it's as if lee atwater's soul took over hillary's body and is running her campaign

[dano81818]

"Her campaign has insinuated that he was once a drug dealer. Her husband has equated him with the rabble-rousing preacher Jesse Jackson. The Clintons have publicly associated Obama with domestic terrorist William Ayers, with the militant Palestinian group Hamas, and with antisemitic demagogue Louis Farrakhan. And what is remarkable about all this is that most of it was not done by surrogates, but by a former president of the United States against a senator in his own party, and directly by Clinton herself. Every time you think: “Nah, they won’t go there, will they?” – they do.

Right now, in Pennsylvania, Clinton is running only negative advertisements designed to exploit Obama’s gaffe a fortnight ago, when he described some rural Pennsylvanians as bitter, and as “clinging” to some traditional identities because they feel left out of economic and social change. It was a stupid offhand comment, easily misinterpreted, and Obama deserved a hit.

But this is what the Clintons’ actual advertisement says, voiced by several unidentified Pennsylvanians: “I was very insulted by Barack Obama.” “It shows how out of touch Barack Obama is.” “The good people of Pennsylvania deserve a lot better than what Barack Obama said.”

This is a swing state. For the Clintons baldly to coopt exactly the kind of antielitist rhetoric used to marginalise Democrats by Republicans for three decades is to take the campaign warfare to a whole new level of earth-scorching."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/andrew_sullivan/article3778978.ece

[davidinalameda]

1. Atwater repented on his death bed

this is all the Clintons' doing

it's been shown time and time again that they'll do anything for power

[dano81818]

2. lol so you are saying this was an insult to atwater

i see your point :)

[davidinalameda]

3. pretty much

and welcome to DU

[newmajority]

5. Even Lee Atwater would be horrified by the Hillary campaign's tactics

possibly even before his deathbed apology.

[QC]

6. Doubtful. Were you around when Atwater was doing his thing? n/t

[davidinalameda]

22. I remember Lee Atwater very well

what the Clintons are doing would have made him very proud when before he repented of his actions

[mod mom]

21. Ouch!

but I've got to agree.

[newmajority]

4. "...voiced by several unidentified Pennsylvanians....."

....Including one who was already identified as a Clinton campaign hack from Jersey.

[HereSince1628]

7. Stated more succinctly than DU'ers have, but it's been a theme in this forum...

For a month now, Obama has been pummelled by a Democrat in ways I have never witnessed in a primary campaign. Senator Hillary Clinton has directly argued that he is less qualified to be commander-in-chief than the Republican nominee, John McCain. She has said that she doesn’t know for sure that he is not a secret Muslim. She has said his choice of church is unacceptable to her. She has said he deliberately wants many Americans to continue scraping by without health insurance.

Her campaign has insinuated that he was once a drug dealer. Her husband has equated him with the rabble-rousing preacher Jesse Jackson. The Clintons have publicly associated Obama with domestic terrorist William Ayers, with the militant Palestinian group Hamas, and with antisemitic demagogue Louis Farrakhan. And what is remarkable about all this is that most of it was not done by surrogates, but by a former president of the United States against a senator in his own party, and directly by Clinton herself. Every time you think: “Nah, they won’t go there, will they?” – they do.

[Fovea]

8. Welcome to DU

I agree about the swing state.

I cannot imagine that there will not be consequences down the road for the block of Dems in Congress that constitute her core support.

I think this may well be the swan song of Rahm Emmanuel and the third way. Between this campaign, and the IWR, the shark is behind them now.

I think Bill Clinton may have lost a lot of good will from the African American community for years to come.

[dano81818]

12. just an fyi

i didnt write that, it is from an article that i linked to.

[OzarkDem]

9. Links to Andrew Sullivan on DU?

Puhleeze.

[QC]

10. Sully's a progressive now. Didn't you know? LOL!

Apparently, all it takes to be redeemed now is to accept The Obamessiah as one's Lord and Savior.

[Occam Bandage]

11. Er, he also endorsed Kerry over Bush.

[OzarkDem]

13. With friends like Sully

who needs enemies?

[Occam Bandage]

15. Bash him if you want, but he endorsed the Dems in '04 and '06, and looks to in '08. He's certainly

a conservative, but at the same time he's no knee-jerker.

[davidinalameda]

23. with friends like Hillary

and Bill and Carville and the rest of the Clinton hit squad

who needs enemies

[QC]

14. Er, after serving as chief courtier to Bush for years.

Does anyone else remember Sully's love affair with Bush? Oh, he was just so manly and decisive, unlike those treasonous liberal fifth columnists, and he understood the menace of "Islamofascism." Sully's heart used to flutter every time he thought of Georgie.

Back in those days, Sully could have taught the folks in the court of Louis XIV a few things about shoe-buckle-kissing.

[Occam Bandage]

16. Yeah. He's a conservative. At the same time, he's not a right-wing zombie. Around '03-'04,

he started writing about how the Republican party had abandoned any pretense of legitimacy or true conservatism, and they became some of his primary targets.

He realizes that the Iraq war was a mistake. He's anti-corruption, anti-torture, anti-drug-war, pro-gay-rights, anti-theocrat, and has called his Bush cheerleading "stupid and premature," calling Bush now a "shallow, monstrous, weak, and petty man."

Realistically, if you want to win in '08, you're going to need 'converts' who are sick of the Republican party. Sullivan is one of them. He's neither liberal nor Democrat, but he's a voice for the millions of moderate-conservative Americans who are sickened with the Republican party--and who are ripe for conversion to the Democratic party.

[QC]

17. I don't trust Sully, and that goes way back before this campaign.

It's true that we need to get every vote we can, and if RAWMUSLGLUTES is willing to vote for a Democrat, then good, but that does not mean I have to treat him like a prophet.

[Occam Bandage]

18. Well, you shouldn't 'trust' him; he ain't one of us and probably never will be. At the same time,

he's one of the few major voices that I can think of representing a rather large voting bloc (that is to say, moderate independent libertarians), and doing so in a generally fair manner. Yeah, he was a tool after 9/11, but his stuff from the last few years is pretty good.

We Democrats disagree with him on plenty of issues--he's pro-tax-cut, anti-welfare, pro-Social-Security-privatization, and anti-health-care-reform. At the same time, he agrees with us on a number of issues, he isn't a bully or an ideologue, and he isn't committed to either party. He seems to be writing what he honestly believes, rather than attempting to appease a rabid audience or engage in rhetorical warfare against an enemy. I wouldn't treat him like a prophet, no. But I wouldn't dismiss him as a hack, either.

[Fovea]

19. I use his writings

to understand the limits of Republican/Libtrn buyer's remorse.

And what I gather is that the loved ones of actual thinking conservatives have hidden all the razor blades.

[Writer]

20. Why do we assume that Obama's campaign hasn't played dirty?

If there is an heir to Atwater's ability, it is undoubtedly David Axelrod's brilliant whisper campaign to the media.

[davidinalameda]

24. pray tell

what whisper campaign

please give details