Obama Fans: Cease Fire!

I propose a moratorium on criticism of Hillary Rodham Clinton and her campaign by supporters of Barack Obama. From now on, the focus should be on John McCain, who, after all, offers a target-rich environment:

... don't know much about economics ... 100 years in Iraq ... mean, filthy jokes about little girls ... bomb, bomb, bomb Iran ... Keating S&L ... "there will be more wars" ... foul temper ... flip-flops ... dumping his first wife when she was in a wheelchair for someone able-bodied, prettier, and richer ... zero legislative accomplishment other than McCain-Feingold, which his campaign is evading ...

The difference between fighting hard and piling on is knowing when to stop: now, for example. The claim that all critics of HRC were deranged misogynists was vastly overblown, and the claim that the venom in the campaign was disproportionately from the Obama camp seems to me clearly false, but some of the pro-Obama commenters on various blogs have gone way over the top. (No doubt many of them were Republican trolls flying false flags, as was no doubt true of many apparently pro-Clinton ranters.) But enough is enough: saying mean things about Hillary is soooooo last week!

No doubt the barrage of false charges against Obama will continue, especially from the anti-Obama 527 now being hastily organized. Those charges will need answering. But that can be done without counter-attacking.

Attacking HRC was a necessity while the campaign for the nomination hung in the balance. But that was then. The remaining mopping-up in Ohio and Texas can and should be done in a relentlessly positive mood. The candidate, the campaign, and the fans should all be actively looking for opportunities to praise HRC. We need her fans' enthusiastic support in November, and her nuts-and-bolts programmatic knowledge will be an invaluable asset as Senate Majority Leader.

Comments

[Justtellthetruth]

My god man, didn't you see Glen Close in Fatal attaction?

Hillary's campaign is just starting to slip under the water at this point, having boiled the rabbits of everyone in the nation with Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and her failed health care.

The spark of life is just starting to extinguish from her campaigns Loony eyes .

But if you turn your back, her entire attack machine is going to jump out of that bathtub and, well, ATTACK!!!

and then Michelle Obama will have to shoot it dead, and no one wants to see that wonderful, articulate, gracious woman (Michelle, that is) put in that undignified position, even if it would make great politics/cinema.

[ruthj]

The intense hatred Obama supporters express toward Sen. Clinton is one of the reasons I, a lifelong Democrat, will NOT be voting for him in Nov. IF he receives the nomination. Talk about a polarizing figure! His supporters, while recognizing the history being made because he is African American REFUSE to acknowledge the history being made by Sen. Clinton as a woman, and I sincerely hope that those who are FOR women's rights--which are human rights--sit out the '08 election if Obama is the nominee for the Dem. Party. Not only his lack of experience will be used against him, but his lack of grace toward his opponent and the RABID attitude of his supporters.

[S1m0n]

Well said!

[altohone]

Uh, no.

Obama let his guard down after Iowa, and we got NH.

No.

Until Hillary concedes, the target on her back will remain. While I agree some trolls and bloggers go too far, most comments are not filled with hate as every criticism is labelled.

I would add that the ball is in Hillary's court, and she will set the mood for the coming weeks. If she goes all negative 527, we should DOUBLE our attacks to let her know what we think.

[thatsdebatable]

Yea. Just ignore her and she'll go away. I wonder why the media didn't think of that one.

[research]

Sorry, Obama is not the dem candidate yet. He would be a fool to take your advice.

I would hope that all folks would stick to the facts, but that isn't going to happen either.

[V4Vigilance]

"No doubt the barrage of false charges against Obama will continue, especially from the anti-Obama 527 now being hastily organized. Those charges will need answering. But that can be done without counter-attacking."

Nice try Mark, but candidates and campaigns that don't fight back when attacked is sooooooo 2004. The last thing that Obama and his supporters need to do is start channeling John "High Road" Kerry. Obama and his campaign needs to keep their eyes on the prize (is that plagiarism?) and that's the Democratic nomination.

The criticism of HRC will cease the moment she says, "For the good of my country and my party I am discontinuing my campaign to become the Democratic nominee for President of the United States of America. I'd like to congratulate Senator Obama on running an outstanding campaign. I will whole-heartedly support his candidacy and urge all my supporters to do likewise."

OBAMA '08

[BitJam]

I disagree with your implication that the 2004 Kerry campaign followed Mark Kleiman's advice of not attacking. The problem Kerry had was that he didn't defend himself after the Swiftboat attacks. He just ignored them (or ignored them for way too long which is pretty much the same thing).

The Obama campaign has been very good at rapidly responding to negative ads, and I think this is why Clinton's negative ads in Wisconsin seemed so ineffectual. The Clinton campaign had planned a series of different negative ads, with a new one coming out every couple of days. If the Obama camp had delayed two days in responding to each ad then they would have been too late because their response would have been for the previous negative attack, not the current one.

But Obama's team was able to get their responses out almost immediately so people could see the attack and the response at the same time. I think there is some poetic justice to the fact that the Clinton wave of attack ads failed because they were conceived with a 1990's mindset and Obama was able to respond with 2008 agility.

[tom928]

In defense of attacks on his supposed 'lack of record' coming from both Hillary and McCain:

-- Graduated first black president of Harvard Law Review having won trust and support of conservative members.

-- Passed over 600 high-money law firm offers to work in civil rights practice at fractional pay.

-- Added health insurance for 20,000 children, welfare reforms, earned-income tax credits, and an increase of minimum wage in Illinois.

-- Reformed death-penalty cases, requiring interrogations be video-recorded. Passed Illinois Senate 58-0. Signed into law by governor who first opposed Obama"s bill. Succeeded by consensus-building with conservative opposition.

-- Opposed Iraq war publicly, long before invasion. Accurately depicted it as of undetermined length, undetermined cost, undetermined objective, with likelihood of civil war.

-- Expanded program to locate and dismantle stray ex-Soviet WMDs with Republican Senator Lugar.

-- Passed major ethics and lobbying reform bill with Russ Feingold, insisting upon tougher restrictions around gifts, meals, etc. Extended interval preventing exiting congress members from moving directly into lobbyist positions.

-- Toured Kuwait, Jordan, Israel, and Palestinian territories, telling Palestinian Authority Abbas that US would not recognize Hamas leaders until they renounced mission to attack Israel.

-- Cosponsored Secure Orderly Immigration Act by John McCain. Passes Senate 62-36. Makes undocumented persons who've been here 5+ years only allowed to stay and apply for citizenship if they pay back-taxes, learn English, and have no criminal record.

-- Communicated directly to Michigan auto executives need to increase fuel-efficiency standards by at least 3% per year.

-- Initiated numberous aisle-crossing bi-partisan solutions throughout 10 years of senate experience (8 state, 2 federal).

-- 100% approval rating from League of Conservation Voters. National Education Association gives him an "A" on their most recent scorecard.

-- In Illinois Senate sponsored 780 bills, 280 signed into law.

-- In first year as US Senator held 39 town-hall meetings throughout his state, sponsored 152 bills and resolutions, cosponsored 427 more.

-- Designated US Senate point-person on ethics by Speaker Harry Reid.

-- Has run a successful, well-organized campaign funded overwhelmingly by grass-roots individual (over half a million) small-donors.

[Lemeritus]

Well put, tom928 -- confident and without rancor.

[Lemeritus]

I just have this to say:

DEMOCRATIC '08.

[jessica23667]

I agree. Obama will need the Clintons and their supporters in a general election. Time to take the high road. At this point the Clintons are digging their own grave (i.e. Bill's last statement about Obama forcing out the other Dem candidates) but their is no reason for Obama and his supporters to wallow in negative politics any longer.
The Republicans are uniting behind McCain (who they once vilified) so its time Dems take a page from the Rep playbook and do the same.

[lynnn]

I agree HRC and Mark Penn et al should be ignored by everyone, including the media.

[irishchicago]

Mark, I agree with you to a certain extent.

However, I would direct your attention to someone who blogs here of HufPo from time to time and who maintains a Barack Obama hate site named for her; Taylor Marsh.

She has become our (progressive Democrats) version of Michelle Malkin.

Between her and the folks over at MYDD there is plenty of unfounded and unnecessary Obama hate and ridicule from the HRC fans. Please don't accuse me of plagiarism but they could stand to "Cease Fire" as well.

And lets not forget Professor Krugman at the NYT who has mocked Barack Obama with almost every column he has written since the Senator declared as a candidate.

[mcfried]

I"m all for unity but it may take a few days to get over this . Let see I have been called Anti Femist (too many bloggers to name), bamboozled", "suckers" and "bankrupt of political or factual integrity" (MS. Marsh ), Conned and somehow unable to see how stupid I am (Martin Lewis and Mr. Fleetwood) as well as some of the most vile racist crap I have ever hear from commentors. Add to that Sen Clintons conspiring with the Repuke machine to villify Sen Obama. As a white woman in her 30"s I have say I am more than a little bitter. Don"t worry I will get over it, if necessary I will hold my nose and vote for her if by some miracle she becomes the candidate (although that is getting harder by the day) One thing though that I can absolutely assure you is as a New Yorker there is no way even under threat of waterboarding that I will ever vote for Hillary Clinton for Senator again.
Peace and love to all.

[mcfried]

PS and don't even get me started on the 527 I think my head might explode.

[grendl]

The numbers don't lie.

Barack got three times the number of voters McCain did, Hillary two times.

I was wrong in thinking this vitriolic contest would blow up in the Democrats faces. It's just what the party needed to re-invigorate it, contentiousness, passion, everything our forefathers possessed in breaking away from Mad King George.

People take sides when the Yankees and Red Sox, teams in the league square off. No one really remembers or cares who in the National League they play. Well, John McCain is the St. Louis Cardinals of this election, respectable, well groomed and about as exciting as well, the St. Louis Cardinals.

The sleeping giant in all this is the youth vote. And they have been awakened by the fight between Hillary and Barrack, and thats a good thing. It's kept them from even considering the candidates on the right, who want to send them oversees for another hundred years to die for oil. The fight has been a plus, much as the civilzed part of me hate to admit it.

So let these two slug it out in the octagon. Let them hold the spotlight as long as possible, and pay attention to those numbers. Either would beat McCain in a race today, even if their rivals constiuency stays home and holds its breath on election day.

[Lemeritus]

"It's just what the party needed to re-invigorate it, contentiousness, passion, everything our forefathers possessed in breaking away from Mad King George."

Great take on our circumstances, grendl! We need all that you described, a sense of humor, and a better appreciation of one another to fight our modern day King George. But, being who we are, I'm reminded of what Patrick Leahy said: "You get fifteen Democrats in a room, and you get twenty opinions" Ain't that the truth?!

DEMOCRATIC '08

[Cougarkj]

Positive blogging about Obama I understand. Ceasing the hate mail about Hillary Clinton I understand, though she's done much to inspire it, and let's face it, the woman who started a verbal brawl in the NH debate and then cried (literally) that the boys were ganging up on her unfairly, hardly inspires a sense of fair play in observers of this "Democratic" process (Sorry, the jury is still out until we see whether fair play is part of the remainder of the race and the DNC this summer.) But I do think it's too soon to praise Hillary or focus on her remaining strengths. In her bid for the superdelgates' support I do not wish to send a mixed message. I can not support her in a national race, and that is not an unfairly negative statement; she has earned it.

[transendentilist]

Why are obamaites always on the attack, instead of pointing out all of obama's accomplishments and how he going to "unite us all." He has caused more division in the democratic party than ever before.
Like it or not, Hillary has given alot of herself to serving this nation and she doesn't deserve all this bile. She's playing hardball politics, and after the very weak and timid campaign by Kerry in 04, who can blame her? And obama isn't innocent in all of this. Let's presume that we're all "inspired," now what???

[LoRiseAntlers]

Lay off of Hillary,because it's helping McCain?

Don't you think you should be asking Hillary to lay off of Obama because she's supplying McCain with ALL his anti-Obama talking points?