POW! POW! POW!

This primary is going to be great!!!

Not sure it was very smart of Obama to link up his finance chair to the "Lincoln Bedroom" stuff.

I thought his national finance chair was Penny Pritzker?

Maybe you're right...I was going by what was stated in the HRC press release. Maybe that was not a wise move on my part.

Yep :)

I'm only considering appearances and possible perceptions here. If Geffen has the appearance of having an axe to grind, it will help HRC. Even if he doesn't give off that vibe, when Obama is saying we need to get away from "cynicism" and ugly politics, it does his campaign no good. I don't have HRC or Obama on the top of my list (or second or third). For the benefit of my top candidates, I'd live to see them go after each other, but I do think Clinton wins this if the Obama campaign continues this track.

Don't forget what Geffen is pissed off about . . . . Clinton pardoned Mark Rich and refused to act on one of Geffen's suggestions for a pardon.

These comments by Geffen left unanswered by Obama's camp is a huge problem for me. So, Obama is not here to save us from gutter politics afterall?

ugh. I expect this crap from Republicans, but from Saint Obama? What gives? And his response to attack with Lincoln bedroom is just gross and pathetic. That's is all they can come up with? Geffen slept in the Lincoln bedroom?

Thanks. I'm done. This black man is for Hillary.

Can I get my 'Dreamgirls' money back, please? What a little punk.

AWWWW. What's the matter..did Monica Lewinsky get the role you wanted?

One of his requests? Ummm, no. Geffen wanted Clinton to pardon Leonard Peltier.  If that's not emblematic of everything that's wrong with the role of rich, Hollywood donors in the political process, I don't know what is.

I'm sure that Obama will be thrilled to discuss Leonard freaking Peltier at his next campaign event.  Because granting pardons to men who kill FBI agents is just so politically popular... 

Dumb, dumb, dumb move by Obama. This is a change in the tone? This kind of dust up is going to make him look like "just another" pol. It's unlikely to help Hillary much, but nobody thinks she is anything other than "just another pol."

He also doesn't want to get his image too tied up with Hollywood, it adds, not detracts from the lightweight perception.

The only winners are all the other candidates, and the possibly the Republicans

At least Peltier's case was ambiguous.

thosethingswesay.blogspot.com

To paraphrase: Never get in the mud with a pig,'cause the pig likes it.

When one of Senator Clinton’s supporters made an inappropriate statement, her campaign disavowed it immediately and the supporter apologized for his words. Why won’t Senator Obama do the same?"

What is she whinning about here?

By refusing to disavow the personal attacks from his biggest fundraiser against Senator Clinton and President Clinton, Senator Obama has called into serious question whether he really believes his own rhetoric

So, they are bound and determined to turn historically accurate remarks into a personal cat fight?  Boy, they are itching to bring him down.  Sounds like to me Obama disengaged from the 'slash and burn' accusation, when he said he was not going to get in the middle of some personal feud between the Geffens and the Clintons. Don't they understand the concept of rise above it? 

 Bill is seriously pissed. Hilliary can't run on his record and whine like this if she wants to project her 'hard and tough' image.

Obama keep your head above the fray. You have no bone in this fight.

Frankly, Hillary is once agains showing how she persists in stubborn denial  Is this what we can expect from her when she gets to be CinC...she will make a mountain out of a mole hill...personalizing remarks by heads of state and then demanding they respond to her hissy fit or she will escalate the situation to a pre-emptive strike?

Just reinforces the imagine of her being a 'wet cat'...unfit to lead this nation.

Ignore it if your will but some folks are gonna look at a one-time big money supporter for Bill saying these things about Senator Clinton and wonder....and read his criticisms...and wonder...and read about sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom while Bill was there...and wonder.

This is neutral for Obama and damaging for Clinton. And Geffen started it with his interview.

Geffen is NOT national finance chair for Obama.

I'm shocked that Hillary's complaint is being taken so seriously here. I mean, look at what she's asking for -- she wants her opponent to repudiate a major fundraiser and to give his money back! It's as if she's hoping that Obama would be so naive as to do either of those things.

thosethingswesay.blogspot.com

I find it interesting that no one is considering the possibility that Geffen was not a loose cannon here, but was actually encouraged by the Obama campaign to go talk trash to MoDo about Hillary in order to balance out the hack job MoDo did on Obama this past weekend.

I of course have no evidence for that, except that David Geffen is a smart enough man to know that his comments will be linked to the Obama campaign. This ain't his first time at the rodeo. So he just went off and did it anyway? Possible. But is it the most likely explanation?

Obama never said was going to campaign by standing still with a target on his chest, take incoming fire and not fire back. That would be a losing proposition and all of us know it.

A man worth 2.5 BILLION can say what he wants and to whom he wants for whoever wants to listen--in this case a NY columnist whose column can do some damage to Senator Clinton on her New York home turf.

Evidence for saying Obama put Geffen up to this? As you say....nothing...just air. Reason for your conjecture?

Geffen certainly has a rep for getting even. I am inclined to see that as his reason--although I have no idea for the reason he went "off" the Clintons which apparently occurred in 2005.

I guess that remark was just 'too bitchy' for you to get, eh?

As I said, I have no evidence of it. Which is about the same evidence that, say, anyone had that Hillary put those South Carolina state legislators who were her supporters up to saying that "a black man can't win." Didn't stop everyone from assuming that they were speaking for her, though. And that's because there's good reason to think that such things don't happen by accident. I mean, we've certainly seen the Bush Administration use all sorts of surrogates to attack its enemies. It's just the way things are done now, right?

I ask you: If this had been a high-profile member of McCain's campaign talking trash about Hillary, don't you think there'd be some immediate suspicion that McCain was behind it? Particularly if McCain then wouldn't disavow it (as Obama won't)?

By the way, I'm no HRC supporter. I don't care if someone trashes her. I just find it interesting that the usual skepticism and cynicism that applies to political campaigns(skepticism that is well-founded, I might add) seems absent here.

Maureen Dowd is in nobody's camp. She doesn't have political opinions. She will blast anybody prominent with her patented brand of snark. Why? Because she has to write two columns every week, and she has to make them interesting. And that's the only way she knows how to do it.

I think MoDo is trying to stir up any trouble she can, which she'll then use for future columns. I don't think it matters one way or the other to her--it was a gift for her, much like that stupid column on Joe Biden.

But it's an interesting point that the Obama campaign has been silent about Geffen--I think the response was great, but what it didn't say may be just as interesting as what it did.

Ford apologized for the comment that if Obama were the Democratic candidate, all other Democrats on the ballot would lose.

If a campaign was behind it, I would have expected Geffen to be less of a flamethrower. Couple of catty comments to make the interview worthwhile to Dowd and to ensure their use in a column. Good reasons on the switch from Bill to Obama....very positive on Obama.

My opinion is that Geffen was off on his own to get back at the Clintons and to test the Obama response. Mission accomplished.

Staying above the fray? I think he was giving better than he was getting, but "above the fray"?

For instance, Robert Ford is black, a fact that Obama's statement excerpted does not reveal, possibly because it blurs the picture they are trying to paint.

And is this the "praise" Clinton lavished on Ford?

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said Monday “I appreciate” state Sen. Robert Ford’s apology for comments the Charleston Democrat made about another presidential hopeful.

Ford, who is black, said he could not support U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for president because Obama is black and could not win the White House.

“Senator Ford has apologized, and I appreciate him doing so, because I’m all about breaking barriers. I think this presidential election has the opportunity to break a lot of barriers,” Clinton said in an interview with The State.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/16737254.htm

If this is the Clinton utterance Obama is talking about, it was made in response to Ford's apology for his earlier stupid statement that Obama would drag the ticket down. Obama's handlers want you to think that the praise was directed toward Ford in spite of his stupid statement that Obama would drag the ticket down, when it is more truthful to say (if this is the utterance Obama is replying to) that Clinton is praising Ford for apologizing for his earlier statement.

For instance, Robert Ford is black, a fact that Obama's statement excerpted does not reveal, possibly because it blurs the picture they are trying to paint.

No, I knew all those facts.

And is this the "praise" Clinton lavished on Ford?

No, she was shown at her rally in SC on CNN praising him.

that Clinton is praising Ford for apologizing for his earlier statement.

No, she said she 'appreciated' his apology.

You are right, not a wise move at all. The facts are now out. Geffen is not only not the "finance chair" or "finance director" as Hillary has falsely claimed, he has no role whatsoever on the campaign. Ironically, this makes Geffen's comment that the Clintons "lie with ease" seem even more apt.

Geffen is not Obama's finance chair; he's got no role at all on the campaign. He is just a contributor. Don't judge Obama by his contributors unless you judge Hillary by her contributors, many of whom are not just blunt speakers but convicted white collar criminals and the like. I promise this is my last correction on this point, since I don't want to be a broken record.

The first time she had may have had it easier than she could have because Giuliani chickened out. Even so, the race with Lazio was a lot tougher than it looked. She had huge negative numbers and no bona fides with the Democratic machines. She went out and campaigned like hell all over the state and got great response and vote totals everywhere.

stlounick said:
Ford apologized for the comment that if Obama were the Democratic candidate, all other Democrats on the ballot would lose.

Here, once again, in all it's glory is Frod's apology from 02/15/2007:
"If I caused anybody, including myself, any pain about the comments I made earlier, then I want to apologize to myself and to Senator Obama and any of his supporters."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/realclearpolitics/20070215/cm_rcp/ the_worst_apology_in_history

The headline caption?
The Worst Apology In History

This is the political version of the Anna Nicole Smith story. Geffen talks to MoDo voices dislike of the Clintons.
Option #1 spin story as more of the same from MSM via NYT. Mention Ann Kornblut NYT mis-statements and the Clinton marriage above the fold story. Mention Bill Clinton well respected nationally and internationally. Point HRC. Loss to Hollyweird.
Option #2 Scream about the MoDo column and Geffen's comments. Blame Obama. Geffen states his opinion is his personal opinion. Blame Obama. Point MoDo.
If you think that the Clinton campaign response to MoDo's column that had been ridiculed by many bloggers was a great move and that Obama is slinging mud based on Geffen's statement. Well, it's a free country. (See Reed Hundt's "MoDo Shaves Her Head" Too at TPMCafe)
Keep in mind if state Senator Ford had said Obama was not Presidential material because "You can't trust someone who smokes in 2007 despite the known risks cancer sticks", no apology would have been required. It would have been a personal attack, but no apology needed. what Sen Ford said, in essence, was that any Black Presidential candiate running in 2007
couldn't get elected, and would destroy the Democratic Party because of all the rascist Caucasians who would never vote for a Black candidate and take retribution on others candidates out of spite.
Geffen = personal attack (Obama no where in sight during cnversation with Ms Dowd)
Ford = attacks Whites as rascist and Blacks as not Presidential material because of White rascism. (Hillary no where in sight during Ford's statement)
Situations appear a little different to me.
Ford offers world's worse "apology",
Geffen response seems proportional to the apology.
Maybe my viewpoint exists because of a low regard for MSM in giving perspective.

My opinion, candidates should save the outrage for something major.