Today on ABC with George Stephanopoulos-
STEPHANOPOULOS: Your hometown paper, The Chicago Tribune, endorsed John McCain today. And had some kind words for you as well. But they went on to talk about your relationship with the real estate developer now indicted Tony Rezko. And they wrote this in their editorial. "Obama's assertion in network tv interviews last week that nobody had indications Rezko was engaging in wrongdoing strains credulity. Tribune stories linked Rezko to questionable fund-raising for Governor Rod Blagojevich in 2004. More than a year before the adjacent home and property purchases by the Obamas and the Rezkos. One more time, senator, you need to divulge all there is to know about that relationship." ... (source: ABC's "This Week" - rough transcript)
If invoking MLK's name in a campaign stump isn't playing the race card to some of you, tell me what other candidates would dare to use this? If commenting on someone's ability to dance (to see if they are a soul brother) isn't invoking the race card, tell me what other candidate would dare to use such a comment in a nationally televised debate?
Who's injecting race into the campaign? click to read more
Rev. Caldwell's Homophobic Mission Statement Disappears
- per Taylor Marsh's blog
Barack Obama being endorsed by one of George W. Bush's spiritual advisers wasn't exactly news to me. I wasn't even going to post on it, especially since Obama isn't exactly running as a devout Democrat. Besides, regardless of Obama's endless talk, he doesn't have any problem whatsoever in embracing homophobics. Donnie McClurkin was exhibit A.
But this latest development is very interesting. Now Rev. Caldwell's ministry, after he endorsed Obama, has nuked the page everyone was linking to yesterday that outlines his church's mission statement, which trumpets homosexuality as something a person "seeking freedom" from "habitual sins" should seek out.
Thank heavens for Google cache:
Metanoia Ministry
We are pleased to announce the creation of “ The Way, The Truth and The Life”, a program created to provide Christ Centered instruction for those seeking freedom from homosexuality, lesbianism, prostitution, sex addiction and other habitual sins.
But the original page is now gone. Poof! Call rewrite - stat.
This is what Obama and his campaign does repeatedly. Hide the record in order to prop up his propaganda. Lucky for them the national press seems to be sleeping through it all. Matt Stoller has more.
The Dirty campaign of Obama and his team
A spokesman for Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) presidential campaign sent out a memo Tuesday afternoon suggesting that rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) might violate her pledge not to campaign in Florida ahead of its Jan. 29 primary.
"...Clinton has scheduled a fundraiser in Florida for Jan. 27, and “there are signs – despite Senator Clinton’s public pledge to the contrary – that she may be planning to campaign in the state ..."
"The memo was to remind recipients that the results of Tuesday night’s Michigan primary, much like Florida, “have no bearing on the Democratic nomination contest..."
Facts: This attempt by the Obama campaign to downplay these states is for one reason only. No matter how you spin it, 1) these states have a huge delegate count and 2) Hillary has a comfortable lead in both states. It is for these reasons only that Obama is trying to downplay the importance of these states when he and his team know full well that these 2 states are very likely to be seated at the convention in Denver.
Facts: Obama, Hillary, Edwards and the others who were in the race all held fund raisers in Florida.
"Burton reiterated in the memo that Obama is “firm in his commitment” to refrain from campaigning in Florida"
"But this morning, first Mr. Edwards, then Mr. Obama, announced that they, too, would refuse to campaign in renegade states..."
Fact: Obama has been running a campaign ad on tv in Florida in the districts that are most important to his campaign.
A Florida reader writes that Obama's new spot is airing on cable down there, giving Florida Democrats a small window into a primary process that they can otherwise only learn about from, you know, the media
The Clinton campaign says Obama's breaking the pledge (which refers to a DNC definition of "campaigning" that doesn't make an exception for national buys)
Just last week the Obama campaign snubbed the people of Florida in a memo that stated that Florida did not matter in the nominating process. After consecutive losses in New Hampshire, Michigan and Nevada, they appear to be changing course.
He is complaining that he has no control over a national ad which isn't true. He also claims that SC gave him special permission to run ads in Fla (when they were one of 4 states who the promise was made to).
This is blatant twisting of the pledges and the voters out there must be made aware of this, that Obama is running as dirty a campaign as can be played.
"I worked in John and Ted Kennedy's campaigns. Barack Obama is no Kennedy. He is an inexperienced senator: long on lip, short on accomplishment. We elected a "likable" president seven years ago, and close to 70 percent of us live in daily regret and hardship for that monumental mistake. In a time when Iran threatens, AT&T and Countrywide falter and recession looms, Hillary Clinton alone manifests the experience and unmitigated toughness to see this country through the threats ahead.
Fran Natale Parente
Clark, N.J."
Obama Uses National Security to Damage Democratic Brand
In an interview, Barack Obama went out of his way to impugn the national security bona fides of a fellow Democrat. Presidential politics aside, this is scorched earth politics. It's also the most dangerous kind of ploy to play against one of our own. Obama obviously thinks he's playing a game, instead of launching a deadly charge against a Democratic party leader. I know Mr. Obama doesn't have any respect for history, but since the Vietnam war and Reagan walked in to Washington, this is the type of charge Republicans have been using against our party for decades. Obama's subtle way of sneaking it into the political bloodstream is the actions of someone who cares more about himself than what he does to the Democratic brand. Because if he seeks to sew doubts about a woman running for commander in chief, he's doing so at all of our peril. The fact that military men across a wide spectrum have endorsed Clinton is not a small matter. I'd like Obama to make this quiet charge in front of Wesley Clark or Joseph Wilson.
But this really is rich, coming from a guy who wouldn't even hold a hearing of his own foreign affairs committee. Ducks out on important votes so we don't know how he would have voted. Chooses to vote "present" on votes that require taking a stand. Won't tell the truth about his a lobbyist being involved in his own campaign. Runs untruthful ads about his health care plan saying it is "universal" when it is clearly not. Says he won't use outside groups, then when he gets desperate ignores a UNITE HERE ad in Nevada.
But the worst of it is that Obama is now using subtle tactics to insintuate that Clinton can't be trust with secret intelligence.
Then asked whether that means she can't be trusted to portray secret intelligence to the American people:
"I will decline to answer that question. I am making a point about politics. ... Part of the change that is needed in Washington, if there is enough trust between the American people and their officials, when there are difficult decisions to be made, there is not a lot of cynicism." ... ..
Obama: 'Making a point about politics'
We at the New Statesman must take some of the blame, I suppose. Barack Obama had been a senator for just ten months in 2005 when we devoted a cover to his face, anointing him as one of ten people likely to have an impact on the world. It was only during 2007, however, that the American media fell head-over-heels in love with Obama; when he trounced Hillary Clinton in the Democratic party caucuses in Iowa on 3 January, it seemed that the electorate was swooning in a headlong rush to the altar with Obama, too. By the end of the first week of the '08 presidential election year, the media had all but handed over the keys to the White House to him.