"Old-Style Politics," In Pictures

Ben Smith flags this sharp-edged quote from Obama adviser Steve Hildebrand:

"The Clintons have always put people in a box - they look at everything through racial lines, gender lines, geographic lines; they tend to segment people," said Steve Hildebrand, a senior Obama adviser who spearheaded his Iowa effort. "She goes to Nevada and sits with Latinos in their living room to court their vote - that's not the way Barack approaches people. If the Clintons paint him as the black candidate, no one's going to stop them from doing that. They are playing the same old-style games."

Hildebrand is right, Obama doesn't sit with Latinos in their living room to court their vote. He sits in their backyard.

From an "economic opportunity" photo-op in Van Nuys, California 10 days ago:

Just to set the scene:

Photos are by Jonathan Alcorn, found on Flickr.

Comments

[MartiP]

"But..but.­.but....ev­eryone else is an evil typical politician but MEEEEEEEEEEE!!! I am pure and untouched and DIFFERENT.­"

Got news for you, people. Obama is not different. He is not the Great Hope of America. He has spent this whole campaign pointing fingers at Hillary and Edwards, while he pulls worse stunts than they have. He does it so that no one looks at his very thin record, or his Chicago political connections by which he ambitiously clawed his way up the chain.

He's maybe a nice and smart guy, but he is a politician to his core, and nowhere near ready to be president. He's been playing a calculated role and hoping the people did not look much past the dreamy speeches.

[mkjohn1]

Obama needs to get back on message. He showed he can stand up to the fray and even dish a little out, but now he needs to pivot and turn on that positive inspiration. Power through the people.

[IndependentInChicago]

As a former Obama supporter, I am so sick of Obama putting race into the campaign and then accusing others of doing it. He lost me the moment he said the word "bamboozled". We all know what that means, and I am personally offended by it. No surrogate required to offend me, it was Barack himself. No longer on the fence, I am supporting Hillary. And to those commenters who say that if she is the nominee then they will stay home in November, then I say that they will get the presidency they deserve, and they only have themselves to blame.
DONE.

[KarenZipdrive]

Obama's thin skin is an enormous weakness that he readily allows Camp Hillary to exploit.
If he somehow wins the democratic nomination, he'll become delicious chum for the sharks and pirannahs in the GOP waters.
A lot of people think Hillary's a bitch.
I'd rather back a bitch than a wimp, and Obama has convinced me he's a total wimp.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

so tell me again this quote by Hildebrand attacking Clinton has been made somehow to set the record straight about something Bill Clinton said which distorted Obama's record???

hahahahaha­hahahahaha

Now remember, Obama said he doesn't attack Clinton. But, he does respond to set the record straight when Bill distorts his record.

hahahahahahahahha

[karasu]

HuffPo is not doing any meaningful work. Just picking up trivial stuff. Read this to appreciate someone who does the real work for the readers.

http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2008/01/lies-and-democr.html

[KarenZipdrive]

God, how I detest crybabies!
Obama looks upon anything Hillary says or does as a personal offense.
If he doesn't man-up soon, even Arianna will start to notice he's too wimpy to survive a run against the GOP.
"She's meeting with minorities, wahhh!"
"Her husband is being real mean to me, wahhh!"
"My wife says to stop pickin' on me, wahhh!"
"She's trying to steal my black voters, wahhh!"
What a fuckin' baby.

[got2Bkidding]

Wow!

Kinda looks like the shine is wearing off of Barack here on Huffpo for some reason.

Is Ms. H on vacation or sumthin?

[itsnotmyfault]

Since Obama refuses to sustain his politics with real substance, the electorate will have to turn to crap like this to shape their judgment of the real Obama. I must say I do not like this real Obama much at all.

[realitytrumpsbull]

Moral of THIS story? Less with the flesh-pressing sideshow, more with the no-B.S. policy stuff. You know, like a REAL JOB that you could get fired from, and stuff, if you failed to perform. I know a magic spell for all of this, it's really short. Wanna hear it? Ok, here goes: 'Recall election'. Bane of corrupt politicians everywhere, maybe not as good as silver bullets, holy water, and garlic, but Damn Effective anyway.SSS­SSSSSSSSSS­SSSSSSSSSS­!!!!! BACK, evil thing! LOL

Balance the budget, address public corruption,
banish the grafters, the mobsters, and the war profiteers back into THEIR caves whence they came...but­, make sure they don't take public money with them while you're at it.

[geekkid101]

Where are the Clinton haters?

[StephenDedalus82]

Obama is the one doing damage to the Democratic party. Not only does he dismiss the ideas of Democrats for the past 20 years in favor of praising the Republicans for having ideas, his campaign does everything just short of calling Hillary Clinton a racist. Yet Bill is the one attacking. Obama's cynicism, which is probably of a kind with his sense of entitlement, is a big turn-off.

[blackpope]

surrogates they just won't shut up!!!!

[AnninCA]

Funny. I find the Obama daily comments about the Clintons to be ridiculous.

[Trollstakeyourmeds]

What's that old saying about "living by the sword and dying by the sword"?