More Obama Desperation: talks about Hillary and Bill's secret pact of ambition

[Herman Munster]

He just loves spewing the right wing propoaganda from Novak and all the other right wing shills.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2007/11/obama_on_the_clinton_secret_pa.html

LAS VEGAS -- Barack Obama is starting to slip into his speeches a disputed account of a secret 20-year plan for both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton to win the White House.

“I’m not in this race to fulfill some long-held plan or because it was owed to me,” Obama told a gathering of Nevada Democrats after Thursday night’s Las Vegas debate.

That was a veiled reference to an account by biographers Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta that the Clintons sealed a “secret pact of ambition” to both win the presidency, which has been vehemently denied by Clinton advisers.

Asked if Obama was referring to the pact, a spokeswoman replied: “Barack Obama has not been mapping out his run for president from Washington for the last 20 years like some of his opponents.”

Clinton spokesman Blake Zeff responded, “This is an odd statement, considering that the number of people who say Senator Obama talked about running for president as a youngster seems to grow daily.”

[blm]

1. Did Clintons ever reify RW smears against others? Like Lawrence Walsh or

Gary Webb or John Kerry?

Bill on Walsh is here:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/100307.html

and Hillary on Kerry is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk1k0nUWEQg

[babylonsister]

2. Not odd at all; IIRC that's what a biographer said about them, and I

can just imagine. And many young boys talk about wanting to be president so that's not unusual either. Making mountains out of molehills, again?

[jenmito]

4. Didn't Carl Bernstein write about that?

He's hardly a RW hack...

[obamian]

17. Here's the Huffington Post Piece on it

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-van-natta-jr/shining-a-spotlight-on-hi_b_50469.html

Written by Don Van Natta Jr.

Some background:
He was on a six-reporter team, led by Jeff Gerth, that won the 1999 Pulitzer in National Reporting for a series of stories about American corporations that sold satellite technology with defense uses to China. And in 2002, Van Natta was one of nine reporters to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting, for his work on Al Qaeda in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Van_Natta,_Jr.

I guess it takes three Pulitzers to be considered credible by some people.

[obamian]

19. Meet the Press Transcript with the Authors

MR. RUSSERT: Let’s go right to it. One of the important parts of this book is this notion of a grand design by Bill and Hillary Clinton to each serve two terms in the White House. This is the way you write about it: “By the summer of 1993, the ways of Washington had not dissuaded Bill or Hillary. According to one of their closest friends, Taylor Branch, they still planned two terms in the White House for Bill, and, later, two for Hillary.” You know what’s happened now, this is The Washington Post reporting on this: “The authors report that the Clintons updated their plan after the 1992 election, determining that Hillary would run when Bill left office. They cite two people,” former Times reporter “Ann Crittenden and John Henry, who said Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and close Clinton friend, told them” “the Clintons ‘still planned two terms in the White House for Bill and, later, two for Hillary.’ Contacted last night, Branch said that ‘the story is preposterous.’” “‘I never heard either Clinton talk about a “plan” for them’” both to “‘become president.’” What do you say?

MR. JEFF GERTH: Well, Tim, I interviewed Ann Crittenden and John Henry, and they both separately recalled a barbecue dinner in Aspen, Colorado, in 1993 at a rodeo with Taylor Branch, and they were remembering him saying that he’d just come from the White House—he’s a historian, and he’d begun talking with President Clinton, and he told them about—that Bill Clinton was going to serve eight years and then, at some point, Hillary was going to do eight years in the White House. I later contacted Taylor Branch, asked him if he remembered the dinner in Aspen. He said he didn’t, but he said he wouldn’t deny it. Then he later, when the book came out, said it was preposterous. I think I would add, Taylor is a respected historian, but he himself has admitted that when it comes to Bill Clinton he can’t be objective. So there are two people—you know, Ann Crittenden’s an award-winning journalist—two people who say yea, and Taylor Branch says nay. I mean, I think more interestingly and more surprisingly, the ambition of the Clintons going back to when they were in their 20s, and the 20 year project that Leon Panetta remembers Bill Clinton describing to him.

MR. RUSSERT: Well, Panetta said Bill Clinton running for president, but it was never about Hillary.

MR. GERTH: No. But, but Bill Clinton, of course, at that point in the ‘70s, even before they married, was talking about Hillary Clinton, that she could be president, but she had to subordinate her plans, of course, to his, coming to Arkansas.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19092206/page/4/

[papau]

22. Media Matters noted Gerth was selling a lie per his supposed source

That 1999 Pulitzer in National Reporting for a series of stories about American corporations that sold satellite technology with defense uses to China was not deserved - it was a dump on Clinton attempt that blew by the facts of prior rules for such dales, the DOC review, and the ease of obtaining similiar equipement from the EU that was on offer - sometimes those voting the Pulitzer may be making a political statement.

In any case Gerth now admits the Panetta comment solely refers to a Clinton in the 1970 comment/plan to chase the Presidency that was made by Bill before he met Hillary. I guess Obama thinks he is the single major presidential candidate who has not entertained plans for running years before that first public announcement - which means he has forgotten his conversations about chasing the presidency that he made 20 years ago to his friends that are now coming out.

In any case Media Matters http://mediamatters.org/items/200706110008 noted that Gerth's only direct source for the "Hillary had a plan with Bill" - the "20-year "secret pact of ambition"" which was expanded to include Hillary as president in 1993 - namely the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and close Clinton friend historian Taylor Branch -- has labeled the authors' claim "preposterous."

Of course the fact that Gerth contradicts Clintons Book (Bill Clinton's autobiography, My Life) where Bill says "I thought coming to Arkansas with me would end the prospect of a political career for her":I was happy to be going home to the prospect of interesting work, but I still didn't know what to do about Hillary, or what was best for her. I had always believed she had as much (or more) potential to succeed in politics as I did, and I wanted her to have the chance. Back then, I wanted it for her more than she did, and I thought coming to Arkansas with me would end the prospect of a political career for her. I didn't want to do that, but I didn't want to give her up, either. " should not stop Obama's push of Gerth's error/lie.

Now Gerth does claim he said that he said that he said sources other than Branch who say Branch made the comment - and Obama can hang his hat on that fact.

[Capn Sunshine]

3. "MORE" ????

This implies there was other desperation in the campaign?
God this is obnoxious.

Pretty much what we've come to expect from rabid partisans fooling no one except themselves.

[incapsulated]

5. A secret pact... maybe... with....SATAN???

:evilgrin:

Really, what kind of "pact". If I win, you go and win it, too? And? Like wanting that makes it SO? So what, everyone knew she was going to run as soon as she decided to go to the senate, this is news?

[durrrty libby]

7. Yes it is secret news. shhhhh

[BootinUp]

11. Don't forget the part

of the pact where Kerry loses. lol.

[Capn Sunshine]

13. that was exxxxxcellent , Smithers

Funny how the same clowns that produced the pathetic Kerry Campaign, replete with all that great advice, are now working for Hillary.

[BootinUp]

20. It makes a complex world

so much simpler when you can have some evil nemesis to blame. Don't you think?

[Mass]

6. First, Obama's quote does not say "secret plan" but "long held plan".

Second, is there any question that there was a long held plan to support Hillary and Bill's ambition. Does the Clinton's campaign think we are stupid?

There is a huge difference between a political machine created some 20 years ago and the fact that a young boy wanted to be president.

This post is simply laughable.

[msongs]

8. must be secret cuz he's not naming names and ONLY HE knows about it nt

[Mass]

10. Sure. In that case, I must be clairvoyant because I know about it and many other people as well.\nt

[Capn Sunshine]

15. "Does the Clinton's campaign think we are stupid?"

Yes, they do. Exhibit "A" : take a look at her online advocates here.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. I See You're Fond Of Broad Brush Smears

It's not charming...

[beyurslf]

9. So what if they held a long term plan ot capture the White House for both of them?

Don't many of us set long term career goals? How many think that Reagan or Bush or Nixon or Kennedy made the decision to run a week before he announced? Silly.

[asjr]

12. I had thought our candidates

would be smarter than this. It is all propaganda by the media. They caused all of this back-biting and back-stabbing. When one considers the sources--Novack, Broder, Will, Matthews, Russert--we know they try to stir up a mess so they can "report" on it. I'm through with Matthews. He is so screwed up I am looking for the men in white suits to surround him and put him in a strait jacket. They can always say he has rabies with all the spittle around his mouth.

[rocktivity]

14. Hillary has learned not to underestimate the power

of a vast political conspiracy? So what?

:evilgrin:
rocknation

[Jim Sagle]

18. The empty suit wacks out, leaving a REAL Dem to go 1 on 1 with the empty pantsuit.

:beer:

[Mass]

23. Are you telling us that Edwards is dropping out of the race?\nt

[Jim Sagle]

24. Are you implying Obama is a real Dem?

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

[Mass]

25. At least as much as Edwards, the man that decided he was wrong on everything,...

... just when he decided to run for president.

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

[Mojorabbit]

21. It is a shame

that this can't be about the issues. But it is the ultimate political prize and you got to want it bad to go through what they do for it. None of this stuff bothers me though I find it telling the press wants to focus on personalities and cat fighting instead of issues.

[The Doctor.]

26. 'Secret'? It's hardly a 'Secret'.

They've played off of each-other brilliantly, they make a formidable team. I've little doubt they've both been gunning for the Presidency since they met... if not before.

[Phunktified]

27. So what?

And I guess that story about Obama writing something in elementary school about how he wanted to grow up and be President of the United States doesn't count?