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Thomas de Zengotita

Thomas de Zengotita

Posted: March 11, 2008 09:01 PM

Obama's Bottom Line If Geraldine Ferraro Is Any Indication Of The Knife Fight To Come: Has Bill Been Faithful Since Monica?


Here's what the Obama campaign should do at some point -- maybe not now, but at some point, especially if the Clintons, aided by Geraldine Ferraro, keep their racist kneecapping going as crunch time comes. Especially in light of the Spitzer meltdown.

He should say, in that inimitable comic way he has when he refers to himself as Cheney's cousin -- he should say:

You know, people keep asking me if There's no basis for that.

As far as I know.

He, or his surrogates, should just use line, in this context, at every opportunity. In a comic way.

As far as I know.

People will get it. Saturday Night Live will pick up on it. They are feeling guilty. As they should.

 
 
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01:08 AM on 03/12/2008
Yo ! Add a colon after the http in your links.
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chlllfactor
Liberal and Proud Great Grannie
12:15 AM on 03/12/2008
There is a poem by T. E. Lawrence that goes:


All men dream, but not equally.

Those who dream by night in the dusty

Recesses of their minds

Awake to find it was vanity;

But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men,

That they may act their dreams with open

eyes to make it possible.

Senator Obama has given us a new dream; it is called hope. He has pulled more new voters to the ballot box then any presidential candidate since Jack Kennedy. I believe Senator Obama is the man who can make our dream of a new kind of country possible.
12:05 AM on 03/12/2008
Perhaps it's time for the voters to email CNN and other MSM querying why they keep trying to stir the pot and not report the facts - and why do they not acknowledge it is HRC's camp who consistently attacks....Obama responds, he doesn't instigate. He's not creating the negativity, she and her camp are the culprits.
Question for all voters - would you vote for your candidate if they were different race or gender? Is your vote based solely on facts, research of candidates history, character, etc.?
I respect Obama for his attempting to keep 'old political tricks and smears' out of this election. I've lost respect for Hillary. It's become apparent she has one set of standards for her and her minions, but quite another for everyone else.
10:59 PM on 03/11/2008
The question Obama should be asking Mc Clinton is..."When did you join the Republican party?'
10:24 PM on 03/11/2008
Why should Clinton "denounce" Ferraro's statement?

Even though you Obama lovers are becoming more totalitarian by the day in your outlook, believe it or not, Ferraro is entitled to her opinion.

In my opinion she happens to be correct. Obama has spent this entire campaign pole-vaulting on his race. Without it, he'd be just another obscure freshman senator from a Midwestern state with a penchant for spouting soppy mush, in lieu of real ideas.
12:01 AM on 03/12/2008
You really, really just don't get it. Believe it or not, even though Hillary began this thing as a coronation ceremony, not all Democrats are her ostensible subjects. The moment people realized that we had a choice between someone appealing and the stale (not to mention smug) inevitable, we went with the person who inspired us. But every ardent supporter of Clinton I know can't accept that people support Obama for sensible reasons. We are all naive, giddily lapping up empty rhetoric without so much as a second thought--who knows, maybe someone spiked our lattes with delusion or something. So we get hit with names like "Obamabots," like we don't have brains or haven't thought long and hard about our decision. There is no way Obama's message could have any real appeal. No, some other, far more shallow factor must have sealed the deal for us. It must have. So maybe all those blacks--you know, the superfluous demographic--are foolishly swarming around Obama because they can't see past his skin color (whereas the senescing advocates of first-wave dinosaur Feminism are really just supporting Hillary because they really agree with her message that "lobbyists are Americans, too."). And college students like myself...who is in mounting debt and whose family hasn't had health care for over six years...yeah, I'm too busy driving my Passat to Starbucks to bother picking a candidate for any reason other than his eloquence.

Guess what? I don't like Hillary's health care plan. I think it's bogus and should she even pass it (I mean, I know Republicans have always gone out of their way to get things done for the Clintons, but still), I can't imagine her coverage being all that great. Making everyone buy healthcare and providing everyone with health care is a very big difference. Frankly, I'd rather just have it be affordable than have it be like car insurance in my own state of New York.

I mean, really, can we cut a swathe through the talking point bullshit. What exactly are these "real" ideas and "real" solutions? I'm not saying she doesn't have them, because actually, Obama and Clinton are the same on most positions. But can you stop with these farcical smatterings of Clinton spin? Clinton claims she has experience. Whatever she has, it's most likely exaggerated, but even beyond that, what difference does it make? Do we really need someone ready to "act" on day one? She hasn't shown especially good judgement, and I'm not even talking about Iraq. I'm talking about her destroying health care the only time she was actually responsible for something. I'm talking about how she has run this limping campaign of hers--dirtily, detached, capriciously, and expediently. You know, in logic, one of the major fallacies of argument is called "appeal to authority"--like, I don't know, get a bunch of high ranking military brass to say you can run the country. It makes no difference. Clinton hasn't really been crisis tested. Neither has Obama. But Obama has shown an intelligence and consideration in his decisions that she hasn't. Maybe you can debate that, but I don't see it in her. I'd feel a lot safer with Obama at the helm if this country was attacked than the saber-rattling Hildebeest.

Point is: Obama makes people feel positive about the future, he imbues all who support him with a sense that we can make some kind of difference, that we matter. Hillary tries to make people feel stupid and cynically hopeless by trying to tear down what she can't match. I don't like being belittled and told why I'm doing something or what I am. And that's why I'll never vote for Clinton.
09:39 AM on 03/12/2008
There's no reason why Obama should make people "feel" positive about the future. They need to be confident of the future, based on facts. Obama is not supplying these facts. And to the extent that he has, his campaign advisors -- Goolsbee and Power -- have been telling people that his promises are just so much empty campaign rhetoric.
02:05 PM on 03/12/2008
You've really drunk the HRC Kool-aid. Why "totalitarian?" Do you just like throwing around that word? It's way over-the-top. And if you got to Obama's website, he has plenty of detailed plans. There are "real ideas"...it's just that so many people barely even bother looking past sound bites and talking points.

Example of talking point: Hillary has detailed plans, Obama is all about emotion.

It's not actually TRUE. It's just a slogan. A campaign tactic.

And, apparently, it works with certain people.
10:16 PM on 03/11/2008
Obama won't have to do anything at all if Clinton keeps it up (assuming that it already hasn't crossed the line): some ticked off unaffiliated supporter will do the deed and Obama will just have to reject and denounce it. I expect a lot of people with access to the media have been keeping things clean for the good of the party but things like this are going to make some of them lose their cool. The gal who called Hillary a monster is probably only the first.
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I paint. I blog. Therefore, I am.
10:01 PM on 03/11/2008
Stay the high ground.

Stick to the facts.

Use them.
09:40 PM on 03/11/2008
Obama really doesn't need someone spreading this kind of message...
09:36 PM on 03/11/2008
Hillary Clinton and her painful campaign has contaminated the entire democratic party which is her only hope of winning. Denigrating Obama because he is black and their constant negative garbage is trying to wear people down so they can chase young liberal voters away from politics leaving space only for their angry mob of prejudiced purveyors of hate.
09:25 PM on 03/11/2008
Score Card:

OBAMA WINS DELEGATES!

HILLARY WINS IN FOULS, DISTORTIONS AND MIS-CHARACTERIZATIONS!

Hillary’s recent non-response to Ferraro’s despicable comments prove something very substantial about why she would be a deadly choice for President.

Her choice not to denounce and repudiate these comments can only mean one thing. She doesn’t choose to.

Integrity? She doesn’t have it.

Last week we saw Clinton’s response on 60 Minutes where she told us that she takes Obama at his word that he's not a Muslim and rejected rumors that he is, by saying, "As far as I know."
Arianna’s response in her editorial was, What's next, "Obama is a human being... as far I know"?

I find her candidacy unacceptable based on that one alone.

Obama has run a decent campaign, but the Clintons have really been scrapping the bottom of the barrel for some time now.

So while everyone is counting the delegates, I’m also counting the fouls. the mis-characterizations, the distortions and offensive behavior.

Obama is winning in delegates. Hillary is winning alright, but not in delegates.
She is has got him beat on the fouls.

If this were a prize fight, she’d be out of the ring by now!
09:58 PM on 03/11/2008
And no one likes someone hits below the belt.
09:25 PM on 03/11/2008
I think Barack should take the high road - Look at the MS exits - he is perceived as "honest and trustworthy" by a 70/30 margin - Clinton only 50/50. The more she slings mud, the lower her numbers will go, and the better his will be.
10:07 PM on 03/11/2008
I've held the same opinion throughout this entire campaign and have applauded the Obama campaign for not sinking to the Clintonian levels of unseemly behavior.

But the other side is constructing issues to appeal to the fears, prejudices and bigotry of people

I hope Obama finds a way to respond strongly to this.

He's still got a huge edge when it comes to running the campaign in an honorable way.
No matter what he does from here on end, he won't lose that edge.
She is way ahead in Dirty tricks.