I know that for many, it is difficult to imagine a presidential race without negative mud-slinging. Positive messages are so...ineffective when it comes to turning-off voters and suppressing their votes. And often times, the arrival of dirty accusations to a campaign is usually the sign of the regular things: a loss of momentum, frustration, desperation.I watched just about all of CNN's Democratic presidential debate on Monday night. I mostly enjoy watching these contests, be it the Democrats or the Republicans, but Monday was unlike any debate that I had ever seen. Right from the beginning, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama bombarded each other with accusation after accusation, speaking over each other time and time again. Sen. Obama spent the early part of the debate rebutting Sen. Clinton's numerous allegations. Sen. Clinton spent the early part of the debate abdicating any and all responsibility for her husband's actions. I have never seen two politicians of the same party go after each other like they did on Monday night. And poor former Senator John Edwards was simply left waiting.
But the one comment that stood out the most to me was uttered by Sen. Clinton. You know, language is a funny thing. Certain words, on there own, are good. Certain words, on there own, are bad. And certain words, on there own, are diabolical. One of these words is "slumlord." I was not in the room when Sen. Clinton associated Sen. Obama with a "slumlord" -- but I heard it from the kitchen. And I went nuts. Expletive - deleted. I ran back into the room: did she really just say that? Did she really just say that?! What a despicable, slimy, pathetic thing to say. I feel like I should wash my mouth out with soap for just listening to it and writing this blog about it.
Now, defending who Barack Obama is or is not associated with is not my point. From what I understand, the "slumlord" is a man named Tony Rezko, who has contributed to Barack Obama's various campaigns, and who was, in the recent past, indicted (Sen. Obama recently stated that he was donating all of Rezko's donations to charity) -- but that is not my point. My point is that Hillary Clinton is a very smart person who obviously has a command of language. And she knows that she could have articulated her point using other language. But she chose not to. She chose instead to knowingly use a word that would infect the campaign like an illness, hoping that Sen. Obama's campaign would die from it. I can imagine Hillary Clinton saying to her staff: "I'm not as confident as I was that we are going to win this thing. So, plan B: let's stop trying to win, and focus instead on destroying Barack Obama -- by any means necessary."
Hillary Clinton - despicable, slimy, pathetic. So much for positive.
6 comments:
Since you missed the exchange you might want to know that Obama struck the first blow. As for the "slumlord" comment, Obama could have taken exception to that phrase as you did,then explained that his close friendship with Mr. Rezko went way back and he wasn't involved in any "slumlording" activities. Instead, Barack lied and said that he'd only done about five hours of work on a church project. That opened itself up to investigation by CNN that reported not only had he lied but that his own home and in particular a lot next door had been acquired with Mrs. Rezko jointly and then conveyed to him as a "favor" from old friends. The opening salvo from Barack about Mrs. Clinton was fact-checked and found also to be true. She had worked on the board of Walmart and in a contentious way. Her record was that of fighting for female worker's rights. So his attempt to smear her backfired, while hers basically destroyed him. His lying compounded it to the point that his career is over. Hillary did not lie and deny her past. As a democrat,I'm appalled that this wasn't vetted out prior to Obama becoming a candidate. We could have nominated this guy and had this happen in october. Better now than then I suppose. I would have rather not have this come up at all. The Obama people are now desperately doing damage control,but there's no hope.
Beware the man that says "Trust me, I'm telling you the truth, don't listen to that other guy." Do a little more checking into what he's selling you. Barack's got really bad advisors that should've stuck to door to door sales.
Attacking Hillary by calling her names is really pathetic. Viagra could help your problem. Impotence is not something you have to live with. That and some treatment from the Hair Club could alleviate those symptoms that fuel your hatred of smart women.
No way Hillary would have said that if Barack had not brought up the Wall Mart point first.
Good point 11:16,how long would it have been after the nomination that the republicans would? I think that was the impetus behind so many republicans pushing for Obama.
Now he's won SC on their prejudice and ignorance. He better come clean and do damage control at the next CNN debate on Thursday. Otherwise the staff at your local office will evaporate as he shuts down operations to cut losses.
Post a Comment