Barack Obama: Lay Off My Family

On the same day that former GOP presidential contender Mike Huckabee told his party that demonizing Barack Obama is a 'fatal mistake,' Obama told a reporter from CBN news that the GOP needs to lay off his family. Read part of the transcript below and watch the interview here.

Obama told CBN News that he is deeply disappointed that John McCain has not spoken out against political attacks leveled at his wife.

"I think families are off limits. I would never consider making Cindy McCain a campaign issue," he said. "And if I saw people doing that - I would speak out against it. And the fact that I haven't seen that from John McCain I think is a deep disappointment."

The McCain campaign sent CBN News a written response to Obama's comments.

"Senator McCain agrees with Senator Obama that spouses should not be an issue in this campaign, and he has stated that position frequently," Joe Pounder, McCain's spokesman, said. "Unfortunately, when the Democratic National Committee was attacking Mrs. McCain, Senator Obama was not strong enough to stand up and speak out."

"Obama's silence speaks volumes, and it's unfortunate that he would single out others for a standard he himself has failed to live up to," he said.

Comments

[DRPike]

And BTW Huffpo, the Sesame Street Big Red Font makes my eyes hurt, the "O8ama will kick your a$$" if you dis his woman" spin you put on the story header makes my brain hurt.

[DRPike]

I am an O8ama fan for a long time, I am thrilled he is our candidate. Having said that, this line of dialog is pointless at best. If he wants his wife left alone then he should at least keep her off the podium, and even that will only slow it down.

Come on O8ama, let them rant. M!chele is strong and they, so far as proof, only make themselves look ludicrous. And you are, for the first time, only looking weak as a candidate not strong as a partner.

If H!llary had been smart she would have passed out the H!llary nut crackers at dinner parties.

Keep that "brush it off your shoulder" attitude, that's the spirit.

[aristippe]

I agree, no need to spend time on this subject.

[CranialRectalLoopback]

I guess you're not really an Obama fan, as you seem to blame the victim. It is one thing to challenge her campaign speeches for content. There's no need to impune her character in the process.

[DRPike]

No, I am an O8ama fan. SO much so that I'm paying close enough attention to recognize that the personal attacks on his w!fe are only HELPING him by making the attackers look juvenile.

I think she's great but if she stump she open to criticism. I also think she can handle it. Let them rage, it make them smaller.

[howdouno]

Excellent suggestion!

[SouthpawSass]

Cindy McCain has never, in her entire life, been disadvantaged. She has never known how most Americans have managed the everyday challenges in their lives. She has never had a reason to challenge our government's policies against the poor or disadvantaged. She has seen this country through rose colored Prada glasses...

Cindy McCain's pride after what she's had lavished on her, would have been different if she'd actually had to work for it...

[08politicaljunkie]

and being a blonde and beautiful didn't hurt either

[gage]

Cindy McCain has a masters in Special Ed. She was employed for years working with the disabled children of migrant farm workers. She was forbidden from making home visits because her boss thought it was too dangerous, but she made the visits anyway. Her daughter is adopted from Mother Teresa's Bangladesh orphanage, and she has taken medical teams to scores of third-world countries. She witnessed the death of a child as he was blown up by a mine in Kuwait.

Unless you've done similar things, I think she has more experience with the disadvantaged than you do.

[Soothsayer08]

Obama has a point. If the Repubs want to slam Michelle his surrogates can go after Cindi McCain and she has far more skeletons in her plagiarizing closet than Michelle Obama.John McSame also isn't as squeaky clean as he appears either. Let the games begin.

[dattexas]

They won't stop. Kate Snow on GMA this morning quoted Michelle Obama as saying that she was "proud for the first time."

Michelle said "really proud." It's a small but important distinction.

[jwws007]

now that Obama has flip flopped on trade, and the democrats have caved on war funding, who cares

[vocalist]

Just remember, just the other day, there was enormous amout of cruelty Chelsea had to put up with.Not from any camp but from the media. It was not Chelsea`s spouse who was running, it was her mother .

[whizkid]

They have video of her looking positively rabid.

[ThunderclapNewman]

Why would she want to look like you?

[BlindedbytheSlight]

Atta boy!

That's how you'll woo those disaffected Cl*nton supporters back.

[vocalist]

Huffo my post ?
I wrote an hour ago ?
Who is the editor today ?

[Boboday555]

Cindy McCain?!?

That guy scares the crap out of me...

[alaintex]

"I think families are off limits... ... And if I saw people doing that - I would speak out against it."

0bama thinks you should shut up.

[Phil123]

Who's the bitter American now?

[cyndeewi]

your mother

[Flagal]

yup

[Phil123]

eff yours you maggot

[Boboday555]

Senator Obama,
You're running against the repubs and you have to have known they were going to attack your family.
Repubs live in the gutter, you had to know they were going to campaign from there too.

[Warmglobe]

We will stay away from commenting on his wife as long as she doesn't make any political comments or statements. When she does we have the right to comment on them.

[abby4ever]

I agree.

[cyndeewi]

Yes comment on them but don't lie on her. Their was never a whitey comment (lie) In addition you people took words out of statments made by Michelle. I have never seen more jealous people in all my days on this earth. It eats you out that they have more going then you.

[Forsetti]

What exactly counts as a "political comment" to you? What conversation can she possibly have that won't be construed as "political"? She is not the candidate, she is not running for office and has made no references to doing so. If people want to go after her that certainly is their perogative but don't try and rationalize and justify it. It is what it is; dirty politics, regardless of who does it on either side of the aisle.

[Warmglobe]

SHe can appear and talk about herself all she wants, as you can see with her "Makeover" campaign. YOu are correct when you say she isn't rubbing, she isn't. But that doesn't make her into a protected person so she can say things on the campaign and not be reacted to if it is political or an attack.
Actually we are learning more about Barry and what he really thinks from her. If he wants us not to attack her or comment, then he can tell her to shut up. Otherwise he has to learn to play with the big boys. If he can't handle something as simple as this, what is he going to do when he has to deal with our enemies? Whine and pout?

[undecidee]

I agree that you can comment on remarks that she made, but, there is no need for you to sound like a broken record. Faux noise have that ability to do that. Kill a person's reputation by being a broken record. Who cares if that statement have been debunked several times.

It is also not right to make remarks that are rumors and where there is no proof of it's existence. That is the way to kill a person's reputation I suppose and I know that the repug have done that to McCain with that black baby rumor few years back. Nobody, not even politicians should have to keep defending themselves against rumors like those.

That in my opinion is not journalism. It is tabloidism. I guess Faux noise does not really have enough money to hire real journalist so they have to hire script writers who can come up with some killer story line for her targetted audience.

[rpence]

Test

[oncethere]

And so we have the choice between another frozen face, robotic Republican wife and a real, living breathing human being. The Republicans have sucked the life-blood out of this country for the last 8 years. They will attack anyone with depth, soul, compassion and intelligence because they see all of these as threats to their sense of well-being.

[blastocyst]

I'll take the keys to the Cougar please.

[alaintex]

frozen face, robotic Republican wife

As long as we're not name-calling.

[vocalist]

No need to attack Cindy to make a statement.

[Flagal]

why not. is she not fair game also? if cindy wants to mix it up then she is fair game

[Redrover666]

Please. Michelle comes from middle class family, grew up in a tree lined neighborhood, went to the best high school in Chicago, graduated with low Cs, was miraculously accepted to Princeton, then Harvard. She's no second coming. If she shoots her mouth off then she's going to get hammered. You have no problem disparaging someone's wife because they're married to republican. That's pretty shallow.

[ThunderclapNewman]

Born on January 17, 1964, Michelle Robinson was raised in a one-bedroom apartment on Chicago's South Shore.

Of note is that she shared a "bedroom" with her brother, but it wasn't much of a bedroom. It was actually the living room with a divider down the middle. Michelle's father died in 1990 two years before she married Barack, but her mother is still alive and living in the same one-bedroom apartment, protected by a burglar-proof wrought-iron door and secured windows.

Michelle Robinson was born in Chicago, Illinois to Frasier Robinson (who died in 1990), a city water plant employee and Democratic precinct captain, and Marian Robinson, a secretary at Spiegel's catalog store. She grew up in the South Shore community area of Chicago, and was raised in a conventional two-parent home where the family convened around the dinner table nightly. She and her brother, Craig, skipped the second grade. Michelle graduated from Whitney Young High School in 1981 and went on to major in sociology and minor in African American studies at Princeton University, where she graduated cum laude with an A.B. in 1985.

Her high school was the first magnet school in Chicago. 99% of its graduates go on to get college degrees. There were 9000 applicants for 450 openings last year.

You provide no proof of her grades in High School.
Because you're lying.

[JoanieNC]

How about Cruella DeObama?