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Four Things the Obama Campaign Couldn't Resist Doing To Anger Clinton Supporters


The follow are four things that the Obama campaign couldn't resist doing to anger Clinton supporters, supporters that Sen. Obama needs in the general election if -- if -- he is the nominee.

1. Couldn't resist waiting one day after Sen. Clinton won West Virginia by 41 points to announce John Edwards endorsement.

2. Couldn't resist waiting to win majority of ALL delegates (not just pledged delegates) to do victory lap speech in Iowa the night Hillary won Kentucky by 36 points.

3. Couldn't resist waiting to win majority of all delegates to announce Jim Johnson as VP search committee head -- the first candidate in my memory ever to do so while his chief opponent is still fighting for nomination -- and winning in last primary in crucial border state by 36 points (Kentucky).

What's the rush?

Obama wouldn't confirm or deny the that Mr. Johnson has been appointed to head the VP search effort. That makes many Clinton supporters feel uneasy about Senator Obama.

4. Couldn't resist listing Bill Richardson as under consideration for Veep - the one Red Flag name that infuriates even moderate Clinton supporters the most -- not because he chose to endorse Sen. Obama, but the way he did it, i.e., his inability to avoid making negative comments about Sen. Clinton while doing so -- another person who sometimes can't resist the temptation of not being gracious when he should be, a great disappointment to many of his former close friends from the Clinton camp and which will not be forgotten.

The follow are four things that the Obama campaign couldn't resist doing to anger Clinton supporters, supporters that Sen. Obama needs in the general election if -- if -- he is the nominee. ...
The follow are four things that the Obama campaign couldn't resist doing to anger Clinton supporters, supporters that Sen. Obama needs in the general election if -- if -- he is the nominee. ...
 
 
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03:39 PM on 05/29/2008
It is understandable that many of Senator Clinton's supporters are deeply disappointed that she will most likely not win the nomination.

What is deplorable is the Clinton camp's campaign to turn that disappointment into outrage and bitterness against the person who is almost certain to be the party's nominee. This piece by Lanny Davis is not the only example, but it's certainly one of the most obvious. What, one wonders, do they hope to gain from this heinous tactic? Turning as many of Senator Clinton's supporters as possible into foaming-at-the-mouth Obama-haters is extremely unlikely to win her the nomination this year, so the clear intention of Davis and his ilk is to ensure John McCain's victory in November to pave the way for Senator Clinton's 2012 run.

A great American poet wrote, "If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind." If McCain does triumph in November, allowing him to fill the Supreme Court with anti-choice judges, to prolong the war in Iraq, and to plunge America into war with Iran, what comfort is Lanny Davis going to offer those of us whose loved ones' lives wind up being lost in needless wars or back-alley abortions?
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RaymondLuxuryYacht
My hovercraft is full of eels.
06:19 PM on 05/29/2008
DDHereNow: "Turning as many of Senator Clinton's supporters as possible into foaming-at-the-mouth Obama-haters is extremely unlikely to win her the nomination this year"

Or any year. If Obama gets the nomination and Hillary's supporters work against him in the GE, it won't bode well for her chances in 2012. The Vengeance-Voters need to wake up, come to their senses, and look at the big picture.
03:21 PM on 05/29/2008
Mr. Davis:

While I admire your loyalty to Senator Clinton, you seem to have a blind spot when it comes to her lack of graciousness. Was it gracious to say that while she & Senator McCain had passed the "commander-in-chief threshold test" - whatever that is - Senator Obama only gave a speech?

I have heard very few individuals publicly state that she should get out of the race - yet she & her campaign have been saying that it has been widely expressed.

The reality is that Senator Obama will win the nomination because he will have the most delegates. That is the procedure that was agreed to by all entering this race. Senator Clinton wants to ignore the delegate count & have super delegates focus on a "popular" vote which ignores caucusses. Her proposed solution for Florida & Michigan ignores that there was no campaigning & also disenfranchises the many who did not vote because they were told it wouldn't count.

So, it could be said that Senator Clinton, having not won the most delegates, is trying to use a different metric than what she initially agreed to so that she does not lose.

Sounds like a sore loser to me. Isn't that the opposite of gracious?

Seems to me that if one expects others to be gracious, one would be gracious.

Another way to put it is you reap what you sow.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
jericho4119
12:50 PM on 05/29/2008
Lanny, is there a point to this post - really? Yes, you can list four things that ticked you off; I could list four things that ticked me off. Each of us could craft endless lists of the ways in which the other campaign's supporters have ticked us both off.

So what?

Getting ticked off at the opponent is what competition means. Just because the Spurs and Lakers shake hands before the game, doesn't mean a few elbows don't get thrown during the game. Sports metaphors tiresome? Fine. Bill Gates and Larry Ellison did not become so wealthy by sending each other birthday cards.

And you know what? There will be another contest after this one, between the Republicans and the Democrats. And during that contest, we will each tick off supporters of the other candidate.

But if we are going to call ourselves Americans, then we must live true to our creed and come together after this fall's election to address the issues we face as a nation. I heard a man say once that we must all hang together, for we will surely hang separately if we do not.
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nanooknw
08:03 PM on 05/28/2008
What's the rush!! Mccain is getting an advantage on the Dem's while we wait and be nice and polite and don't tick off Hillary and her groupies. If the shoe were on the other foot she would be crowing from the mountaintops. Remember she couldn't resist in the early debates telling us that she was the leader. It reminded me of grade school. I'm the leader. As my momma used to say pride goeth before a fall.
Hillary wants Obama to treat her with all the respect, yet she shows him none. She wrote the attack playbook for McCain. Now she moaning she was dis ed and the race was stollen. Wrong. She lost it fair and square and it's time to stop whinning and making excuses and in the words of "The Eagles",Get Over It"!!
Why would Obama wait for her? Where is it written the black man defers to the older white women?
I thought that we women wanted to be equal to men. I remember back in the 60's we wanted equality. Hillary with her winning wants special treatment. Wait, wait so I can have my moment in the sun. "is the camara ready for my close-up, Mr Demille"?
I happen to be an older white women and frankly all this is making me sick. Equal also means we can loose and we should be able to loose gracefully. Take a page of the Mitt Romney playbook and learn to be a good looser!!
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Pammy1151
I just use my common sense.
06:55 PM on 05/28/2008
I am not sure how you Hillary people figure you can have it both ways. The very few times Obama treated her as if she was just another presidential candidate he was tried and hung for his behavior. Like in the one debabe when he said to her "you are likeable enough" everyone jumped on that and cried out. If he said that to another man candidate everyone would have laughed and went about their business. He has been so respectable for her through this entire campaign than he would have ever had to running against another male. What is it you people want from him. He has indulged her every move kept his mouth shut (most of the time) and just gone about his business of winning. You have however, gone about your business of whining and threatening. Neither will work this time.
05:21 PM on 05/28/2008
There is no list of things Obama can't help himself in doing to anger Clinton supporters, there is only one item - he couldn't help but not concede a race he as rightfully won.

Seriously, in the eyes of all these Hillary supporters out there who think she can do no wrong and her **** don't stink, anything short of that will completely anger them. Consider all this manufactured anger about how the media is sexist now. Bottom line - nothing this campaign season has gotten more press then Rev Wright. Not. one. single. thing. A black pastor that spouts paranoid racist charges against America gets TONS of non-stop airtime. A white female presidential candidate spouting almost the exact same paranoid charges of a sexist America gets no press. Where's the 24/7 "does Hillary Clinton hate America?" op-eds after this? The truth is that if it were anyone other than Hillary Clinton, the media would have counted her completely out after Wisconsin, because she was out. Hillary and her supporters will have to one day deal with the fact that math is heartless. Obama is the better candidate and ran a campaign that was far superior to the Clinton juggernaut. He has earned this nomination, Hillary has not.

The polls being taken right now are garbage because every Hillary supporter is actively trying to make them out to look like Hillary is the stronger candidate, because they know it's all she has left.
05:00 PM on 05/28/2008
I'm still waiting to hear from anyone......whether Obama, Clinton or other supporter......who can name another individual in the country who could possibly get the nomination of either party running for president with a grand total of one year national experience....which is what Obama had when he announced his candidacy.

And why? Because he gives wonderful speeches? At a time when the country is in extremely dire straits and needs an experienced hand at the controls?
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RaymondLuxuryYacht
My hovercraft is full of eels.
05:36 PM on 05/28/2008
TRCPA: "At a time when the country is in extremely dire straits and needs an experienced hand at the controls?"

McCain? You must be joking. His plan is to continue the same broken policies that got us into dire straits in the first place. Sorry, my friend, that's not the kind of experience we need in the White House. I'll keep my vote for whichever Dem gets the nomination.
06:44 PM on 05/28/2008
You need to brush up on your research skills! LET ME SCHOOL YOU!!

1.He went on to earn his law degree from Harvard in 1991, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Soon after, he returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer and teach constitutional law. Finally, his advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate, where he served for eight years. In 2004, he became the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Senate.

2.In the Illinois State Senate, this meant working with both Democrats and Republicans to help working families get ahead by creating programs like the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which in three years provided over $100 million in tax cuts to families across the state. He also pushed through an expansion of early childhood education, and after a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, Senator Obama worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.

3.His first law was passed with Republican Tom Coburn, a measure to rebuild trust in government by allowing every American to go online and see how and where every dime of their tax dollars is spent. He has also been the lead voice in championing ethics reform that would root out Jack Abramoff-style corruption in Congress.


To Be continued.....
06:57 PM on 05/28/2008
4.As a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Senator Obama has fought to help Illinois veterans get the disability pay they were promised, while working to prepare the VA for the return of the thousands of veterans who will need care after Iraq and Afghanistan. Recognizing the terrorist threat posed by weapons of mass destruction, he traveled to Russia with Republican Dick Lugar to begin a new generation of non-proliferation efforts designed to find and secure deadly weapons around the world. And knowing the threat we face to our economy and our security from America's addiction to oil, he's working to bring auto companies, unions, farmers, businesses and politicians of both parties together to promote the greater use of alternative fuels and higher fuel standards in our cars
04:20 PM on 05/28/2008
I'm glad that you are able to voice your anger and I'm truly sorry that you feel the way you do. There are things I'm angry with from your sides of the campaign, but I will not allow the anger to control me and lose site of replacing Bush with a dem. by seething over something that is a moot point. I'd rather express how I feel at the moment and move on. People's passion and selfishness for their candidate has taken precedent over the dem. party which is sad. Both candidates are qualified to get the job done although, I prefer Sen. Obama.

It saddens me that those of us who have been voting and supporting the dem. party for years are setting a poor example for those who will be voting for the first time ever and those who have been convinced to take part in the process again. What a turn-off, when efforts have been made on all sides to bring record numbers of voters to the fold. Where is the grace or integrity from either side in victory or in defeat. By all measures this election can only be lost if we defeat ourselves, no need to finger point if we do, just look in the mirror.
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XME
Life is hard. After all, it kills you.
03:52 PM on 05/28/2008
This artilce is just one more example of a Clinton supporter who cares more about Clinton getting the nomination than focusing on winning in November, no matter who the nominee is.

WAY TO PROMOTE PARTY UNITY, LANNY!!

What is the deal with all the whining a crying from these people?? This is politics!!! Did you honestly expect Obama to hold off on announcing Edwards' endorsement to spare Hillary's "feelings"...and can you honestly say that had the tables been turn, she wouldn't have done the EXACT same thing??

I just don't get all the whining and one-sidedness coming from her campaign and many of the supporters. THIS IS NOT ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON!!!
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Aleka4
Searching for the purest blue...
03:41 PM on 05/28/2008
What is the matter with you Clinton people?

You are behaving like 5 year olds. "I will never vote for him! You guys are all SO MEAN!"

The country is a mess, people are getting killed daily in a stupid war, the economy is in the dumpster, and things like women's rights, personal freedom, and the further destruction of the constitution are at stake in this election, making it more important than any other...

And you think it is appropriate behavior to treat your vote as though it were EXPENDABLE, and try to blackmail others with it? ARE YOU FOR REAL?????? What is the matter with you people?

Obama ran a better campaign. He did not play dirty, no matter how much She, Ferraro or Davis or any of her other ridiculous surrogates tell you he did. They are PLAYING YOU, lying to you and misrepresenting reality in order to stoke your hatred. They are doing it so you will do exactly as they hope and threaten everyone else with your votes. And here you are!

Sheesh, I wasn't even born here but I care more for the country than YOU do. You people - putting your ego and childish snits that she is deliberately stoking over the good of the country and your own children - YOU are the "new" "UnAmericans".
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Amminadab
None of this is real
04:58 PM on 05/28/2008
The Obama campaign ran the dirtiest, most divisive campaign that I have ever witnessed...... but I understand that it is nearly impossible for his supporters to see this. Furthermore, berating Hillary supporters is not the way to win us over.

The Democrats are in a real fix, but blaming and castigating Hillary is not the way out, it will only lead to defeat in November.

The behavior of Obama's most ardent supporters (especially here on HuffPo) clearly demonstrate that they do not believe in his message of unity or civility. The demonization of all things Clinton must stop, else the party will remain divided.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
RaymondLuxuryYacht
My hovercraft is full of eels.
06:30 PM on 05/28/2008
Amminadab: "The Obama campaign ran the dirtiest, most divisive campaign that I have ever witnessed......"

I'm was a Biden supporter so I'm not heavily invested in either Obama or Clinton -- I'll vote for whichever gets the nomination. That said, I'd be interested to know why you feel that Obama ran the "dirtiest, most divisive campaign" you've seen. Some of his supporters may be a wee bit abrasive but you can't really hold a candidate responsible for what their supporters do unless they encouraged them to do it. What was it that Obama did that made his campaign any dirtier than Hillary's?
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Aleka4
Searching for the purest blue...
06:43 PM on 05/28/2008
Where is your proof?

Go on. I can name so many "dirty slimry" things that Clinton did, throughout the entire campaign. But I have seen Obama give her the benefit of the doubt and pass on so many occasions it isn't funny.

I challenge you to put your money where your mouth is. LIST all the allegedly "dirty and divisive" things his campaign have done. Go on.

You can't. You are either a republican troll just trying to forment the bad feelings, or you are too far gone to realize that Clinton and Ferraro and Davis and Carville have SNOWED YOU ALL AND SUCKERED YOU.
03:40 PM on 05/28/2008
The Obama camp has created a tremendous amount of antipathy that will work against them in the GE
if Obama gets the nod. Under normal circumstances the Republicans should have near zero chnace in the GE but with the division and the baggage Obama has and the gaps he has in the swing states, the Republicans have at least a 50% chance. The Dems will blow it again; there is a reason for their low occupancy in the WH the last 40 years. They don't get it.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Aleka4
Searching for the purest blue...
04:52 PM on 05/28/2008
Correction: CLINTON has created an tremendous amount of antipathy toward Obama.

Get your facts straight.

Obama, his campaign have done -nothing- at all...in fact i have seen them take the high road and give her a pass on the same kind of issues she maliciously jumps on and exploits that only someone competely detached from reality can claim Obama or his campaign did anything wrong at all.

Go read the malice, spite, hatred and utter vitriol over at Taylor Marsh and hillary 44. THAT is what is "dividing" - Hillary and people like you stoke them, then they come over her and malicioously bash Obama and call all his supporters names.

And then, like you, they are utterly hypocritical enough to point their filthy hate stained fingers at US on blogs, because we point out how badly they are behaving.

And, like you, and like Clinton herself - they are utterly CLUELESS to the fact that their own words, actions and behavior -might- just be why they get antipathy.

Go back to Taylor Marsh.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
OnTheOtherBeach
05:06 PM on 05/28/2008
Bull$#it
03:33 PM on 05/28/2008
I pray every single day that Hillary Clinton does win this nomination. After watching all the abuse that the Obama camp has hurled at HRC, HE WILL NEVER GET MY VOTE. NEVER. Even if hillary Clinton begs us to rally around him, IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Aleka4
Searching for the purest blue...
03:47 PM on 05/28/2008
Oh isn't your childish snit pretty!

So what are you, 12?
04:00 PM on 05/28/2008
Fine - DON"T. Just don't expect the rest of us - who are reasonable - to follow. Clinton lost this because of her errors. Why should she be given what she did NOT earn?! Obama won because he ran the best grassroots political campaign in history.
03:31 PM on 05/28/2008
Anger won't mean anything in the fall. Winning the election will. And here are the latest number comparisons. I assume those supporting Obama are willing to throw away another election, this one probably the most important one as the country faces some of its biggest challenges yet.

May 28, 2008
Hillary Clinton’s Swing-State Advantage

http://www.gallup.com/poll/107539/Hillary-Clintons-SwingState-Advantage.aspx
05:59 PM on 05/28/2008
We are five months away from the general election.

What did the Gallup polls suggest five months ago? Clinton was at least 20 points ahead in all states with a clear path to securing the nomination by Super Tuesday.

We see how accurate that turned out to be.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
myzenthing
03:23 PM on 05/28/2008
Translation from Lanny-speak: "Obama outsmarted and outcampaigned Hillary. And now the few remaining Hillary sycophants are going to whine about it FOREVER..."
03:22 PM on 05/28/2008
(off topic a bit but)
Please can we all just get off the race and gender comments.
The Clintons are not and have never been racists. Never.
Surely we can all agree that:
When it comes to exploiting wedge issues, be it race, religion, gender or guns,
the Clinton's have always been color blind.
Votes come in all sizes, shapes and colors, votes don't have religious preferences or gender or sexual orientation. Votes are votes and the Clintons don't give a tinker's damn about the people who cast them!