Video Proof of Bob Kerrey discussing Senator Obama and making Madrasa comment

[MadBadger]

I have to say, my impression is that he just doesnt know what hes talking about not necessarily speaking for Clinton. He seemed to be geuninely praising him, but just misinformed on the madrasa thing.

http://thepage.time.com/kerrey-discusses-using-obamas-middle-name-on-cnn/

"I thought about it a great deal. I've watched the blogs try to say that you cant trust him because he spent a little time in a secular madrasa. I feel quite the opposite. I think its a tremendous strength..."

So it appears Bob just doesnt know that it isnt true. Its open to interpretation though.

[sniffa]

1. praise from the back of the hand is still praise

but hey, this just called vetting.

[Lucinda]

2. Madrassa is the word for school, unless i'm mistaken, and

secular madrassa just refers to a non-religious school.

I don't think Kerrey intended any slur of Obama. He has spoken very highly of him in the past.

[sniffa]

11. and what's the word for a bundle of kindling?

[goodhue]

15. lol

الإشعا

[Rockholm]

54. Starts with an Eff.

[maximusveritas]

12. Of course he did

He knows how 99% of the viewers will react to the word madrassa. And then when questioned, he can say he was just using the correct term.

He's not fooling anyone with that, just like he didn't fool us with that Hussein reference.

[annie1]

3. hmmm. tough one. i also think it's a strength BUT...

i'm from a place with a large muslim population, so i don't have any paranoia, makes it hard for me to relate to another pov.

[K Gardner]

13. oh lord... ::sighs::: Barck is NOT a Muslim. He did NOT go to a Madrassa. Man.

[annie1]

23. the barack should not let people get away with it.

[MadBadger]

26. See, just like the Cocaine thing, this was all waaaay old news

This was dealt with more than six months ago. Fox did a story on it, and CNN debunked it. He proceeded to freeze Fox out of his campaign for months after that.

[annie1]

32. well i don't feel like sticking up for someone who's going to lie down...

and play victim. there is no way i would let someone do it to me, so if it's so obvious that all the people on the internet can figure it out 60 seconds after it happens, then he can go to the clintons face to it and call them out. i'm not buying all the victimiztion. you know you wouldn't let someone pull anything over on you if you were running a campaign. s--t, i wouldn't let someone take a glass outta my house, let alone try shade me like this. so, if it's warranted, it'll be known. no way would someone who's ready to be POTUS let someone play that that easy. no way.

[MadBadger]

33. I hope you didnt stick up for Clinton in the debates in Philly.

[annie1]

37. 'course not. And you know, if indeed the middle name thing from kerrey is a smear...

and obama DOESN"T deal with it head on, then he makes his supporters victims too, b/c they have to forgoe people in the party, or stay angry, or feel resentful, just like people are angry right now on the board. he should put the clintons in their place. and he hasn't. I'da HAD a talk with that b---h over the cocaine crap. He's gonna meet at a table with the Pres of Iran and he can't even take hillary to the side and tell her she's being a rascist ----? bulls-t. I was even pissed off Barak didn't deal with her head on. (and yes, i wrote her campaign, even BEFORE the dude said it, when it was known he was GONNA say it). But after it happened Barack said he didn't even have more than a coupla words with her (during the time she apologized). He shoulda have. And that sucks for me too, b/c i had to be pissed at her behaviour and think of finding a new candidate. but he let her carry on like that? bs. Then they both suck if he's letting her be so evil and sneaky with kerrey and crew. which i don't think she is, cuz i don't think he would take that lying down. ya know? no really, i'm not just trying to fight, i mean it, don't you agree that if someone dealt you shadily you'd handle it and wouldn't let them continue? If he's in the right he could call them out, right out.

you don't let people away with stuff or it gets worse. So either this is not what people on DU are making it out to be, or he's a wimp.

I'm being serious. would you let someone away with sh-t like that? do you see what i'm saying?

[K Gardner]

40. Ummm... this stuff is old. Obama HAS addressed it. How many

times do you want him to stand up and explain his Christianity or where he actually went to school? As if because Hill and her shills keep attacking that's all he has to do? Puleezze.... I find it admirable that he is ignoring it. You, however, are blaming the victim for the attack.

[annie1]

43. oh. then why are people saying kerrey just said it on tv and hour ago on cnn?

[jenmito]

44. Because he DID! K Gardner just asked how many times is he supposed to correct the record!

Did you read K G's entire post?

[annie1]

45. People are saying he's...

(bare with me) he's said this in the past and it was wrong of him, and that he's got his information wrong, and now he's continuing to do it. but if it has already happened in the past, and barack has dealt with it, ugh. never mind. Obama victimization. if there were a prob. obama could deal with it by calling the guy up. i'm not buying this underhanded clintonian smear that the kids reading the site right now are seeing something so appalling yet obama doesn't find it appalling enough to do something about it. something is amiss. People shouldn't have to boycott the clintons to stick up for obama, if something is awry obama would deal with it.

[jenmito]

48. People are saying WHO "said this in the past"? People from the Clinton camp have sent out

fliers and e-mails smearing Obama, saying he went to a Madrassa. is a Muslim, and other false things. Obama came out and addressed those lies ALREADY. More than once. How many times do you expect him to defend himself??? Why should he stop campaigning, stop getting out his message, be FORCED to get off-message just because someone else decides to bring up these old debunked charges?

Who do YOU support?

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. Bob (CIA) Kerrey on Iraq - 2002

The real choice is between sustaining a military effort designed to contain Saddam Hussein and a military effort designed to replace him. In my mind the case for the second choice is overwhelming. … Regime change is the only way we can safely reduce our military commitment to the region.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/22/bob-kerrey-wrong-iraq/

Thanh Phong is only a memory now.

[burythehatchet]

17. welcome

[Elidor]

19. Bob Kerrey is indeed a complete and total tool

I hope he'll fade back into retirement now. He has nothing of value to offer to any national discussion.

[Tom Rinaldo]

36. Yeah but that was pretty much the John Edwards position in 2002 also

If he were now running for anything I would be more interested in what Bob Kerry thinks now. Actually I admit that I only know about him in a fairly surface manner. The impression I had of him is that he is a maverick, not a hack, but not always a maverick in the direction I would prefer.

[goodhue]

5. Obama's connection to Indonesia is a tremendous asset?!

Well, Bob, if you say so.

[maddiejoan]

7. Obama seemed to think it was

"Probably the strongest experience I have in foreign relations is the fact I spent four years overseas when I was a child in Southeast Asia,"

[goodhue]

9. Oh, I agree, time spent in southeast asia is a good thing

But to suggest it is a political asset in this jingoistic country seems off the mark

[maddiejoan]

14. Obama is the one that

claimed it as a political asset. Take it up with him.

[goodhue]

16. Obama merely said it provides foreign relations experience

If he thought it was a political asset he would mention it regularly on the stump.
In any event, it was Kerrey who mentioned it on CNN, MSNBC, etc.
It seems a pretty obvious hatchet job IMHO.

[maddiejoan]

20. It seems everything--

that is true about Obama is a hatchet job.

I guess anything short of calling him the annointed one is off base.

[goodhue]

22. Everything true about a Obama is a hatchet job?

Tell us how you really feel about the anointed one.

[maddiejoan]

25. I personally think everything true about Obama --

--is wonderful.

What disturbs me is how his supporters interpret the truth as an attack.

That's how I feel.

[goodhue]

28. I'm not actually an Obama supporter

I just get disturbed about what I perceive as playing towards jingoistic hatred of foreigners.

[sniffa]

29. bingo!

:thumbsup:

[maddiejoan]

31. Then let's turn it around

instead of playing into it.

There is an opportunity for Obama to educate here. He can take it --or he can cry attack, but if he does that than he is part of the problem. Not the solution.

[Tom Rinaldo]

39. Yes! Exactly.

If Obama could pull that off my respect for him would clearly increase, and my concerns about him being our candidate would be greatly reduced.

This is tricky stuff but no one ever said running for President was easy. I am not completely convinced that Bob Kerry made his comment with the intention to weaken Obama for Clinton, but let's just suppose that he did for arguments sake. I can see how it creates a mine field for Obama but this is another example of something we can all see coming from three hundred miles away. How loudly can one complain to the general public about unfair campaign tactics when everything being used against you is the literal truth? In this case the literal truth aspect focuses on the actual definition of the word school in arabic.

Here is a quote from a story that covered Obama's debunking of the untrue smear attempt that he attended a radical islamic school as a child in Indonesia:

"Interviews by The Associated Press at the elementary school in Jakarta found that it's a public and secular institution that has been open to students of all faiths since before the White House hopeful attended in the late 1960s."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16813267/


The following is taken from About.com:

"Glossary: Madrassa or Madrasa"
From Pierre Tristam,
Your Guide to Middle East Issues.

Definition: The word "madrassa" is Arabic for school, and is commonly used throughout the Arab and Islamic world to refer to any place of learning in the same sense that, in the United States, the word "school" refers to a primary school, a high school or a university. It can be a secular school, a vocational school, a religious school or a technical school.

The negative connotation of the word "madrassa" as it's come to be understood in the English-speaking world--as referring to a place where fundamentalist, Islamic instruction is combined with anti-western vocations, or in the extreme, as a place where terrorists are formed ideologically--is largely an American and British conceit. It is for the most part, but not entirely, inaccurate.
http://middleeast.about.com/od/glossary/g/me071202b.htm

So Bob Kerry said that Obama attended a secular Madrasa as a child in Indonesia. Arguably techncially he is correct. Obama has to be able to handle a comment like that thrown at him by anyone; smoothly, graciously, and compellingly, without calling "foul" on anyone. Kerry gave Obama an opening by using the word "secular" which Obama can rightly claim reaffirms that he never attended an institution intended to teach radical Islam to students. And then he can slip into the role of teacher about different world cultures, and in the process remind all listening what we have been missing in a President for the last 8 years.

If I were a talking head trying to defend Obama by saying this was just a smear I could be made to sound like a total fool with just a couple of pointed questions. The first would focus on the definition of the phrase "secular madrassa", but the second would be worse. If I tried to say that I understood all that but knew that the intent of saying that politically was to harm Obama, I would be stopped in my tracks by someone asking me if I agreed or disagreed with the sentiments that Bob Kerry expressed about Obama? Would I characterize the literal content as positive or negative? I would have to say I agreed with the sentiment and the characterization of Obama was literally positive. That after admitting that the phrase "secular madrassa" was technically accurate also.

You can't cry swiftboating when you are being hit with the truth. You need a different more effective way of combatting the negative implications of a potential "true" attack. It's up to Obama now to do just that. It is undeniably true that this will come up if he is our nominee and it would have come up no matter what Bob Kerry said or did not say today.

[maddiejoan]

46. Thank you

for putting it so eloquently

[Windy]

41. You may want to read both of his books and then learn that he spent

a significant amount of time in Kenya during his adult life and also traveled around the world quite a bit. As he has relatives from a poor section of Kenya and has spent time living with them and experiencing their life, I think he has more of an appreciation for what is actually going on in the world than any other politician running.

I'll excuse your ignorance on the subject.

[Dems Will Win]

8. Pretty Obvious Kerrey is Saying OBAMA = MULSIM, HUSSEIN MADRASSA

This will be added to the list of attempted and clumsy "smears" of Obama, borrowed from the right wing.

It's disgusting and will be seen as so in IA and NH.

[K Gardner]

18. Not only that, but with today's comment and all the links and

episodes of this OOPS KERRY COMMENT b/s, it is quite obvious it is NO accident. Mark Penn is laughing.

[K Gardner]

6. Kerry didn't debunk the Madrassa Myth... he was trying to figure out

if you could "trust him" because of it, LOL. What a slimeball weasel. Given the number of times we have now proven that he has mentioned Obama in the same sentence as Madrassa, I don't see it as just coincidence. This is Penn/HRC playbook.

[Dems Will Win]

10. especially the "that experience is a big deal" phrase.

Obama's big experience is that he is a Muslim named Hussein who went to a Madrassa, not his community organizing or legislative or Constitutional Law teaching.

[rinsd]

27. Obama himself touts his international exeprience as a way of bridge building.

Which is also how Kerrey put it.

[jenmito]

50. Kerrey used "code words" meant to frighten people, like "Hussein," "Muslim," "Madrassa,"

etc.

[annie1]

24. then what was he referring to that he spoke to barack about personally?...

when he said "i said it to him a while back"

[Mass]

30. Not Kerry, Kerrey...

And, a few days before the Nov 04, Kerrey was contradicting Kerry saying that he should not criticize Bush on his treatment of Tora-Bora.

Lieberman and him were really useful during the last days of the 04 election period, defending Bush.

[MadBadger]

21. Here is a link to an article in Huffington Post about all this.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/17/kerrey-says-obama-attende_n_77209.html

[styersc]

34. Let me see if I understand. We as Democrats value diversity

but if a Democrat praises the diversity of one of our candidates it is a smear.

I can't believe that there is anyone on earth who cannot see that the Hillary campaign was right on when they pointed out that drugs are one of the things that the GOP will jump on if he is the candidate. The ground has already been plowed on every right wing web site concerning Obama's middle name and background.

Consider this "conspiracy theory". Hillary is interested in Obama as a VP as she (and I) believe that he is not yet ready to be president but that with some seasoning, he'd be a damned fine president. Assume that he realizes the wisdom of this belief. If I was a campaign manager with this goal in mind, the "slip" by Sheheeh in New Hampshire and the comments by Kerrey in Iowa give Obama the necessary innoculation from these issues that he would have faced as VP candidate. Now you have the right wing attacking Hillary's campaign for "using" these non-issues which will remove these issues from use to their ends. Pretty smart.

[MadBadger]

35. Its considered by many a smear because the Madrasa thing just isnt true.

[styersc]

38. Kerrey's term was "secular madrassa". Should anyone

feel the need to insult me, feel free to speak as graciously as Kerrey has. I still feel that he has helped Obama by innoculating him against the use of these issues by Repubs in the future. Now that they are howling at the HRC campaign for breaching these issues, it will be harder for wingnuts to use them.

[Mass]

42. unfortunately. both words are insults in the GOP's dictionnary.

"secular" has been used as an insult by about every Republican candidate to the nomination and madrassa has been linked to terrorism by Democrats and Republicans alike for a few years now. So, he could as well have called him godless terrorist.

Not sure what Kerrey's intentions were, but the result is doubly bad.

[maddiejoan]

47. well then by all means

let's just all roll over to the rightwing definitions of the world.

Do you people actually read what you post?

[styersc]

49. No, don't "roll over", but it would be ignorant to pretend that the

election is held in a vacuum without input from the opposition. If Obama, Clinton, Edwards or any of the other persons interested in winning the candidacy are unable to weather friction from the Democratic primary, they are toast in the general.

Anyone who thinks that Kerrey's praise of Obama's interesting upbringing was not a double edged "compliment" is a political novice.

Anyone who thinks that Kerrey's muddied compliment is anywhere close to the scorching hatred that will be piled upon Obama, or any other Democartic candidate by the Republicans, is a fool.

It should be remembered that the famous Willy Horton issue that was used by George HW Bush against Dukakis was first introduced by Al Gore in the primary. Had Dukakis used the opportunity of the GOre attack to brace and defend himself, he may have wethered the storm in the general.

[maddiejoan]

51. Well I damned well hope --

--that if Obama is our candidate that he can do better than

"No fair! You attacked me!"

[styersc]

52. Seemingly, the current theory is that when HRC is defeated in

the primary and anyone of the other candidates carries the banner for the Democratic Party, no one from the GOP or an independent party will ever make a derogatory remark. Its the Limbaugh/Hannity/Beck theory of American politics. Clinton is the core of all that is evil and once she is vanquished, only real issues will be discussed and the very educated electorate will make a decision based upon squeaky clean campaigns.

[Zueda]

53. Bob was on the 9/11 commision I should hope he's smarter than that. nt

[Quixote1818]

55. Obama is my second choice but this is CLEARLY all calculated to hurt Obama

Words like madrasa are going to create a negative reaction in many Americans EVEN if they are used in a positive way. The Clinton camp has clearly made a calculated effort to put words like that out there so they start getting attached to Obama. What they want is for people to think of Obama and then the next word that will pop into their mind will be madrasa, creating a negative reaction in people. John Kerry and Edwards tried this with Dick Cheney's daughter even though she was fair game in my opinion. They purposely brought up that she was a lesbian so the far right gay haters would associate Dick Cheney with his lesbian daughter.

In the case with Kerrey and the Clinton's doing this to Obama to try to get people to start seeing him as Muslim and practically a terrorist is the lowest form of scum I can think of for a fellow Democrat to pull. FUCK YOU Kerrey! Total bullshit!

[styersc]

56. I agree that the comments were "calculated", but I am not so

sure that pointing out to the voters of Iowa and within the Democratic Party, the attacks that are certain to be leveled at a candidate are not a legitimate line of discussion.

I agree that Obama's middle name is a trite subject. It is as ridiculous as the cost of Edward's haircuts and Hillary's Master's thesis but we have all seen these subjects twisted by opponents who try to make them relevent issues- with some success. Do you really think that if Hillary or Kerrey don't bring it up, you will never hear about it again? Do you think it did John Kerry harm or good to hear his early school days discussed in terms of being a European prep school. Do you think it should have hurt him that he attended a school the likes of which my folks would have killed to send me to?

If Obama is able to see flaws in Hillary that he can predict will be twisted to destroy her in a General Election, he owes it to the party and voters to bring it up. Same with all of the candidates. Remember we are picking a candidate to represent the party. DO we want to be so polite to each other that we choose a candidate that makes us feel good, but who is going to have his/her headed handed to them? One of the functions of the primary is to scrimmage. Test issues, positive and negative for the big game.