Sam Stein

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Sam Stein

The Huffington Post

2008 election, huffpolitics, campaign flier, criticism of Clinton, independents, Nevada Primary, party affiliation, republican, Senator Clinton, senator obama
2008 election, huffpolitics, campaign flier, criticism of Clinton, independents, Nevada Primary, party affiliation, republican, Senator Clinton, senator obama

Pro-Obama Flier Urges Republicans To Switch Parties To Block Clinton

January 14, 2008 03:56 PM


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A campaign flier created by a precinct captain for Sen. Barack Obama urges Nevada Republicans and independents to switch party affiliations "for a day" and caucus in the Democratic primary in order to defeat Sen. Hillary Clinton.

The flier, which was distributed in the Reno area, calls on voters to support Obama "if you think a Democrat will win in November and you don't want Hilary [sic]." It criticized Clinton for having "voted for the war when it was popular," and for taking "money from the special interest groups." Her nomination, the piece concluded, "will continue to polarize the country."

The flier was put out by Bob Buchanan, a volunteer organizer for Obama in Reno. Buchanan, who insists that Obama's campaign had no connection to the literature, said he distributed approximately 100 copies of the flier before rewriting it, replacing criticism of Clinton with compliments of Obama.

"If you think a Democrat will win in November and you may have said anyone but Hillary, we would rather focus on Obama," the new version reads, according to Buchanan. "He spoke out against the war when it wasn't popular. He refuses to take money from special interest groups. He would unite rather than polarize the country."

According to Nevada state law, voters can switch party affiliations on the day of the primary to cast their ballots for candidates of another party.

"I want to get them to the polls," Buchanan told the Huffington Post, after confirming that the flier was legitimate. "See, right now you have a number of Republicans not happy with the Republican Party. And most people here are independents. So how do they vote? They might not know they can switch parties. This hopefully will get out the vote."

Buchanan says the decision to create the flier was his own. The Obama campaign, he said, refused to even read the two-page handout. Ben Labolt, spokesperson for Obama, also asserted that Buchanan was operating as an independent agent. "This is not a campaign document," Labolt said, "and our campaign had no knowledge of it before it surfaced in the media."

As for why he changed the tone, Buchanan remarked: "As I reflected on it. I said, 'you know this would not be reflective of Obama, this is not his campaign.'"

Update: Buchanan tells Salon that, in the wake of the backlash against his flier, he could be parting ways with the Obama campaign. "I may have to resign as precinct captain or something," he said. "I don't want to screw his campaign up."

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all this MLK crap has made me drop my support for obama. he new her comments werent racially sensitive from the beginning. now everyone is focusing on this drama instead on focusing on real issues such as the war, economy, health care and so on.

the media is largely to blame. all the news outlets have turned out to be like access hollywood reporting on the latest britney spears fiasco.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:41 PM on 01/14/2008
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Night all. My beauty rest awaits!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:16 PM on 01/14/2008
- denver I'm a Fan of denver 5 fans permalink

IM NOT SHOCKED THIS IS HARDBALL POLITICS CLINTON AND OBAMA ARE ENGAGING IN IT.THAT IS PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS.BUT I AM DISAPPOINTED BARACK FANNED THE FLAMES OF RACE,HE SHOULD OF DENOUNCED THE NOTION RIGHT AWAY THAT HILLARY WAS IN ANY WAY DEMEANING THE GREAT DR.KING,ANYONE WHO KNOWS HILLARYS PAST KNOWS SHE HAS ALWAYS SPOKE WITH GREAT ADMIRATION OF THE LATE DR KING AND HAS SIAD HOW MUCH HE MOVED HER AND INFLUENCED HER POLITICS TO ALWAYS FIGHT FOR THE BEATEN DOWN POEPLE.SHAME ON OBAMA AND HIS WIFE FOR GIVING THE SPEECH SAYING BILL CLINTON SHOULD BE ASAMED OF HIMSELF FOR SAYING BARACK IS A FAIRYTALE.SHAME ON HER SHE KNOWS WHAT BILL WAS TALKING ABOUT,IT WAS IRAQ.ANYONE WHO DOUBTS IT GET A TRANSCRIPT OF THE FULL SPEECH NOT THE SNAPSHOT THE MEDIA IS HYPING UP SHAME SHAME MICHELLE,FOR SINKING SO LOW

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:12 PM on 01/14/2008
- Clarabell I'm a Fan of Clarabell 67 fans permalink
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LET'S WISE UP. The media is whipping this up so that Hillary and Barack will destroy each other (with our help) and there will be no discussion about the war and all the other catastrophies of the last 7 years, and the Retards will stay in office. WISE UP, WISE UP, WISE UP.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:11 PM on 01/14/2008

So this is what they mean by reaching across party lines!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:03 PM on 01/14/2008

hey, if this guy wants to con Republicans to voting for a Democrat, more power to him. I just hope he can pull off the same trick in November.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:55 PM on 01/14/2008

So he was a precint captain, and they actually think the public will buy that the Obama campaign had nothing to do with it? Damn, they really think we are STUPID. So he "may" have to resign. If he worked for Hillary, they would have already been screaming for his head on a pole!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:48 PM on 01/14/2008
- DontSpin I'm a Fan of DontSpin 7 fans permalink

well.. I noticed the flier isn't talking about Hillary. Because it spells Hilary with one "L"

hehehe.... aaaah. I'm funny.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:30 PM on 01/14/2008
- fourex I'm a Fan of fourex 17 fans permalink
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Obama is fortunate that Bob Buchanan, a volunteer organizer, is stepping down. If Mr. Buchanan thinks he can out hustle the Clintons for Republican votes he must have been asleep for two decades.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:28 PM on 01/14/2008

Will all you shutup for once and stop being divisive. God, this is the reason why I am an independent. Both Hillary and Obama is better than any republican presidency. Remember what is on-line right now... The Supreme Court. No matter who wins this year will be a one-term preseidency anyway (because whoever it is will have to make hard choices that will offend most people, but hard choices that needs to be made to put America back on track). But if you want to make the supreme court as conservative as it is now, then fine don't vote if Hillary get the nomination or Obama get the nomination. But when Abortion is illegal or the gay rights is outlaw then you can only blame yourself.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:09 PM on 01/14/2008
- janvoght I'm a Fan of janvoght 8 fans permalink
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these are very important times in our countries troubled traumas, we need level, stable, authentic, focused, leadership. we need to try and avoid temptation to throw fuel on any fires, join negative character bashing, and beyond that lying...(i know that's asking alot) clouding this campain with emotional imaturity, and short sightedness, keeps us stuck! we need to move forward, no? haven't we had enough of the other?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:33 PM on 01/14/2008
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I noticed nobody blamed Obama for the flyers. Yet if flyers like this were going out in favor of Clinton, she'd be accused to printing them up herself.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:30 PM on 01/14/2008
- ChiGuy I'm a Fan of ChiGuy 342 fans permalink
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Wow. 400+ comments on an obvious non-issue.

No doubt, there are plenty of Clinton backers that want to make this into much more than it is.

The Obama campaign has disavowed any connection to this loose cannon clown's antics and he's about to be run out of any affiliation with the campaign and his precinct.

A non-issue.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:27 PM on 01/14/2008
- MinerSam I'm a Fan of MinerSam 17 fans permalink

It has been obvious since Obama began to compare Senator Clinton to Bush, that he was running a BUSH STYLE Campaign.

Using as his model: Republican Operative Frank Lunz's book which while called: It's not what you say but what people hear: SHOULD REALLY be called: "Its what you imply and who you implicate with Lies"

And since he took on Chris Mathews' challenge to attack Hillary and based it upon ERRONEOUS ASSERTIONS given him By Russert (Obama along with Edwards) and they began to use Republican Talking Points..I have been walking around with a knot in my stomach and began to wonder what country I might have to escape to.

So this feel validating in a strange way because to see certain endorsements of Obama..one begins to feel a bit crazy.

Obama turned out to be an enormous disappointment for truly informed people...because in the sleaziest way he has done the opposite of what drew people to him.

And also on the subject of sleaze and immorality it has been rather obvious that the American Fascist Republican Party will do anything which will enable them to loot the US treasury.

Interesting that this guy was so tentative about his potential resignation. As has been true in the past Mr. Obama does not seem to ask his sleazy workers to leave

But as one who judges the character of a candidate by the honesty of their campaign,
the onus is on me to become educated...no thanks to the Republican controlled Media
and their Talking Morons.. I refrain from saying shame on you Obama!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:15 PM on 01/14/2008
- kevenseven I'm a Fan of kevenseven 501 fans permalink
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I am going to post this several times per day for several days without apology. The senate will be back in session this week and this will be first up.

Dodd managed to postpone consideration in the senate of the pending FISA reform acts which would have included provisions granting retroactive immunity to the telecoms for their illegal cooperation with Bush in HIS illegal spying on Americans.

The current bill expires soon and there will be serious pressure to ramrod the bill thru the senate and conference committee. Without a considerable groundswell BEFORE the senate resumes, the bill will be presented and passed so fast it will make your head spin. Then it will go to the briefest of conference committees and the perfectly acceptable house RESTORE ACT will be destroyed with the immunity provisions.

For all the Puritans out there thumping their chests, this is a perfect test of your impeachment fervor. The purpose of immunity is to forestall the inevitable discovery in the 40+ lawsuits pending. It is that discovery that would lay the grounds for CRIMINAL prosecution of Bush and his minions.

For Californians: Diane Feinstein has an amendment to the bill that on the surface seems reasonable, instead of immunity, the lawsuits must first be brought to the FISA courts to judge if the wiretapping was legal in the first place. No. Sorry, I don't trust them that far.

While Dodd was fighting to stall the bill in December, neither Clinton nor Obama could be bothered to return to Washington to fight for yours or my fourth amendment rights. As a point of parliamentary procedure, no senator needs to vote no to cloture (ending a filibuster), it requires 60 votes to bring cloture, regardless of how many senators vote, but we can still insist that our future nominee expend some capital on this issue.

Write, call, e-mail, fax everybody you can think of. And tell HILLARY and OBAMA that your vote will depend on them getting back to Washington and sustaining Dodd's filibuster.

Act now, or don't bitch about congress rolling over for Bush.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:04 PM on 01/14/2008
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