Cloud now hangs over the Obama camp

[Silence Dogood]

Mystery creator of anti-Clinton ad identified

Cloud now hangs over the Obama camp

March 22, 2007

WASHINGTON - The creator of the faux-Apple ad against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been unmasked as a Democratic operative who worked for a digital consulting firm with ties to Sen. Barack Obama, NBC News confirmed Wednesday night - leaving Obama on the spot.

Heralded by many as the embodiment of Web-driven citizen activism, the once mysterious YouTube ad now stands revealed as the work of a Democratic operative employed by a consulting firm with Obama links.

The operative was first identified by the political blog Huffington Post as Philip de Vellis, a strategist with Blue State Digital. After NBC News confirmed de Vellis’ identity, he publicly admitted his involvement on the same blog.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17735512/

[BeyondGeography]

1. No, it doesn't

but thanks for peddling this crap anyway.

[ccpup]

4. I disagree.

More people I know are now more suspicious of Obama since this incident. He is, to them, no longer the Golden Boy who is above Partisan Politics. They're looking at him with a more critical eye which is, in my opinion, a good thing. We should look at EVERY candidate -- not just Hillary -- with a very critical eye.

And don't just disagree by calling the piece linked to "crap". You can do better than that, can't you?

[BeyondGeography]

6. This has been debunked on about 20 other threads

thereby qualifying it as "crap".

[ccpup]

11. don't get touchy.

I was just making a general point that every candidate -- not just the ones you dislike -- will have to go through something like this. DU is getting more and more like grade school every goddamn day. Is it even worth supporting anymore?

[BeyondGeography]

15. What amazes me is how many repeat threads we have on the same damn non-story

You'd think five or six in one morning would suffice.

[ccpup]

16. it was the first thread I saw

and, for some people out there, it doesn't necessarily feel like a non-story. It's agreed that he had nothing to do with the event, but it'll be good for people to look at him with clear eyes.

[BeyondGeography]

17. It's a story, but not the one they're peddling with the headline

So the headline is crap...that's what I should have said in the first place.

[saltpoint]

2. The guy who concocted the smear ad on HClinton was tossed overboard,

and properly so, and is no longer affiliated with the Obama campaign.

That closes the file, IMO.

Obama has been drawing significant and enthusiastic crowds, and my guess is they'll only get more significant and more enthusiastic.

[NYCGirl]

9. As far as I can tell, he was never affiliated with the Obama campaign. The company

he worked for did work for Obama, Richardson and Visack, too.

[saltpoint]

13. Yep -- the connection was thin to start with, and there doesn't seem

to be any lasting damage done.

I think the Obama campaign goes on smoothly without much concern over this.

[Bicoastal]

3. Give me a break...

...like most things happening on the campaign trail a full year and a half before the electon, this will all be forgotten in a months' time.

If this is the worst thing Obama can be connected to several degrees of seperation, he has nothing to worry about...and Hillary should be very, very afraid.

[Deep13]

5. Never campaign on the campaign.

The public is never shocked or surprised that negative campaigning occurs. It is a non-issue.

[windbreeze]

12. Which is something I have never understood.....

A candidate, any candidate, should have enough of his own merits to stand alone...why should any candidate from the same party as another, attack, or belittle another...or feel the need to..Personally, I hate the bullshit that goes on.....I feel if you are the best man/woman for the job...that's all you should need...but then I also feel, that if you have a killer voice, you shouldn't have to dance around practically naked, in a music video, to sell cd's...(nothing is as it should be anymore, somewhere along the way, we have lost our own sense of worth)
windbreeze...

[Igel]

25. Because every candidate will put him/herself forward as

the perfect candidate; the "nearly perfects" will be seen as incompetents.

"Negative ads" usually point out weaknesses and problems. If you leave it up to a candidate to point out his or her screw-ups and weaknesses, conflicts of interests and misrepresentations, it'll never happen.

[ieoeja]

26. "Because it works."

"Everyone says they hate negative campaigning," said Newt Gingrich during an interview.

"Then why do it?" the reporter asked.

"Because it works," he replied. Gingrich went on to explain that most of the same people saying they don't like a candidate who resorts to negative campaigning will end up voting for that candidate anyway because of what they think of his or her opponent as a direct result of the negative campaigning.

[ripple]

7. Dramatic title for yesterday's news n/t

[karynnj]

8. The idea of a Cloud hanging over the Obama camp is pretty excessive

In the first place the ad was not authorized.

In the second place, it really is not that bad - it makes no false claims or accusations. Compared to Dean's and Gephardt's ads against each other in Iowa - this is clean.

How do Clinton people compare this to the Bill Clinton/Mark Penn 2 step cherry picking Obama's comments on Iraq?

[Grandrose]

10. No cloud....bump in the road.

There will be difficult days ahead, its just awful that
campaigning has started so early. I am sick of it already!:grr:

[jobycom]

14. Oooo. The media is beginning to see Obama as a threat.

Until now, they saved all their negative BS for Clinton (and shame on those who fall for it). Now they are giving the negative nuance to Obama, too. They must be afraid of Obama a little now.

This will hurt Obama exactly as much as the media smears of Clinton's campaign tactics hurt her. Not at all. First, there's no direct link to Obama and this ad, it's just something an over-zealous (and brainwashed) follower did. Unless Obama ordered the ad, it won't affect him at all. Like these same types of issues with Clinton, this will only reinforce the opinions their followers already have. It's too early and too technical to affect the mainstream voters much.

[NYCGirl]

18. How do you like this one (from Slate)? "Why Obama is Like a Serial Killer"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703220006

In a March 22 Slate.com article, editor Jacob Weisberg questioned whether serial killers and presidential candidates are "really so easy to tell apart," and compared the backgrounds of various serial killers with those of several 2008 presidential candidates, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) and Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL), John McCain (R-AZ), and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY). However, on the Slate.com homepage and washingtonpost.com, the article was teased as "Why Obama Is Like a Serial Killer" -- complete with a picture of Obama -- even though he was just one of several candidates highlighted by Weisberg.

Additionally, Weisberg repeated in his article the false claim that former vice president "Al Gore claimed he invented the Internet." This falsehood -- which originated during the 2000 presidential campaign and has endured since -- was a distortion of Gore's 1999 claim that while serving in Congress, he "took the initiative in creating the Internet."

As Media Matters for America documented, Slate.com previously teased a December 14, 2006, article on a land deal between Obama and Chicago Democratic fundraiser Antoin Rezko as "Inside Obama's Shady Real Estate Deal," despite the fact that the article explained there is "no evidence" that Obama did anything wrong.

Weisberg's article, titled "Candidates and Killers," cited several current and former presidential candidates in addition to Obama:

[ripple]

23. Wow. Just wow.

The media is certainly on Obama's side, all right. :eyes:

[Tellurian]

22. I just watched the utube video..

They're calling this type of campaigning, "gorilla warfare".. I don't have ANY ill feelings towards Obama for the ad and neither does Hillary. She took the ad at face value with all her usual grace and style.

Obama supporters better grow a thicker skin, this is just the beginning. Hillraisers are used to this kind of mudslinging. In fact, I treated myself to a new yellow slicker this year and a new pair of matching Wellies!

[MADem]

19. This is YESTERDAY's NEWS

It's OVER. Obama has DISAVOWED. There IS no "cloud."

And I was in the "The ad is offensive" camp, too. But I do not blame Obama for it, I blame the guy who got fired.

[PATRICK]

20. Dems always pay the price

for a small time swift boat enthusiast. One operative in the Dukakis campaign publicly accused Bush I of having an affair.(He had, as far as the reports go). Dukakis honestly repudiated and shut down such "help" and still suffered for the whole thing. The list could go on a bit but not far since for the Dems it is always a single zealot rather than a group conspiracy with money ties and a long leash to the GOP.

Because the Dems so honestly and fervently join in the repudiation they take the hit generally on the tactic. That is the primary consideration, no pun intended.

However, as a subsidiary, since this has happened a couple times in the primary season already, one might wonder- if one has a suspicious nature based on long experience- whether these lone gunmen are indeed plants or have or will receive remuneration from odd GOP-ish quarters. At least remember his name should he resurface ever again as a political activist. I think this is more legitimate in this case than the over the top Edwards bloggers because it was such an elaborate production deliberately brought to the full attention of the nation. YouTube is a video blog in many ways but the crossover is visually more powerful than the crossover in verbal blogger journalism to the MSM. The connection between these and potential campaign ads is a thin line, that to their credit, many Dem candidates have NOT taken advantage of. In our local race against the gerrymandered ham sandwich Randy Kuhl it is our campaign that took some heat from the media for YouTube blogging based on the photoshopped satire rather than the plain recording of Kuhl's horrendous gaffes during the debates.

It is a one way street even when the issue is public when it comes to fairness and manners. It has ALWAYS been sickening how the standard for the Dems has been boy scout sainthood while the GOP gets away with everything. Then IF you are perfect you are still covered with mud and labeled a weakling boy scout ready for the crucifixion. The slightest deviation from martyrdom and you labeled a dirty campaigner. If "both" sides create a dirty campaign it suppresses the vote in favor of the GOP. It was very disheartening talking to older voters(who should know better) who were so turned off by the whole thing they were not going to vote at all. "The infamous Rovian strategy is merely the most audacious application of creating this sucking whirlpool of one-way manufactured controversy.

In the primaries, the best course is for the candidates to unite on the particulars of dismissing the intrusive low campaign from outliers and not feed the whirlpool the MSM immediately sets in motion. Someone should also redo the "ad" with a picture of Cheney or Bush since they are more appropriate to the symbolism anyway. There are legions of WH satires out there already. In the presidential campaign
the Dems should consider taking the gloves off on using live and actual, unedited, fully contexted GOP horrors at the FIRST obvious subterranean GOP attack which almost always has to be fictional and deceptive. Innocent referrals to the Giuliani drag queen skit or the McCain flipflopping follies merely reference to what is there already.

So far Obama and Hillary have responded very appropriately, but in this game- the only one the MSM respects- it is shaping the public attention that counts. And learn to laugh at yourselves to deflate the spin and save the anger for dealing with the media unfairness in enlarging the political traps only for Democrats and those the bushes disfavor.

[AtomicKitten]

21. I still think it's no big deal.

This will blow over soon.

[skipos]

24. Obama isn't my 1st pick now, but this is B.S.

Obama had nothing to do with making this internet clip.

[Alamom]

27. I support HILLARY and will say loudly, DROP THIS SHIT ! OBAMA DIDN'T DO IT.

Senator Obama had nothing to do with this. Senator Clinton responded,"We're in a new and exciting era & no one can control what people do on the internet." (She didn't appear to be upset)




WE NEED TO STOP WITH THE 10 POSTS A DAY OR MORE ON THIS. THE MSM IS TRYING TO CAUSE PROBLEMS WHERE THERE ARE NONE. SOME SMART GUY MADE A VIDEO......... :shrug:

[Tellurian]

30. Yes, I made that point very clear several posts ago..

no one is very excited about it. So, theres no need to shout at us..

[Vickers]

28. omg, a cloud?!?!?!?! That is HUGH, i'm SERIES!!!!11!!!!

:eyes:

Welcome to DU, yadda yadda yadda...

[threadkillaz]

29. Oh yeah. FU GE!

Got it.

FU GE!

[NoPasaran]

31. Hmmmm

Hit and run post.

Been a lot of them lately.

[elizm]

32. Dark cloud, huh?

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/headlines/view/222

Barack Obama 28.1%
John Edwards 24.6%
Other 12.4%
Dennis Kucinich 10.3%
Hillary Clinton 8.7%
Bill Richardson 7.6%
Undecided 4.9%
Joseph Biden 1.9%
Christopher Dodd 0.5%
Mike Gravel 0.3%