Where Were Obama's Friends?

[question everything]

Where Were Obama's Friends?
May 1, 2008; Page A15

It's tough being Everyman.

Way back when, before the angry and antic prophet Jeremiah rose to smite him, Barack Obama appeared before us as an open presidential vessel, into which many poured their political dreams. Foremost were black Americans. Bill Clinton famously diminished the Obama candidacy during the South Carolina primary as just one more Jesse Jackson fling. But across the black community, support for this candidate clearly had deeper roots. Head to head against Hillary, he has been getting huge majorities of the black vote. This was their moment.

Upscale white voters signed on and were belittled as liberals exorcising white guilt. Maybe, but for many Obama was also the un-Bush and un-Hillary. Independents worn down by 16 years of Red-Blue trench warfare bought the "change" promise. Obama sounded like he could pull it off. Indies like to dream. Brand-name Democrats, such as various members of the Kennedy aristocracy, went over, calculating it might be easier to push the party forward with Obama's lightness of being than the Clintons' boxcars of baggage.

(snip)

This week we learned the limit of a dream in American politics. At Barack Obama's darkest hour, not one prominent ally came forward to support him. Everyone abandoned Everyman. No prominent black clergyman came forth to make even the simple point that Jeremiah Wright's notion of the "black church" is but one point on a spectrum of faith. Rev. Wright, now written off as a virtual nut case, got more support from black clergymen than did Obama.

Barack Obama was bleeding by Monday and needed cover. Where, when he could have used them, were Obama's oh-so-famous endorsers: Jesse Jackson, Ted Kennedy, Oprah, John Kerry, Chris Dodd, Patrick Leahy, Tom Daschle, Amy Klobuchar, Claire McCaskill, Jay Rockefeller, John Lewis, Toni Morrison, Roger Wilkins, Eric Holder, Robert Reich, Ted Sorenson, Alice Walker, David Wilhelm, Cornel West, Clifford Alexander, Donald McHenry, Patricia Wald, Newton Minow? Where were all the big-city mayors who went over to the Obama camp: Chicago's Richard Daley, Cleveland's Frank Reynolds, Atlanta's Shirley Franklin, Washington's Adrian Fenty, Newark's Cory Booker, Baltimore's Sheila Dixon? It isn't hard for big names to get on talk TV to make a point. Any major op-ed page would have stopped the presses to print a statement of support from Ted Kennedy or such for the senator. None appeared. Call it profiles in gopher-holing.

(snip)




URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120959982358857837.html

[jillan]

1. So true!

Reminds me of Kerry in 2004 when no one stepped up on the msm to defend him from the swiftboat liars.

[anonymous171]

5. Kerry certainly stood up to the MSM this time.

Did Obama help him find his spine or something?

[JerseygirlCT]

27. Yes, he did. nt

[Rosa Luxemburg]

30. YES HE DID!

[MadBadger]

9. But its not true. Do you know who stepped up today? John Kerry.

[anonymous171]

10. And he kicked fucking ass. All of Obama's surrogates should say the exact same thing Kerry did.

[MadBadger]

11. You can tell its the bosses on MSNBC that wanted to keep this story up

Because Alex Witt who was doing the interview, clearly thought that they should move on.

[NNN0LHI]

20. Today? No the article is about Sunday and Monday when they were really needed

They were hitting the mattresses praying this would blow over.

All talking about it today does is just keep it all in the news another day which is not smart.

Don

[CTyankee]

23. No, I think they knew that Obama had to have his say first and then they could take it from there.

Obama needed to take the lead and he did. Now they can come to the fore and be his supporters. I want to believe that this issue has been "put to rest" but a nagging voice in my head says that maybe some of his prominent supporters are having misgivings
about Obama's ability to override the Wright issue.

I think everyone is nervous about next Tuesday's IN and NC primaries. I'm literally losing sleep with worry over what may be the damage to our chances in November...

[MadBadger]

2. Ive seen Durbin, Richardson, and Kerry on TV the past couple days.

[writes3000]

4. Yep. It's called strategy. n/t

[writes3000]

3. Easy: Obama planned to make a statement and he wanted that to be the headline.

The friends rallied behind him after the statement.

The Obama campaign's messaging efficiency is top notch.

[FrenchieCat]

6. What should His Friends say?

There is no scandal....only one being made up as we go.

The faked outrage over a non existent scandal is psych-Op at its worse.
Black propaganda at that.

Here's a real scandal....and they were writing this guy's obituary!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btaqpNOk5Po&eurl=http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=125857&mesg_id=125857

Here's the real scandal concerning Obama!

[cliffordu]

7. Yep.

[TexasLady]

13. They ain't got nothin'

and they know it.There's no juicy adultery or murder or big scary anything against Obama. They KNOW it, so they picked at THIS stupid shit. I guarantee, neither Hillary nor McCain could come out smelling like a rose if people they have associated with, often for YEARS, were made to face this stupid idiotic ratings fake-story.

[question everything]

29. On NPR, someone, did not get his name, a black Pentacostal Minsiter

said that Wright does not represent all black churches.

[rpannier]

8. It's a valid critique on some levels

As another poster noted, many bailed on Kerry during the swiftboat attacks and another pointed out, that a few have started appearing on TV.

I could argue that the 7 SD's he's picked up recently diffuse some of that article.
But these SD's lack the name recognition that a Ted Kennedy, John Kerry or Richard Daley carries

[John Q. Citizen]

12. I love how the super delegates keep moving to Obama. They like him better than Clinton, for sure.

[ecstatic]

14. fair enough.

But this is a test for Obama and Obama will show that he is capable of handling it without a series of surrogates whining and complaining (like HRC's surrogates). Notice, Michelle wasn't even on the stage with him during that emotional press conference.

[graycem]

16. I saw a portion of their interview

this morning on the Today show (Think it's going to air on MSNBC this Fri. or Sat.), and she was very strong and uplifting to him, they work great as a team, and you can see that the things she says about him are genuine. She did fantastic.

[graycem]

15. I disagree

I think that He wanted to handle it otherwise he would look like he was hiding behind them. And John Kerry DID come out and pretty forcefully for Kerry, on MSNBC and said he's answered that, now let's get back to the issues that matter like the jobs in this country, etc. They did the right thing by allowing him to show SD's he could handle it. And I've heard things to the contrary, that they were supporting him behind the scenes and calling on Rev. Wright to not do what he did, etc.

[WyLoochka]

17. Not getting media coverage

even though speaking. What's new?

[Avalux]

18. I disagree. It was best they stay out of it and allow Obama to handle it on his own.

Too many 'friends' muddying up the airwaves before Obama made a statement would not have been good. Once he did, then some of them came out in support. Richardson, Kerry and McCaskill were excellent.

His friends were there, just waiting for him to lead, which he did magnificently.

[Spazito]

19. Well, it seems he has gained another friend and Hillary lost one

DNC chairman under Bill Clinton: Unite behind Obama

WASHINGTON - A leader of the Democratic Party under Bill Clinton has switched his allegiance to Barack Obama and is encouraging fellow Democrats to "heal the rift in our party" and unite behind the Illinois senator.

"I am convinced that the primary process has devolved to the point that it's now bad for the Democratic Party," Andrew said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

snip

Andrew said in his letter that he is switching his support because "a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote to continue this process, and a vote to continue this process is a vote that assists (Republican) John McCain."

snip

"He has shown such mettle under fire," Andrew said in the interview. "The Jeremiah Wright controversy just reconfirmed for me, just as the gas tax controversy confirmed for me, that he is the right candidate for our party."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080501/ap_on_el_pr/superdelegates

[burythehatchet]

21. I cannot recall why I stopped reading the WSJ editorial pages....

give me a minute, it'll come to me.

[izzybeans]

22. Leave it to the WSJ to ignore the basic facts that discount this thesis.

[susankh4]

24. Uh... they didn't want to piss the Clintons off?

Any more than they already had???

I mean... nobody wants a past and future president mad at them, right?

[TragedyandHope]

25. Dick Durbin was slamming the MSM on MSNBC yesterday

I even saw a Black Representative who is a Hillary Supporter defending Obama against the media firestorm over Wright yesterday. It was pretty uncomfortable as he tried to communicate reality to the indignant cable news anchor.

[Left coast liberal]

26. I think they dind't jump into the fray because he is a big boy and...

...can take care of himself. He didn't need a posse coming in to save him. He handled himself just fine. Stood up for himself just fine.

If our Dem pick needs his "gang" to stand up to the shit heel press, etc. flinging rocks then he really wouldn't be up for the job now, would he?

This Wright thing will subside. But, hey you good people, stop feeding the beast!

[JerseygirlCT]

28. That's what I was thinking. He can handle it himself, and he's

showing that.

[Raine]

31. If all these people had come forward we would've heard more crap

about how Obama wasn't "tough" enough to handle it on his own.