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Ten. Dems Blame Fox News And GOP For Their Own Skewed Perceptions Of Obama
Last week, Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee member Fred Hobbs set off a firestorm when he was asked by reporters why "Blue Dog Democrat" Representative Lincoln Davis was delaying his endorsement of Obama, and Hobbs answered,
"I'm not sure we know enough about him. He's got some bad connections, and he may be terrorist connected for all I can tell. It sounds kind of like he may be."
He went on to say,
"[Obama] has associates who are connected to terrorism. It does throw a red flag up for me ....I certainly don't think he's a terrorist. I've just heard he has associates who might have those ties."
Davis's Chief of Staff Beecher Frasier made matters worse when he was asked if he thought Obama had ties to terrorists. He answered that he "didn't know for sure" whether Obama had ties to terrorists. Within 24 hours, Frasier issued another statement, "No one in their right mind, including me, believes Senator Obama has ties to terrorism. It is truly ridiculous for anyone to try to make hay out of these comments."
The Tennessee Democratic Party also quickly issued a statement on Friday that the Tennessee Democratic Party is united behind Obama. On Monday, they published the statement on the front page of their website. The statement also blamed Republicans for the outrageous comments coming from its own party leaders:
Mr. Hobbs is obviously misinformed, and his statement highlights the perpetual efforts of the Republican Party, especially here in Tennessee, to turn internet smears and highly offensive gossip into their party's message against Senator Barack Obama as we head into the General Election. Instead of debating the issues, the Tennessee Republican Party continues to rely upon slanderous and salacious tall tales. They are borrowing from the playbook first written by Richard Nixon and employed in the race against Congressman Harold Ford Jr. Tennesseans of every political persuasion are tired of these tactics.
Harold Ford Jr. also jumped into the fray, disassociating himself with Frasier, who managed Ford's failed senate campaign in 2006:
Let me be clear about two things.
First, Beecher Frasier is dead wrong. Senator Obama is a Christian, American patriot with a vision to make America safer and stronger. I am going to join millions of Tennesseans and Americans by working this year this to bring life to that vision by electing Barack Obama President of the United States.
Second, Beecher's past association with me is just that -- past. I've had no relationship with him since 2006. I don't want a relationship with him, or anyone else who says these things. His comments offend me as an American and embarrass me as a Tennessean.
On Monday, Fred Hobbs wrote a letter to the Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee in which he apologized for his comments about Obama and blamed Fox News:
I am writing to apologize for my recent remarks about Senator Barack Obama. My statements to various Nashville media were wrong and offensive. I apologize if my remarks in any way hurt any of our great Democratic candidates, including Senator Obama. Also, I apologize if my comments embarrassed our state or my friends at the Tennessee Democratic Party.
I was not as well prepared as I should have been when speaking with reporters, and I should have taken more time to research Senator Obama's positions. My comments did reflect questions I had after what I had seen reported on Fox News, but I should have taken some time to check the accuracy of what I saw on television before speaking publicly. My statement that Senator Obama "may be terrorist-connected" was incorrect, and I apologize for making it.
As a lifelong Democrat, I believe in the values and ideals of the Democratic Party. I am honored to represent the 13th Senatorial District, and I look forward to working with Senator Obama, each of you, and every Democrat in the 13th District to elect Democrats this November.
Tennesseans were calling on Al Gore to endorse Obama over the weekend as the senior and most-respected Democrat in the state. Gore appeared with Obama at a rally in Michigan last night to announce his support. Gore's endorsement leaves only two Tennessee superdelegates undeclared, Rep. Lincoln Davis and Rep. Bart Gordon.
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If Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee member Fred Hobbs is:
A) dumb enough to watch Fox News and
B) stupid enough to not check the veracity of whatever garbage he collects there
he should be immediately replaced. I can think of no reason why anyone would watch Fox unless they're mining it for comedic material. But to take it seriously? Anyone that brain dead should probably just have their plug pulled.
Amen to that. Even if they /were/ dumb enough to believe any of it, why the Hell would they say it in public? Wondering on camera if your presumed nominee may or may not be connected to terrorism is /not/ the way to win an election.
Tennessee, make sure you note these holdouts so you can vote them right out of office. They will do you no good under the current administration of Obama 08.
I was born and raised in Tennessee. About 80 percent of my family lives in TN. My very best friends live in TN. Guess what? I moved when I was 24 and never looked back. Now I see why I got out of there. Al Gore and Harold Ford need to show what type of pull and muscle they have. They need to shut the TN Dem. party down. It serves no purpose. Otherwise, they are useless to Obama. And WTF? The guy (Frasizer) was Harold Ford's person. He is an idoit. No wonder Ford lost. OMG!!! This must be the greatest blunder in all of history. I take the back. It is the second greatest blunder behind HRC's sniper fire comment. This is so major. This is a made for TV Republican ad--uninformed Democratic members listening to Republican smear? OMG!!! WTF!!! Stating that Obama is a possible terrorist through his associations being repeated by a Democrat??? I am going absolute ballistic!!!!!!
Vote them out, hon, and put more good democrats in their place. That's how we roll. Vote.
This is A - typical Tennessee politics.....I can speak because I live and pay taxes in this state. I am an Independent, worked for Kerry and oh how I wanted Ford as our Senator......but this IS how politics are played in this state. Let's not forget, Obama is an African-American. The state of Tennessee has not gotten past the Civil War.
"I apologize if my remarks in any way hurt any of our great Democratic candidates, including Senator O bama."
Who else was he talking about, but O bama? What an idiot. I know that our reps have spent many years in school, law school included, so they have to know something. Like how to do their own research. Jeez, how much does is take to pick up a book, or even easier, point and click?
Obama is not Irish - stop spelling his name like that ick
I don't get it, when we listened to Rush Limbaugh it was for a good laugh, every once in a while he comes up with some spending issue or other insidious piece of dirt that has a basis of truth in it but for the most part you have to know that you are listening to a poisonously slanted point of view. The fact that there is an audience out there that doesn't know how to weed through for truth is scary, it's scarier that once they form an opinion it's in concrete and nothing can change it.
When I used to do business with people all over the country some of the people from Tennessee were particularly hard to talk to, it took two and three minutes to get a sentence out, I literally had to help put words in their mouths just to speed them up. I always tried to give the benefit of the doubt and not assume that they weren't slow thinkers just slow talkers but now I'm not so sure... LOL
It's an excuse. They are not as stupid as you may think. Vote them out and put good honorable people in their place. Just make sure they're democrats.
Right.He did not give a reason,he gave an excuse.They are two different things......one is the truth,the other is a lie.
The answer is raicsm.Pure and simple.End of.
I can hardly wait until Barack and Michelle get into the White House and begin slaying some of these dragons. It is alarming that we have permitted through our own apathy such slander and ignorance to prevail. No wonder we are in such a horrifying economic situation.
Permitting FOX news and their strange neocon existance to literally be the dictate to the masses minds is bloody frightening and someone needs to take hold of that newsroom and those cocky liars immediately-they are a great contributor to annhilating civilization. Get the Picture?
The shame is - there is absolutely NO honest actually journalistic effort on TV - a few on radio and a fewer few in the newsprint. What happened to the honest plight of the american journalist? It is now 'hairdo 101' and immediate hire to dictate to the world, as many lies as fill your 9 minute spot.
This article is a shining example of how the viewers of Fox news let that station do their thinking for them.
And last I heard Tennesee was among the states that would dig putting creationism in their school books to be taught as fact.
http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/news/2007/TN/215_creationist_measure_in_tenness_2_26_2007.asp
I think that about sums up the intelligence factor in their state legislative body.
Are people in Tennessee so ignorant as to believe everything they hear and see on Fox News? Must be.
Fox News is definitely accomplishing their mission: to ruin Barack Obama!
If ignorance were fatal, the streets would be littered.
Don't forget they "accomplished their mission" of scaring America into voting Bush 2nd time.
That was not just Tennesseans, unfortunately, the 'ignorant' segment of Fox's audience nationally is large enough to sway an election.
And most don't bother to watch anything else, that's their only source and they take it as bible.
This is why I believe we need stop Fox from getting a free pass for lying to people, reporting their personal biased, un-fact-checked opinions/propaganda under the disguise of 'NEWS'.
Enough, is Enough, Fox has done seriously enormous damage to America!
Freedom of Speech, yes, so long as it's labeled as what it is : 'FOX TABLOID NEWS'.
At the very least people deserve to know that what they're being told is not necessarily true!
eden, exactly! They need to be labeled as a tabloid show because that's about all it amounts to.
FAUX already got "a free pass for lying to people".
Court Ruled That Media Can Legally Lie
http://www.relfe.com/media_can_legally_lie.html
Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Fox News For Reporting Bogus Story, Calls Doocy & Kilmeade “Gullible,”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/08/judge-dismisses-lawsuit-against-fox-news-for-reporting-bogus-story-calls-doocy-kilmeade-gullible/
Both of the court cases invloved FOX.
STOP letting the FOX news network do your thinking for you.
Attn: America
News outlets and talking heads, of all kinds, do not always tell or represent the truth. Do your OWN investigating on any and all subjects and people before drawing conclusions.
Pretend they are ALL like Howard Stern and are making their comments for 'shock' value and to promote THEIR beliefs or to brainwash the public.
PROPAGANDA comes to mind.
Well you know he is an idiotic if he is basing his opinion on FAUX News! What a joke! If Faux News said the sky is blue then I would know that the sky is red. Does anyone really believe anything that is on Faux News?
Unfortunately : YES!
That's why we need to stop FOX from calling itself "NEWS"!
I hope Obama does just that. Or, at least take them to court on most of the lies they spew daily. Hit them in the pockets where it hurts and they'll straighten their acts out or get fire. The old man can't stand losing too much money in suits. And I would file one every chance I got.
Additions to my “Revenge List”:
Fox News
The State of Tennessee
Hobbs
Frasier
Slim Shady
Eric the Actor
Kermit the Frog----
*sarcasm*
You really need to put an asterisk by 'The State of Tennessee'. We are not all bad and we are trying hard to wake this state up to the 21st Century. Tennessee, no matter how they try to state it, will have a problem voting for a black candidate.....they love to keep the black community just happy enough so they will not be involved in their Republican state politics (especially eastern TN)
Thanks for those of you trying!
I hope Gore can help too!
Just for argument's sake, let's say Obama is a Muslim. Is that so bad?
Is that a disquallification for seeking the presidency?
Why is everybody trying to respond as if to be a Muslim is a mortal sin?
I have my problems with Obama. But being now, or in the past, a Muslim is not one of them.
Hussein is not a Muslim name. It is an ARABIC name. There are so many Arabs who are Christians, Buddhist, and others. This line of thinking is so offensive to the rest of the world.
And the ones who think it's Muslim are ignorant for not even trying to find out. They just took that lame information from FOX NOISE as did everyone else who bought it.
It's not necessarily being 'Muslim' per se, that is the problem, it's what, unfortunately and especially after 9/11, the word 'Muslim' has been indelibly tied to : Terrorism!
Well informed and educated people know that to be a 'Muslim', is not to be a 'terrorist'. But for 7 years now, no one has heard the word 'muslim' without it being followed by 'terrorist'.
Besides the fact, it's a lie created by fear-mongers on Fox not so subtly pushing that connection to discredit Obama: muslim-therefore-terrorist.
Never mind that neither is true, and totally absurd, but that's how Fox operates!
Fox needs to be stopped!
Just for argument's sake, let's just say that disingenuous right-wingers like you are spreading blatantly untrue rumors that Sen. Obama is a Muslim, or that he was one at age 2, or that his nursery school teacher preached jihad to him, or whatever is the latest permutation of this nonsense. Why is it that you're spreading those rumors? Could it possibly be that you figure a certain segment of the electorate associates Muslims with terrorism and will be afraid of someone whom they suspect is a Muslim? Could it be that you're scared to death of Obama, because you know he has the potential to pound a spike through the intolerant, fear-mongering heart of the Atwater-Rove GOP smear machine and kill the monster once and for all?
Whoa. PKrishna made a good point. The rightwingers keep trying to say Obama is Muslim because they're trying to perpetuate the notion that all Arabs and all Muslims are "evildoers." It's the same sort of xenophobia that swept the nation when we were at war with Japan and put Japanese-American CITIZENS into internment camps and took away their property. Obama isn't Muslim, but the question we should be asking when people repeat this lie is WHAT'S WRONG WITH BEING MUSLIM?
Well, the solution is to switch the channel or look at another website. Tell these guys that Google has an elections news sort that includes Fox with about a jillion other media sources, old media, new media, aggregate media, and nobody has to get brainwashed any more by one point of view. Of course it is a pretty lame excuse anyway for someone in public life. Duh.
They know he has no terrorist ties. They're just repeating what thier constituents think so that they can win reelection.
Obama may need a landslide victory to overcome the tricks Gregg Palast exposes in ARMED MADHOUSE. So let's not disparage any of our friends. Afterall, the Democrat should be, basically, a patriot and want to keep America a country that works. Let the Republicans deal in fear, hate and intolerance and hope in America's real goodness.
Armed Madhouse is definately a great book to read. Hats off to Mr. Palast.
Wow. After receiving e-mail after e-mail of bullcrap about Obama, I thought he had enough to worry about with just the republican slander machine putting out propaganda and blatant lies. Now some of his own party are just as rotten, and are trying to shun responsibility for their ignorant comments by blaming it on "news sources" they especially should not believe. Who needs enemies with "friends" like them?
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