Okay. Obama wins the nomination. Everybody's happy. How does he fight crap like this?. Pls tell me

[BigBearJohn]

Fox News Bashes Obama Teen Drug Confession
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK0GZmMhQos

Watch the crawl on the t.v. screen:
"Obama's Cocaine Possession"

Multiply this times 1,000

You think Kerry's swiftboating was nasty?

When Fox News television and the right wing radio
stations start spewing questions like:

"Oh Jeez. Now we're expected to vote for a guy
who admits to cocaine use and even considered
using heroin when he was 17 years old --
a young adult. This is the guy we are supposed
to elect to be the most powerful man in the world?"

Go ahead. Tell me how we fight this. I'm listening.
I know some are going to tell me to go f**k myself,
but I honestly want to know.

What's the plan? Anybody got any clues? Just curious.
It's only my future at stake.

[Levgreee]

1. George Bush admitted to drug use. This was over 20 years ago.

I don't see how it will stick with that many people. If he was older when he did the drugs, possibly. But many people accept that people do some stupid things in their youth, as most people themselves do stupid things in their youth.

[rucky]

5. and Bush's "youthful indescretions" were in his 40's

If this is a dealbreaker for someone, they probably were just looking for a reason not to support him.

[Freida5]

11. But he didnt sell

[JTFrog]

13. What the fuck kind of ignorant statement is that? n/t

[RoadRage]

25. NEITHER DID OBAMA!?!?!?! Show me a link.. hell, show me a WHISPER?

The only person who ever uttered a word about Obama SELLING anything was a Clinton supporter. The guy did drugs when he was a teenager for a short time. He wrote about it in his book. He never sold anything.. WTF.

[EFerrari]

29. Bill Clinton, is that you?

[Occam Bandage]

51. Neither did Obama, you cock.

[NashVegas]

28. What Top-Rated TV Network Will Scrawl It?

?

[elixir]

30. Yeah, and a lot of people are feeling pretty good about Bush's presidency?!! Bad example

Obama will take major heat for the drug references. He'll just have to toughen up and speak to it.

[pnwmom]

2. He can say,

"when I was a kid and stupid, I was a kid and stupid."

And he was actually young, as opposed to Bush who was nearly 40 when he finally quit booze and drugs.

[neutron]

4. Yoou Guys Better Read This NYT Piece Comparing Health Plans:

Economic Expert Krugman compares
Health Plans:

The difference between the health care plans of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama could well be the difference between achieving universal health coverage and falling far short.
The principal policy division between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama involves health care. It's a division that can seem technical and obscure -- and I've read many assertions that only the most wonkish care about the fine print of their proposals.

But as I've tried to explain in previous columns, there really is a big difference between the candidates' approaches. And new research, just released, confirms what I've been saying: the difference between the plans could well be the difference between achieving universal health coverage -- a key progressive goal -- and falling far short.
Specifically, new estimates say that a plan resembling Mrs. Clinton's would cover almost twice as many of those now uninsured as a plan resembling Mr. Obama's -- at only slightly higher cost.
Let's talk about how the plans compare.
Both plans require that private insurers offer policies to everyone, regardless of medical history. Both also allow people to buy into government-offered insurance instead.

And both plans seek to make insurance affordable to lower-income Americans. The Clinton plan is, however, more explicit about affordability, promising to limit insurance costs as a percentage of family income. And it also seems to include more funds for subsidies.

But the big difference is mandates: the Clinton plan requires that everyone have insurance; the Obama plan doesn't.
Mr. Obama claims that people will buy insurance if it becomes affordable. Unfortunately, the evidence says otherwise.
After all, we already have programs that make health insurance free or very cheap to many low-income Americans, without requiring that they sign up. And many of those eligible fail, for whatever reason, to enroll.
An Obama-type plan would also face the problem of healthy people who decide to take their chances or don't sign up until they develop medical problems, thereby raising premiums for everyone else. Mr. Obama, contradicting his earlier assertions that affordability is the only bar to coverage, is now talking about penalizing those who delay signing up -- but it's not clear how this would work.
So the Obama plan would leave more people uninsured than the Clinton plan. How big is the difference?
To answer this question you need to make a detailed analysis of health care decisions. That's what Jonathan Gruber of M.I.T., one of America's leading health care economists, does in a new paper.
Mr. Gruber finds that a plan without mandates, broadly resembling the Obama plan, would cover 23 million of those currently uninsured, at a taxpayer cost of $102 billion (€69 billion) per year. An otherwise identical plan with mandates would cover 45 million of the uninsured -- essentially everyone -- at a taxpayer cost of $124 billion. Over all, the Obama-type plan would cost $4,400 per newly insured person, the Clinton-type plan only $2,700.
That doesn't look like a trivial difference to me. One plan achieves more or less universal coverage; the other, although it costs more than 80 percent as much, covers only about half of those currently uninsured.
As with any economic analysis, Mr. Gruber's results are only as good as his model. But they're consistent with the results of other analyses, such as a 2003 study, commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, that compared health reform plans and found that mandates made a big difference both to success in covering the uninsured and to cost-effectiveness.
And that's why many health care experts like Mr. Gruber strongly support mandates.
Now, some might argue that none of this matters, because the legislation presidents actually manage to get enacted often bears little resemblance to their campaign proposals. And there is, indeed, no guarantee that Mrs. Clinton would, if elected, be able to pass anything like her current health care plan.


But while it's easy to see how the Clinton plan could end up being eviscerated, it's hard to see how the hole in the Obama plan can be repaired. Why? Because Mr. Obama's campaigning on the health care issue has sabotaged his own prospects.

You see, the Obama campaign has demonized the idea of mandates -- most recently in a scare-tactics mailer sent to voters that bears a striking resemblance to the "Harry and Louise" ads run by the insurance lobby in 1993, ads that helped undermine our last chance at getting universal health care.
If Mr. Obama gets to the White House and tries to achieve universal coverage, he'll find that it can't be done without mandates -- but if he tries to institute mandates, the enemies of reform will use his own words against him.
If you combine the economic analysis with these political realities, here's what I think it says: If Mrs. Clinton gets the Democratic nomination, there is some chance -- nobody knows how big -- that we'll get universal health care in the next administration. If Mr. Obama gets the nomination, it just won't happen.

[Skidmore]

7. Do you sell insurance or something?

[karynnj]

9. I've read it and I respect Krugman, but disagree

The issue of whether there are mandates is likely to be determined by what can pass Congress. The reasons for that is you can make a case either way. I agree that the system, long term, needs everybody paying in and everybody insured - otherwise the cost for subscribers will be higher to cover the fact that seriously ill people will be treated. (The alternative that they would be turned away is unthinkable and doesn't happen now.) The alternative might be that there will be a steep cost of joining if you opt in at a time of medical crisis, less than the cost of treatment, but higher than the amount that would have been paid in premiums for say 6 months, which can be paid off over time.

No candidate will get exactly his plan through the Congress. It may well be that the plan as passed will be designed as much by Kennedy in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the Finance Health subcommittee and their House counterparts as what is in their platforms.

[jakem]

17. OMFG!

thie is HUGH nutron!!!

[lligrd]

3. Already Been Tried

and went nowhere. Going to be kind of hard to even push on Repugs after they stuck up for Bush's indulgences and pushed it off as youthful indiscretion. Obama can always tell them he re-found God afterwards (of course, Fox will say Allah). And I don't think most Democrats give a hoot about past drug abuse (though his tobacco use might raise eyebrows among some).

[ClintonTyree]

6. Obama has yet to be exposed to the full force...

of the media and right-wing attack machine. Sure, there have been a few skirmishes, but the un-wilting attacks haven't even begun. I think this is a legitimate question,, along with other skeletons in his closet. To say that it's "already been tried" is disingenuous, at best. The right-wing and it's lap-dog media haven't even scratched the surface of young Mr. Obama, and, in my opinion, they can't wait to do so.

They'll make mincemeat of him, guaranteed.

[skip fox]

10. Can he survise and win, do you think?

(Love your avatar.)

[ClintonTyree]

37. I really don't think so....

he's a babe in the woods as far as the Reich-wing attack machine goes. I think he's too nice a guy. He hasn't got that edge that comes with years of partisan, vengeful attacks. Hillary is battle tested and hardened.
But hey, I could be wrong. It's been known to happen. ;)
The Flying Spaghetti Monster is my personal savior. :) Ramen.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

39. correct of course

[skip fox]

8. Wait til they dig up a white mistress, an aborted child, a bestiality charge, a suicide bomb plan,

etc.

They don't just twist the truth, remember, they change the past.

[mtnsnake]

20. A white mistress, bestiality, & suicide bomb plans are now acceptable practices for candidates

He might have a problem with the aborted child issue, though.

[H2O Man]

12. The same way

as we witnessed a month ago.

[dailykoff]

14. He's got nothing to fear but the voting machines

IMHO. The Clintons proved that his teflon is flawless and his endorsements show that he's got surrogates ready to sink swiftboats.

[Tellurian]

47. yeah, the same endorsements as Kerry... Kerry won, right

[Didereaux]

15. the Rove Machine will have Obama as a breakfast sausage...and that's a fact!

[JTFrog]

16. But if Obama wins the nomination Rove won't have a horse in the game, so your point is null. n/t

[Didereaux]

22. Roves' 'horse' is not an individual, it is the NEO-Republican Party...he will ride.

[OzarkDem]

19. He's a sucker

He thinks that by cozying up to the GOP and letting them run his campaign that they'll support him in the GE. Fool.

[OzarkDem]

18. I won't vote for him in the GE

He's probably the worst candidate the Dem party has seen in the last 30 years. GOP in Dem clothing, corruption, weak on policy, prone to lying and disseminating.

No thanks. He would be more at home in the GOP.

[Alexander]

40. Then I look forward to you being gone from DU after the convention.

:-)

[Apollo11]

21. Then Obama found Jesus and got himself baptized in 1988.

I am not religious, but I have talked with a lot of Christians.

In my experience, most Christians LOVE to hear a story about someone who was lost and a sinner and was then "saved". It confirms their belief that Jesus Christ can be your personal savior.

Probably one of the reasons why George W. Bush won the GOP nomination in 2000.

[BigDDem]

23. Team Obama comes unglued at the term "fairy tale"

They're not ready for what the republicans will throw at them.
Period.

[Armstead]

24. And what happened in South Carolina after that?

Seems to me the Obama team were quite effective in turning the attacks by The Clintons to an advantage and skunking Hillary in that primary.

[BigDDem]

33. Think the victim card will work well against

the republicans?

[chascarrillo]

26. Desperation.

[BlackVelvet04]

52. why don't you stop that silly shit and answer the question?

It's a legitimate question.

[RoadRage]

27. He fights this much easier then "Clinis is cheating on Hillary again".. NT

[CreekDog]

31. I don't know but two Clintons somehow managed to alienate many black voters

In a Democratic primary in a matter of a week.

I shudder to think what the results of further campaigning might do.

Furthermore, they can't even maintain against an Obama surge practically everywhere. It's quite astounding.

[blm]

32. The cheap IranContra cocaine that Poppy Bush was dumping by the TONS into

American cities throughout the 80s? Yeah - I DEMAND we trace that cocaine back all the way to Mena, Arkansas and that we open the books on IranContra and CIA drugrunning operations.

THAT is the answer back.

[Jed Dilligan]

34. I think that

the fact that he participated in the drug culture like most Americans increases his appeal. He understands the ups and downs of the problem/situation and is the only viable choice for a sane policy on recreational drugs.

[scheming daemons]

35. If he can beat the cynical Clinton machine, then....

he can certainly beat a Republican party in which half of them don't even like their own candidate.


John McCain is Bob Dole in '96 all over again.


The GOP party leaders cannot stand McCain... they'll swallow their pride and vote for him if he's up against Hillary, but they won't work hard for him.


...and besides.... McCain is a gaffe machine. He'll kill his own campaign in the GE.


Lastly.... the GOP has MOUNTAINS of items they can use on Hillary and Bill.... not so much on Obama. If you really are worried about swiftboating, Atwater-esque tactics, and Rovian campaigning... then you shouldn't want Hillary anywhere near our ticket.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

38. Bullshit. This stuff hasn't been touched. But it will be.

[REDFISHBLUEFISH]

41. Rezko, drugs, Radical Reverend and others would be hot topics.

These Obamites think Hillary got smeared by Democrats?


LOL Just wait and see what happens if Obama gets in a national contest.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

43. This primary is the general election.

[REDFISHBLUEFISH]

50. No it is not, Republicans will SMEAR either one and BADLY.

Hillary has already stood up to their test, Obama has not.

[propol]

36. wait...

who said that Barack was busted with drugs?

[goodgd_yall]

42. I read an OP here that said

Obama once advocated decriminalizing marijuana. That on top of his early drug use is going to come up in the GE campaign if he gets the nomination. At this point I don't really have a good idea of how damaging that could be. I'm thinking it may not be that damaging, but this election year is so odd----to think that McCain is the top Republican candidate when conservative Republicans think he's not conservative enough tells me that voters are not as predictable as they once were. Apparently plenty of Republicans are willing to go with someone who has crossed the aisle to work with Democrats. And then people like Obama because they believe he can "cross the aisle" and work with Republicans.

[cd3dem]

44. yep add that to his resume

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpBzQI_7ez8&NR=1

[smalll]

48. lol - love the toon!

[robbedvoter]

45. he doesn't have to. MSM will defend him - they really, really love him and would do

anything to have him win! :sarcasm:

[ErnestoG]

46. This is what I hope the Hillarites will thank us for.

Should Hillary get the nom, we on the Obama side should be thanked for sharpening the fighting skills here to get Senator Clinton into the White House.

I'm not holding my breath, though. They are quite the ingratious lot.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

49. or these....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeC8BE-2T_k

and this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwjnT4eJJvs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6Fp_hTO0kU

http://www.obamatruth.org/

[BlackVelvet04]

53. OUCH......

Obama supporters better watch these and be prepared.

[GalleryGod]

54. Hit N' Run by Little Bear Johnny

eom

[Cronus Protagonist]

55. Naah, they'll get him on not being "black enough"

The TV and other media can do this because it's the only acceptable non-racist appearing way of being racist. They'll find a few black faces to put on TV to tell us all how white Obama really is, and how it's evil of him to even mention MLK since he's such an oreo. Count on it.