Obama on 60 Minutes: "Swift-Boating" Wouldn't Sink Me

[RamboLiberal]

Sen. Barack Obama could withstand any last-minute "swift-boat" attacks from Republicans on his race or past drug use because winning the grueling contest for the Democratic nomination will make him the "toughest, baddest candidate on the block," he tells 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft.

Obama was interviewed on Wednesday in Washington for a 60 Minutes report to be broadcast on Sunday, Feb. 10, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Asked by Kroft if he will be able to endure attacks from "swift-boating" Republicans who may use his race or his youthful drug use against him, Obama replies, "Whoever wins this Democratic primary...they're the toughest, baddest candidate on the block. And if I beat Senator Clinton, then I will be more than capable of beating the Republicans. And if I don't, then she'll be the nominee and will be a moot point."

But the senator from Illinois vowed not to use such tactics himself to beat Hillary Clinton. Kroft's question on whether he would pull out any "Clinton skeletons" prompted Obama to say, "We don't play that. I mean, one of the rules that I laid down very early in this campaign was that we will be fierce competitors but we will have some ground rules. And one of the ground rules for me is that we battle on policy differences, and that if we draw a contrast between Senator Clinton and myself, then it is based on fact," he tells Kroft.

Then Obama promises, "We're not going to fabricate things. We're not going to try to distort or twist her positions."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/07/60minutes/main3804268.shtml

[REDFISHBLUEFISH]

1. Rezko trial will. It will be an ongoing mess.

[Unsane]

3. That is a boring story that's hard to understand. It's gotten no traction in the media.

not to mention Obama did nothing wrong.

[sunonmars]

4. the word here is "yet"

[Thrill]

10. Nothing there......But keep trying

[AndyTiedye]

19. Doesn't Matter if There's Nothing There. That's Why It's Called "Swift-Boating"

Swift-boating is the art of taking a bunch of out-and-out lies and feeding them into the MSM echo chamber where they get repeated ad nauseam for free.

Only Repiglickins get to do this, of course, because they own the media.

[sunonmars]

2. is he that fucking naive

[displacedtexan]

6. He fell into the classic debate trap today.

Who's advising him?

2 words: October Surprise.

[goldcanyonaz]

9. He's believing his own good press.

[sfam]

13. Its just as amazing that we think its necesary to lie and slime someone to win, and

that this is OK. Nevermind if its true or not - nevermind if its relevant - just slime them and pick up what remains of the pieces later. What does that say about our current crop of elected politicians?

Lets all say it folks:

We don't trust them
Most of them are crooked
They're bought and paid for
We couldn't care less what they ask of us because we don't respect them


So, um, why do you think this is such a naive position again? Is it truly more important to get to a position with your credibility completely shot? Is it such a crazed position to try to get their with integrity? Fucking naive indeed....

[mrreowwr_kittty]

15. What the fuck was he supposed to say? "Yes I'm terrified of being Swiftboated!"?

:wtf:

[geiger]

5. He's a gentleman AND a scholar.....

I respect him more every day.

As a woman trying to look daily and search my heart over the past months for a reason to vote for Hillary Clinton, this is why I am voting for Barack Obama:

http://www.johnkerry.com/

(John Kerry's endorsement speech)

Every high school civics student should be required to see it.

[karynnj]

14. I just listened to it again and your are right that it really is

something that every civics student should watch - he defines not only why we need Obama, but how we need to get our government back.

[MADem]

7. .....toughest, baddest candidate on the block???????

He DIDN'T say that!!!

What's with the "Puffy the Toughie" street/urban verbiage? Sean Combs grew up in suburbia, and BO grew up in Hawaii.

I mean, really. It has a hollow ring, a couple of years of 'community activism' notwithstanding.

Perhaps it will sound better than it looks in print.

[cali]

16. try a combined 7 years of community activism/civil rights law.

[MADem]

20. Well, I tried. But that's NOT what HE says. From HIS Senate Dot Gov website:

Barack Obama was born on August 4th, 1961, in Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann Dunham. Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983, and moved to Chicago in 1985 to work for a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods plagued with crime and high unemployment. In 1991, Obama graduated from Harvard Law School where he was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review.

http://obama.senate.gov/about/

Ok, he MOVED TO CHIGAGO in 85. When did he move to Boston/Cambridge, to attend Harvard? Why, if he graduated in 91, that would have to be 1988. So, even assuming he arrived in Chicago in JANUARY of 85, we know law school starts in the fall, so that gives him, TOPS, stretching it as far as one can, three and one half years of "community organizing."

Now, I've checked his CAMPAIGN bio, too, and there's no "community activism" happening after he graduated from law school. He was a professor and a civil rights attorney (he uses the 'advocacy' word in the context of this position) at that stage in his life. Now, if he were still doing "community activism" at that stage in his life, wouldn't he put that on his resume? Of course he would--it's a 'winner!' But he's not dishonest, so he doesn't do that.

http://www.barackobama.com/about/

He went on to earn his law degree from Harvard in 1991, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Soon after, he returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer and teach constitutional law. Finally, his advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate, where he served for eight years. In 2004, he became the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Senate.



You could, if you wanted to, say that Bill Clinton has SIXTEEN YEARS under his belt as US PRESIDENT and Head of a Worldwide Foundation. It would be "technically" true, but in fact, he only had eight years as President.

No need to pad the resume. He's not doing it, so why do you feel as though you need to do it for him?

[book_worm]

8. 60 Minutes is a good vehicle for Obama becuz their demos scew older

and if he can convince more older people, especially women, that he is the real deal he will sew up the nomination.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

11. Except it will.

[Thrill]

12. Yeah because the crying and weeping Hillary

is so tough. Give me a damn break

[butterfly77]

17. He's bragging about how he has beaten Hillary and her tactics..

they didn't do anything to him and he began lying about racism and fairy tales. Will he continue to whine about the republicons when they beat him up on race,religion and drugs? They won't stop they will throw anything at him that they can..

[AndyTiedye]

18. All the Tough Talk in the World Won't Slow Down the Mighty Slime Machine

Figure that every network spent at least an hour a day for a month talking up the Swift Boat Liars in 2004.

That is 5 networks x 30 days or 150 hours or 9000 minutes.
Network advertising costs up to a MILLION DOLLARS A MINUTE.
Figure half that since it's not peak prime time. 4.5 BILLION DOLLARS.

Of course it didn't cost the Repigs that, they only had to pay for one ad buy,
but that is what equal time to respond would have cost Kerry.

The free airtime the Repigs got was probably worth ten times that because they call it "news",
so it is an order of magnitude more credible to the public than any advertisement would be
even if they are just replaying the Swift Boat Liars' ads for free during the "news" program.

He is going to fight this HOW?

[Tennessee Gal]

21. He has no clue what could be coming his way...