RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Hillary in 2008

Tsk. Tsk. Stereotyping the black man as a basketball player. Very racist, whomod.

New York Post:

• First she "misspoke," now she misheard.
  
  Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday seemed to deny that she told New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson that Barack Obama could not win the presidency.
  
  But her campaign later said she misheard a reporter's question.
  
  Asked at a press conference whether she made the comment to Richardson, Clinton said, "That's a no."
  
  She added, "We have been going back and forth in this campaign of who said what to whom and let me say this, that I don't talk about private conversations but I have consistently made the case that I can win."
  
  Campaign spokeswoman Mo Elleithee later said Clinton thought she was being asked whether she'd disclose what she actually said to Richardson, who has endorsed Obama.
  
  Clinton has come under fire in recent weeks about inconsistent statements.

Odd that the Hillary campaign felt the need to clarify this. In other words, they did not want her on the record as denying that she told Richardson Obama couldn't win.

Isn't this more or less a confirmation that she did say that? If her statement was accurate, why put out a correction?

Also, why would her staff feel the need to retract this denial? Was there some audio or video recording that would directly contradict her statement? Something beyond Richardson's word, obviously...

Or is it after the "sniper fire" item, she can't afford being caught in another lie?

Isn't this more or less a confirmation that she did say that? If her statement was accurate, why put out a correction?

....but Obama's the one who has himself surounded by guys.

Chelsea Clinton will speak on Saturday, April 12 at the 2008 Platform Convention in Eugene . Anyone wishing to attend can sign up for the event at http://www.oregondemocrats.org/.

It costs $100 to sign up for the Saturday Clinton Campaign event at the Eugene Hilton. More details on the time of that event will be released soon. That $100 purchase also qualifies people for an Obama Campaign event to be held over the weekend. One $100 purchase gets people into both events. The DPO is also expecting a major figure from the Obama campaign in Eugene and will release those details as soon as they are available.

"Presidential history may pivot on Oregon 's vote," DPO Chair Meredith Wood Smith said. "We are thrilled to welcome Chelsea Clinton to Oregon and eager to hear her speak in Eugene !"

Besides the presidential campaign speeches, the April 11-13 convention at the Eugene Hilton will include a forum for the Attorney General candidates, trainings on Get-Out-The-Vote techniques and working with the media, and a chance to shape the Democratic Party of Oregon's core platform.

This after having minimized MLK and having caught flack for it not that long ago.

So the issue for you Whomod isn't about a candidate's truthfullness but who has the best tone & acting ability? Yadda yadda right back at ya.


How did she minimize MLK?

Okay, this is not good for the Clinton campaign. Not good at all. Clinton has been regularly telling a very sad and tragic health care story in her campaign stump speech that is not true.

The NY Times has the article. The JedReport has video of Clinton telling the story again yesterday -- and it's not pretty. As Jed notes, "The level of detail with which Clinton tells this yarn is breathtaking." Today, the Clinton campaign admitted to CNN, "In this case, we did try, but were not able to fully vet it." What? How can that be? Seriously.



Since the Clinton campaign is talking to superdelegates about "electability," the superdelegates should ponder the narrative that is developing about Hillary Clinton's ability to tell the truth. It's not like she just relayed this health care story or just told the Tuzla story. Watch those videos again. She was emphatic in both cases and went into great detail. Yet, neither are true. Now, I don't imagine the Republicans would make hay out of this pattern in the general election, do you?

oh MEEEEEEEM. You're up.

Obama lies too? She still has more votes? Obama can't win? yadda yadda.
Everything but Clinton is a fucking habitual liar and THAT in fact, is a liability for the Democratic Party.

Y'know what kills me? The overwrought maudlin tone of her voice as she's spewing her bullshit. It's the same tortured compassionate tone she had when she's recounted her memories of MLK this weekend in Memphis. This after having minimized MLK and having caught flack for it not that long ago. And honestly, she's not that good an actor. To me, it just sounds like total staged, scripted, and rehearsed bullshit WITHOUT ever really needing anyone to dig up the actual facts.

Please MEM, tell me again how she's more electable when everyone pretty much knows by now that she's a fucking habitual liar. And every week she gives us new instances of her saying ANYTHING to win. Most of it being all bullshit.

And no one is doing this to her. Not Obama, the Republicans or the media. No one is putting the lies into her mouth. That's a decision she and her campaign deliberately, strategically, and repeatedly have done in order to try to propel her chances.

And then they feign surprise or aloofness at the insignificant gaffe when caught.

There's no denying Hillary has made some gaffs and mis-statements. But so have Obama and McCain. You're very selective and partisan on what you choose to be outraged by.
Try to save a little of that outrage for the many deceits --and downright scary flaws-- in your man Obama.

Sunday, April 6, 2008 2:05 AM MDT

Officials with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign have acknowledged a health care anecdote in her recent stump speeches, including at least one in Wyoming in March, may not have been true and wasn't thoroughly checked for accuracy, according to a New York Times story published Saturday.
Since Ohio's March 4 primary, Clinton has shared the story of an 35-year-old Ohio woman who worked for minimum wage in a pizza parlor and died after giving birth to a stillborn child. The woman was uninsured, Clinton said, and twice denied medical care at a local hospital because she couldn't pay a $100 fee up front.
Trina Bachtel did die in Columbus last August two weeks after her baby boy was stillborn at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio, the New York Times reported.
But hospital administrators said Friday that Bachtel was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused treatment and that she was, in fact, insured, according to the Times.
"We implore the Clinton campaign to immediately desist from repeating this story,” O'Bleness Health System CEO Rick Castrop told the newspaper.
"We reviewed the medical and patient account records of this patient,” Castrop said. Any implication that the system was “involved in denying care is definitely not true.”

During her March 7 rally at Casper College, Clinton said she hoped her administration would get to a place where there is quality, affordable health care for all, and recounted the story of the Ohio woman.
“It hurts me to know that in this rich, good country, this woman and baby died because they couldn’t come up with $100,” Clinton said.
When Bachtel returned to the hospital she came in an ambulance, she said. Doctors were not able to save the baby and the woman died later, Clinton said.
She learned of the story from a Meigs County deputy sheriff whose home she visited while campaigning in Ohio. She told the story as recently as late Friday in Grand Forks, N.D.
Clinton has not named Bachtel or the hospital in her speeches, The New York Times reported.
However, Clinton's anecdote implicitly and inaccurately accuses that hospital of turning Bachtel away, hospital spokeswoman Linda M. Weiss told the newspaper.
Instead, the O’Bleness health care system treated her, both at the hospital and at the affiliated River Rose Obstetrics and Gynecology practice, Weiss said.
Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee acknowledged that the campaign had tried but hadn't been able to "fully vet" the story before she began repeating it on the campaign trail, according to the Times.
"If the hospital claims it did not happen that way, we respect that and she won't repeat the story," Elleithee said.

"gaffes and mis-statements".

The fact that she got caught making something up entirely (again) is a "gaffe and misstatement".

Ok, Wonder Boy.

Sounds like something she'd say.

On the issue of Iraq, he opposed the surge that has brought us victory. On March 15, he voted in favor of limiting debate on a proposal expressing the sense of Congress opposing President Bush's troop surge designed by Gen. David Petraeus.

Obama, whose foreign policy includes talking to our enemies while invading our allies, recently told the assembled veterans at the VFW Convention in Kansas City, Mo. "All our top military commanders recognize that there is no military solution in Iraq."

Let's see him repeat that to John McCain in a debate. Recently a top al-Qaida leader said his side faces an "extraordinary crisis" and "panic, fear and the unwillingness to fight."

On March 29, Obama voted for a fiscal 2007 emergency supplemental appropriations bill that included a goal for withdrawing most U.S. troops from Iraq by 2008. On Sept. 21, he was one of only 28 senators voting to set a timeline for most U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq within 90 days.

On the issue of fighting terror, on Aug. 3 Obama voted no on renewing for six months the authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to review communications of suspected terrorists without a court order.

Despite America's energy woes, on June 13 he voted against speeding up the permitting process for oil-refining sites. On June 21, he voted to "limit debate" (invoking cloture to bar a filibuster) on an energy bill requiring higher fuel economy standards for all vehicles.

This bill produces no new domestic energy, but it would force Americans into smaller, less safe and more expensive cars. The bill also requires utilities to use renewable energy sources (not including nuclear power) for 15% of their electricity by 2020.

On the issue of stem cell research, he voted on April 11 against supporting nonembryonic stem cell research and in favor of embryonic stem cell research. This despite discoveries by researchers worldwide of ways to "reprogram" skin cells, for example, to become and potentially provide a limitless supply of embryonic stem cells without destroying human embryos in the process.

On June 6, he voted against making English the official language of the U.S. On May 24, he voted against permitting law enforcement officers to question individuals about their immigration status if they have probable cause to believe that the individuals are here illegally.

His liberal score may have been even higher were it not for the votes he missed. On Sept. 26, he missed a vote expressing the sense of the Senate that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard should be designated a terrorist organization. He says he would have voted no.

I suspect, given the way everyone on the Clinton campaign seems to hate Mark Penn, that we'll probably hear more about this over the next few days and weeks.

I suspect if he wasn't getting along with the rest of the campaign this ends up being a boost for Clinton.

CAMPAIGN '08
Clinton demotes chief strategist Penn


PENN IN JANUARY: The then-chief strategist for the Clinton campaign with reporters after a Democratic debate in Manchester, N.H. Many in the campaign questioned his leadership style.

He had drawn the wrath of unions and campaign insiders.

By Noam N. Levey and Peter Nicholas
April 7, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton shook up her campaign for the second time in as many months Sunday, demoting her chief strategist and renewing questions about the stability of her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Mark Penn, a divisive figure who has worked with Clinton and former President Clinton for more than a decade, is considered one of the architects of her campaign.


He has been under increasing scrutiny since Sen. Clinton lost her once-commanding lead and found herself scrambling to stop Sen. Barack Obama's coronation as the party's nominee.

Last week, Penn acknowledged that while advising the campaign, he was working on behalf of a proposed trade pact with Colombia that labor unions fiercely oppose. Clinton, who has been courting union members, especially ahead of the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, has said she will vote against the treaty in the Senate.

Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams said in a statement Sunday that Penn had asked "to give up his role as chief strategist," but would "continue to provide polling and advice to the campaign."

Political strategists say that campaign shake-ups rarely register much with voters. But Penn's demotion reinforces an image of disarray in a campaign that has tried to focus on Clinton's experience and readiness to be, as she says, "commander in chief on Day One."

Because the change is not a total break with Penn, the demotion may not mollify influential labor groups who for months have hammered Clinton for retaining Penn while his firm -- public relations behemoth Burson-Marsteller, where he is worldwide president and chief executive -- worked for clients with allegedly anti-labor agendas.

"This goes to the bigger point that Hillary Clinton has been terribly ill-served by her campaign," said Peter Fenn, a longtime Democratic strategist. "She's a strong candidate. But I'm pretty appalled at what the campaign has done."

Penn, a longtime member of the Clintons' inner circle, began working with President Clinton in the mid-1990s, helping steer his reelection effort in 1996. He was Hillary Clinton's pollster and message guru in her 2000 Senate campaign.

When she began her campaign for president, it was Penn's strategy to cast her as a seasoned politician and the inevitable choice to put a Democrat back in the White House.

As the election season unfolded, however, voters seemed less entranced by Washington experience than by the hope of change offered by Obama.

Clinton's stumble in the Iowa caucuses in early January -- in which the Obama campaign was credited with out-organizing her -- led to questions about Penn's leadership that have only intensified since.

Campaign aides said Penn was late in letting Clinton showcase a warmer, more human side that some voters hoped to see.

Aides also have also complained about Penn's unilateral style. After Clinton's defeat in South Carolina, for example, Penn gave the staff a PowerPoint presentation on a new approach in which Clinton would emphasize her commitment to solving specific problems.

Unimpressed, some staff members asked whether Clinton had already approved the plan; Penn said she had. Mandy Grunwald, who handles advertising, asked with frustration: "Why are we meeting about it then," according to one person who was present.

For months, senior Clinton aides went to Clinton and demanded that Penn's role in the campaign be diminished. They did not believe it was smart for him to serve as both pollster and strategist.

Clinton resisted, siding with Penn and letting him keep his broad portfolio. Even after Obama surged ahead of Clinton in February, Clinton replaced chief of staff Patti Solis Doyle rather than Penn.

It is unclear whether Penn's demotion will satisfy his detractors or stabilize the campaign in the crucial final months of the primary season.

"When you add to it the already contentious relationship he had with so many internally in the campaign and externally, he really should have been fired," one Clinton aide said Sunday, speaking on the condition of anonymity while discussing internal campaign dynamics.

Though he will no longer have the grand title of chief strategist, he will continue to "wield power," the aide said.

Other people close to the campaign suggested that out of loyalty or trust, Clinton had allowed Penn to harm her chances for the nomination.

"This is the fight of her life, and he didn't do her any great service by putting her in this position that she had to make this choice," said one person familiar with the campaign's operations. "You're on the one-yard line and you're pulling your quarterback."


Most uncertain is the effect that the heightened scrutiny of Penn's demotion may have on Clinton's attempts to woo working-class voters.

Union leaders have been complaining for months about the work Penn's firm has done for companies such as uniform manufacturer and launderer Cintas Corp., which Burson-Marsteller has helped to fight a unionization drive.

Last week's revelations about Penn's work for the Colombian government only intensified the grumbling.

After a report in the Wall Street Journal, Penn acknowledged he had met with Colombian Ambassador Carolina Barco to discuss a pending trade deal, which the Colombian government and the Bush administration are trying to get through Congress.

On Friday, Penn released a brief statement in which he called the meeting "an error in judgment" and apologized.

The meeting was particularly embarrassing because Clinton has campaigned against new trade agreements and vowed to renegotiate the North America Free Trade Agreement drawn up by her husband's administration.

Colombia has since canceled its contract with Penn's company.

Fenn, the Democratic strategist, said Penn's demotion might reflect union unhappiness as much as anything. But he cautioned that Penn's continued influence could be a problem. "I think a clean break is always best," he said.

The move means an enhanced role for Howard Wolfson, the campaign's communications director, who had clashed with Penn over Penn's advice that Clinton portray herself as tough and experienced while downplaying other qualities. With Wolfson in a more commanding position, Clinton's softer side might get more emphasis.

Working with Wolfson will be Geoff Garin, a veteran pollster with long ties to labor.

In an interview with The Times in December 2006, before Clinton had declared her candidacy, Garin said one of the campaign's challenges would be controlling her team.

"The question is: Will she be able to put something together that's disciplined and decisive?" Garin said at the time.

In Superdelegate Count, Tough Math for Clinton

By JOHN HARWOOD
Published: April 7, 2008

The hill that Hillary Rodham Clinton must climb to beat Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination will grow a little steeper on Monday, as it has most days lately.

Margaret Campbell, a Montana state legislator, plans to declare her support for Senator Obama, of Illinois. She becomes the 69th superdelegate he has picked up since the Feb. 5 coast-to-coast string of primary elections and caucus votes.

In the same period, Senator Clinton, of New York, has seen a net loss of two superdelegates, according to figures from the Obama campaign that Clinton aides do not dispute. That erosion may dim Mrs. Clinton’s remaining hopes even more than internal campaign turmoil, which led to the ouster on Sunday of the campaign’s chief strategist, Mark Penn.

Trailing by more than 160 pledged delegates — those chosen in state primaries or caucuses — Mrs. Clinton has counted on superdelegates to help her overtake Mr. Obama with a late surge before the party’s convention in August. The party’s rules for proportional allocation make it highly difficult for her to erase Mr. Obama’s pledged delegate lead, even if she sweeps the final 10 contests.

So her aides have lobbied to persuade those still uncommitted superdelegates to back her — or to continue holding out so her campaign has the chance to demonstrate momentum and superior electability in primaries from Pennsylvania’s on April 22 through Montana’s on June 3.

Yet Mrs. Clinton’s once formidable lead among superdelegates who have announced preferences has shrunk to 34 by the Obama campaign count. The pool of remaining uncommitted superdelegates for her to draw from has dwindled to around 330, fewer than half the overall total of 795 superdelegates.

Mrs. Clinton tried again this weekend to stem the erosion, speaking to Ms. Campbell on a campaign swing through Montana. But Ms. Campbell declined to hold out any longer, saying, “Senator Obama reminds me of why I’m a Democrat.”

Even if Mrs. Clinton narrows Mr. Obama’s delegate lead to 100, and if no further superdelegates make commitments through the end of the primaries, she’d wake up June 4 needing to win over two-thirds of the still-uncommitted superdelegates.

That group now includes 120 Democratic National Committee members, 74 House members, 19 senators and 6 governors, among others. In the last two weeks, however, Mr. Obama picked up support from Senators Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, former Senator John Melcher of Montana and Gov. Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming.

Aides said time was actually in Mr. Obama’s favor. The longer he demonstrates he can withstand the heat of a national campaign, they say, the more willing party leaders seem to be to embrace him. “What we’re seeing now is a trickle of people making that final decision to publicly commit,” says Jeffrey Berman, Mr. Obama’s chief delegate tracker.

His counterpart for Mrs. Clinton, Harold Ickes, directs 10 staffers working full time to forestall further defections. Mr. Ickes says the campaign can preserve a large enough pool of holdouts for her to rally before the Denver convention.

“Based on what we’re seeing,” Mr. Ickes said, “most of them are waiting and watching and holding their powder.”

Mrs. Clinton’s strategists were heartened by the negative publicity that followed the inflammatory criticism of the United States by Mr. Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. They saw the episode as a fresh argument for Democratic superdelegates to stay off the Obama bandwagon.

But Mr. Obama’s campaign, backed by recent opinion polls, argues that his speech rejecting those remarks while calling for dialogue on race relations has prevented fallout among superdelegates.

“Most people think he passed that test,” said Mr. Obama’s deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand.

Some, in fact, said they were drawn to Mr. Obama precisely because of that speech.

Especially in some of the states that have yet to vote, the Wright affair “is a big vulnerability,” said Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, a Clinton superdelegate. And “all of this delegate stuff is artificial,” she added, alongside the reality that the party’s nominee must be able to carry big states like hers, where Mrs. Clinton won a disputed victory; Ohio, where she triumphed last month; and Pennsylvania, where she leads in polls.

Such reasoning didn’t dissuade Ms. Campbell, who also spoke to Mr. Obama over the weekend. His handling of the Wright episode showed “his strong points” at racial reconciliation, she concluded, to the benefit of her fellow Native Americans as well as other groups.

“I think he can win a general election,” Ms. Campbell said. “He gives me that belief that America can be united.”

And whomod gloats on !




The simple fact is: both Hillary and Obama (and McCain) have gaffs, inconsistencies, mis-statements, and outright lies they've said. And each has skeletons in their closet that, if explored, could destroy any one of their candidacies.

But since mccain is a white male he is the best candidate.