At Least Willie Horton Didn’t Question Why You Confess Your Religion
by tdaxp ~ April 14th, 2008
The famous Willie Horton ad that helped sink Democrat Michael Dukakis’s 1988 campaign for presidency was run by the Bush campaign… but Willie Horton first became an issue when future Vice President (and Nobel Peace Prize winner!) Al Gore used him in the primary.
Now this anti-Obama attack ad, from our Senator Hillary Clinton:
Clinton attacks Obama on air – First Read – msnbc.com
Here’s the script:
CLINTON: I’m Hillary Clinton and I approve this message.ANNCR: Barack Obama said that people in small towns “cling to guns or religion…as a way to explain their frustrations…”
Woman 1: I was very insulted by Barack Obama.
Man 1: It just shows how out of touch Barack Obama is.
Woman 2: I’m not clinging to my faith out of frustration and bitterness. I find that my faith is very uplifting.
Man 2: The good people of Pennsylvania deserve a lot better than what Barack Obama said.
What’s especially weird about this is that Obama’s faux pas on bigotry, religion, and guns — like his disastrous speech on race — was entirely self-inflicted. Obama, recall, made his speech on race trying to “explain” his pastor’s paranoid anti-American remarks. Likewise, Obama’s weird institutional-economic-determinism was emphasized in his attempt to explain his slip-of-the-tongue.
The campaign against Michael Dukakis — started by Al Gore and finished by George Bush — relied on portraying Dukakis as a disaster waiting to happen. The campaign against Barack Obama — started by Hillary Clinton and probably to be finished by John McCain — merely has to wait for Obama to open his mouth.
April 15th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I don’t think it’s just him.
I mean, I’ll admit quite a bit of confusion on this whole bitterness thing. I get it, I get what he means and I know exactly who he’s talking about. Why he said it? Eh. It was kinda dumb.
But look at McCain on the Sunni vs. Shiite comment. I think in the general election it will end up McCain’s “Quote Attacks” will be directed at making Obama look inexperienced and out of touch and Obama’s Quote Attacks will be focused on making McCain look old and out of touch.
If put can quote nearly everything a person says to anyone else in a day, they’re going to screw up eventually.
Could the attacks even themselves out, or will Obama suffer by not taking the negative route?
April 16th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Agreed that the “bitterness” word wasn’t a big deal. It was a faux paus.
It was the second half of the comment that was more disturbing to some people [1], and his explanation that made it worse [2].
[1] http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2008/04/12/is-obama-insensitive-to-uneducated-whites.html
[2] http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2008/04/13/the-cnn-compassion-forum.html
April 19th, 2008 at 11:22 am
I am starting to believe that there is some part of the Harvard core curriculum that includes a mandatory class in Marxist analysis and contempt for Middle American values.