So how does it feel?

[last1standing]

How does it feel to see your candidate skewered for comments you feel were taken out of context?

When "bittergate" broke and it was found that Barack Obama had the gall to suggest that lives of economic depression had left some people bitter, with little to cling to other than religion, guns and bigotry, many Hillary supporters raged against him for saying something so "elitist". Remember that?

Mind you, that's something I would expect on an anonymous message board where any socially stunted deviant with a keyboard can spew whatever hatred they desire, but then Hillary stood before an audience and said that the good people of Pennsylvania didn't want some elitist telling a group in SAN FRANCISCO that they were bitter because they were really as happy as could be.

Yep, Hillary could have taken the high road - she knew as well as anyone that Obama had merely slipped, making a truthful remark in a less than polished manner. But she decided instead to milk it for every god, guns and gays vote she could squeeze out of PA. It was an extremely callous and distasteful decision and, sadly, many of her supporters at DU were all too happy to jump on that band wagon.

Then there was the blowup about knowing Pastor Wright when it was also known that Hillary is part of an ultra-conservative religious group, the Fellowship, that among other beliefs admonishes homosexuality.

There were even people here who tried to make a production out of Obama stating that he'd been to 57 states on one occasion.

And now there's this.

Hillary Clinton is caught on tape using Bobby Kennedy's assassination as justification for staying in the race. DU exploded with anger over these remarks except for the same Hillary supporters who were all too pleased to skewer Obama for "bittergate" and "wrightgate" and "57statesgate". These posters have been online all night claiming faux outrage and suggesting that anyone who is angry over her comments is just using them to sink Hillary's chances at the nomination.

So how does it feel finding yourselves on this side of the fence? Does it hurt a little knowing that fellow Democrats are tearing your candidate to shreds over something you don't think is a big deal?

Has any of you taken a moment to consider that your previous actions have left you with no credibility when screaming for calm?

Did any of you who drove that blade into the backs of Obama supporters in April understand that the same blade could be turned back on you?

And has one of you, just one, thought that maybe an honest apology for the divisive tactics you took such glee in could help slow the bleed here at DU?

Just one?

[skooooo]

1. There's no "out of context" here...

She is plain vile.

[GarbagemanLB]

2. AMEN. Fuck those Hillary supporters screaming over 'bittergate'.

[Coexist]

3. if the shoe was on the other foot....

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/24/8251/65136/821/521919

To: All interested parties
From: Harold Ickes
Re: Reckless and Unfit

Running for the office of President of the United States is like a long interview process. Every day, candidates meet normal Americans and try to win their confidence, hoping that they will choose them for the job. The process is long and hard, and it's not for everyone. Some thrive, some falter. But when you're up for the toughest job in the world, you can't have a "bad day." Every day, every hour, every minute is important to the American people, and today, Senator Obama showed that he's simply not ready for the challenges of the office he seeks.

Currently trailing in pledged delegates, superdelegates, the popular vote, and states won, Senator Obama's campaign is also in tremendous financial debt. Yet he continues in his quest for the nomination, hoping that somehow Senator Clinton will make a misstep, or that some new scandal is revealed. But today, to a shocked nation, Senator Obama stated that he would continue his quest until June, invoking the assassination of Robert Kennedy as justification for his Sisyphean campaign. It was reckless, tasteless, crass, and shows just how far Senator Obama has fallen since the early days of his campaign. Hope? Change? Not anymore. Today it's "Fear You Can Believe In."

Senator Obama should know, more than any other candidate, the perils of being a historic and culturally significant candidate. As a woman, there are no shortage of threats to Senator Clinton's life on the campaign trail, and every day is an exercise in courage.

Senator Obama should be ashamed of himself. If he had any decency at all, he would drop out of the race. As we have come to learn, however, the only thing important to Senator Obama is his vainglorious and narcissistic run for the office of President. No other concern worries Senator Obama - not the grave challenges this country faces, not the need to unify the Democratic Party, and certainly not the safety of his challenger.

Today Senator Obama showed why he should not and cannot be President of the United States. He is too young, too inexperienced, and too unconcerned of the tragedies of history to tackle the serious and daunting challenges of the next eight years. While waiting patiently for Senator Clinton to implode, Barack Obama did exactly that today.

This press release would be followed by a commercial, made in haste, on the streets of South Dakota, and comprised solely of women:

EXT. Streets of Sioux Falls

Ominous music swells as white text begins to pop up on a black screen:

Why did he say it?

Cut to a montage of middle aged white women standing on the streets of Sioux Falls:

Woman 1 (looking shocked): He didn't... (shaking her head)

Woman 2 (angry): What exactly did he mean by that? Huh? You tell me.

Woman 3 (sad): We just don't need that kind of stuff.

Woman 4 (spitting mad): What do I tell my daughters?

Woman 5 (calm, normal): I knew he'd put his foot in mouth sometime. What is he, like 30?

Woman 6 (contemplative): I used to like him so much. What happened to him?

Woman 7 (firm, determined): He ain't doing nothing for us no more. Why's he still runnin'?

Woman 8 (sad): Why did he say it? What was he trying to pull?

Fade to black.

VO: Barack Obama. Young. Inexperienced. Reckless. Tasteless. And wrong.

Hillary Clinton picture fades up.

VO: I'm Hillary Clinton and I approve this message!!

[quantass]

4. And the funny thing is that the Obama Campaign will STILL be Generous and Kind to her

for example, Axelrod came on tv and tried to say she didnt mean to say it that way....if it were Hillary and her campaign they would have been going nutz spreading the word everywhere...as you mention in the OP

Great post btw...K&R

[WeDidIt]

5. Barack Obama is such a better man than I

And that single fact is what gives me hope.

[livingmadness]

6. I saw that too and wasnot in the least surprised.

And glad. Once again the Obama campaign have shown class.

[last1standing]

7. Just like her attacks after the bitter remark.

She knew what he was saying and when cornered even admitted as such. But then she just started up with the refrain "well, I was just expressing how OTHER people would see it".

We STILL have DUers posting threads calling Obama supporters latte liberals and elitists because of Hillary's hateful attacks on Obama.

Yet I bet not one offers a real apology.

Not one.

[CreekDog]

23. and they mocked San Francisco in the process

and if we in the Bay Area didn't vote as overwhelmingly Democratic as we do, there would not have been a Clinton presidency, or majorities in Congress. this was her bread and butter constituency and she mocked us.

when she alluded to "San Francisco", i thought about my family members born here in San Francisco that voted for her and donated to her and how cruel and unthinking she can be.

[Sulawesi]

8. Excellent Post

[DerekJ]

9. You said what I wanted to say, with one exception, her quote was not out of context.

K&R

[last1standing]

10. That was written for the Hillary supporters who "feel" it was taken out of context.

I agree that it's difficult to take something out of context when the entire comment is heard, but that's what they want to believe. :shrug:

[MrsT]

11. I never got all worked up about "bittergate"

In all honesty, what she said was dumber than that. How does it make me feel? It makes me feel that she is human, can make mistakes, and can say dumb things.

[last1standing]

13. Most Hillary supporters didn't get worked up about the bitter remark.

Unfortunately, the few who did - or were paid to do so - pushed thread after thread claiming that Obama and his supporters were elitists who lived in ivory towers, drinking our lattes. They positively reveled in it. It's these same posters who are screaming the loudest that Hillary's assassination remark means nothing. I just find the hypocrisy to be astounding. Even when confronted, they either ignore it or somehow try to claim that the bitter comment was worse.

My real feeling is that BOTH candidates are human and can make mistakes. Both had made the same comments previously and then fine tuned them to sound less distasteful. On the other hand, Hillary did jump at the chance to exploit "bittergate" as much as possible. We'll see what Obama does.

Thanks for your post, MrsT. It gave me the chance to state that the vast majority of both candidates' supporters are reasonable, decent people. It's the few who send everything downward.

[MrsT]

16. I agree with everything you said. eom

[hfojvt]

31. the few and the loud

but it does not happen in a vacuum. Those OP's were also being kicked and recommended.

As far as your OP, you might ask how it feels on the other foot. Hillary supporters, you say, milked bittergate, pastorgate, Rezkogate, NAFTAgate, and so on, but all of that seems to be a sign of the times.

Certainly Obama supporters milked the McCain comment, the screaming in Ohio, the Bosnia sniper story, and on and on and on. This is not the first time Hillary has been thrashed for what she said - not by a long shot.

Maybe it has always been this way. The word "gate" is part and parcel of it. One thing I observed in my life is that the press and political people are always looking for a "gate" - basically a scandal which will take down a President or take down a candidate. Candidates can seemingly be taken down by small things. By something as small as a penis, whether it is Gary Hart's or Bill Clinton's. Muskie was taken down by tears. McGovern was taken down by Eagleton. Dean was taken down by a scream and Gore was attacked for a sigh.

It becomes a battle of incidents and gaffes. One that is usually one-sided. As a partisan, I seek out and distribute the gaffes of the candidate I oppose, and hide and dimish the gaffes of my candidate. If my candidate fumbles a phrase, they are only human. If yours does it, then they are a liar or an idiot.

Lost is a discussion of actual policies. Following the Gore/Bush debate the press did not talk about Gore's accuracy in describing Bush's tax cuts tilt to the wealthy. That was too complicated. I can't handle the math, Ted Koppel said. But look, if I amplify the sound, Gore is sighing. What an arrogant pusbag. And I can dig through his travel records and show that he did NOT goto Texas with James Lee Witt like he said, so he's a liar. That's the kind of thing I can investigate, not some boring old policy facts.

The M$M has clearly been partisan against Democrats too. Bush is brazenly allowed to claim "my tax cuts give the greatest percentage to lower income workers" or "We gave Saddam a chance to let the inspectors in, but he wouldn't, so we invaded" and so on, with hardly a whimper. While the same press corps was more than happy to go after Gore and Kerry.

We still see the same things this time as the press pushes things like flag pins and Wright, and it also promotes the Bush tax cuts and capital gains tax cuts. According to a debate moderator, they pay for themselves, and a debate moderator tried to say that two professors would make $200,000 a year, but the audience kinda laughed him off the stage. That's one thing we certainly need this time - an informed and energized audience (citizenry).

[RazBerryBeret]

14. are you at all worried

about how she would handle international diplomacy after this? Imagine if a comment like that were to a foreign leader.

[MrsT]

17. No, because EVERY candidate & president is going to make gaffes. eom

[CaptJasHook]

15. That was generous of you.

But can you tell me why she said it over 3 times? Or why she changed the language at one point?

I too, admit that Obama is not the consumate politician that some of my fellow supporters claim. Sweetie and bitter were mistakes. Talking points that failed, bad judgment. Can you honestly claim that Hillary's words yesterday were a mistake?

[MrsT]

18. She referenced the assassination two other times without much incident

because her wording was better. Not so yesterday.

[CaptJasHook]

20. Okay, and that excuses it?

If you admit that she used the reference before and that her "wording" (which was the same on 2 other occasions) was better. Then don't you see a problem?

Furthermore, don't you question her judgment given the abysmal timing?

[ReverendDeuce]

12. RPHEs are spinning so fast on this they make the Tasmanian Devil look like a ballroom dancer...

Their claims of "faux outrage" totally land on deaf ears.

[ampad]

19. Thank you

I'm not willing to give her the benefit of the doubt or her supporters. They went ape shit crazy over the bitter comment, the sweetie comment, Rev.Wright ( which has only recently calmed down) and the unfortunate to have a baby comment. I will never forget a DU'er having the nerve to say that Obama was taking a swipe at her because she had her baby when she was a teen. She started an entire post and the Hillary supporters were more than happy to chime in with their faux outrage. What pisses me off is that I know that these people are not dumb and that they knew what Obama meant with each and every comment, they fucking knew. They also knew that guilt by association is a dangerous road to travel down because I don't know too many people who call themselves liberals who arefa ns of books such as 1984. That entire Wright fiasco sounded like it came straight from the fucking though police but they decided to follow the right wing and pile it on because they thought it was good for their candidate. I find it funny how so many of them were breaking their backs last night to call folks oversensitive and faux outrage, it was so damn funny. I bet if you clicked on any of those screen names that were going off and insulting folks last night for their outrage you will see at least a dozen threads and comments started by them about: Wright, sweetie gate, unfortunate baby gate, finger gate and especially bitter gate. I bet you will not be disappointed and for those who come on here with their "concern" that we are blowing this out of proportion yet claim to not be Hillary fans I have one question? Why the "above all of you now" post? Where were you when folks were biting at the chomp at bitter gate? I guess you didn't care about that but you care about this gaffe, well as far as I am concern you are the biggest hypocrite of them all. Folks don't need you telling them to get over this when you couldn't muster up the courage to come in and defend Obama during bitter gate and as far as I'm concern you are a Hill supporter because of it.

Let us not forget just a couple of days ago when someone made the comment that Chelsea was a cray baby. You would of thought someone kicked her in the face. The ones who love to start their day off on DU with post on "why are you so mean to Hillary supporters" "leave Chelsea alone" the coddlers the enablers were all over that shit. You got people who don't even have the right to vote in this country egging Hill supporters on with faux outrage post and they just eat the shit up. Now the tables are turned and they want to tell us to calm down. Funny because if there is anything to be a little upset over I think this would be it. It surely wasn't fucking bitter gate where there was no talk of people possibly being killed. It sure wasn't Rev. Wright when folks knew good and damn well the bi-racial candidate, the candidate raised by his white family is not a fucking racist. It sure was not "typical white person" comment. It sure was not finger gate when they knew Obama did not flip the witch off. It was none of that. When you go evoking hurt feeling and assassination to justify your reason to stay in a race then there might just be an issues. There might be an issue because Ted Kennedy was just diagnosed with a brain tumor and didn't need to hear all that from Clinton. It might be an issue because Obama had to have secret service detail earlier than most candidates because of the color of his fucking skin.

Yea people are sensitive about it Hill supporters, you still pissed off because Obama called some people bitter because of the economic woes? Is that still sticking in your craw? Oh and about Chelsea the grown ass woman who some of you have some weird duty to protect from any criticism well what about the Obama girls, you know the Obama CHILDREN? How do you think they feel knowing that their daddy could probably get a bullet in the head because of the color of his skin all the while Hillary is out there making tacky comments such as this not once, but several times. You know what about the fucking children?

You know I don't think Hillary meant the Obama family any hurt and pain when she made that comment; not to the best of my knowledge she didn't.

[SoFlaJet]

30. and thank YOU ampad

that's where my mind went to also, his family. How does Michelle feel about that comment and that "apology"? What does she SAY to those two beautiful girls? Why aren't the protectors and defenders of the indefensible outraged at THAT? All this from a man's point of view...and a father and grandfather of beautiful children half of them boys the other half girls

[bbgrunt]

21. Well, coming on the heels of the brohaha regarding the

remarks by Huckabee, one has to wonder just how much of a simple gaff this could be.

[CreekDog]

22. Amen, I could not have said it better

:hi:

[Blue_Roses]

24. well said and while I knew

she didn't mean anything "threatening" by her comment, it was still a very tacky, thoughtless thing to say.
Well said:thumbsup:

[last1standing]

25. Very tacky, very thoughtless and yet some of her supporters continue.

So far I haven't heard a single word from the Obama camp attempting to take advantage of Hillary's remarks. This stands in strong contrast to her crass exploitation of "bittergate", racist codewords and now sexism charges.

Yet while some of her supporters jumped for every one of Hillary's attacks, the same people are crying foul when the we and the media take her apart for her bungling excuses for dividing the party when she has no chance at the nomination.

Just something to keep in mind, Terry McCauliffe has been saying for weeks that "anything can happen", in other words wishing for a catastrophic remark or event for Obama. When Hillary makes a statement like this, she is bound to set off people's radar.

As so many Hillary supporters have said repeatedly, "WORDS DO MATTER".

[Life Long Dem]

26. Obama didn't slip.

Nor were they taken out of context. He used words Clinton misunderstood. The words have the same meaning. And the meaning of what Obama was saying didn't change.

[last1standing]

28. Hillary didn't misunderstand his words, she twisted them.

She knew exactly what he meant and I'm sure she agreed with him, but that didn't stop her from using his remarks for a few votes from the least informed citizens. :mad:

[last1standing]

27. It's amazing how those Hillary supporters mentioned are avoiding this thread.

Those Hillary supporters who took advantage of gaffes to spread their hatred and are now crying that Obama supporter are being unfair are craven hypocrites. There's no nicer way to put it.

[Basement Beat]

29. K&R- This was absolutely on my mind as well. (n/t)

[Gore1FL]

32. Not to mentiuon her criticism of John Kerry n/t

[last1standing]

33. There are a hell of a lot of examples, aren't there?

The list keeps growing and still none of the Hillary supporters who took advantage of all these things is willing to come in and either apologize for their hypocrisy or explain exactly why Hillary's "assassingate" remarks aren't so bad. :shrug:

[cbc5g]

34. There are a few Geraldine Ferraro's on this board

To them it was Hillary or nothing. And anyone who gets in the way of that is automatically sexist. Then they throw a temper tantrum and leave the scene.

[last1standing]

35. If only they would leave the scene.

Instead they rant about how they're going to leave but never get around to walking out the door.

:shrug:

[anonymous171]

36. K and fucking R

:thumbsup: Perfect.

[last1standing]

37. LOL! Thanks.

n/t