Now, let the dirty campaigning really begin, and see who'll come out of it smelling good...

Costs due add up!

It's hard to blame Obama for this one. Clinton all but asked for it.

Good! They way you prevent swift-boating is to fight back with equal force. These responses need to be faster and as far-reaching as the attacks.

Here Obama goes again using right-wing talking points to attack other candidates. He is so politically naive that he has become an embarrassment.

If Obama cannot manage to effectively campaign against fellow Democrats, how does anyone expect him to be successful against the Republican big guns.

ParkSloper, I think this ad is an example effective campaigning.

Well it seems like your right Genghis. It is amazing to me to look thru out all of the so called "TPM approved sites" (Thanks for that Josh) saying basically the same thing that Big Ed Schultz said last night on hardball. They will say anything to get elected. Personally as a Democrat I believe that the Clinton's are running a Red campaign. Just waiting for the terroristic threat ads start running from their camp. I mean C'mon! I

n a way I also believe that Sen. Obama is
accurate in saying that some of his supporters will not vote for her in the general if she wins the nomination. Check out this wash post blog to see how disgusted some Dems. have become.

They're not Democrats or Republicans. The belong to the "Clinton Party of no Lose".

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/01/23/obama_campaign_decries_clinton.html

ParkSloper -- what "right-wing talking points" is Obama using? Your comment doesn't make any sense-did you even READ the script? Get a grip. This is a fair ad. Good for Obama.

I'm so sick of supporters of the Clintons claiming everything said against them is a right-wing talking point.

you sound like zombies with a persecution complex.

Off topic, but how come the one part of the TPM site that actually should have a comment section (the blog), doesn't? Also, how is it that you guys have a staff and a worldwide headquarters and yet somehow manage to update TPM (esp. the blog) less often than most bloggers who are sitting at home in their bathrobes? Sullivan, for example, probably quadruples your daily output. Yes, quality vs quantity and so forth, but for a group blog, the main TPM page is a bit lethargic.

Park Sloper,

Since when is drawing critical attention to Clinton's support of NAFTA and the Iraq War a "right-wing talking point"--aren't her positions on these issues precisely those of the right wing?

Are you denying she holds these positions?

I really think that this is right angle for Obama to take on Clinton (finally). It responds forcefully to her attacks, leverages existing perceptions that Obama has integrity while Clinton is calculating, and speaks to his core message of changing politics-as-usual in Washington.

Kucinich for prez,

It's a Kucinich-free day because he isn't, nor has he ever been a serious president. Sure he's got ideas, but any real, fleshed out policies? Any real record of accomplishment to think he could be leader of the free world?

Maybe when your guy starts running for president and taking the process seriously instead of trying to build a platform for himself to meet women, then TPM will take him seriously.

LIKE TELLING THE VOTERS THE TRUTH ABOUT HIM!Obama said he goofed on votes
Barack Obama angered fellow Democrats in the Illinois Senate when he voted to strip millions of dollars from a child welfare office on Chicago's West Side. But Obama had a ready explanation:
He goofed.

Also announced he had fumbled an election-reform vote the day before, on a measure that passed 51 to 6. The next day, he acknowledged voting "present" on a key telecommunications vote.

He stood on March 11, 1999, to take back his vote against legislation to end good-behavior credits for certain felons in county jails. "I pressed the wrong button on that," he said.

Obama was the lone dissenter on Feb. 24, 2000, against 57 yeas for a ban on human cloning. "I pressed the wrong button by accident," he said.

But two of Obama's bumbles came on more-sensitive topics, he backed legislation to permit riverboat casinos to operate even when the boats were dockside.

The measure, pushed by the gambling industry and fought by church groups whose support Obama was seeking, passed with two "yeas" to spare -- including Obama's. Moments after its passage he rose to say, explaining that he had mistakenly voted for it.

Obama would later develop a reputation as a critic of the gambling industry, and he voted against a similar measure two years later. But he was clearly confused about how to handle the issue at the time of his first vote, telling a church group that he was "undecided" about whether he backed an expansion of riverboat gambling. And, months earlier, he had voted in favor of a version of the bill.

Obama's vote sparked a confrontation after he joined Republicans to block Democrats trying to override a veto by GOP Gov. George Ryan of a $2-million allotment for the west Chicago child welfare office. being responsible," said Sen. Rickey Hendon, accusing Obama of voting to close the child welfare office.Obama replied "I understand Sen. Hendon's anger, I was not aware that I had voted no on that piece of legislation.

"Say anything. Change nothing."

The obama camp found it's message again, back on message of change.

If that is the message between now and Super Tuesday, this going to get very interesting.

Excellent! I think it's important to call out the Clinton slime machine on their lies and distortions.

"Obama said he goofed on votes"

..as opposed to Hillary's Iraq vote?

Here Obama goes again using right-wing talking points to attack other candidates. He is so politically naive that he has become an embarrassment.

If Obama cannot manage to effectively campaign against fellow Democrats, how does anyone expect him to be successful against the Republican big guns.

Ahh, you got to love those ignorant Hillbots, never short on effort. This is a perfect specimen, there is absolutely nothing to fault with this ad, yet they respond with characteristic contempt for reality, for example the so-called "right wing talking points". A typical Clinton response to anyone who criticizes them, everything to them is a "vast right-wing conspiracy" and anyone who would challenge them is "un-Democratic", very Bush/Cheney in itself if you ask me: "If you don't agree with me you are un-American, if you challenge me you are un-American". All in all, a pretty pathetic response. And apparently now we can add this to the list: "If you use facts and call me on our lies, you are a Republican", oh, yet when Obama stands up for himself and calls the Clintons on their lies he is somehow showing he is "weak" and "naive"...yes...that makes a lot of sense.

You gotta love the Hillbots, as pathetic and ignorant as can be. This is a perfect example of why I can't stand Hillary supporters, because just like the hardcore GOP, you CANNOT debate with them because they refuse to recognize reality or facts, you could have a video of Hillary clearly stomping a kitten to death and they would come back and say, "No, that was Obama, and he is stomping that kitten as a right-wing talking point against Hillary". I swear it is that goddamn impossible to reason with these people. I'm embarrassed to be in the same party with people so ignorant and contemptuous of critical thinking. Here I used to think the Democratic party was better than the GOP, yet now I see that not only do the Clintons run a Bush/Cheney-style campaign, their supporters also have a lot in common with their GOP counterparts.

"Jay wrote on January 24, 2008 10:08 AM:

"Obama said he goofed on votes"

..as opposed to Hillary's Iraq vote?"

I'm not certain what your point is here Jay. Are you suggesting that Hillary's war vote was simply a goof?

The only lacking with the ad is that they lying is not merely a Hillary problem but rather one of both Clintons, both of whom are running.

Jay:

Ah, then we are in complete agreement.

Excuse me but I am sick of obama supporters forgetting about the misrepresentations that they made. I guess it was so last week when there was all that flack about hillary dissing Martin Luther King because she also praised LBJ (watch Bill Moyers great resonse on his show on PBS last week) or the crap about Bill Clinton saying that obamas campaign was a fairy tale when he was clearly referring to the fact that it was a fairy tale to think that obama had been bravely standing against the war all through 2003, 2004 when the country hadn't turned against the war yet. So if we are going to talk about who flung the first piece of dirt lets talk about it.

I personally don't think obama will make either the best candidate in November or the best president but there is no way that I am not voting democratic in the upcoming election because anything , absoltely anything is better than another republican.

Bill Clinton did not do everything we wanted and NAFTA was/is awful but I will take those discomforts over perpetual war in the middle east, continued welfare for the rich and corporations, and the refashioning of the Supreme Court in god's image anytime.

Get a grip folks this is not the election to opt out. You tried that with Ralph Nader and we all know how well that turned out.

This goes back to the post-debate comments. Honesty. Trustworthy. Etc. It's a quality Obama has cultivated with voters since the day he got into this race (remember all that hand-wringing over whether he should've brought up his drug use when talking to HSers?? Or for coming out in favor of merit pay in front of the teacher's union?), and it's a huge concern for Hillary among even voters who support her.

I think Obama's campaign runs best when the discussion is closer to where it was in Nov/Dec than where it is now, but it certainly seems like they had a plan for the event that things got dragged down to this level seemingly permanently (as it seems now), and it's a smart plan, at that.

"Excuse me but I am sick of obama supporters forgetting about the misrepresentations that they made. I guess it was so last week when there was all that flack about hillary dissing Martin Luther King because she also praised LBJ"

..just like how people are sick of people laying all the blame of Clinton's LBJ comment at the feet of the Obama camp - as I remember it, Donna Brazille and James Clyburn were the first people to make a fuss over her commentary.(two people unaffiliated with the Obama campaign.) Also, before her comments became a thing of public fodder - why did Hillary find it necessary to clarify her LBJ statements at her next campaign stop?

Bornagaindem, if you don't want perpetual war in the middle east or welfare for the rich and corporations, than why on earth are you for clinton?????? That makes no sense. Clinton voted for and promoted perpetual war in the middle east and mr. bill's administration as has clinton in the senate propogated welfare for the rich and corporations. Hello, please get the facts as opposed to buying the lies from the clintons.

You really have to love the Hillary supporters, who either accuse Obama supporters of being right-wing agitators or naive Ralph Nader supporters. They accuse Obama of either being a Republican no better than Bush, or being too liberal. I love it. It is all too obvious these people don't know their heads from their asses, and that their attacks against Obama and his supporters are little more than the first things that pop into their heads, regardless of how ridiculous, ignorant, nonfactual, or contradictory they may be.

Hardly as effective as Hillary's own ad, quoting Obama in his very own words.

And it's worth noting that Hillary's ad never claimed that Obama "liked" the Republican ideas. In fact, for the ad to get across its message, all it had to assume was that Obama was quite tolerant of Republican ideas -- ideas such as refusing to raise the minimum wage. And I don't know how anyone can read Obama's original comments without concluding that he was tolerant of Republican ideas -- the worst he could bring himself to say about them was that they had been "played out" at this time. (And might they be worthy of being tried again sometime even in the relatively near future? Since Obama didn't repudiate them as inherently wrong, well, why not?)

Of course the Wash Post reporters, incompetent to the core, couldn't get that obvious point. Distinctions are hard for them.

jaluo, but..but...the media hates the Clintons remember? The media ruthlessly attacks them and meticulously researches all of their claims and weaknesses! What do you mean the the press doesn't set the record straight...you mean the media have been helping the Clintons this whole time by giving them a free pass on nearly everything while giving Obama's responses minimal coverage??

Gasp!

No waayyy...that's just crazy talk!

:P

The blood of more than 3000 American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis drips from Hillary Clinton's hands.

I sometimes am amazed that people don't seem to realize that Obama's ad is hardly the final word here. Do they not realize that for every punch, there is a counterpunch?

What can we expect from Hillary? I'd guess a pretty good counterattack, even a very personal counterattack.

And now she can claim that Obama has engaged this kind of personal attack by calling her, in effect, a liar.

And I'm not sure it's going to be possible to dispute that it is the Obama campaign that will have been the first to engage in personal attacks, by calling the other a liar.

Dear Clinton Supporters,

Now that Bill has just made an unusually direct public statement saying that Obama will win SC because of the Black Vote--I hope you can now finally uncover your eyes, and accept that the Clinton Machine strategy all along has been to marginalize Obama's crossover appeal, and cast him as a just another African American candidate.

Welcome to the Machine, Clinton Supporters.

And remember, if you are not part of the solution, then, you are part of The Machine.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-01-24-sc-bill-clinton_N.htm

Hillary Clinton strangled Iraqi babies in their cribs--metaphorically speaking.