Hotline After Dark -- The Ties That Bind Us
There was very little talk of Hillary Clinton's expected win in KY and Barack Obama's expected win in OR. Instead, last night's TV focused on a variety of WH '08 topics, including John McCain nat'l finance co-chair/ex-Rep. Tom Loeffler (R-TX) resigning because of his lobbying ties. Loeffler was the fifth person to leave the camp amid a growing concern about lobbyists' influence over McCain.
Newsweek's Isikoff: "Some people are going to make that argument, saying, 'Look, why did it take you so long? You're were surrounded by lobbyists and you have been for the last year.' ... The problem for John McCain is he ran in 2000 as the foe of special interest, the guy who was going do smash the iron triangle of lobbyists and lawmakers and special interests. He runs in 2008 and he's got a very different cast or background to who his people running his campaign are" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 5/19).
CNN's Bash: "McCain aides say they should be applauded for new strict policies prohibiting staffers from lobbying and working with outside political groups, but privately some advisers concede these are self- inflicted wounds, something that could have been dealt with months ago, knowing it will be a constant question given McCain's crusade against special interest. And McCain was asked several times earlier this evening why it took so long to implement these new policies, and he wouldn't answer the question" ("Lou Dobbs Tonight," 5/19).
New Republic's Cottle, on McCain: "This is a man who's entire candidacy is based on his character. McCain is the reformer. He is the special interest scourge. And for him to have all these problems with these lobbyists is just a prime opportunity for Obama to tee up on him for the entire general election
campaign. ... For all the time that they've had, suddenly it's a problem now?" ("Race for the WH," MSNBC, 5/19).
After the jump, Obama warns GOPers to leave his wife alone (KATHERINE LEHR).
LEAVE HER ALONE!
During a joint interview on ABC's "GMA" on 5/19, B. Obama criticized TN GOP's web campaign about Michelle Obama saying she was proud of America for the first time in her adult lifetime. B. Obama: "The GOP, should I be the nominee, I think can say whatever they want to say about me, my track record. If they think that they're going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful."
Some reaction to his comments:
Karl Rove: "If you don't want your spouse to be an issue in a campaign, then don't have your spouse making issues. You remember Michelle Obama made that extraordinary comment about she was proud of the United States for the first time in her adult life. That's making an issue. ... If you don't want your spouse attacked, then don't have your spouse out there attacking" ("O'Reilly Factor," FNC, 5/19).
Clinton supporter/Dem strategist Hilary Rosen: "Well, I think spouses that campaign are fair game. Having said that, I think it's pretty stupid strategy, because, essentially, you have taken on sort of the most sympathetic person in a candidate's realm, the wife. ... I think that attacking her is really a dumb strategy on the Republicans' part" ("AC 360," CNN, 5/19).
PA-based radio talk show host Michael Smerconish: "I think just as he needs to nip in the bud some of these patriotism issues, she could do likewise" ("Race for the WH," MSNBC, 5/19).
GOP strategist Ed Rollins: "The reason I wouldn't run an ad like this, it wasn't a very effective ad to begin with. First of all, it was a YouTube ad. It wasn't on paid television. ... The critical thing here, though, is, these are her words. They weren't something made up. It wasn't some personal attack. She said this. And I think a lot of people reacted unfavorably to her saying it. In the course of a campaign, is the spouse open for any kind of criticism? If she says something stupid, it's going to be on television" ("AC 360," CNN, 5/19).
Newt Gingrich: "I think Senator Obama has to decide. If his wife's primary role is to be his wife, then she shouldn't be on the platform in any form except supporting him. But if she's, in fact, his colleague in politics, as Eleanor Roosevelt was and as Hillary Clinton was ... then, in fact, they become vulnerable and open to legitimate critique" ("On the Record," FNC, 5/19).
Senator Obama will expose the (Republicans) as Wizards (as in Oz --illusionary figures masquerading behind a curtain of Deceit!) The Republican Pretenders are skilled in rituals of smoke & mirrors. We, the American people, are tired of their trickery's and lies based on illusions and not fact, and like the Wizard of Oz, when the curtain is pulled back by "the light of truth", they will be exposed as the fakers and the pretenders that they are -- with loud, silver-tounged voices filled with vinegar and no Real Power -- pulling strings of "make believe" to coverup their own innate weakness and Experienced villainy, an In-Experience and Naivite that Barack lacks. This unveiling will enable us to finally get off this merry-go-round -- this "yellow-brick-road" of illusion and deceit perpetrated upon the American public by these ShapeShifters and Betrayers of the Public Good.
This massed negativity has been a real detriment to American economic progress and peace in Iraq. Such pretenders and shapeshifters are like a millstone around the neck of humanity, crippling true effort. They proclaim Family Values, yet do nothing but impede true progress while humanity is dying. This massed, organized negativity has been what has enabled them to work so ruthlessly with power and success at the destruction of all that has attempted to get in the way of their projects, desires and greed. They refuse to recognize that humanity can solve its problems without aggression and force and instead use the energy of goodwill, sharing and cooperation.
If you disagree with the Pretenders' politics, however, in unison they attack by subterfuge, distortion and lies to disquise their true intent --the control of money and power for the GOP family only (so much for family values). Masters in fear mongering and shapeshifting, they hope to incite fear in an unsuspecting and gullible American public and to get them to embrace thier plans out of fear and against their own common sense and good judgment! Only this time, we will dispell this Illusion and not be fooled again by these "fakers, con-artists and Pretenders", and our united House, born out of need and true change, will withstand the onslaught of this False, now Fleeting Wind that has devastated the American way of life, no more!
This is a victory for Obama.
Why?
B/c Michelle Obama can handle the GOP, no sweat #1.
#2, Cindy McTrustFund is fair game. If you are going to be your husband's financier, you are "vulnerable and open to legitimate critique." ... "If you don't want your spouse to be an issue in a campaign, then don't have your spouse making issues."