Obama mentioned in the recent Democratic debate that he would withdraw quickly from Iraq, but reserve the right to reenter if Al Qaeda formed a base there. McCain criticized Obama for these remarks:
For some related analysis, look at this Washington Post op-ed, which describes a new book by a former CIA officer who has done a statistical analysis on the potential terrorist threats to our nation. He concludes that Iraq has made us worse off given that it has provided a sort of “glorification” for the war on terror and Muslim extremism.
Remember Geraldine Ferraro? She ran as Walter Mondale’s VP in 1984 against Ronald Reagan in an historic landslide victory for the GOP. She wrote an op-ed in yesterday’s NYT. Here is a snippet of her thoughts on superdelegates:
But the superdelegates were created to lead, not to follow. They were, and are, expected to determine what is best for our party and best for the country. I would hope that is why many superdelegates have already chosen a candidate to support.
Unfortunately, her op-ed column is about as effective as her campaign was in 1984. My response:
While Geraldine Ferraro refers to herself as a “fairly knowledgeable political cynic,” I’m not so sure that her column portrays her as such. She seems to distrust the primary results given that turnout is often lower in primary elections than in their general counterparts, but in a year where voters have come out in record numbers, why should we immediately question those results? While it is plausible that a majority of Democrats have not voiced their opinions at the polls yet, it seems as though Ferraro somehow conveniently assumes that this may translate into the party backing a nominee whom the majority of Democratic voters do not support.Furthermore, the fact that she alludes to a system prohibiting the involvement of non-Democrats in the Democratic primaries sheds light on the partisan nature of her opinion.The basic tenet of an electoral campaign is to obtain the most votes, and if the Democratic nominee has a chance to receive votes from Republicans and Independents, isn’t that a good thing?Quite frankly, Ferraro comes off as an ardent Hillary Clinton supporter attempting to distort the picture that the primary results have drawn thus far: Barack Obama remains the most electable Democratic candidate.
Just hours after the Times’s story was posted, the McCain campaign issued a point-by-point response that depicted the letters as routine correspondence handled by his staff—and insisted that McCain had never even spoken with anybody from Paxson or Alcalde & Fay about the matter. “No representative of Paxson or Alcalde & Fay personally asked Senator McCain to send a letter to the FCC,” the campaign said in a statement e-mailed to reporters.
But that flat claim seems to be contradicted by an impeccable source: McCain himself. “I was contacted by Mr. [Lowell] Paxson on this issue,” McCain said in the Sept. 25, 2002, deposition obtained by NEWSWEEK. “He wanted their approval very bad for purposes of his business. I believe that Mr. Paxson had a legitimate complaint.”
Remember this from the Democratic debate in Las Vegas in November?
I don’t mind taking hits on my record, on issues, but when somebody starts throwing mud, at least we can hope that it’s both accurate and not right out of the Republican play book
Yesterday in Youngstown, Ohio, where Senator Clinton spoke after losing the Wisconsin primary, Tom Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, introduced the Senator with some perennial lines straight out of the Guide to Being a Good Republican:
Buffenbarger called Obama a “thespian,” and he sarcastically referred to the junior senator from Illinois as a “wunderkind.” He compared Obama to “Janus, the two-faced Roman god of ancient times.” And he pleaded with the crowd to boo Obama’s labor record. Early in his speech, Buffenbarger asked, “So now we have a decision to make. Will we rely on the Harvard Law Review editor? The silver-tongued orator from Kansas, Hawaii and Illinois? The man in love with the microphone?” But it was Obama supporters for whom Buffenbarger saved his most vitriolic contempt, and he proved that the Democratic Party’s coalition is nothing if not fragile. Channeling Howard Beale from the movie “Network,” he yelled into the microphone, “Give me a break! I’ve got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies crowding in to hear him speak! This guy won’t last a round against the Republican attack machine. He’s a poet, not a fighter.”
If I didn’t know that this was a Hillary Clinton event, I would’ve just turned off the TV, thinking it was the CPAC convention, or FOX news, or even a McCain rally. Seriously, the Clinton campaign vetted this guy’s introduction? No, they didn’t just give the green light on this closet Republican; they encouraged it and came out looking like total hypocrites in the process. If Hillary Clinton has to start pulling lines from Ann Coulter then you know she’s not feeling too swell about her chances of winning the nomination. If she goes down in this fight, she won’t be missed at all if she continues running the campaign of a sore loser.
In a last minute attempt to make up ground in Wisconsin before tomorrow’s primary, the Clinton campaign is accusing Senator Obama of plagiarizing portions of a recent speech.
