The education of Barack Obama

[Ishmael]

From the WSJ.

Obama's Clinton Education
January 23, 2008; Page A24

One of our favorite Bill Clinton anecdotes involves a confrontation he had with Bob Dole in the Oval Office after the 1996 election. Mr. Dole protested Mr. Clinton's attack ads claiming the Republican wanted to harm Medicare, but the President merely smiled that Bubba grin and said, "You gotta do what you gotta do."

We're reminded of that story listening to Barack Obama protest his treatment by the now ex-President Clinton on behalf of his wanna-be-President wife. "You know the former President, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling," Mr. Obama told a TV interviewer. "He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts -- whether it's about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas."
[The Clintons]

Now he knows how the rest of us feel.

The Illinois Senator is still a young man, but not so young as to have missed the 1990s. He nonetheless seems to be awakening slowly to what everyone else already knows about the Clintons, which is that they will say and do whatever they "gotta" say or do to win. Listen closely to Mr. Obama, and you can almost hear the echoes of Bob Dole at the end of the 1996 campaign asking, "Where's the outrage?"

This has been the core of the conservative critique of the Clintons for years. So it is illuminating to hear the same critique coming from Mr. Obama and his supporters now that his candidacy poses a threat to the return of the Clinton dynasty. Even Democrats are now admitting the Clintons don't tell the truth -- at least until Mrs. Clinton wins the nomination.

Mr. Obama's two examples are instructive because they are so wonderfully Clintonian. On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Mr. Clinton attacked Mr. Obama's claims of having opposed the Iraq war all along as a "fairy tale." This is a tough charge coming from a two-term Democratic President in a Democratic primary, and it probably helped turn some voters against Mr. Obama.

But it was also a classic distortion intended to turn voter attention away from his wife's own Iraq fairy tale. She's the candidate who voted for the war and backed it for years before she decided she had to be sort of against it, only to later become really against it, and now to favor a withdrawal starting in 60 days. We think Mr. Obama is dangerously wrong about Iraq, but compared to Mrs. Clinton he's a model of consistency.

Then there's Mr. Clinton's moaning before Saturday's Nevada caucuses that his wife's supporters were being strong-armed by pro-Obama unions at casino voting sites. Clinton campaign allies sued and lost on the matter, and the former President sounded like a Chicago ward heeler as he told reporters about the Obama campaign's voter-intimidation tactics. Yet on the day of the vote Mrs. Clinton won at seven of the nine casino sites, and the Obama campaign was left asking if its vote had been suppressed. It wouldn't be the first time Mr. Clinton accused an opponent of doing something his own campaign was planning to do.

Some in the press corps argue that Mr. Clinton's attacks are hurting his wife. But if they were, he'd stop. His behavior is part of the familiar Clinton playbook of letting others do the dirty work so the candidate can stay above the fray. Hillary and other surrogates took on the task of saving her husband from his lies under oath by inventing the specter of the "vast right-wing conspiracy," calling Paula Jones trailer trash, and portraying the widely respected Ken Starr as a rabid partisan.

Now Bill is returning the favor by attacking Mr. Obama; at the same time, other surrogates raise his long-ago cocaine use, only to apologize after it's been widely reported. News reports also say that so-called robo-calls in Nevada repeatedly referred to Mr. Obama by his middle name, "Hussein." And emails suddenly appeared last week on Jewish lists accusing the African-American Senator of being fond of Louis Farrakhan. Mr. Obama had to disavow Mr. Farrakhan and his associates.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Clinton can claim to disapprove of these attacks, and even assert that she herself is being unfairly picked on by the media because she's a woman. She wants to make the primary contest about race and gender, rather than about Mr. Obama's larger, more inspiring message of change. She can then diminish Mr. Obama and make the choice a trench fight for the votes of typical Democratic constituencies. You gotta do what you gotta do.

"I understand him wanting to promote his wife's candidacy," Mr. Obama added on Sunday, referring to Bill Clinton. "She's got a record that she can run on. But I think it's important that we try to maintain some -- you know, level of honesty and candor during the course of the campaign. If we don't, then we feed the cynicism that has led so many Americans to be turned off to politics."

Welcome to the education of Barack Obama.

Ishmael

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

I read that this morning, but it's nothing that I haven't been pointing out in the thread where I am labeled a racist for pointing it out.








Looks like the list of racists is growing on a daily basis, especially in South Carolina...

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

WSJ....





Isn't that a vast right-wing conspiracy NEOCON rag now?

 

[Ishmael]

I read that this morning, but it's nothing that I haven't been pointing out in the thread where I am labeled a racist for pointing it out.


Looks like the list of racists is growing on a daily basis, especially in South Carolina...

It's just the Clintons being the Clintons. Character does count and Hillarys is no better than Bills. If the democrat voters were casting their ballots with that in mind Hillary would have had to quit the race already. I have nothing good to say about Baraks policies or postition on issues, but there is no evidence that he's anything but sincere.

I can hear the conversation now. "Who you voting for?"

"I'm going to vote for Hillary."

"Damn, why you going to vote for her? She's a liar you know?"

"Yeah, but she's so believable."

Ishmael

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

*snicker*





The same press that marveled at Bill's ability to lie is now reporting on the election...

 

[firespin]

In general, though not for any one in particular, the American people love winners more than they love absolute honesty. They like the idea that their candidate will do what it takes to win.

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

Speak for yourself Kimosabe...





I honor the American sense of fair play (and isn't that what most of the Left's political platform is, "fairness" and a "level playing field?") over winning. It's why people got outraged over the taping of the Jets...

 

[WriterDom]

Obama was reverse swift boated. The pigs wanted him in the mud and that's what they got. He may very well be president one day. But no time soon.

 

[Ishmael]

In general, though not for any one in particular, the American people love winners more than they love absolute honesty. They like the idea that their candidate will do what it takes to win.

Actually that's not true as a blanket statement. If you get a chance goggle up the exit polls from the democrat primaries to see who's voting for who. Interesting reading.

Ishmael

 

[firespin]

Speak for yourself Kimosabe...



I honor the American sense of fair play (and isn't that what most of the Left's political platform is, "fairness" and a "level playing field?") over winning. It's why people got outraged over the taping of the Jets...

And that is why you fail

Mangini had no problem with the taping when he was with the Patriots. He's not honest, just trying to win.

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

Obama was reverse swift boated. The pigs wanted him in the mud and that's what they got. He may very well be president one day. But no time soon.

Shut the fuck up! Hillary's talking for you now Oreo...

 

[Ishmael]

Obama was reverse swift boated. The pigs wanted him in the mud and that's what they got. He may very well be president one day. But no time soon.

Pretty much. The guy is just way too Pollyanaish to be going against the Clintons. He's going to have to let the dogs loose to have a chance at getting the nomination.

Ishmael

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

And that is why you fail

Mangini had no problem with the taping when he was with the Patriots. He's not honest, just trying to win.

I don't fail. Marines don't fail. At 42 I was still winning tournaments without a Matrix-like "bending" of the rules...

 

[firespin]

Actually that's not true as a blanket statement. If you get a chance goggle up the exit polls from the democrat primaries to see who's voting for who. Interesting reading.

Ishmael

Umm...if you say so Not my kind of morning reading, I guess.

But you think, given the choice between a shady winner (say, Bill Clinton in 1996) and an honest loser (say, Bob Dole), the honest loser would win?

Or if that's a bad example, supply your own better one, please. Honest politicians are in short supply.

And I'm sure your familiar with the psych experiments showing that the ability to lie convincingly is strongly correlated with leadership success.

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

Pretty much. The guy is just way too Pollyanaish to be going against the Clintons. He's going to have to let the dogs loose to have a chance at getting the nomination.

Ishmael

Who, who, who, who let the dogs slip...

Note how naive he was by announcing he was going to get tough on the Clintons which gave the Clintonistas plenty of time to come up with the slum-lord line...

Does he have ANY idea what will be visited upon him right before Super Tuesday?

 

[firespin]

I don't fail. Marines don't fail. At 42 I was still winning tournaments without a Matrix-like "bending" of the rules...

Got a lot of triple word scores or something?

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

Umm...if you say so Not my kind of morning reading, I guess.

But you think, given the choice between a shady winner (say, Bill Clinton in 1996) and an honest loser (say, Bob Dole), the honest loser would win?

Or if that's a bad example, supply your own better one, please. Honest politicians are in short supply.

And I'm sure your familiar with the psych experiments showing that the ability to lie convincingly is strongly correlated with leadership success.[/QUOTE]

THEN WHY DOESN'T THE LEFT ADMIRE THE MAN THEY THINK LIES THE MOST???

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

Got a lot of triple word scores or something?

Something "like" that...

 

[Ishmael]

Who, who, who, who let the dogs slip...

Note how naive he was by announcing he was going to get tough on the Clintons which gave the Clintonistas plenty of time to come up with the slum-lord line...

Does he have ANY idea what will be visited upon him right before Super Tuesday?

Not a clue at all. Of course, that could backfire on the Clintons. But given the base they're working from I doubt it.

Ishmael

 

[firespin]

THEN WHY DOESN'T THE LEFT ADMIRE THE MAN THEY THINK LIES THE MOST???

Oops, sorry, I thought it went without saying that the lies have to be what people want to hear.

No brownie points for lying the other direction.

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

Oops, sorry, I thought it went without saying that the lies have to be what people want to hear.

No brownie points for lying the other direction.

So, when Hillary said it, people wanted to hear it...





Same page bro, same choir, pass the plate, it's coffee time!

 

[iceburg1]

http://www.tshirthell.com/shirts/products/a902/a902_bm.gif

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

rlmao...

 

[iceburg1]

rlmao...

I thought it was funny

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

Very humus!