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I missed all the hoopla today, but read a few threads and was thinking, wtf did Bill say that wasn't accurate - I know the statements Obama made in 04 about the war he supposedly opposed with every fiber of his being. I know that he didn't challenge Russert when asked about them, but instead tried to justify his betrayal of those supposedly deeply held beliefs by saying the political climate of the time demanded he be less than honest on the subject. And I wonder what else, then now and in the future, did, is, or will be politically calculated statements from him rather than honest expressions of his core beliefs. Here is the entire refutation from the Clinton campaign on Obama's twisting of the facts: ----------------------- Factcheck: President Clinton on Sen. Obama's record 1/20/2008 7:06:09 PM During today’s taping of Good Morning America, Sen. Obama accused President Clinton of making factually inaccurate statements. ‘ has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling. He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts. Whether it's about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas. This has become a habit and one of the things that we're gonna have to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he's making statements that are not factually accurate.'
Actually, President Clinton’s statements about Sen. Obama are true. Yesterday, President Clinton said he observed voter suppression in Nevada:
There was a representative of the organization following along behind us going up to everybody who said that, saying 'if you’re not gonna vote for our guy were gonna give you a schedule tomorrow so you can’t be there.'
The Las Vegas Sun confirmed the tactics that President Clinton was discussing:
Take, for instance, the case of Ruben Beltran, a Culinary member and Clinton volunteer who helps set up conventions at Mandalay Bay. Union representatives, he said, are telling employees they must caucus for Obama on Saturday, making it sound more like a demand than a suggestion. Beltran said workers feel intimidated because the union holds sway over their jobs.
Yesterday, President Clinton said Sen. Obama’s radio ad instructed Republicans and Independents to register as Democrats:
There’s a radio ad up in the northern part of Nevada telling Republicans that they ought to just register as Democrats for a day so they can beat Hillary and go out and be Republicans next week and vote in the primary. Doesn’t sound like the new politics to me.
President Clinton is correct. Sen. Obama was running radio ads asking Republicans and Independents to switch their registration:
Caucus for Barack Obama Saturday the 19th 11am. You can register right at the caucus. Independents and Republicans who want real change can attend and switch registration. Call 888-622-6268 to learn more.
In fact, Sen. Obama’s Nevada precinct captain made a flyer urging Republicans to caucus for Sen. Obama "if you think a Democrat will win in November and you don't want Hillary."
Earlier this week, President Clinton highlighted Sen. Obama’s comments on how Republicans had all the ideas for the past 15 years:
Her principal opponent said that since 1992, the Republicans have had all the good idea…So now it turns out you can choose between somebody who thinks our ideas or better or the Republicans had all the good ideas.
Don’t take President Clinton's word on it, here is Sen. Obama praising the Republican Party for being the party of ideas that challenged ‘conventional wisdom’:
"I think it’s fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10-15 years in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom."
Earlier this month, President Clinton questioned Sen. Obama’s Iraq War Record:
It is wrong that Senator Obama got to go through 15 debates trumpeting his superior judgment and how he had been against the war in every year, enumerating the years, and never got asked one time, not once, well, how could you say that when you said in 2004 you didn't know how you would have voted on the resolution, you said in 2004 there was no difference between you and George Bush on the war, and you took that speech you're now running on off your Web site in 2004, and there's no difference in your voting record and Hillary's ever since.
President Clinton’s statements are confirmed by the facts. In 2004, Sen. Obama said he didn’t know how he would have voted on the Iraq War resolution.
‘When asked about Senators Kerry and Edwards' votes on the Iraq war, Obama said, "I'm not privy to Senate intelligence reports,’ Mr. Obama said. ‘What would I have done? I don't know. What I know is that from my vantage point the case was not made.’
In 2004, Sen. Obama also said there was little difference between his position and George Bush’s position on Iraq:
In a meeting with Chicago Tribune reporters at the Democratic National Convention, Obama said, “On Iraq, on paper, there's not as much difference, I think, between the Bush administration and a Kerry administration as there would have been a year ago. <…> There's not much of a difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage.”
While running for Senate, Sen. Obama acknowledged that he took his anti-war speech off his campaign website, calling it "dated":
Specifically, State Senator Obama maintains that an October 2002 anti-war speech was removed from his campaign web site because “the speech was dated once the formal phase of the war was over, and my staff's desire to continually provide fresh news clips."
Finally, Sen. Obama and Hillary do have almost identical voting records on Iraq:
In fact, Obama's Senate voting record on Iraq is nearly identical to Clinton's. Over the two years Obama has been in the Senate, the only Iraq-related vote on which they differed was the confirmation earlier this year of General George Casey to be Chief of Staff of the Army, which Obama voted for and Clinton voted against. |
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