Smears on Obama simply don't hold water

I'm all for critiquing a candidate based on facts and logic.  When Paul Krugman critiques Barack Obama's proposals, I don't blow him off.

What I am against is using utter garbage -- especially garbage that's already been debunked -- to attack a candidate.  I didn't like it when the Republicans built up Whitewater (a land deal where the Clintons LOST money) into first a scandal and then an excuse to go on an insane and immoral fishing expedition, and I don't like it when Hillary partisans promote similar nonsense about Barack Obama, zombie-like nonsense that the Republicans and their media friends will thank them for keeping alive beyond the grave.

More on this after the jump.

First off, the whole "he doesn't have substantive proposals" charge -- a charge also leveled against Hillary -- has been dealt with by Media Matters' Jamison Foser.  It turns out that both candidates have been bringing up policy specifics and proposals, but that since they involve making the rich pay up for Bush's coddling of them during the past seven years, the media people -- who are themselves rich -- pretend these proposals don't exist: http://mediamatters.org/items/2008020100 12?f=s_search

Seoond off, the Rezko house deal, which Hillary partisans think is so big, apparently doesn't interest the Rezko prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald at all.  In fact, the sole reference of any sort to Obama in the entire 78-page proffer released back in December is a single paragraph on page 36 referring to how Rezko -- who has hobnobbed with Illnois politicians of both parties for decades, starting with Jim Edgar (who gave Rezko his first contract) -- got an associate of his to donate $10,000 to Obama's campaign.  There's no hint that Obama even knew, much less approved of, the circumstances surrounding this donation when it was made.

How pathetic is this? So much so that when Chicago-area Republican blogger Dan Curry was using the Rezko proffer in December as a club with which to beat up every local Democrat he could think of (most especially the proffer's actual main target, Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich), he didn't even bother with bashing Obama, even though Rezko's Obama connections had hit the news months earlier. However, Curry did later spread around the Rezko guilt by association with a mention of Hillary Clinton's ties to John Burgess of IPA, whose lawyer is named in the Rezko indictment. (Oh, but of course the Area 51 types will tell you that the Republicans laid off Obama in December because it's part of their Cunning Plan!  Oooh!  Some people need to be introduced to the concept of Occam's Razor.)

Third off:  As for the smears directed against Obama's old law firm, Siun of FDL has handled those by showing that the Miner firm is in fact a do-gooder progressive law firm that works with good-guy groups like ACORN (for whom Obama did work while with Miner):  http://firedoglake.com/2008/02/07/so-who -is-that-law-firm-2/

Fourth off:  Hillary's insistence in banging the Rezko drum is ironic, considering that her allies Ed Rendell and Antonio Villaraigosa have both had Rezko's money pass through their hands.  Rezko's a longtime Democratic donor who gave $15,000 to the DNC when Rendell chaired it in 2000, and Rezko's also given thousands of dollars to LA mayor and Clinton campaign co-chair Villaraigosa's 2001 mayoral bid as well as to one of Villaraigosa's PACs in 2003.  It was in fact Rezko's prominence as a Democratic donor in Illinois that led to the infamous photo of him with Bill and Hillary Clinton at the fundraiser for Carol Moseley Braun.

Fifth off:  As both ArchPundit and the Chicago Tribune have mentioned, not only is there no evidence that Obama did Rezko's bidding after taking Rezko's money, Obama has in fact OPPOSED Rezko's wishes on key issues.

Now, can we stop with the recycling and resurrection of the debunked zombie lies, please?

Oh, and by the way:  I've written stuff as recently as last month that caused some Obama fans to get angry at me, so don't bother trying the "she's drunk the Obama Kool-Aid" garbage smear on me unless you want to look really, really stupid.  Thanks.



Display:


Re: Smears on Obama simply don't hold water (2.00 / 2)

The attacks on Obama here are getting pretty ridiculous. Thanks for the diary. There's some inappropriate stuff about Hillary on Dkos, but it's dwarfed by the absolute garbage being peddled on this site. I only come here now (after being a loyal reader for a year and half) to recommend these type of diaries and hope MyDD goes back to what it was.

MyDD and Open Left sure went downhill...


by College Progressive on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 03:26:16 PM EST

I've discovered that, too (2.00 / 2)

My own personal favorite is, after seeing reams of "Obama and/or his fans are splitting the party with their nastiness", seeing a commenter in the Hillary thread say that he/she quit the Democratic party because of Obama.

Funny thing:  Most Obama and Clinton backers out there, particularly those who don't spend all their waking hours online, have no trouble with voting for either Obama or Clinton.  It's only the online mavens for either side who are being insane about this.


by Phoenix Woman on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 03:37:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Agreed (2.00 / 1)

At least in Dailykos, I don't think any anti-Clinton smears have made it onto the recommended section for a long time. Here... there are two or three (depending on how you count) anti-Obama diaries there as I type this.


John McCain
by MILiberal on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 03:46:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Yeah (2.00 / 1)

And this site touts itself as the sane alternative to DailyKos?  If anything, it's even worse right now.  It's like going to DU on a really bad day.


by Phoenix Woman on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 04:06:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Smears on Obama simply don't hold water (none / 0)

Can you give specifics, please?


by Marsha1 on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 03:49:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Smears on Obama simply don't hold water (none / 0)

Read the diaries and accompanying comments on the  recommended diary list on MyDD, then read the recommended diary list on Daily Kos.

Come to your own conclusions.


by College Progressive on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 03:53:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Smears on Obama simply don't hold water (2.00 / 1)

Specifics of what?

If you want specifics of anti-Obama smears here, there's almost always going to be at least one on the recommended section here.


John McCain
by MILiberal on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 03:53:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Smears on Obama simply don't hold water (2.00 / 1)

Read the diary and links, please.   It's all there.


by Phoenix Woman on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 04:06:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Smears on Obama simply don't hold water (none / 0)

I don't think that there is an equivalency, really.  There's an absurd amount of anti-Clinton stuff at dKos.  There's a good bit of specious anti-Obama stuff here.  


by mgee on Sun Feb 10, 2008 at 04:46:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]


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