Anatomy of a Smear

During Senator Obama’s much touted March 18th speech on race, he spoke the following words:

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism.

I won’t finish the quote because anything after it is a lie. But at least he started by telling us the truth.

This most recent episode began shortly after Obama’s big losses in Texas and Ohio. His campaign had lost its momentum and decided on a sure fired, tried true and tested strategy to take out Hillary. They were going to smear her.

As reported at Bucknaked Politics:
“New” Politics? Obama
“Punching” and Pushing for Hillary to Drop Out immediately following Obama’s losses campaign manager David Plouffe implied that Hillary should drop out of the race. In an email to “supporters Plouffe offered that:

“It’s clear, though, that Senator Clinton wants to continue an increasingly desperate, increasingly negative — and increasingly expensive — campaign to tear us down.

Yeah, that mean ole Hillary pointed out that Obama lied to the voters of Ohio about NAFTA. In fact he lied at least four times about it. Yes, this campaign is getting expensive. Expensive for the American people if they don’t pay attention to what Obama really has in mind. And as is typical fashion for the Obama campaign when faced with embarrassing revelations that punch holes in the hope hype, they quickly change the subject.

Mr. Plouffe’s email continues:

“We can debate John McCain about who can clean up Washington by nominating a candidate who’s taken more
money from lobbyists than he has, or we can do it with a campaign that hasn’t taken a dime of their money because we’ve been funded by you.”

The message to this is clear. Obama attempts to link Hillary with the special interests and Mr. Purity with, well, purity. You might say he is as pure and as white as snow. Well you probably don’t want to say that. But wait a moment, Bucknaked politics continues:

I must interject yet again. Perhaps Obama hasn’t taken money directly from lobbyists, but one of his campaign co-chairs is a pharma lobbyist. When asked about it at a debate, Sen. Obama got caught on videotape saying “That’s not true” — when it was true. Also, Sen. Obama essentially took an interest-free loan from a political player in Chicago who now faces a criminal trial. The transaction might have been perfectly legal — might be business as usual in Chicago — but it doesn’t evince clean hands or “new politics.”

In case you need this defined let me break it down for you. Obama apparently has a habit of lying. And he has no compunction about lying to the American people in a televised debate. He not only lied about lying about NAFTA. He also got caught lying about lying about not having a lobbyist working directly for his campaign. Oops!

According to Boston.com in a January 6th article Lobbyist/Obama NH Chair enters national conversation

One of Barack Obama’s four New Hampshire co-chairs, who is also one of the state’s most prominent lobbyists, entered the conversation of the Democratic presidential race last night with this phrase from Hillary Clinton at the debate: “When it comes to lobbyists, you know that Senator Obama’s chair in New Hampshire is a lobbyist. He lobbies for the drug companies.” “Not true,” said Obama. But it is true.

You see, Obama’s New Hampshire Co-Chair is a man named Jim Demers. He has his own lobbying firm called The Demers
Group.

He is respected by legislative leaders from both parties and is relied on by reporters to be very knowledgeable with the latest statehouse rumor or how pieces of legislation are moving. He is also a frequent Democratic analyst for WMUR-TV.
He gives thousands in contributions to the state Democratic Party and Democratic campaigns. In 2004, he headed up campaign for Dick Gephardt in the state. And to aid in that effort Demers purchased an RV from eBay that he then drove around the state with Gephardt to campaign events.

And that “interest free” loan being discussed above. That was from that jailed political fixer Rezko. Seriously, you can’t make up stuff this good.

But wait… it gets better.

On the sting of his decisive defeat on March 4th the Obama campaign apparently in a top down approach decided to come out swinging. In a New York Times article on March 6th Lesson of Defeat: Obama Comes Out
Punching, Obama decided to question whether Hillary had actually been vetted.

No really, I am NOT making this up.

“She’s made the argument that she’s thoroughly vetted, in contrast to me,” Mr. Obama said to reporters aboard his campaign plane. “I think it’s important to examine that argument.” Mr. Obama took aim on Wednesday at Mrs. Clinton’s claim that she is a seasoned hand in foreign policy. “What exactly is this foreign experience that she’s claiming?” he said. “I know she talks about visiting 80 countries. It is not clear. Was she negotiating treaties or agreements or was she handling crises during this period of time? “My sense is the answer’s no.”

Then over the course of the new few weeks the Obama campaign has made it a daily talking point to question whether Hillary actually had anything to do with peace in Northern Ireland or helped in any way to get the border open in Macedonia during the Balkan War. Of course the first thing the Obama camp did was trot out that destitute David Trimble who called Hillary’s claim: “a wee bit silly.” And if they were able they would have that be the last word.

But fortunately for the rest of us there were a number of character references of great distinction supporting Hillary’s position. Not the least of which was John Hume, one of the actual architects of the good Friday Agreement.

“I am quite surprised that anyone would suggest that Hillary Clinton did not perform important foreign policy work as First Lady. I can state from firsthand experience that she played a positive role for over a decade in helping to bring peace to Northern Ireland.”

And no less than Ian Paisley, Martin McGuiness and Gerry Adams back up this recollection. And if their words were not enough please consider the words of the Prime minister of Ireland, Bertie Ahern. In an article in The Times Tribune Ahern says Hillary ‘hugely helpful’ in peace process

Mr. Ahern called Mrs. Clinton “hugely helpful” in the process both as First Lady and as a U.S. Senator, and suggested some of the criticism of her are unfair. Moderate Catholic leader John Hume credited Mrs. Clinton with speaking to leaders and opinion makers on all sides, making countless phone calls and urging them forward. Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams credits Mrs. Clinton with playing “an important role.”

So, just in case you got lost with all the Obama casing of aspersions, we have Lord David Trimble supporting the Obama position that Hillary had NOTHING to do with achieving peace in Northern Ireland. David Trimble, the incompetent jerk that lost his job because he refused to implement the Good Friday Agreement. But that Lord in front of his name makes him seem really cool and important.

And then we have Ian Paisley, First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuiness, Deputy First Minister, Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Féin and Bertie Ahern, Prime Minister of Ireland all supporting Hillary’s version. I wonder who has more credibility here? Clue: It’s not Obama.

And then we have the question as to whether Hillary had anything to do with making sure the border to Macedonia was opened during the Balkan War to allow refugees from Kosovo to escape the slaughter. The Obama campaign trots out their impeccable national security expert, Sinbad, who recalls that he didn’t remember a thing about there being an emergency landing with the helicopter. Sinbad’s version sounds like they were out for a casual stroll in the park.

But fortunately Hillary has a credible reference for her efforts during this important trip. A man with unimpeachable credentials, Richard Holbrooke, the architect of the Dayton Accords.

Hillary’s Work on Kosovo & N. Ireland

In these talks, one in the Presidential Palace, another in the residence of the American Ambassador, Christopher Hill, Mrs. Clinton pressed the Macedonian government to fully open the border so that Kosovar Albanian refugees could flee the war zone to safety. She also committed herself to work with the government and people of Macedonia who also faced an emergency because of the threat to their own safety and stability. Hillary Clinton promised to take action to help the Macedonian economy. Returning to Washington, she pressed hard in the administration for action to support the Macedonians. She even contacted American business executives to ensure that American textile contracts in Macedonia were not canceled.

So we have the Sinbad , whoops I mean the Obama side and then we have the Hillary side of the story. I am sure you are wondering which side is more credible. but that doesn’t stop the Obama campaign. No, they have “other questions” about Hillary. Surely something sinister is lurking in her past that that right wing republican machine that let us use their play book surely uncovered. Let’s see if we can cause aspersions by questioning what Hillary did as First Lady. She hasn’t released those files so let’s tell everyone that the reason she doesn’t release them is because she has something to hide. Yes, that’s it. Hillary is untrustworthy. You see with the Obama camp, they don’t really care about facts. they prefer to distort, to cause doubt and to spread innuendo.

And yes today they continue their assault. A reminder that Obama wasn’t kidding when he said: For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism.

Read on….

Today ABC News reports that Obama Campaign
Claims Clinton Has ‘Character Gap’

… asserting that Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is lacking in character and regularly misleads voters.

“She is not seen as trustworthy by the American people,” said Obama campaign manager David Plouffe.

Plouffe said this perception would make it “next to impossible” for Clinton to win the general election.

Today, the Obama campaign blamed Clinton for what Gallup called a “perceived honesty gap” and Plouffe called a

“character gap.”

“Her access was very limited and her trips abroad were largely ceremonial,” Craig said. “She says she is ready to be

commander in chief based on claims that are not supported by reality.”

Hmmmm…. seems the evidence I present above seems to dispute the claims of Plouffe. But that is the Obama way. When those pesky little facts get in the way, lie and tell more lies and get other people to lie for you. LIE LIE LIE.

And don’t forget… spread division, conflict and cynicism too:

Assailing the Clintons’ refusal so far to release any recent tax returns or the names of donors to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, Plouffe asked, “What are the Clintons scared of? Why won’t they release this information? & What’s lurking there?”

Oh my, there must be something sinister going on here folks. Because Hillary hasn’t released her tax forms. never mind that they aren’t even due to be filed with the IRS until April 15th. The Obama campaign wants to see then NOW!

Like spoiled little children they apparently think they are entitled to see Hillary’s tax forms before the IRS. And we all know that their motives are completely on the up and up. That “incident” where they misreported information about Bill Clinton’s income where they actually questioned his patriotism, that was just a mistake. They never meant to cause him any harm. Naaahhh. Not the Obama folks. They are the New Politics Express. They would never do anything like that.

What I and scores of interested readers want to know is when Senator Obama is going to release his records from his 8 years in the Illinois Senate. When asked Obama seems to be under the impression that he doesn’t have a single sheet of paper documenting his “experience” as an Illinois State Senator. I know he said in one of the debates that he had a tendency to loose papers but 8 years worth of them? I think not. Now a cynical person might suspect that there is something sinister about Obama not having a single document proving his well touted experience. But me?

Something else Obama said in that all important race speech that he gave because race is such an important subject and not at all because he was in trouble for having a racist pastor that hates America:

I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country.

Well, I suppose it is time for Senator Obama to step down. Because division, conflict and cynicism are the watch words of his “new politics” campaign.