Obama Camp Turns to Clinton to Counter Palin

[no name 1]

Wow, reading comprehension 101 is sure not happening today...last time I mentioned Koolaid was August 26 & before that, June 24. You mentioned your fave word 'bitter' just yesterday!

[Ban Hammer 13,332]

Just stop the hatred and smearing of Obama and his supporters. Can you agree to stop referring to them as 'kool-aid drinkers?' Come on, this isn't doing anybody any good. Let's get back to discussing the actual issues, while showing respect for opposing viewpoints.

Now Charles, that is not respectful! Buck up!

i guess steven is even getting into the act of smearing obama.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...=0#entry2188648

[one...two...tree 2,762]

You are certainly trying...

I'm not sure why you have singled me out as the worst offender. I rarely post on here, and as I have said a million times, my vote is UNDECIDED. I am sick of the Obama zealotry & am only trying to show the other side, which falls on deaf (bitter) ears here, obviously.

What I'm hearing you say is that too many VJ'ers are unable to recognize the issues with Obama as President and when you try to point the issues out, those who support Obama aren't listening?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Apparently the "other side" is unreasoning hatred combined with patronising B/S.

We all need a dose of that don't we. Because it really furthers our understanding of the politics.

Got nuts?

[no name 1]

You are certainly trying...

I'm not sure why you have singled me out as the worst offender. I rarely post on here, and as I have said a million times, my vote is UNDECIDED. I am sick of the Obama zealotry & am only trying to show the other side, which falls on deaf (bitter) ears here, obviously.

What I'm hearing you say is that too many VJ'ers are unable to recognize the issues with Obama as President and when you try to point the issues out, those who support Obama aren't listening?

I give up.

[zqt3344 21]

Right on Barry Hussien! Way to go, first you cannot vet her or interview her or make her your VP, but now that you are getting your sorry A$$ kicked, you want Hillary to help you out and come to the rescue for you. Get real, women see through this stunt of yours. McCain and Palin in 2008!

Appears he *DOES* need HRC after all.... 18,000,000 vs. a whopping 9,000 from Biden?!

Published: September 4, 2008

ST. PAUL — Senator Barack Obama will increasingly lean on prominent Democratic women to undercut Gov. Sarah Palin and Senator John McCain, dispatching Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to Florida on Monday and bolstering his plan to deploy female surrogates to battleground states, Obama advisers said Thursday.

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign event in Florida, her first for Mr. Obama since the Democratic convention, will serve as a counterpoint to the searing attacks and fresh burst of energy that Ms. Palin injected into the race with her convention speech on Wednesday, Obama aides said.

With the McCain-Palin team courting undecided female voters, including some who backed Mrs. Clinton in the Democratic primaries, Obama aides said they were counting on not only Mrs. Clinton but also Democratic female governors to rebut Ms. Palin — and, by extension, Mr. McCain. Those governors include Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas.

Still, within the Obama campaign and among Democratic officials nationwide, talks are well under way about how the party should treat Ms. Palin in the campaign — and what Mr. Obama and his running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., need to do to regain the offensive after the Republican convention.

Some Democrats were urging Mr. Obama’s campaign not to underestimate the potential power of Ms. Palin’s speech, even among voters not aligned with either party: On liberal talk-radio shows and on left-leaning blogs, some Democrats said the Obama campaign should fight back hard to avoid being caricatured as Senator John Kerry was four years ago when he ran against President Bush. Some party strategists warned that Mrs. Palin’s personal narrative as a “hockey mom” with a special-needs child, would appeal to some undecided women voters.

“What McCain has done with Governor Palin’s nomination is aim right at a demographic that Obama needs to address quickly: noncollege-educated women,” said Mike McCurry, a former spokesman in the Clinton White House. “They need to maximize Biden’s ability to reach out to them, but at the end of the day, it is Obama who has to get that very, very critical group.”

Advisers to Mr. Obama predicted that the buzz over Ms. Palin would fade and that the race would quickly turn back into a contest between Senators McCain and Obama, despite the McCain campaign’s efforts to compare Mr. Obama’s experience unfavorably to Ms. Palin’s. At the same time, even as Democratic researchers pore over Ms. Palin’s record in Alaska, a rapid response team is being created in Chicago to dispatch female surrogates around the country.

David Axelrod, the Obama campaign’s chief political strategist, said Mr. Obama would not raise questions about Ms. Palin’s experience. Mr. Axelrod said the campaign would work instead to impress upon voters the seriousness of the race and continue to try to link the McCain-Palin team to President Bush.

While Mr. Obama did not aggressively challenge Ms. Palin, his advisers opened a new line of criticism to brand her as part of the Republican establishment.

“For someone who makes the point that she’s not from Washington, she looked very much like she’d fit in very well there when you see how she brings the attacks,” Mr. Axelrod said. “They all felt very familiar to Americans who are used to this kind of thing from Washington.”

Advisers to Mrs. Clinton said that she stood ready to help the Obama-Biden ticket, but they urged the campaign not to overestimate the impact Mrs. Clinton could have, noting that she had other commitments this fall, like campaigning and raising money for Senate candidates. Obama aides said the Clinton trip had been in the works before Ms. Palin was named the running mate.

Still, Mo Elleithee, a Clinton spokesman, said he believed she could make a difference with some voters who feel lost in the current economy and who want to see a federal role enacting universal health insurance.

“Anyone who was inclined to support Hillary Clinton typically did so because of her focus on middle-class, bread-and-butter issues,” Mr. Elleithee said. “Her message for Barack Obama on those issues could certainly help the Democratic ticket at the ballot box.”

The Obama camp also plans to keep Mr. Biden campaigning steadily in swing states. Obama advisers said that one advantage they had was that Mr. Biden, as a six-term senator and former presidential candidate, is well-prepared for his single debate with Ms. Palin, in October.

With both conventions seen largely as successes for their tickets, the importance of the three presidential debates — the first of which is Sept. 26 — and the one vice-presidential debate become even more crucial for either side to gain a political advantage, Democratic strategists and elected officials said.

Mr. Obama, speaking to reporters on Thursday at a campaign stop in York, Pa., brushed aside any worry that he might have about Ms. Palin’s criticism of his biography and political record in her convention speech.

“I’ve been called worse on the basketball court, so it’s not that big of a deal,” he said.

Yet Ms. Palin seemed to be on Mr. Obama’s mind. At a rally in Lancaster, Pa., Mr. Obama asked an audience of several thousand people if they had “caught any of the performances” at the Republican convention.

Mr. Obama did not mention Ms. Palin by name, but added, “They may have found some new faces to present their message, but it’s the same old message.”

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[SMOKE 1,426]

Right on Barry Hussien! Way to go, first you cannot vet her or interview her or make her your VP, but now that you are getting your sorry A$$ kicked, you want Hillary to help you out and come to the rescue for you. Get real, women see through this stunt of yours. McCain and Palin in 2008!

umm you didn't get the memo...the new catch phrase is 'party unity' not that Palin has scared the hell out of them.

[AlHayatZween 2]

Maybe they struck a deal?

Maybe she is just biding her time to watch how the next four years spiral further into chaos, and then she is going to wipe the floor with either Obama, or Palin... i mean, McCain... whoever is left standing for the next election.

[SteveLaura 0]

This is politics. It's not personal. The Democratic party will counter someone who appears to be a strong woman with a strong woman of their own. This is tactical. The Democrats want to win. Hillary - a Democrat - wants the Democrats to win, I would assume. If the GOP had fielded a black VP (however unlikely that may seem) and Hillary was the Presidential nominee, the Democrats would be putting Obama front and centre too. It's pretty simple stuff, no?

As for why she's not the VP nominee, my guess (purely speculative) is that she didn't want it. When it came down to Obama and Clinton, both were going for gold, not silver.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Why didn't he ask her to be on the ticket?

Think about it. A former president would become the spouse to the second fiddle. Sure, it might have made it easier to win the election in November but it would have made it all but impossible to effectively govern the years after. I don't think either Clinton or Obama would be comfortable with this. Just my opinion.

Why is that a given?

It isn't. That why I said that this is just my opinion.

[Peikko 1,575]

If all Hillary Clinton was interested was personal political power why did she join the Democratic party? I can think of other, better homes for her had that been her primary objective. On top of joining the more challenging party to sell to the American electorate, she has also spent a lot of time, not in personal agrandisement, as so many would lead one to beleive, but in putting forward policy and bills designed to achieve betterment in areas of women's rights, family issues and health care. Why waste one's time doing that when it is perfectly possible to take a much easier route to power?

I don't get it, I really, honestly don't.

[no name 1]

Maybe they struck a deal?

Maybe she is just biding her time to watch how the next four years spiral further into chaos, and then she is going to wipe the floor with either Obama, or Palin... i mean, McCain... whoever is left standing for the next election.

I don't doubt that they made a deal - she will be on his Cabinet/Attorney General/SCJ. But there's no way he would NOT run a second term (if he won) & by then H will be 68, I doubt she'd want to...

Personally I can't see her as a SCJ, but I have heard rumors from friends who went to the DNC.

But as this article says, she has 'commitments', thereby giving her an out from too much campaigning. I don't doubt that she does, as a Senator & former First Lady, but I don't think she will (or should) go out of her way to help Obama.

Edited September 5, 2008 by illumine

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

I think the Republicans are playing the Palin nomination like a finely tuned stradivarius.

On the one hand, as I have said many times, I don't think she was picked because she was meant to win over disgruntled Clinton Women Voters. On the other hand, they know there are many that feel sexism was a factor in Clinton's defeat. While we may never know the real reasons Clinton was not chosen, and maybe she was overlooked, Joe Biden has a reputation for being your politically-incorrect embarassing uncle who makes gaffes on race and gender, however a good VP pick he may have been.

In reaction to Palin's speech, he mentioned that she was "good looking" and went on to say it was a "good speech." I'm pretty sure if someone said something along those lines about an Obama speech many would shout about "racism." Now, I don't think the fact he said that was overtly offensive - i am not offended or angry about it - but yes, there is a whiff of sexism in those remarks, as well as a sense of fundamentally not "getting it." And that is very mild compared to the words b!tch and C%nt being used to describe Hillary on VJ. Although that is not a reflection on Obama - a fundamentally decent man married to a strong woman - the way the media (from the blogosphere to NPR) and his supporters behave will be a reflection on his appeal and how people vote.

I'm sure that if the shoe was on the other foot and the nomination went to Clinton, some of our Obama supporters (including Steve) would probably be feeling a little schadenfreude.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I think the Republicans are playing the Palin nomination like a finely tuned stradivarius.

On the one hand, as I have said many times, I don't think she was picked because she was meant to win over disgruntled Clinton Women Voters. On the other hand, they know there are many that feel sexism was a factor in Clinton's defeat. While we may never know the real reasons Clinton was not chosen, and maybe she was overlooked, Joe Biden has a reputation for being your politically-incorrect embarassing uncle who makes gaffes on race and gender, however a good VP pick he may have been.

In reaction to Palin's speech, he mentioned that she was "good looking" and went on to say it was a "good speech." I'm pretty sure if someone said something along those lines about an Obama speech many would shout about "racism." Now, I don't think the fact he said that was overtly offensive - i am not offended or angry about it - but yes, there is a whiff of sexism in those remarks, as well as a sense of fundamentally not "getting it." And that is very mild compared to the words b!tch and C%nt being used to describe Hillary on VJ. Although that is not a reflection on Obama - a fundamentally decent man married to a strong woman - the way the media (from the blogosphere to NPR) and his supporters behave will be a reflection on his appeal and how people vote.

I'm sure that if the shoe was on the other foot and the nomination went to Clinton, some of our Obama supporters (including Steve) would probably be feeling a little schadenfreude.

But people have already commented on Obama's good looks, and John Edwards was made fun of for being a 'pretty boy.' Maybe it is some kind 'ism' but I doubt you can pin solely on sexism because women have complimented on Palin's looks as well. I agree that the aesthetics of a candidate shouldn't be a part of what voters respond too, but it certainly has been for quite some time. Remember Kerry being labelled as looking 'too French?'

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

But people have already commented on Obama's good looks, and John Edwards was made fun of for being a 'pretty boy.' Maybe it is some kind 'ism' but I doubt you can pin solely on sexism because women have complimented on Palin's looks as well. I agree that the aesthetics of a candidate shouldn't be a part of what voters respond too, but it certainly has been for quite some time. Remember Kerry being labelled as looking 'too French?'

Yes. Maybe this is like white people not being allowed to use the n word and black people getting away with it.

And no, I don't expect you to really understand where I'm coming from.