Collect 'Em All: A New AFSCME Mailer Slams Obama

[babylonsister]

I hope this disgusts Iowans as much as it disgusts me. And to use Edwards' quote and not taking responsibility is pretty underhanded.

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/12/collect_em_all.html

Collect 'Em All: A New AFSCME Mailer Slams Obama

Despite a smattering of bad press over their last mail attack on Barack Obama's health care plan, Hillary-backers AFSCME aren't backing down. They're out with a new negative mailer slamming Obama's "Band-Aid solution" and griping that "15 million Americans can't afford to wait for Obama's actions to catch up to his promises."

Like the previous mailer, this one cites a quote from John Edwards (whose team has disavowed the attack.). The eye-catching new addition? A take-a-number machine spitting out a card printed with the number 15,000,000.

"There are 15 million reasons why Barack Obama's health care plan is not up to the job," reads the text.

[K Gardner]

1. About as many reasons as I have not to vote for HRC. n/t

[MNDemNY]

3. Her plan is equally shitty.

Insurance Cos. Must be taken out of the equation.

[MNDemNY]

2. Again poor BHO is "slammed" with the facts.

This constant bringing up of facts must stop. It's not fair,and besides, these facts are past their expiration dates.

[journalist3072]

4. I know, right? The Obama apologists really don't deal well with the facts

They are so inconvenient.

Oh well.

[SoxFan]

10. Fact: Clinton campaign is a cesspool

Fact: Hillary Clinton's campaign wants to play smash mouth but doesn't have the grapes to do it openly.

Fact: This is a cheap stunt intended to smear Edwards by making it appear that he was the one who sent out the mailing.

Fact: Hillary's campaign is improperly coordinating its voter contact activities with AFSCME in New Hampshire and possibly in Iowa as well.

[MNDemNY]

21. And your animated yet phoney "shock" is

almost funny. It's a campaign. Buck up or go home.

[flyarm]

29. smells the same as Rove and little lord pissy pants..seems the family ties of clinton and * are

so loving they have to emulate each others campaign tactics!

and with the same type sheep-le ..who excuse the bullshit.

remember Babs bush said she introduced bill as her adopted son..since he is with she and papa bush so much!!

fly

[ClarkUSA]

18. What is a fact? Prove that Obama's plan will leave out 15 million.

The truth is that all of the major candidates' plans will leave out millions.

[MNDemNY]

22. It's not single -payer universal coverage, so it's shit.

I have nothing else to prove. Please defend why your candidates health plan is better than single-payer Universal? Give it a shot.

[AtomicKitten]

5. The Clintons are emulating the gutter politics that plagued them in the 1990s.

Apparently the lesson they learned was to fight dirty.

[babylonsister]

6. Yep. Are there any other campaigns fighting this dirty? Not

that I'm aware of...

[AtomicKitten]

9. I am pleased that the rest are not.

And those are the kind of Democrats I will fight for.

[babylonsister]

13. Agreed! They are selling themselves, not sliming others. nt

[Evergreen Emerald]

11. then you have not been paying attention.

Did you read the piece putting down Joe Wilson? He is a national hero, in my book, and Obama's team wrote a hit piece on him because he does not agree with Obama!? How low will they stoop?

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/011506.php

<edit>

That said, there are others who ought to resign or be fired as well - although I would guess that Chris Matthews and Joe Trippi* don't agree. For example (emphasis mine, throughout this post):

<Obama's> campaign staffers, too, have become frustrated by the focus of the media’s attention, specifically that the press has not covered Clinton in the way they expected it would. During an interview this summer, Obama’s friend Valerie Jarrett said to me, unbidden, “He is a man who is devoted to his wife. There aren’t going to be any skeletons in his closet in terms of his personal life at all. Period.” And at a campaign event in Iowa, one of Obama’s aides plopped down next to me and spoke even more bluntly. He wanted to know when reporters would begin to look into Bill Clinton’s postpresidential sex life.

<edit>

Unlike the Clinton campaign, which has the bad habit of firing people or making people resign when they do things they should not be doing, another campaign had (has?) a different standard on smears:

Asked about the document <Hillary Clinton, D-Punjab>, Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, said: “We did give reporters a series of comments she made on the record and other things that are publicly available to anyone who has access to the Internet. I don’t see why anyone would take umbrage with that.”

Asked why the Obama campaign had initially insisted that it not be connected to the document, Mr. Burton replied, “I’m going to leave my comment at that.” ..

<edit>

In August, Obama’s team scored a significant hit by helping to place a story in several newspapers revealing that Norman Hsu, a major Clinton donor, had skipped town after having pleaded no contest to a charge of grand theft 15 years earlier and still faced an outstanding warrant... (Hsu had also contributed to Obama.)


And now: they are taking a play out of the Bush playbook: attack and then when your opponent responds, complain that you are being attacked. An old trick, that is reinforced by the media currently giving Obama a leg-up.

I just thought we were smart enough to see past it--this time.

[MNDemNY]

23. Stop contradicting . Blasphemy!!

[Evergreen Emerald]

24. hehe...

And there is no response. Double Standard reins supreme here on DU

[MNDemNY]

7. And your's? Ignore facts at all cost, cry VICTIM!! over here, I'ma victim!!!

[SoxFan]

8. Slimeball politics from Team Hillary

I just received this mailing this morning (I live in Manchester, NH). I imediately looked at the disclaimer line and saw it for what it was, an attempt by Clinton to take a shot at Obama while tarring Edwards by making it look like he was sending out hit pieces.

Gutter politics at its worst.

[bunnies]

12. I received this piece of garbage in my mailbox today.

Ive gotten absolutely nothing from the Clinton campaign... yet I get this hit piece from her backers. But then, I also received yet another Obama mailer today. Making Obama, Edwards & Richardson still the only ones who have sent me anything.

[babylonsister]

15. What was the tone of Obama's mailer? Was he smearing anyone

or talking issues? I feel left out way over here in TX! :cry:

[bunnies]

19. Title: "Our Kids Must Meet The Challenges of the Global Economy & Succeed"

Inside Headline: "More Teaching + More Learning = Our Children Competing With The World"

Details:
"The Obama Education Plan for World-Class Learning:
* Recruit an Army of New Teachers. Create Service Scholorships to provide high-quality preparation for new teachers.
* Raise Teacher Salaries. Raise Teacher Salaries to retain the best teachers and reward accomplished teachers.
* Stop Teaching to the Test. Revamp No Child Left Behind to provide more teaching, not just more testing, and make sure the laws requirements are fully paid for by Washington.
* Make Science and Math Education a National Priority. 80% of the fastest growing occupations reuire a base of math and science. We must refocus our priorities to stay competitive

But Thats Not Enough -- Parents have a role too.
If we are going to compete in the global economy, parents are going to have to turn off the TVs and the video games, read books to our kids, check their homework and encourage them to aim for the stars. Every home and every school should be places where our children believe they can achieve any dream."

There just a little bit more... but you get the gist. Of the nearly two dozen mailers Ive received from Obama... not one of them has been negative.

[babylonsister]

20. Thank you for typing that all out!

:hug: Sounds like how a campaign should act.

[SoxFan]

33. oooh, dirty!

Guess the usual suspects can go back to the drug dealer/madrassa memes now...

[MethuenProgressive]

14. Is the "attack" factually incorrect? No? Blame Clinton!!

:rofl:

[ccpup]

17. I dread the day the BamaBots

notice their Candidate's halo is slightly askew and not as shiny as they first believed it to be. I mean, he IS the Candidate of Hope and Change, right?

How simply lovely and divine for the Dems to have a potential nominee who'll smile and play checkers while the repug knocks him down with a right hook while checkmating him. Of course, he'll pick himself up long enough to whine about the Press' coverage of him and the repug being mean and playing dirty, but by then it'll be too late.

Is this the part where we all link arms and sing Kumbahya?

[dailykoff]

16. Robocalls and deceptive mailers?

This is Hillary's famous "groundgame"? It's sounding a little too familiar.

[Nailzberg]

25. Shocked, I tell you. I am shocked.

[JDPriestly]

26. This is really low.

Not only is Hillary trying to use her AFSCME supporters to sow bad feelings between the Obama and Edwards camps, but the completely misleading Edwards article in her surrogate, the National Enquirer, was just placed on the stand in my local supermarket. What a sleaze ball is Hillary.

Before this, I did not like Hillary for various reasons. Now I find her campaign downright disgusting.

This kind of politicking in the primary is totally out of place and can harm the chances of the Democrats in the election in 2008. It is really anti-democratic and anti-Democratic. I do not want Hillary to represent my party in the 2008 election. You can beat me up on this forum, but I'm sure I am not the only person who feels that way at this point.

Edwards and Obama have criticized Hillary's stances on things and her ties to corporate lobbyists. But neither of them has used these really sick, underhanded methods to get at any other candidate. That makes me think highly of Edwards and Obama.

A person who cheats in little things will also cheat in big things. Hillary has cheated here. I do not trust her any more.

[babylonsister]

28. You are not alone there; good post! nt

[K Gardner]

30. Ditto, bravo and well-stated. n/t

[flyarm]

32. You are not alone!! I am besides disgusted..so much so i am going to go to Iowa to help out

another candidates campaign..

and i wasn't in anyones camp, but Gore's ..until i watched her henchmen all over Du and their bullcrap..

these assholes have sparked me into action!...they so remind me of rove and little lord pissy pants and his campaign sheeple, i will not sit it out and watch my party digress like this by the hillary slime balls

...I can not sit and watch this bullshit any longer..so i am flying out to Iowa Sunday..

fly

[killbotfactory]

27. If you disagree with this activity, you hate unions!

How dare you!
:sarcasm:

[Name removed]

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