"Obama Campaign Goes Negative on Edwards in Iowa" (DailyKos)

[Catchawave]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/10/201829/93


Obama Campaign Goes Negative on Edwards in Iowa (w/ Update)
by TomP
Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 11:24:25 PM EST
Well, this is interesting. ABC is reporting that the Obama campaign is circulating a pamphlet attacking John Edwards.


Circulating among Iowa labor circles, I am told, is this leaflet,which looks to be a standard opposition-research paper against formerSen. John Edwards, D-NC. The shocker? It's from Mr. Positive, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois.

snip

It's a shocker because Obama chief strategist David Axelrod told ABC News that "One of the things people appreciate about (Obama) is he’s not a cheap-shot artist" and this flier is full of cheap shots.
ABC News

Come around after the fold and let's talk about this interesting turn of events from a campaign we keep hearing is "surging," but feels the need to go negative against John Edwards.

TomP's diary :: ::
This is not the first time the Obama campaign has left the high road. Of course, when they went negative, Obama didn't know. And senior staff likely did not know.

There was this time.

His campaign staffers, too, have become frustrated by the focus of the media’s attention, specifically that the press has not covered Clinton in the way they expected it would. During an interview this summer, Obama’s friend Valerie Jarrett said to me, unbidden, "He is a man who is devoted to his wife. There aren’t going to be any skeletons in his closet in terms of his personal life at all. Period." And at a campaign event in Iowa, one of Obama’s aides plopped down next to me and spoke even more bluntly. He wanted to know when reporters would begin to look into Bill Clinton’s post-presidential sex life.
Ben Smith's Blog (quoting Marc Ambinder in The Atlantic

Probably just a low level staffer. Of course, Obama didn't know. And senior staff likely did not know. I'm sure higher level folks would never approve researching Bill Clinton's sex life, or even suggesting that reporters do so. Must be overzealous junior staff.

And there was the Senator from Punjab memo:

HILLARY CLINTON (D-PUNJAB)'S PERSONAL FINANCIAL AND POLITICAL TIES TO INDIA The Clintons have reaped significant financial rewards from their relationship with the Indian community, both in their personal finances and Hillary's campaign fundraising....
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/...

The document, which the Obama campaign tried to clandestinely distribute, was traced back after it landed in the hands of the Clinton campaign. The Clinton camp, in turn, passed it along to The Times, hoping to show that the Obama campaign, like all others, use opposition research in an attempt to define their rivals.

The headline of one of the documents, which referred to Mrs. Clinton as "D-Punjab," touched off a furor among Indian-American groups that called on Mr. Obama to apologize for the remarks.
NY Times

Just a screw-up, though. Nothing Obama or "senior staff" ever saw. Of course, Obama didn't know. And senior staff likely did not know. That damn junior staff is at it again.

"It was a screw-up on the part of our research team," said Mr. Obama, an Illinois Democrat. "It wasn’t anything I had seen or my senior staff had seen."
NY Times

And then Paul Krugman decided to criticize Barack Obama's use of right wing talking points to attack the univeral health care plans of Edwards and Clinton. That damn junior staff was at it again.

Something's really gone off the rails when the Obama campaign decides to release an oppo document on Paul Krugman. It's not only the actual attacks that are weak (most of them rely on misinterpreting one comment, then misinterpreting the next, then pretending there's a contradiction), but, seriously, it's Paul Krugman. Arguably the most progressive voice in American media. When I argued that the campaign should take the gloves off, I really didn't expect their target, in this document and in the health care fight more generally, would be progressivism. What in hell is going on over there?
Ezra Klein

Here's a link to the oppo document:

Fact Check: ''Krugman Didn't Always Think So Poorly Of Obama's Plan''

Of course, Obama didn't know. And senior staff likely did not know.

Chris Bowers today brought up some interesting things on Open Left:

cont'd at link....