Obama Reaches into Hillary Hit Book
19 November 2007 9:01 am by Taylor Marsh
We’ve got Obama falling for a blind quote from Robert Novak to try to prove he’s tough, instead proving simply that he’s gullible and desperate enough to repeat Novak’s nonsense. Now he’s going into the Jeff Gerth
files, Mr. Whitewater himself. As Greg
Sargent also points out this morning, Gerth is the guy who broke Whitewater
and one of the authors of the book Obama is now quoting.
“I’m not in this race to fulfill some long-held plan or because it was
owed to me,” Obama told a gathering of Nevada Democrats after Thursday
night’s Las Vegas debate.Asked if Obama was referring to the pact, a spokeswoman replied, “Barack
Obama has not been mapping out his run for president from Washington for the
last 20 years like some of his opponents.”Clinton spokesman Blake Zeff responded, “This is an odd statement, considering
that the number of people who say Sen. Obama talked about running for president
as a youngster seems to grow daily.”
Obama’s line comes from the book “Her
Way,” a contrived and rehashed hit job that was pushed on Fox “News,”
Hannity’s show, as well as given a special place on “Meet the Press.”
It broke no new ground and got some things very wrong.
Besides, the item about the 20-year Clinton pact has been denied.
The authors report that the Clintons updated their plan after the 1992 election,
determining that Hillary would run when Bill left office. They cite two people,
Ann Crittenden and John Henry, who said Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning
historian and close Clinton friend, told them that the Clintons “still
planned two terms in the White House for Bill and, later, two for Hillary.”
Contacted last night, Branch said that “the story is preposterous”
and that “I never heard either Clinton talk about a ‘plan’ for them both
to become president.”Books
Paint Critical Portraits of Clinton
2 Biographies Detail Marital Strife and Driving Ambition
Yesterday all day, Barack Obama’s Novak suckering was a big story on Fox “News.”
Who knows, maybe that’s his new outreach, but this continual use of right-wing
talking points isn’t very convincing on why we should vote for Obama. I don’t
quite get how pushing two abject lies in the media about Clinton is either the
politics of hope, or a good attack on Clinton’s record or ideas, or a campaign
on why he would be a better nominee, let alone president. But it does prove one thing. He can be tough on Democrats and swing wildly using lies in the process. Well done, srr.
Obama is becoming more and more negative in a desperate attempt to knock Clinton
down a peg, especially in Iowa. Along with Edwards, he’s got a one-state strategy,
because he simply cannot let Clinton win in Iowa. He’s hoping Democratic primary
voters will fall for a Democrat using wingnut talking points against one of
our own.
The other part of this is who cares if she’s wanted to be president for 20
years? It’s also been reported Mr. Obama dreamed about it since he was a little
boy. Why in the world would we care?
TM NOTE: Reader gmartinez and others via email are taking exception to my last paragraph. Gmartinez writes in the comments: “You rightly criticize Obama for using a *known* lie, but your last comment falls into the trap of letting Obama frame Hillary as “untrustworthy” and “scheming”. By including that last paragraph, Obama has succeeded in stroking the sentiments raised from a known lie.” Point taken. I was just trying to say that a lot of people have dreams they cultivate for decades, so why should we care if Clinton wanted to be president her whole life (as Obama has said about his own dreams), let alone the last 20 years. But I was in no way giving credence to the Gerth lie about Taylor Branch, which Obama has chosen to parrot today. Hope that clears things up.
