn't know about what my subordinates did" card a few times; the disillusionment could be quite a hit to his mystique.

His supporters are right in one respect that he's a "different kind of candidate": he's going to be held to a different standard because that's what he claimed set him apart. This is why the disillusionment crops up when he tacks hard to the right on the death penalty, abortion rights, drilling, spying and other non-liberal policies: he was supposed to be incorruptible and engaging in "new" politics, not the same old maneuvering.

Sadly, the threshold of disappointment will be lower for him because he claimed that it should be so high.

Let's hope he can keep up the momentum, and let's hope he either had nothing to do with this or doesn't get caught.

[kwolf68]

53. Unreal

John Edwards has ABSOLUTELY NO RELATION to the Obama campaign, NONE, NONE, NONE...the only similirities are they both ran for the Democratic nomination to be President: Edwards lost, Obama won. That's the only relation.

Edwards was NEVER under consideration for the VP spot and even if he was, so damn what. This is unbelievable to even be an issue...that damn Librul media again? Can't keep them leftists from propagandizing everything now can we?

[GreenPartyVoter]

54. What does Obama have to do with it? As long as Edwards isn't on the Veep list, then

it has no bearing on the Obama campaign.

How stupid and sensationalist our media has become!

[katty]

59. did he know? of course, but it has nothing to do with barack

[Clear Blue Sky]

60. There were rumors but so what? What were they supposed to do?

I'd throw the question back to CNN. When did they know and why did they sit on the story?

[maggieblue]

63. Edwards as VP - No way!!!

The first time I saw John Edwards on television he was standing with the Kerrys with his back to his wife and seemed to not want to look at wife. I thought it was so weird and very tacky. By the end of the time he was on television that evening I didn't like him or how he treated his wife. I never saw him look at his wife as if he loved her. He's an opportunist. It would make me sick if Obama wanted him to be his VP. I think we have a right to expect our top representatives to love their wives and children.

[Willo]

64. Did CNN know that McCain is gaffe prone

and decide to selectively air, pre-recorded stump clips, to hide the truth that McCain is an idiot?

[Skittles]

68. the f***ing NATIONAL ENQUIRER knew

of course the Obama campaign knew

[doc03]

69. O'Liely admitted (Fox) knew about the story quite a

while ago but they were apparently sitting on it to use if Edwards got the nomination or was selected as the VP candidate.

[Colobo]

70. I do know O'Reilly really talked mad shit about Edwards during the primaries

constantly saying dude was a "phony" and that he deserved no respect... he never said why he was so harsh on John, but he was... he never treated Hillary or Obama like that...

[Franc_Lee]

71. CNN promoted the Iraq war withouut investigating any claims from the WH. they're

complaisant in the selling of the war. Someone should start a thread asking;
"Did CNN help promote the lead up to the war in Iraq?

[kerry-is-my-prez]

72. I'll bet both the Clinton AND Obama campaigns knew about it.

[Franc_Lee]

73. Yeah, sp what, get over it Americans, the French don't give a sh*t