The Clintons and the 'War on Obama'

[peoli]

By Robert Parry
May 4, 2008

"Last December, when I first learned via Clinton insiders that their “oppo” package would include Barack Obama’s associations with fiery black preacher Jeremiah Wright and Vietnam War-era radical William Ayers, I shrugged at what sounded to me like sub-standard fare from the dark side of American politics.

So what if someone’s minister said some stupid things or that an aging one-time student radical had lent some support to a politician’s campaign, I thought.

Besides those two themes, Clinton insiders were plotting how to exploit Obama’s past political ties to indicted real-estate developer Tony Rezko, and they even were hashing over how they might slip in suggestions that Obama’s dead mother had been a leftist. (When I heard the “oppo” about the dead mother, I really couldn’t believe my ears.)

Even then – in December before the first votes had been cast – the Clintons were so caught up in their ambition to return to the White House that they were veering toward the worst aspects of politics, what is generally associated with the American Right and the most ruthless Republican operatives – guilt-by-association, red-baiting, McCarthyism and racial messaging.

The rationale that I heard from the Clinton operatives was that these Obama vulnerabilities would be exploited by the Republicans in the general election, so it was necessary to destroy Obama when there was still time for another Democrat (i.e. Hillary Clinton) to be nominated."

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/050308.html

[peoli]

1. dude!

[DJ13]

2. This highlights one of my biggest gripes with our media

This guy heard 2 months ahead of time how sleazy the Clinton campaign was going to become, but he said nothing about it ahead of time when doing so might have so turned off the mainstream Democrats that it could have prevented them from using those tactics.

:grr:

[LSparkle]

3. I wonder if they dug up anything on Edwards ...

Back in December, he was supposed to be her primary opposition ...

[KaptBunnyPants]

4. They were going to make him a gay elitist.

Hair cuts, breck girl, mansions, etc... They seem to do whatever the Republican playbook calls for.

[LSparkle]

8. Wow -- they got the "mainstream media" to do that dirty work for them

Disgusting.

[parasim]

5. "I shrugged" Why the hell didn't you say something then, idiot?

nt


on edit: i wasn't referring you, horseface. (Although, even that sounds like an insult.) : ) Just wanted to make that clear.

[peoli]

9. I didnt read it that way anyway. thanks :)

[splat]

6. Her 'War on Obama'? Do you play sports? !f you don't want to compete, don't play!

[Tom Rinaldo]

7. Interesting. The Wright story "broke" AFTER the TX and OH must win for Clinton primaries.

Had Obama beaten Clinton in Ohio, or gotten more popular votes than she in Texas, the campaign effectively would have been over for Hillary Clinton, but she never brought Rev. Wright up, who obviously in hindsight is the most controversial association that Obama had,. She fought for and won the popular vote in OH and TX, risking everything, without using that.