Clinton Supporters Send Last-Ditch Obama Attack Emails To Supers

[pdxmom]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/09/clinton-supporters-send-l_n_100979.html

"As the Democratic primary nears its long-awaited conclusion, undecided superdelegates have been drowned under a sudden deluge of angry, sometimes vicious emails from Hillary Clinton supporters urging them to not fall in line behind Barack Obama.

The letter writing campaign picked up steam late Thursday evening when several superdelegates confirmed that a coordinated effort had been launched, apparently independent of Clinton's campaign, to raise last-minute concerns about Obama's candidacy and present the specter of voter defections should the Illinois Democrat become the nominee.

<snip>

The Clinton campaign did not return a request for comment as to whether it was behind the email campaign. One author said that she was responding not to the senator's staff, but to commenters on the blog of Taylor Marsh, a committed supporter of the New York Democrat whose readers had gotten a hold of a list of email addresses.

At least two other party insiders wrote the Huffington Post expressing concern over the scope ("I've received emails like this for weeks but tonight it started in mass) and negativity of some of the Obama attacks, including one red-state Democrat:

"I spent my entire life in the two reddest states in the entire U.S. so please excuse me if I fail to discern the nuances of the arguments sent my way this evening in what appears to be an orchestrated campaign to intimidate the remaining unpledged delegates by threatening to leave the party and vote for a third Bush term if I and others like me don't vote for Sen. Clinton," wrote the exasperated superdelegate. "I have been uncommitted throughout this campaign because I wanted to see how the candidates performed in a variety of settings. I am proud of them both. But I am horrified by this effort to threaten votes for McCain if super delegates don't vote for Sen. Clinton. I have received hundreds of emails from both sides - but I can say without exception that I have not received a single email from an Obama supporter that threatened a vote for McCain if I didn't support Sen. Obama. You really ought to be ashamed."


This is going to backfire on them, if it hasn't already. The supers aren't going to respond well to threats.

[habitual]

1. desperation is never pretty. it is ugly. n/t

[FSogol]

2. I agree. I heard several say that the Clinton surrogates threatened them

while Obama simply explained his positions.

[scheming daemons]

3. Death throes...

[livetohike]

4. It's a power struggle now...and it isn't going to be pretty

The old Clinton hangers-on vs. the time-for-a-change people. I think it's a test to see which direction this party of ours will go.

[tabatha]

5. Threatening is not democratic. It is mafia-like

And funny that only the Clinton supporters are nasty.

And it comes from both the backers and the supporters.

Pelosi was threatened by financial backers.

What does that say about the Clinton campaign?