Atlanta mayor screws up big time trying to hit Clinton on "Fairy Tale" remarks.

[MethuenProgressive]

As everyone knows, what Bill Clinton said was:

"It is wrong that Senator Obama got to go through 15 debates trumpeting his superior judgment and how he had been against the war," Clinton said during the rally.

"There's no difference in your voting record, and Hillary's, ever since," Clinton said. "Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/11/bill_clinton_obama_no_fairy_tale/
Since that remark, certian Obama surrogates claimed Clinton was insulting Obama by calling Obama's campaign a "fairy tale.
Well, it looks like even the Mayor of Atlanta *and Atlanta's Top Newspaper* have fallen for the Obama's Camp's propaganda, because today she parroted the falsehood:

Shirley Franklin took what appeared to be a political shot at the former president's comments about Barack Obama's candidacy.
Speaking at the 40th annual MLK commemorative service at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Franklin said the country is on the "cusp of turning impossible into reality. Yes this is reality, not fantasy or fairy tales."

And the AJC failed to correct her, and just printed the falsehood.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/01/21/kingpolitics_0122.html

[AX10]

1. The AJC is in Obama's corner.

Durbin, McCatskill, and Franklin. Are there anymore Dems that I should add to the list of smear-artists.

[jenmito]

2. When Bill said,

"Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen," he very well could've meant Obama's candidacy. It could be interpreted as that, and given Bill's frustration of losing his title of our "first Black president" to a REAL Black president, I wouldn't doubt it.

[MethuenProgressive]

3. Jen, why do you choose to ignore what Clinton actually said?

Which was:
"It is wrong that Senator Obama got to go through 15 debates trumpeting his superior judgment and how he had been against the war," Clinton said during the rally. "There's no difference in your voting record, and Hillary's, ever since," Clinton said. "Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen."
(link in OP)

[jenmito]

16. I'm not. I'm telling you how it could've easily been interpreted...

And again, by "this whole thing" he could've very well meant his whole presidency.

[Egnever]

17. why does Bill choose to ignore what Obama actually said?

What would I have done? I don't know,' in terms of how you would have voted on the war." Russert did not quote the very next sentence of Obama's statement, which was, "What I know is that from my vantage point the case was not made" for authorizing the war.

If Bill wants to play the distortion game he shouldnt cry when it comes back and bites him in the ass.

[rinsd]

5. Which is why context is important.

[Egnever]

18. Tell it to Bill

[jenmito]

20. That's right. And "this whole thing" could've meant his whole candidacy...

not to mention Bill was lying when he said Obama wasn't really against the war after his "one speech."

[Skwmom]

13. Also, it's not just the one comment. It's H.Clinton's don't give people

false hopes comment, etc., which in the overall context could be viewed as Clinton meaning more than just Barack's stance on the Iraq War (a stance that Clinton has LIED about). But what the heck, Clinton had the nerve to say he was against the Iraq War from the beginning (he must really think people are stupid).

[jenmito]

21. Exactly. Good point!

All references to Obama's candidacy while lying about their own record.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

19. Lots of people speculating and reading into statements whatever they want

Who knows for sure what "this whole thing" meant? Why the use of the word "whole" if he was referring to a comparison of Hillary's and Barack's voting records? Which votes? All of them and on all issues? I don't know and I don't pretend to know, although it would seem to me he was talking about the voting records on the war more than anything else. But then Bill Clinton was commenting on both Obama's "superior judgement" and his position on the war. Which one was Clinton calling a fairy tale? I can't be sure and therefore I'm not going to jump to conclusion.

Obama's "excesses of the 60s and 70s" has also been subject to any number of interpretations by people who seem to know absolutely and without doubt what he meant, as though they had a direct connection into his head. I seen posts with paragraph after paragraph filling in between the lines the specific excesses of the 60s and 70s that Obama surely meant as though there was no doubt at all. I wish that people would just take a deep breath, sit back, and use their heads instead of speculating on what someone might have meant including Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

[napi21]

4. Awe, Shirley is a GREAT Mayor. I didn't hear all of what she said,

but I know she is supporting Obama, and it's not like her to tell stories about anyone. HOWEVER, if you would have heard the ex-mayor of Atlanta, Andrew Young, you'd sure hear a different story, He's supporting Hillary. The one comment I heard him say on this morning's CNN was he likes Obama, and he thingks he has a lot of promise, but current politics is like a war, and he's afraid that anyone who hasn't goine through the beatings and badgerings of national politics would get destroyed in a national campaign right now. I happen to agree with Young. That's my biggest concern about Obama. All the little jabs the folks on DU have been all upset about over the last few weeks are NOTHING compared to what is going to happen in the General Election Campaign!

[MethuenProgressive]

6. Good points, napi

[terisan]

24. I don't care for her anti=homeless policies. nt

[napi21]

25. Why in the world do you think Shirley is anti-homeless?

I don't live in the Atlanta city limits, but I sure never heard THAT ONE!

[terisan]

26. YThe clearing downtown campaign plus faith-based intakes+no room at the inn

situation for women and children.

You might also look at her real estate supporters who gt her to allow a ton of tear downs and megamansions in intown neighborhoods over objections of residents.

[redqueen]

7. I think this might just show how much power the media really holds.

I may be naive, but I wonder if she really knows the whole story... did she intentionally misrepresent his remarks? I hope not. I hope she, like FAR FAR FAR too many Americans, is just too dependent on the Mighty Wurlitzer for information.

*sigh*

What an ugly, ugly mess.

[Orangepeel]

8. and Dan Schuster on MSNBC just repeated that Obama said republicans have had all the *good* ideas

A candidate says something, rival campaigns twist it, and the press fucks it up. Par for the course in a campaign, primary or general.

[redqueen]

10. The press does it on purpose. Shamelessly.

I can't help but hope the candidates and their supporters aren't doing the same.

*sigh*

[kevsand]

9. She didn't parrot anything.

She made no specific claim one way or the other as to Bill's intentions or his specific meaning when he used the phrase "fairy tale." Instead, she made a generic reference to Bill's use of the phrase overall. It's a rhetorical device. Annoying perhaps, but not factually inaccurate, since no facts were even provided. No harm, no foul. Nice try, though...

[David Zephyr]

11. Bill will never be called "the first black president" again after his nonsense.

I'm sorry that it has come to this, but he started the fire. He should have known there would be blowback.

[MethuenProgressive]

12. Another Swiftboat victim chimes in. "he started the fire"

No, silly. Here's what was really said:

"It is wrong that Senator Obama got to go through 15 debates trumpeting his superior judgment and how he had been against the war," Clinton said during the rally.
"There's no difference in your voting record, and Hillary's, ever since," Clinton said. "Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen."

Please notice Clinton never called Obama's Presidential campaign a "fairy tale" as the Atlanta Mayor suggested. Clinton was speaking about Obama Iraq War record. The people who "started the fire" just ran their SwiftBoat over you.

[JackORoses]

15. it's karmic retribution that Bill is being punished for those remarks

He is being taken out of context from remarks he made which were taking Obama's Iraq statements out of context.

If Bill was just an honest man, he wouldn't have to deal with all this.

[Skwmom]

14. I think he did but his ego is so big he thinks he can woo the black community

in the general election. From what I'm hearing, I think Bill has seriously miscalculated.

Hillary Clinton will unite the Republicans and anyone who thinks otherwise really does believe in fairy tales.

[terisan]

27. It's great we have swiftboating Dems now, Lets's the Repubs save their ammo for the GE

[ecstatic]

22. Not necessarily. The phrase "fairy tale" now has a life of it's own in this race,

a life that's independent of what Bill Clinton originally intended for it to be used as. Franklin didn't say anything false and she can use the phrase "fairy tale" in any way she wants to. I think each of the campaigns is borrowing the phrase to push their own agendas, including Edwards.

[MethuenProgressive]

23. Like "flipflop" there never was a flipflop, but everyone "knew" there was - ala Fairy Tale.

Sad, really.

[TeamJordan23]

28. I guess the 2,000 plus crowd thought it was a screwup also, huh?

Considering they all stood up and cheered except Bill.

[MethuenProgressive]

29. Cheering a lie in Church... that says a lot about the ObamaBots.