I wish Obama had defended Hillary immediately.

[olkaz]

The damage was going to be done, no matter what. The media went after her like no tomorrow.

But, I think it would have been a good move of unity for Obama to make some sort of statment of support immediately recognizing it for what it was (not a bizarre threat).

I think it was a missed opportunity, honestly.

[skooooo]

1. Why? So she could use it as another opportunity...

...to throw him under the bus?

[olkaz]

5. If she decided to do that, so be it

But there is something to be said for being the bigger person.

I know, I know.

[skooooo]

21. There's also casting your pearls before swine.

It's in the Bible!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

22. She should be filtered before she speaks

she obviously doesn't think of the ramifications

[Shae]

45. I'm sure she does . . .

but this time she made a major miscalculation.

[peoli]

2. why should he defend what comes out of her mouth? she's a full grown adult...

she knows what the hell shes doing.

[Medusa]

12. Right. THis is a woman who has send the same thing 3 times in the last 6 months

she knows exactly what she's saying and why she said it. Disgusting to suggest otherwise.

[DJ13]

3. I wish he had condemned her immediately

What she said was disgusting.

[yardwork]

4. Her comment is indefensible.

I don't think that anyone should defend it. The best she deserves is for it to be ignored.

[NewHampshireDem]

6. He did comment on it immediately

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6093876

And Obama can't say, 'people, stop saying she wants to assassinate me' because that only re-enforces the meme. :shrug: Nor is it Obama's place to clarify Hillary's comments.

[Celebration]

7. One problem with that

It was indefensible.

[crankychatter]

8. minutes after Axelrod appeared on MSNBC and stated unequivically

it was the position of the Obama campaign that this was a simple gaffe

she fucks up in the extreme and you want to invent yet another hoop for Obama to jump through?

give me a fuckin' break

[CakeGrrl]

9. He's done quite a lot already to reach out

He's been very complimentary to her tenacity and toughness, especially in his recent Iowa speech.

Let her finally take some heat and some responsibility for making another mess with her own words.

Obama has gone above and beyond taking the high road with Hillary Clinton.

[olkaz]

19. You might be right.

I don't know. There's a part of me that wants to see her crushed under this new problem, but another part wishing that this could be the catalyst for getting Clintonites to Obama.

I just don't know.

[Swamp Rat]

10. I wish Hillary had apologized to Obama and his family, African Americans, and ALL Americans.

Then, I expect, Obama would have supported her right away.

The onus is on Hillary, not Obama.

[Skrelnick]

11. I think his response has been perfect

A simple reply that her remark was inappropriate, and then onto more pressing matters.

The Obama campaign is letting her have all the rope she wants. It'll make it easier for Obama to later explain why he didn't pick her as VP.

[LaurenG]

13. He looks good, she gets off the hook and then does something worse

I think he should just let it go, don't mention it and keep on message which at this point has NOTHING to do with Clinton.

[girl_interrupted]

31. Think it means more coming from RFK Jr

After all it was his father, and if he isn't offended, and he says he isn't, that he understands what she meant, it has more of an impact.

Would have been nice for Obama too, but since he didn't, it's best to let it go.

[IndianaGreen]

14. Hillary as the perennial victim!

It has grown as tiresome as those West Bank settlers invoking historical wrongs as justification for their own oppression of the Palestinians.

[TBF]

20. Exactly. Victim syndrome.

[Barack_America]

38. "Victim" means never having to say you're sorry.

And she and Bill have perfected it.

:thumbsdown:

[polichick]

15. She floats the idea of his assassination and he should defend her? WAKE UP!

[shadowknows69]

16. He pretty much did IMO

He could have torn out her spine and been justified to. Instead he did what he always has, issued a classy measured rebuke of a situation that deserves no such courtesy.

[GoesTo11]

17. This is about his life, not just some real or perceived insult

Spin like defense isn't the first priority here.

[BlooInBloo]

18. ROFLMAO!!!!! This is one of the classic posts of GDP. Up there with Seabiscuit!

[americanstranger]

23. Nothing would have been good enough.

He stayed well out of the way of this, yet I still see Clinton supporters screaming that 'Obama and his supporters stirred this up.'

If he had defended her, her supporters would have called it a 'half-hearted defense.'

The bottom line is that what she said was indefensible. O played it right, but Clinton's supporters will find a way to be pissy about his action/inaction, whatever it ended up being.

- as

[Douglas Carpenter]

24. I think Sen.Clinton should have IMMEDIATELY apologized to Sen. Obama

I'm certainly not one of those who think Sen. Clinton made this outrageous and horrible gaffe with some sinister intent - but of course the comment would be extremely upsetting to Sen. Obama and his family.

If Sen. Obama had made a similar gaffe that appeared to raise the possibility of Sen. Clinton being assassinated (even if that was not the intent) - could you imagine former President Clinton's reaction? Would not the media have been all over it?

[hokies4ever]

25. You must understand that he wants to defend her

I guarantee you that Obama's campaign already has a forgiveness memo drafted and Obama has a paragraph or two to add into his next stump speech. However, they're waiting for Hillary to apologize to Obama before Obama accepts her apology publicly. It's really that simple. His campaign is waiting for Hillary to apologize to Obama so that he can accept her apology and ask people to move on the important issues. Hillary's ego and pride keep her from cooperating and she just won't apologize to him.

Moral of the story: You have to wait until someone apologizes before you forgive them.

[4themind]

26. Damned if you do, damned if you don't sometimes

He'd have to be careful in how he said it because, he's not the only one for whom the comment was offensive. We still don't know how teddy feels about this and obama can't excuse it away for him. I think the response wsa balance, not balls-to-the-wall critiquing (like hillary's campaign passing out I'm not bitter stickers) but also recognizing the pain that those remarks can cause for many around the country (african americans, friends of RFK and the candidate himself). It was a rejection of the comments and not the individual If my child said something like that I'd reprimand them and scold them, but still love them. I hope Americans on all sides can know the difference. Also axlerod, later softened his remarks a little bit.

[TexanDem]

27. DEAR LORD!!! (shaking head in disbelief!!!)

[TexanDem]

28. Why in the world should HE defend HER! you can't be serious.

[shraby]

29. Why does Obama always have to be the one

to make nice and "fix" things when it was her mouth, her thoughts, her viciousness.
As far as I can see, "HE" had nothing to do with it except be the candidate who is ahead.

[2rth2pwr]

30. Obama did the sme thing in SC. He let the supporters boil over for a few days

before he waded in. The damage was already done. Compare that to the rapid response to Biden's remarks.

[anigbrowl]

35. You are correct, and so is Obama

It's not his job to save Hillary from herself.

[martymar64]

32. No

She put the meme out there.
Those who sow discord shall reap the whirlwind.

Hillary and her goons can fuck right off.

[Vinca]

33. Just like Hillary hopped in and said she was sure Obama

didn't mean "bitter?" Oh . . . wait . . . she used it in her campaigning.

[olkaz]

34. That's it.

It provides one more opportunity to make a clear distinction.

I just have this feeling that we're all neck deep in schadenfreude and we need to be thinking about how to get Hillary's voters back.

Hillary is already defeated. Now it's about building the coalition to defeat McCain.

[Duke Newcombe]

36. No dice. Sometimes, people have to feel the full consequences of their words or deeds.

Otherwise, "saving" her would teach her nothing about how to treat others.

Also, it would be "sexist", right? :sarcasm:


Duke

[my3boyz]

37. Like she defended him during bittergate and the Wright incident?nt

[AtomicKitten]

39. No, he is entitled to hold her coat and say nothing as she succumbs in a self-inflicted implosion.

He has been gracious throughout this campaign, and he doesn't owe her a damn thing. She is pulling the stuffing out of her own political viability. The natural response and coincidentally the right thing to do would be to hold her coat and let her have at.

[undeterred]

40. Coming to her rescue would be a full time job.

[last1standing]

41. I wish Hillary had defended Obama Immediately.

Unfortunately, she decided to use his misstep as her driving push to get more support from low information voters.

The fact that Obama came to her defense at all is not only amazing but shows what a better human being he is.

[DevonRex]

42. The campaign's statement was classy. Axelrod defended her on

Hardball. After that, she can fight her own battles.

[Arrowhead2k1]

43. Enough of trying to let Hillary down easy. She should be torn off quickly like an old dirty bandaid.

The party can heal after.

[barack the house]

44. I think he did the best thing he could to react too soon without enough info could of been bad.

[BenDavid]

46. if after you heard her comments, and you thought assassination, then

why did you all not go apeshit back several months back when she made the same comments and there was no outrage from the whoremedia or obambi and folks.....but what changed? wqell the mediawhores are so far up obambi's ass that if he got the runs they too would as well.....Oh this is what HYPOCRISY looks like......

Shalom
Ben David