NYT: Photo flap part of Clinton's five-point "kitchen sink" strategy

[BeyondGeography]

Clinton Campaign Starts 5-Point Attack on Obama

By PATRICK HEALY and JULIE BOSMAN

After struggling for months to dent Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy, the campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is now unleashing what one Clinton aide called a “kitchen sink” fusillade against Mr. Obama, pursuing five lines of attack since Saturday in hopes of stopping his political momentum.

The effort underscores not only Mrs. Clinton’s recognition that the next round of primaries — in Ohio and Texas on March 4 — are must-win contests for her. It also reflects her advisers’ belief that they can persuade many undecided voters to embrace her at the last minute by finally drawing sharply worded, attention-grabbing contrasts with Mr. Obama.

After denouncing Mr. Obama over the weekend for an anti-Clinton flier about the Nafta trade treaty, and then sarcastically portraying his message of hope Sunday as naïve, Mrs. Clinton delivered a blistering speech on Monday that compared Mr. Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience to that of the candidate George W. Bush.

“We’ve seen the tragic result of having a president who had neither the experience nor the wisdom to manage our foreign policy and safeguard our national security,” Mrs. Clinton said in a speech on foreign policy at George Washington University. “We can’t let that happen again.”

...On another matter, Mrs. Clinton’s aides criticized Mr. Obama on Monday for not distancing himself from outside groups running advertisements that promote his candidacy, a practice that Mr. Obama has sometimes criticized. But the attack that received the most pop, on cable television and blogs, came after a photograph of Mr. Obama in ceremonial African garb appeared on the Drudge Report, and the item’s author, Matt Drudge, claimed that the image was provided by a Clinton staff member.

...The sharpened tone reflected a vacillating style that had her reflective about her political fate at the end of last Thursday’s debate in Texas, and offering an apology of sorts for Bill Clinton’s comments in South Carolina several weeks ago that many people viewed as racially insensitive. By contrast, at a fund-raiser Sunday night in Boston, Mrs. Clinton told supporters that in the coming days, she planned to highlight what she called “the experience gap” between her and Mr. Obama.

Indeed, her advisers said Monday that she planned to hit this theme during the candidates’ Tuesday debate, though they said she would try to avoid making harsh personal attacks on Mr. Obama, particularly since Mrs. Clinton drew widespread attention and praise at the debate last week for saying she was “honored” to be on the same stage with him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/us/politics/26clinton.html?_r=1&ref=politics&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

[C_U_L8R]

1. five lines of attack

all going in the wrong direction.. doh!!!

[tabatha]

2. Thanks. It gave me a mind's eye image of

Hillary throwing the pots, pans and kitchen sink at Barack.

[ginnyinWI]

22. or how about like the end of a fireworks show?

First it's bang...bang...bang...then it's a whole lot at once--AND THEN IT'S OVER!! :rofl:

[journalist3072]

3. Why the fuck is the NYT giving Matt Drudge credibility? He wouldn't know the truth if it bit him.

Matt Drudge says the Clinton campaign provided the photo.....so it must be true!

The New York Times should be ashamed of itself.

And so should the idiotic DUer who posted this shit. Take it to Free Republic where it belongs.

[thevoiceofreason]

6. You mean the NYT that does nothing but drool over Hillary?

About time they ran a truthful article. Now they only favor Hillary 5 to 1.

[maddiejoan]

7. Heh

"Matt Drudge, claimed that the image was provided by a Clinton staff member."

No he never said that.

Matt Drudge said it was 'obtained'. Even Drudge never claimed it was 'provided'.

So much for the Grey Lady.

[Johnny__Motown]

13. Didn't you read the story? maybe you should

It only says Drudge Claimed.....

[Renew Deal]

27. It's your candidate

You have to live with her.

[Stephanie]

28. The Clinton campaign has used a strategy of leaking items to Drudge >

It was widely reported last fall.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4764211

[tabasco]

4. More like the toilet drain strategy.

Good riddance to the pandering fool, H. Clinton, and all gutless politicians like her.

[polichick]

5. The desire to win at all costs must be overwhelming...

...like an addiction ~ I guess the drug is POWER. Very sad.

[Drunken Irishman]

8. Is this campaign run by idiots? Didn't they get the memo after Wisconsin?

Going negative took a tight, contested race and turned it into a 17 point blowout for Obama!

What makes them think it'll work in Ohio and Texas?

[scheming daemons]

9. In my mind's eye, I keep seeing this....

(hint: Hillary is Wile E. Coyote)

[ginnyinWI]

21. and this one:

[blogslut]

10. Attack away

Make a good show. Much luck to the Clinton campaign in the coming eight days. Give it your all. Keep up the good work. Don't change a thing.

[alteredstate]

11. Oh boy

A "kitchen sink fusillade". Do ya mean the stuff this weekend was just a warm-up for the real thing?

Yikes.

[Johnny__Motown]

12. This is coming out the same day as the debate? Great timing., she has some explaining to do

[IndianaGreen]

14. Team Clinton: Down, and Out of Touch

Here is an eye popper:

Team Clinton: Down, and Out of Touch

By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, February 26, 2008; Page A02

They are in the last throes, if you will.

<snip>

When Amy Chozick of the Wall Street Journal asked about how combative Clinton would be in tonight's debate with Obama, Singer informed her that it was an "absurd" question. "I don't think . . . any of our senior people have the ESP skills that you all ascribe to us," he said.

When Time's Jay Newton-Small inquired about the Obama photo on Drudge, Singer used the occasion to complain about the press's failure to examine Obama ties to violent radicals who were part of the Weathermen of the 1960s. "As far as I can tell there was absolutely no follow-up on the part of the Obama traveling press corps," he said.

Even Broder, asking about why Clinton had abandoned the North American Free Trade Agreement, was informed by Singer that "elections are about the future."

Cook, the host, got similar treatment when he asked why Clinton won't release her tax returns yet. "When she's the general-election nominee she'll release the tax returns," Singer said.

After the breakfast, one of the questioners asked Singer whether he could elaborate on the tax-return issue. He dismissed her with more hostility. When the reporter suggested that Singer was being antagonistic, the spokesman explained.

"Sixteen months into this," he said, "I'm just angry."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/25/AR2008022502501_2.html?hpid=topnews

[K Gardner]

15. They REALLY DO think we're idiots. Look at this paragraph..

"Indeed, her advisers said Monday that she planned to hit this theme during the candidates’ Tuesday debate, though they said she would try to avoid making harsh personal attacks on Mr. Obama, particularly since Mrs. Clinton drew widespread attention and praise at the debate last week for saying she was “honored” to be on the same stage with him."

OK.. she's going to AVOID HARSH PERSONAL ATTACKS during the debate BECAUSE she praised him at the last one.

Mmmm.. does she think we're blind and none of us saw what she's done since Saturday? Because she doesn't do it at the debate, its OK? And we're so stupid or illiterate or dense, we won't equate Shaming Hillary, Scorning Hillary, Screaming Hillary and Mocking Hillary with Debate Hillary? Good gawd.

WTF.. who thinks like that?

[AX10]

16. Obambots taking Drudge as an ally

:puke:

[anigbrowl]

25. Clinton campaign already leaked to drudge, in case you forgot

Don't be a hypocrite.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/us/politics/22drudge.html

***
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 — As Senator Barack Obama prepared to give a major speech on Iraq one morning a few weeks ago, a flashing red-siren alert went up on the Drudge Report Web site. It read, “Queen of the Quarter: Hillary Crushes Obama in Surprise Fund-Raising Surge,” and, “$27 Million, Sources Tell Drudge Report.”

Within minutes, the Drudge site had injected Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s fund-raising success into the day’s political news on the Internet and cable television. It did not halt coverage of Mr. Obama’s speech or his criticism of her vote to authorize the war in 2002, but along the front lines of the campaign — the hourly, intensely fought effort to capture the news cycle or deny ownership of it to the other side — it was a telling assault.

Mrs. Clinton’s aides declined to discuss how the Drudge Report got access to her latest fund-raising figures nearly 20 minutes before the official announcement went to supporters. But it was a prime example of a development that has surprised much of the political world: Mrs. Clinton is learning to play nice with the Drudge Report and the powerful, elusive and conservative-leaning man behind it.
***

[AX10]

32. You still have no solid proof.

Consider that when you throw your smears.

[Occam Bandage]

17. Goddamn, they're like Karl Rove's Little League team.

[KittyWampus]

18. Money quote "vacillating style", snicker

[Cha]

19. why did hilary so rabidly support bush policy if

she thought it was junk? hilary has become a caricature of herself.

Such bullshit that she received praise for her groveling that she was proud to be on the stage with Obama when it's clear to most that bitch is the new black.

[VolcanoJen]

20. There it is!

Guess I hadn't been hitting "refresh" fast enough. Thank you BeyondGeo!

Christ. Sounds like the nuclear option. I'm thinking it's not going to turn out the way the Clinton camp would like, and that they've once again in this campaign completely misjudged the mood of the public to their detriment.

Dragging down Obama, the now favored as well as currently winning, nominee, can only be seen as selfish and destructive at this point. And I'm being nicer about that than I really feel.

[loveangelc]

23. I was trying to be nice but I really despise this bitch. Yes, I called her a bitch.

But this is what she has to do. Throw everything she can out and hope that something sticks...when that's the only strategy you have left, you KNOW you could be coming to the end. We'll see how this works out for her...

[TexasObserver]

24. It's called "throw everything at the wall, and see what sticks"

Desperation in action.

[SoCalDem]

26. sink..an appropriate word

[ruggerson]

29. "It has not been independently verified that the photograph came from the Clinton campaign."

"It has not been independently verified that the photograph came from the Clinton campaign."

[FlyingSquirrel]

33. It has not been independently verified that the photograph came from the Clinton campaign?

Would Drudge LIE to us?

:shrug:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

30. Throwing the kitchen sink while the house is burning down.

[Stephanie]

31. How about after this one we call it a night, babe?

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//080219/480/a57ccc91939d43f39d6870bbef68df23/