Fight The Smears section of Obama's website.

I think this is a very smart and innovative section of Obama's website. Other candidates would be wise to follow suit.

Sad that it's necessary.(We do have smears in Europe: someone once suggested that a German leader was dying his hair ! )

But what possible smears could there be on McCain?

There were, and, unfortunately, will be, comments made, questions asked, about McCain's adopted daughter. He and his wife adopted a daughter from Bangladesh. During his 2000 primary campaign, there was a great deal of push polling done on behalf of bush about that. An example -

Caller: And how would you feel about McCain if you know he had a black (mixed-race) child? Would you still be inclined to vote for him?

It is a shame that such a kind act would cause such an ugly turn of events. I don't think much of McCain, but I do respect him, and his wife, for adopting that little girl.

Recently, a (now former) member of AP tried a similar tactic on Obama. In my reply to him, I stated that no such accusations, however veiled, would be allowed on AP. I specifically included this smear on McCain. (Of course, true to his form, he either didn't believe me or thought he was smarter than I am and could get away with his pushing. There are many in AP who are far smarter than I am, but he wasn't one of them.)

There is enough difference between the two candidates for a voter to make an informed choice, one that holds to that voter's basic beliefs. People who use smear tactics are ...I can't use the words that I want to use to describe what I think of that kind of trash. Let me just say that they should be flushed out of the voter rolls.

'...Mr. Rove has been busy lately developing a new fear card for 2008 - fear of the Obamas.

Its racial undertones are naked enough. Earlier this year, Mr. Rove wrote that Mr. Obama was 'often lazy,' and that his 'trash talking' during a debate was 'an unattractive carry-over from his days playing pickup basketball at Harvard.' Last week Mr. Rove caricatured him as the elitist 'guy at the country club with the beautiful date.' Provocative as it is to inject Mr. Obama into a setting historically associated with white Republicans, the invocation of that 'beautiful date' is even more so. Where's his beautiful wife? Mr. Rove's suggestion that Mr. Obama might be a sexual freelancer, as an astute post at the Web site Talking Points Memo noted, could conjure up for a certain audience the image of 'a white woman on his arm.'

But here, too, Mr. Rove reeks of the past...' www.nytimes.com

Is it hypersensitive to see in racism in Rove's comments? If it is coded racism, whose votes will it change?

'"Only a celebrity of Barack Obama's magnitude could attract 200,000 fans in Berlin who gathered for the mere opportunity to be in his presence. These are not supporters or even voters, but fans fawning over The One. Only celebrities like Barack Obama go to the gym three times a day, demand 'MET-RX chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and bottles of a hard-to-find organic brew -- Black Forest Berry Honest Tea' and worry about the price of arugula." McCain Camp Uses "Celeb" Ad In Fundraising

Well, at least they've moved away from the fields of race and religion.

Is this smear likely to work? Is it possible to picture Obama as a spoiled-brat celebrity? Is being seen as a celebrity a bad thing in US politics anyway?

quote:

Originally posted by newnickname:
Is it possible to picture Obama as a spoiled-brat celebrity? Is being seen as a celebrity a bad thing in US politics anyway?

Maybe. Here is a current item by Washington Post Columnist Dana Milbank:

President Obama Continues Hectic Victory Tour

Some snippets:

Obama: "This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for," adding: "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."

"Some say the supremely confident Obama -- nearly 100 days from the election, he pronounces that "the odds of us winning are very good" -- has become a president-in-waiting. But in truth, he doesn't need to wait: He has already amassed the trappings of the office, without those pesky decisions."

"On his presidential-style visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem last week, Obama left a written prayer, intercepted by an Israeli newspaper, asking God to 'help me guard against pride and despair.' He seems to have the despair part under control, but the pride could be a problem."

"But there are signs that the Obama campaign's arrogance has begun to anger reporters."

A writer in The Times here, describing Obama's manner in Europe, has styled him "His Expectancy". That is how he was seen here : behaving like "His Excellency".

In Britain, 'His Excellency' is used as the title of Heads of Republics and certain Ambassadors e.g. of The United States of America. There was more than a touch of that about him.It was not entirely well- received.

Hi Gang:

Wasn't it Harry Truman who said,

"If you can't stand the heat,get out of the kitchen".

hippolips

quote:

Originally posted by hippolips:
Hi Gang:

Wasn't it Harry Truman who said,

"If you can't stand the heat,get out of the kitchen".

hippolips

What smears did Harry Truman have to deal with?

NNN: Interesting link, but what's arugula?

Fred, Arugula is a type of lettuce.

One line that landed a little flat, though, was when Mr. Obama sympathetically noted that farmers ( in IOWA) have not seen an increase in prices for their crops, despite a rise in prices at the supermarket.

“Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?” the senator said. “I mean, they’re charging a lot of money for this stuff.”

The state of Iowa, for all of its vast food production, does not have a Whole Foods, a leading natural and organic foods market. The closest? Omaha, Minneapolis or Kansas City.

Mr. Obama, perhaps sensing a lack of reaction from the crowd, moved along to the next topic.

quote:

Originally posted by FredPuli:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by hippolips:
Hi Gang:

Wasn't it Harry Truman who said,

"If you can't stand the heat,get out of the kitchen".

hippolips

What smears did Harry Truman have to deal with?

_______________________________________________ Hi Fred:

Harry meant "Don't persist with a task if it is too much for you.If you can't cope, you should leave the job to someone who can"

He also had another one that deals with heat.."Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day"

More wisdom from Harry S. Truman.

hippolips

Yes, Hippo, I understand what Harry Truman meant. He said it in English.

Now, what smears did Harry Truman have to deal with (if any) ?

quote:

Originally posted by Mozart:

Fred, Arugula is a type of lettuce.

It turns out to be the common leaf vegetable, garden rocket [source OED] ! The only thing fancy about that is the name arugula, which the OED says is a) 'chiefly US' and b) from Calabrian dialect.

I guess calling Obama elitist isn't a smear particularly. It's only in the movies that a genuine Joe (or Jane) Schmoe can run for the presidency. What's strange is the implication that McCain (or Bush before him) is the genuine working class article.

quote:

Originally posted by newnickname:
I guess calling Obama elitist isn't a smear particularly. It's only in the movies that a genuine Joe (or Jane) Schmoe can run for the presidency. What's strange is the implication that McCain (or Bush before him) is the genuine working class article.

Isn't the suggestion that McCain has more understanding of what the ordinary man or woman needs and how they think, that he empathises? He's been in the military, he's lived in the company of men from all backgrounds.(And he's a true American, without a drop of foreign blood in him !) The argument seems to be that a man who knows the price of rocket can't possibly know or understand ordinary people.

Ah, yes, McCain got in touch with ordinary Americans by flying jets in the Navy, then marrying an heiress and sitting in the Senate for a couple of decades. In contrast, Obama hid away in the effete ivory tower of South-Side Chicago politics.

I guess it's a very, very old convention that a politician must be portrayed as "just an ordinary person like you". It's maybe obligatory, but it's silly.

quote:

...what smears did Harry Truman have to deal with...

'McCarthy, in a speech at Wheeling, West Virginia, mounted an attack on Truman’s foreign policy agenda by charging that the State Department and its Secretary, Dean Acheson, harbored “traitorous” Communists. There is some dispute about the number of Communists McCarthy claimed to have known about. Though advance copies of this speech distributed to the press record the number as 205, McCarthy quickly revised this claim. Both in a letter he wrote to President Truman the next day and in an “official” transcript of the speech that McCarthy submitted to the Congressional Record ten days later he uses the number 57. Although McCarthy displayed this list of names both in Wheeling and then later on the Senate floor, he never made the list public.' historymatters.gmu.ed

I don't think Truman was talking about this in his "get out of the kitchen" quote, though. Nor was he referring to arugula.

"Ah, yes, McCain got in touch with ordinary Americans by flying jets in the Navy, then marrying an heiress and sitting in the Senate for a couple of decades."

Don't forget the classy way he treated the wife who waited for him for all those years he was a POW.

"Gee, honey, it's great to be bac...Hey, look at that blonde!"

He's first class, for sure. I'll let others decide first class "what."

Hi Dor:

I've been accused of using sarcasm in my postings.

I've noticed you don't hesitate using sarcasm ,in many of your posts ,if it helps you make a point.

hippolips