No More Mr. Nice Guy: Obama Mocks Hillary In Stand Up Routine

LAS VEGAS — The White House campaign has brought a new act to Vegas.

Democrat Barack Obama tried to use humor to cut down rival Hillary Rodham Clinton before Saturday's presidential caucus. His "Iowa nice" approach gone, Obama debuted a biting political standup routine Thursday night that mocked his rival, and employed it again on Friday.

Obama began by recalling a moment in Tuesday night's debate when he and his rivals were asked to name their biggest weakness. Obama answered first, saying he has a messy desk and needs help managing paperwork _ something his opponents have since used to suggest he's not up to managing the country. John Edwards said his biggest weakness is that he has a powerful response to seeing pain in others, and Clinton said she gets impatient to bring change to America.

"Because I'm an ordinary person, I thought that they meant, 'What's your biggest weakness?'" Obama said to laughter from a packed house at Rancho High School. "If I had gone last I would have known what the game was. And then I could have said, `Well, ya know, I like to help old ladies across the street. Sometimes they don't want to be helped. It's terrible.'"

"Folks, they don't tell you what they mean!" he said. Obama chuckled at his own joke before riffing on another Clinton answer in the debate, when she said that she is happy that the bankruptcy bill she voted for in 2001 never became law.

"She says, 'I voted for it but I was glad to see that it didn't pass.' What does that mean?" he asked, again drawing laughter from the crowd and himself. "No seriously, what does that mean? If you didn't want to see it passed, then you can vote against it! People don't say what they mean.

"You know what I'm saying is true," he said, then addressed his routine directly at audience members who don't know who they will vote for yet. "Undecideds, remember now, remember what I'm saying."

He continued by responding to a new Clinton radio ad that accused him of having financial ties to supporters of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site that most Nevadans are loath to come to their state.

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"I have said over and over again I'm against Yucca," Obama said. "I'm against Yucca Mountain. I think the science is not there. I've never, I've never been for Yucca. Never been for it. Never said I was for it.

"Suddenly you've got the Clinton camp out there saying, `He's for Yucca.' What part of I'm not for Yucca do you not understand?" he said, then laughed along with his audience.

As the laughter subsided, Obama drove home the broader point he's been trying to make against Clinton the entire campaign.

"Those kinds of tricks, that kind of approach to politics is what has to stop because what happens is then nobody believes anything," Obama said. "The voters don't believe what politicians say. They get cynical. Folks in Congress, they'll tell you they're looking out for you _ they're looking out for somebody else. We have to change that politics and that's why I'm running for president."

Clinton spokesman Phil Singer retorted with a dig at Obama's experience.

"Judging from his act, it doesn't sound like Senator Obama has much experience doing stand-up either," Singer said in a statement. "Nothing says change more than using jokes to distort his opponents' records."

Obama repeated the routine Friday in Reno. "This is political speak. This is what you learn in Washington for all those years of experience," he said. "It's funny except it's sad because it means the American people are constantly having to sort out what people mean."

Humor is a tradition on the Las Vegas Strip and in presidential campaigns because it's a way to score a point without sounding too negative. President Bush used it to skewer John Kerry in 2004 as fancy and soft on terrorism, while Ronald Reagan was one of the best at wielding one-liners.

In a 1980 debate Reagan sidelined Jimmy Carter's criticism with a dismissive "there you go again." He answered questions about his advanced age in a 1984 debate by saying he wouldn't make an issue of Walter Mondale's youth and inexperience.

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On the Net:

http://www.barackobama.com

Comments

[RusStyles]

Is it a full moon tonight? What a bunch a hate-spewing freakazoids blogging on here. I didn't realize they offered internet access to mental wardees. And the HP is looking more like the National Enquirer by the minute. What the hell is going on? Guess I'll have to stick with the NYT, C-Trib, WP...Somebody needs to sceen these scummy posts; it's becoming a magnet for snaggled-tooth racists. And the more successful Obama becomes, the more these termites will crawl out the woodwork. Arianna: you need to get with the stick before your site tuns into a slimy cesspool.

[kdjoins]

more attacking hillary, it seems.

did he make any cracks about running for "Lezient?"

Like at http://www.lezident.com ?

he thinks he's so funny. not really.

[YL]

This is addressed to minimia's allegation that
Hilary lacks experience. Yes your recitation of Obama's experience is true. But that is on the local and state level. Read "The Woman in
Charge" by Carl Bernstein. You will get a better grasp of Hilary's experience.

[misterquipster]

Considering the fact that Barack Obama's dad is Redd Foxx (Redd Foxx is a stage name), it only makes sense that Obama would use humor to make his political points.

Too bad bad the writers are still on strike. Barack's jokes need some pumping up!

[Stomcey]

In the NH debates Obama wouldn't answer a question if he had any regrets in the previous debates. OBAMA AND HILLARY BOTH SAID LET THE VOTERS DECIDE. That is not an answer to the question. Edwards answered ALL the questions at the last debate while Hillary and Obama did not. What a short memory Obama has. He is actually getting on my nerves.

[IkeChicago]

There is no honesty coming from Hillary at all, first she says that she was unaware of the pardons her brother requested. If your sister was married to the President, won't you first contact her to shepherd the pardon thru to the President, Hillary is a big liar, she was intricately involved in the selling of pardons.

Then when asked what her greatest weakness was and she responded with... trying too hard to help other disenfranchised people. What a bunch of Hoooey, here Hillary let me help you on you weaknesses.

1. Standing by and witnessing Bill bomk other women and smiling through it all.

2. Lying about anything and everything.

3. Taking money from any and everyone, have you tried tapping the prostitutes in NY yet Hillary.
3 Triangulating, having 2 answers to every question, yes and no.

Need I go on, Hillary any one of those answers would have been acceptable, not the shit you responded with. Obama was the only candidate who gave an honest answer and he's being attacked for it.

[IkeChicago]

There is no honesty coming from Hillary at all, first she says that she was unaware of the pardons her brother requested. If your sister was married to the President, won't you first contact her to shepherd the pardon thru to the President, Hillary is a big liar, she was intricately involved in the selling of pardons.

Then when asked what her greatest weakness was and she responded with... trying too hard to help other disenfranchised people. What a bunch of Hoooey, here Hillary let me help you on you weaknesses.

1. Standing by and witnessing Bill bomk other women and smiling through it all.
2. Lying about anything and everything.
3. Taking money from any and everyone, have you tried tapping the prostitutes in NY yet Hillary.
3 Triangulating, having 2 answers to every question, yes and no.
Need I go on, Hillary any one of those answers would have been acceptable, not the shit you responded with. Obama was the only candidate who gave an honest answer and he's being attacked for it.

[AnninCA]

I think the people who cried because his speeches so moved them should come read this entire thread.

Guess what.

This is reality.

[ObamaEdwards]

Good for him! He is right when he says that people don't believe anything any more because they hear so many lies.

Clinton has become like Bush in her rhetoric. She deserves these jokes. If she didn't go around imitating people she claims to oppose, this wouldn't happen.

Wishy washy squishy squashy Clinton.

[minamja]

Obama is the most well rounded of all candidates. Aside from his 11 years serving in legislatures, for many years he was a community organizer in Harlem and South Chicago (actually working with real people at a grassroots level, something Hillary has never done), a civil rights lawyer, and a law professor at the University of Chicago law school. Compare Obama’s current experience (age 46) to Bill Clinton’s when he first ran in 1992 (age 42), in which he was accused of not having enough experience, given that he had only served as governor of a tiny state and had no foreign policy experience. Clinton argued that a candidate can “have the right kind of experience or the wrong kind of experience. Obama has also used Clinton’s quote from 1992: “The people of America recognize that there are other measures of leadership and there are other measures of experience than simply having been in Washington. And so my experience is rooted in the real lives of real people, and I will bring real results if Americans have courage to change.”
Experience doesn’t equal good judgment—Cheney and Rumsfeld each had 35 years of “experience” in Washington, and this hasn’t led to good judgment.
Among all the major candidates, who got the single most important foreign policy decision of the last 30 years right? Obama.

[KARE]

Let's see so far Obama has compared himself to MKL,JFK,Truman, he threw in Bobby Kennedy for good measure and yesterday it was Ronald Reagan.

LET"S TAKE A POLL
"Who will OBama morf into tomorrow??

[minamja]

Hillary Clinton has consistently referred to her experience as first lady. Two problems: 1.) she was not an elected official accountable to voters, and for those of us that believe in democratically elected leaders, her claims of being "deeply involved and hands on" during Bill Clinton's administration should be viewed as problematic. The inherent problems related to not being an elected official but claiming to be deeply involved in Bill Clinton's administration is illustrated through the lack of paper trail detailing exactly what she did and in what areas/issues during his 8 years in office.2.) The evidence which has been pieced together through testimony of former Clinton officials shows that Hillary has greatly exaggerated her involvement in policymaking. The following article details the nature of Clinton’s experience as first lady: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22395503/ Overall, it is unprecedented for a candidate to claim they have experience at the highest level of government despite not being an elected or appointed official (aside from her healthcare failure in which she was appointed to a commission). Being a First lady, no matter how politically active, is not the same as being Secretary of State or National Security Advisor. For Clinton to portray her time as first lady as equivalent to being an official in the white house is not just a stretch, it’s disingenuous and undemocratic. Laura Bush for Pres?

[minamja]

Obama served 8 years in State government (Illinois state Senator), and been in the U.S. Senate for 3 years.

Hillary Clinton has served 7 years in the U.S Senate, and has no prior experience in elected office.

Bill Clinton served in State Government for 10 years (Arkansas Governor), and served ZERO years in national government.
John Edwards served 6 years in the U.S Senate, and has no other experience in elected office.

Synopsis

Numerically, Bill Clinton had less experience in government than Obama. More importantly, Bill Clinton had ZERO foreign policy experience. John Edwards has less experience in elected office than any candidate running for president. The key point is that Obama's 8 years in the Illinois Senate have been completely overlooked, and warrant equal comparison to Bill Clinton’s only experience before he became president, which was also in state government for a very small/insignificant state with no major cities (Arkansas).

[minamja]

It is a travesty that Hillary Clinton has dishonestly convinced voters that she has more experience than Obama. Technically, this is false: Obama has served more years in elected office than Hillary, specifically, 8 years in the Illinois Senate (which follows nearly identical rules and procedures as the U.S. Senate), and 3 years in the U.S. Senate for a total of 11 years. Moreover, Obama spent many years as a grassroots organizer on the poverty ravaged streets of south Chicago working for school reform and environmental protection among other key issues, was a civil rights lawyer, and a law professor at the University of Chicago which is one of the top law schools in the world. Clinton, on the other hand has served only one term plus a year in her second term-a total of 7 years in elected office. Being first lady does not count the same as being elected or appointed. There is no accountability-- no one knows what she did or didn't do, as she wasn't official given she was not elected or appointed. There is no record. Thus far, she has taken the liberty of cherry picking the good things she did, but this is problematic as we don't know the mistakes she made--again, because she wasn't elected. It is undemocratic for her to claim she is fit to be president for her role in a non-elected, non appointed position. Now, she has switched to saying she has "35 years of experience". The commencement address at Wellsley apparently is part of this "experience" which makes ready to be president. If she now wants to count non-political experience, then Obama can best her in this area as well. Please see the breakdown below. At some point, the media must sort this distortion out, by simply laying out the resumes of the candidates:

[semorg]

The lying hilary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq8aopATYyw

This is being decided in the CA courts. I suspect clintons may be buying these judges