Obama: Smear me? No. Smear you!
Posted: Friday, June 13, 2008 9:17 AM by Domenico Montanaro
“Obama, dogged throughout the presidential race by Internet-driven smears, launched an aggressive campaign yesterday to fight them head on, betting that the political benefit of debunking damaging rumors outweighs the risk of making them more visible,” the Boston Globe writes, adding, “Obama's decision to counterattack reflects a determination not to be defined by political opponents, as past Democratic nominees have -- most recently in 2004 when Senator John F. Kerry was ‘swift boated’ by critics who attacked his war record.
VIDEO: Countdown's Keith Olbermann talks about possible smears against Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, and the new Web site the campaign has set up to refute false attacks.
More: “Launching the website breaks what has been a conventional mindset in American politics: that giving attention to rumors only dignifies and broadcasts them to more voters. But the rising influence of blogs -- and the attention more mainstream media outlets now pay to them -- makes it increasingly untenable for candidates to ignore swirling speculation, even if it's baseless.”
From inside an Obama fundraiser, NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones passes on the “print pool” report (a report from a rotating wire or newspaper reporter allowed in.) “At one point, Mr. Obama looked around the room for Rick Fizdale, a contributor who five minutes earlier had quietly slipped outside and left. Mr. Fizdale, a former Leo Burnett executive, had left wearing a homemade nametag bearing the words ‘Rick Hussein Fizdale.’ (Everyone else wore printed nametags.)
“They have these wonderful stickers that said, ‘Rick Hussein Fizdale,’” Mr. Obama said. “The theory was, we’re all Hussein.” He went on: “But that accurately captures, I think, the strategy. Come on. They’re going to try to make me into a scary guy. They’re even trying to make Michelle into a scary person. Right? And so that drumbeat -- we’re not sure if he’s patriotic or not, we’re not sure if he is too black. I don’t know, before I wasn’t black enough. Now he might be too black. We don’t know whether he’s going to socialize -- well, who knows what.”
The candidate is in Ohio today where he'll hit McCain on Social Security. Some excerpts per the campaign: "A secure retirement is no longer a guarantee for the middle class. It’s harder to save and harder to retire. People are losing their pensions. If we do not act, the promise of Social Security will grow harder to keep. That’s why I will fight every day to extend the promise of a retirement that is dignified and secure when I am President of the United States. It starts with protecting Social Security today, tomorrow, and forever. For millions of Americans, Social Security is the difference between a comfortable retirement and the risk of poverty. We have an obligation to secure the future of one of the most successful programs in our history. And that starts with talking straight to the American people about the challenges that lie ahead."
On McCain: "Now, John McCain’s ideas on Social Security amount to four more years of what was attempted and failed under George Bush. He said he supports private accounts for Social Security -- in his words, “along the lines that President Bush proposed.” Yesterday he tried to deny that he ever took that position, leaving us wondering if he had a change of heart or a change of politics. Well let me be clear: privatizing Social Security was a bad idea when George W. Bush proposed it. It's a bad idea today. It would eventually cut guaranteed benefits by up to 50%. It would cost a trillion dollars that we don’t have to implement on the front end, permanently elevating our debt. And most of all, it would gamble the retirement plans of millions of Americans on the stock market. That’s why I stood up against this plan in the Senate, and that’s why I won’t stand for it as President."
Big campaigning weekend for Obama. "Moving to harness the grass-roots energy that helped win the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign will
deploy 3,600 volunteers in 17 states this weekend, each committed to six consecutive weeks of full-time political work."
More: "The campaign put out word in April about "Obama Organizing Fellowships," an approach that went well beyond the ‘y'all come’ model of luring volunteers with free doughnuts for two-hour canvassing stints. Supporters were required to answer essay questions, supply references and go through a telephone interview with campaign staff members. In return for a promise to give the campaign at least six weeks of their lives, they were promised training in community organizing techniques. "
Bloomberg News wonders how much of a "hit" Obama will take if he decides to forego federal funds for the general election?
The
New York Post's editorial page has a little fun at Obama's expense regarding his ability to quickly toss people "under the bus" and calls for Obama to toss Eric Holder under the bus too.
Forget the NYT story on sexism, the most important media story of the week may be the Obama campaign's decision to pre-but internet rumors.
L.A. Times takes a look at the idea of the media following Obama's lead.
Imagine the liberal blogosphere outrage if Clinton consumed Howard Dean's DNC in the way Obama's campaign has decided to do. "The move to Chicago also
inspired some concern among Democrats who would prefer the party play a larger, independent function, and not merely serve the nominee. “The DNC has responsibility beyond the presidential campaign -- to senators and governors and members of the House of Representatives as well as state parties--and when you dismantle the DNC and move it to the same location of the presidential campaign headquarters, there could be an implication there that the move is being made to capture the DNC wholly for the presidential campaign,” said Donald Fowler, who served as DNC chairman during the 1996 presidential election.
”Recalling the friction with the 1996 Clinton campaign over allocating more national party resources to the presidential race, he said, ‘I would be leery of the DNC forsaking their interest in all of these offices to focus exclusively on the president campaign.’”
Speaking of the blogosphere, there are some who are criticizing Obama for his “move to the center,” particularly the appointment of economic adviser Jason Furman. Tom Edsall, writing for Huffington Post, writes, “Barack Obama faces the difficult task of shifting his message away from the primary electorate to general election voters, while avoiding angering the more liberal primary voters who gave him the presidential nomination. Obama appears at the close of this week to have overcome one of his first hurdles -- a furor among labor and activist leaders over his choice of a campaign director of economic policy. …Obama's most provocative move in terms of economic policy has been to hire Jason Furman, who runs the relatively centrist Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution as his staff director for economic policy.”
Helpful or not to Obama? Rezko claims the feds pressured him for dirt on Obama; Rezko defended Obama and said he was innocent. That's all well and good but is Rezko a good character witness for anyone?
NYT's David Brooks gets at the nut of Obama's challenge: "Is Barack Obama really a force for change, or is he just a traditional Democrat with a patina of postpartisan rhetoric?" More: "To investigate this question, I looked more closely into Obama’s education policies. Education is a good area to probe because Obama knows a lot about it, and because there are two education camps within the Democratic Party: a status quo camp and a reform camp. The two camps issued dueling strategy statements this week." Even More: "Obama endorses many good ideas and is more specific than the McCain campaign, which hasn’t even reported for duty on education. But his education remarks give the impression of a candidate who wants to be for big change without actually incurring the political costs inherent in that enterprise."
So did Obama meet with Franklin Graham before McCain? Apparently so. Notes CBN's Brody: "Folks, I've been telling you for awhile now, the rules of the game have definitely changed during this election. Obama has made religion a very important part of the presidential race. He is reaching out to conservative and liberal religious leaders alike. The fact that Billy Graham's son, his successor, met with Obama before he met with McCain says a lot about Obama's religious outreach efforts. They are being VERY pro-active. Look, it's not as if McCain's religious outreach team isn't present. They are working behind the scenes too but Obama has been clear from day one that reaching out to faith voters was going to be a top priority. Obama's team made an important statement when they invited conservative religious leaders who WOULD NOT see eye to eye with Obama."
Here's an op-ed from Ward Connerly, the conservative anti-affirmative action activist that some thought would be a higher profile GOP surrogate.
Some Florida Democrats are upset at the heavy hand the Obama campaign is using to choose its new delegates in that state.
