McCain has the
wrong experience. Hillary's is
exaggerated. Even her
SCHIP experience has
sailed.
Hillary can't play the Rezko card too hard because
there are too many shady Clinton deals yet to be vetted and on money,
transparency isn't her strong suit.
Hillary declared herself to be better prepared to go up against McCain. Yet when a controversy was brewing, she
failed the leadership test.
A controversy for a controversy? Obama
stepped up masterfully.
Concern: The Republicans will play the Jeremy Wright card.
Crazy Republicans!What about 527s? Are those exclusively Republican? If the GOP goes there, who believes their attacks will go unanswered?
Posted March 15th, 2008 at 9:05 am
It was largely unexpected, but questions about Barack Obama’s church pastor had, oddly enough, suddenly become the one political controversy that stood to do the most damage to his campaign. The Rezko story seems pretty thin, NAFTA-gate turned out to be much less than met the eye, the “madrassa” story was complete nonsense, and the “plagiarism” flap was just silly.
But questions about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright actually mattered, and over the last day or two, began to dominate. Portions of his more
inflammatory sermons were hard to dismiss, there was video that dominated the cable networks, and reasonable people wanted to hear more from Obama directly about his thoughts on Wright’s, shall we say, “provocative” ideas. Obama had denounced a variety of Wright’s comments, but it wasn’t quite enough.
Hoping to tackle the burgeoning controversy before it grew too intense, Obama
addressed the matter in a 600-word piece for the Huffington Post.
<...>
He appeared
on MSNBC last night to denounce Wright’s remarks even more forcefully, and did a nice job of trying to fit the controversy into his broader message of generational change.
<...>
Around the same time, campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor notified reporters that Wright will
no longer serve in his largely ceremonial role on Obama’s African American Religious Leadership Committee.
I’m cognizant of the opportunity for hypocrisy. To be intellectually honest, I’ve been thinking about how I’d react if Obama were a Republican with a far-right pastor with a record of inflammatory rhetoric. Under the circumstances, I’d expect (and probably write a great deal about) the need for the candidate to repudiate the comments, disassociate himself with the pastor, and explain the association in some detail. As far as I can tell, Obama has done all three.
In this sense, I don’t think it’s hypocritical at all to criticize John McCain for his embrace of right-wing religious extremists (Falwell, Hagee, and Parsley, among others), while defending Obama from conservative attacks about Wright. The different is in the response — McCain went out of his way to reach out to radical religious figures, rationalize their hate-filled rhetoric, and use his associations for political gain. All available evidence suggests Obama has done the polar opposite.
Ultimately, as offensive as Wright’s remarks have been, I just don’t see where else the story can go. Obama is a member of a Christian church, his Christian pastor has said some ridiculous things, and Obama has denounced them. If we’re going to start holding candidates responsible for every utterance from their congregation, the burdens on politicians will quickly become ridiculous.
<...>
If Obama had kept quiet, and said nothing about Wright, it would have been a mistake. The questions have been fair and legitimate. But Obama appears to have answered them. I don’t doubt the far-right will make every effort to milk this for all it’s worth, for as long as possible, but the suggestions that Wright’s comments should bring Obama’s patriotism into doubt are cheap and misguided — and the right knows it.
Moving on: Hillary or Obama, who will McCain go after on Iraq? Hint:
Bill.
I know
Bill isn't running.
This is how it has played out and will continue to play out until Obama wins the nomination.
The projecting will continue. Whenever the caps come out with Obama's name, substitute Hillary:
Obama Hillary is a
LIAR! Obama Hillary
LIES! Obama Hillary is
LYING!Obama Hillary is a
FRAUD!Obama Hillary will do
ANYTHING to WIN!What about McCain's lies:
pick one, or several.
It's all about how Hillary and McCain are the wrong choice! In the Democratic primary, Hillary doesn't have the
numbers . No amount of spin is going to erase the huge hole she dug herself into.
Obama: Yes. We. Can.
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