Hillary's limbo: how low can she go?

[ProSense]

Videos: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com">Hillary's Bosnia lies and http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/1/85359/24244/36/488126">NAFTA lies?

A Tirade From Bill Clinton

By The New York Times

The fallout over the endorsement of Senator Barack Obama by Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico continues, with The San Francisco Chronicle reporting Wednesday that mention of it set off a red-faced, finger-wagging tirade from former President Bill Clinton on Sunday.

According to The Chronicle, the eruption occurred behind the scenes at the California Democratic convention, during a private meeting between Mr. Clinton and about 15 superdelegates. When Rachel Binah, a former Richardson delegate who now supports Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, brought up the Richardson endorsement, Mr. Clinton grew red with anger.

“Five times to my face,” Mr. Clinton was reported to have said, Mr. Richardson “said that he would never do that.”

The Chronicle said Mr. Clinton then went on to criticize the news media and the fairness of the caucuses, which have largely supported Mr. Obama. The newspaper quoted one attendee who described the scene as “intense, very intense.” But later, before the convention delegates, Mr. Clinton delivered a message of party unity and urged Democrats to “chill.”

Mr. Richardson, who held two positions in the Clinton administration, pushed back against accusations of disloyalty from the Clinton camp. In an op-ed article in The Washington Post on Tuesday, he deplored the “political venom” that greeted his decision to back Mr. Obama — particularly from James Carville, the Clinton adviser, who referred to Mr. Richardson as “Judas.” Mr. Richardson wrote that it was time to “move on from the politics of personal insult and attacks.” Mr. Obama is best equipped to do just that, he added

Obama Camp: Ickes Story Shows Hillary Campaign Taking "Low Road"

By Greg Sargent - April 2, 2008, 2:10PM

The Obama camp has now taken a direct shot at the Hillary campaign over our story yesterday reporting that Jeremiah Wright is a topic in discussions between senior Hillary adviser Harold Ickes and the uncommitted super-dels the Clinton camp is wooing.

Asked about our piece on a campaign conference call moments ago, an Obama surrogate, Congressman George Miller, said it was "very unfortunate" and suggested it wouldn't work.

"If they want to work the low road they're welcome to it," Miller said. "But I don't think that will turn people in their favor."

Relatedly, stay tuned for a TPMtv episode all about the Ickes story. We'll have one up at TPM in a couple hours.

Hillary's desperation: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com">The Argument (Video)


Meanwhile:

Second Montana superdelegate lines up behind Obama

Obama picked up another superdelegate, continuing the slow drip in his direction. (He has picked up 12 since March 4th to Clinton's one.)

National Union Hospital Healthcare Employees District 1199c Endorses Senator Obama

Obama trims Clinton's lead in Pa.

[dailykoff]

1. Lower than we're allowed to discuss here.

Let's just say LBJ is one of her heroes.

[ProSense]

2. Is Bill's

nose growing?

[dailykoff]

3. Either that or he's just glad to see her.

:)

[ProSense]

4. Striking resemblance:

[kwenu]

5. This isn't true across the board. Hillary's negatives are getting higher.

[grantcart]

6. They may be going low in private but is it just me or does it seem like in public

they have gone away from anything that approaches the 'McCain' resume line.

I think some clear guidelines have been issued.

[StevieM]

7. Hillary is a wonderful person who you are smearing. Obama is a bad human being (eom)

[ProSense]

8. Lynn Cheney? n/t

[StevieM]

9. So because Lynn Cheney once called someone a bad person, that means there are none?

If Lynn Cheney said 2+2=4 would you disbelieve that?

Obama has built his campaign up by tearing Hillary down on a personal level. He more or less calls her a bad person every day. So why can't I judge him to be a bad person?

Steve

[ProSense]

10. No, because her comment, like yours,

was not fact based

[Hepburn]

12. Could it be that...

...Hillary is a lying POS and it justifies her being called a "bad" person?

:eyes:

[TLM]

32. Link please....

"Obama has built his campaign up by tearing Hillary down on a personal level. He more or less calls her a bad person every day."


Cite ONE example showing Obama calling Hillary a bad person.

[dionysus]

13. ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL

bwahahahaha....

[quantass]

33. .

[TLM]

31. LOL wow... this is just sad....

Hillary is a wonderful person and Obama is a bad human... the hillary camp is just getting sad.

That's you defense of Hillary's lies and kitchen sink attack tactics... to say Obama is a bad human being.

[blm]

38. Can you prove it by Hillary's actions in recent years?

Like the way HRC and their loyalists backstabbed Kerry throughout 2003-4 to protect Bush?
http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=13354

Good people protected and defended Bush publicly during the 2004 campaign?
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/06/19/clinton.iraq/

Good people sabotaged Ohio Dem voters on election night?
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/oct/07/did_carville_tip_bush_off_to_kerry_strategy_woodward


Good people validate Bush and McCain's smears against one of our true hero Dems?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk1k0nUWEQg


You don't KNOW Hillary or Bill.

http://consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

[ProSense]

11. From the bitter files:

Top Hillary Adviser: Richardson Privately Said Obama Is Unelectable

Who cares? Richardson changed his mind. Get over it!

[ProSense]

14. Hillary's campaign: Yes. He. Can.

Hillary Spokesperson: Yes, Obama Can Win A General Election

By Greg Sargent - April 3, 2008, 11:46AM

On a conference call with reporters this morning, Hillary spokesperson Howard Wolfson was asked whether it's the Hillary campaign's official position that Obama can't win a general election against McCain, as Hillary is reported to have privately argued to Bill Richardson.

Wolfson's answer:

"No."

For some time now, the Hillary camp has been in a bind on this front. As her odds grow longer, it becomes necessary to sound the alarm about Obama's chances in a general election ever more loudly, to the point where the argument risks straying over the line into an assertion that he can't win at all.

Simply put, the campaign is struggling to strike a difficult balancing act: How to sow serious and enduring doubts about Obama's electability while simultaneously maintaining loyalty to the larger Democratic cause? Life ain't easy sometimes.

Any other response is BS!

[Scurrilous]

15. K & R

:thumbsup:

[The Night Owl]

16. Why are blog posts always the centerpieces of your info dumps? {EOM}

[jefferson_dem]

17. Blog posts don't count...

Whatever. :spray:

:kick:

[QC]

25. Usually she just links to a bunch of her old posts that are themselves nothing more than links

to more of her old posts, etc. It's like those Russian dolls.

This thread is actually a considerable improvement.

[ProSense]

28. Yeah, because the facts don't matter, April 2 was ages ago, and I'm running for office?

Usually whining and trying to make the thread about me is a sign that you have nothing to say.

[elmerdem]

18. How can any

democrat support such a racist campaign?

[NDambi]

19. lowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

[FrenchieCat]

20. By the time she's through,

She'll be in China!

[ProSense]

21. Enter Mark Penn, again

Clinton Top Aide Working to Help Colombian Trade Deal She Opposes, Part II

April 04, 2008 1:53 PM

Last year, Mark Penn told the Washington Post that conflicts of interest like this would not happen.

"Penn said that he has been cleared of all client responsibilities, except for Microsoft, for the duration of the campaign but that he still relies on a team of about 20 employees to do most of the day-to-day work. Though running a major company and a presidential campaign at the same time would seem to provide a number of possible conflicts, Penn insists there are none," the newspaper reported.

More to the point, what does this do to Sen. Hillary Clinton's outrage about the Austan Goolsbee story?

During that kerfuffle, Clinton lectured reporters to "look at that story, substitute my name for Senator Obama. If some of my advisers had been having private meetings with foreign governments and basically saying ignore what I'm saying because it's only political rhetoric…"

That of course is not what Penn was doing. He was, for cash money, advising the Colombian government how to get the trade deal passed, how to build popular support for it in the U.S. and in Congress.

What would Clinton say if David Axelrod were advising Colombia on how to pass the deal despite Sen. Barack Obama's opposition to it?

Holding a press conference right now, I bet.

From the link at "Clinton lectured reporters" above:

Clinton accused Obama of doing "the old wink-wink."

"It raises questions about Senator Obama coming to Ohio and giving speeches about NAFTA and having his chief economic adviser tell the Canadian government that it was just political rhetoric," Clinton told reporters. "I don't think people should come to Ohio and tell the people of Ohio one thing and then have your campaign tell a foreign government something else behind closed doors. That's the kind of difference between talk and action and that I've been pointing out in this campaign."

She then challenged reporters to pursue the issue more aggressively.

"I would ask you to look at that story, substitute my name for Senator Obama," Clinton said. "If some of my advisers had been having private meetings with foreign governments and basically saying ignore what I'm saying because it's only political rhetoric ... I think it raises serious questions."

With NAFTA very unpopular here in Ohio, the two candidates have warred over who is more opposed to the trade deal. At a rally in Toledo following the news conference, Gov. Ted Strickland blasted Obama for the meeting and noted that Clinton was backed by a man who had fought against NAFTA back in 1993, former House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt. The chief proponent of the deal whom Gephardt was battling was, of course, Bill Clinton, one of the agreement's biggest advocates back them.

link

‘NAFTA-gate’ story takes unexpected turn(hypocrisy)

[azmouse]

22. kick

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

23. How low?

Bogota, Colombia.

[Texas Hill Country]

24. you should see what Obama's people are doing to the Congressinal Black Caucus... OMFG.

[ProSense]

27. What? n/t

[GarbagemanLB]

30. 'Obama's people?' Got any proof that the Obama campaign is behind the threats? No? I didn't think so

[Catherina]

26. A place so low even sewer rats would recoil from the stench n/t

[quantass]

29. k&r

[ProSense]

34. Hospital Says Story Told By Hillary Is False

Hospital Says Story Told By Hillary Is False

By Eric Kleefeld - April 5, 2008, 9:31PM

A hospital in Ohio is disputing a story often told on the stump by Hillary Clinton, in which a woman was allegedly refused care over an inability to tender $100, and later died of complications from a stillbirth.

The hospital maintains that the woman in question was in the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with them when she died, and had never been refused service. They also say that the Clinton campaign never contacted them to check on the story. "We implore the Clinton campaign to immediately desist from repeating this story," said the hospital's CEO.

Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said the campaign verifies the anecdotes that they are told. "In this case, we did try but were not able to fully vet it," Elleithee said. "If the hospital claims it did not happen that way, we respect that."

[ProSense]

35. "Cooptation"

The Cooptation Gambit

<...>

That’s evidently the latest maneuver from the Clinton camp, if not the Clinton campaign.

As Marc Ambinder reports, a new website urging a “Clinton/Obama ticket” has less than one degree of separation from the Clinton campaign staff itself :

A Clinton insider who served as ex campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle’s executive assistant for several years has set up a new website, http://www.voteboth.com/ and plans to register with the Federal Election Commission today.

VoteBoth urges Democrats to support a joint Clinton-Obama ticket.

Its creator, Adam Parkhomenko, resigned from the campaign three weeks ago.

He had been one of the first employees of the 2006 incarnation of Clinton’s political action committee, HillPAC, and his proximity to the powers of the campaign will raise the question of whether the effort is sanctioned by the campaign. (Parkhomenko says that the idea was his own.)

<...>

What this is really about is an attempt to stop the bleeding of Clinton’s own “soft” supporters who have been moving into the undecided camp and then toward Obama (as the recent North Carolina and Pennsylvania polls have demonstrated). It’s not so much about wooing Obama supporters as it is to fool Clinton’s own base into thinking that such a ticket is possible (it’s not) and that they can get “two for one” if they stay on the plantation.

The website itself is nothing but a mailing list collector: viewers are shown a single page asking for their email and personal data. When all is said and done, Mr. Parkhomenko will be the owner of the email list of the most gullible suckers in America. Maybe that’s also one of the project’s goals, because fools and their money are soon parted.

Update: After a reader pointed me to Clinton fan (and rabid Obama basher) Taylor Marsh’s endorsement of this project today, I rest my case. Marsh, the poster-gal for the slow-class among Clinton supporters, has dedicated every waking moment in the past year to claiming Obama is unfit to be commander in chief. Now endorsing him for vice president - “Clinton and Obama would be unbeatable,” she gushes today - Marsh reveals that she doesn’t believe any of the slime she’s thrown at him: if Obama is suddenly fit to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, obviously - she now inadvertently surrenders - he’s just as ready to be president.

Related: Blogger John Brown does some research on Marsh and finds all kinds of interesting facts, including that she’s doesn’t really host a radio show (who knew?), that when she briefly did it was because she and her backers rented the time on the station, paying by the hour, and he identifies Marsh’s main financial backer that has paid her bills while she plays hall monitor for the slow class. Clearly, she’s the target demographic for this cooptation campaign!

They're like leeches!

[ProSense]

36. Evan Bayh compares Hillary to Gore.

Clinton-Backing Senator Compares Her to Gore Regarding 'Liar Caricature'

April 11, 2008 3:18 PM

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., a strong supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, today defended the former First Couple in this most recent controversy about her false story about flying into Bosnia -- and his false defense of it -- with a rather unfortunate comparison to former Vice President Al Gore.

"I think it was safe to say it was not a calculated political decision," Bayh said on MSNBC today, to Andrea Mitchell. "I mean, he loves her and he was trying to defend his wife from what he thinks is in some ways an unfair attack and I do think it’s fair to point out that all candidates -- myself included from time to time -- misspeak and all the other presidential candidates have done the same and sometimes these things take on a life of their own."

Bayh said, "I’m reminded of the 2000 campaign, when Al Gore every little statement was kinda of dissected and by the end of that you would have thought he was a serial liar of some kind. Inventing the internet, Love Story all those kinds of things."

"And he lost," pointed out Mitchell. "It had its impact."

"But now we know that's not true, that was a caricature that was kind of stitched together," Bayh said, "and it's the same thing with Hillary Clinton, she misspoke...and we need to move on."

The Gore analogy is likely not one the Clinton campaign would embrace. It's also likely not one that Gore would embrace. Because Gore in many ways got a bum rap on all that.

link

[ProSense]

37. Clinton to Rural Pennsylvanians: "You Can Be Victims, Too!"

Clinton to Rural Pennsylvanians: "You Can Be Victims, Too!"