Hillary's attacks are actually very good for Obama

[ginnyinWI]

This has been a primary season worse than we've seen for a while. But look at it this way: with Hillary attacking Obama so fiercely, he'll come out stronger and more ready for the General Election in November. Anything Hillary has been able to dig up will have been out there and boring by summer--most of the ammo will be used up. The media doesn't like re-runs.

Yes, you will say, but the RNC will always be able to think up new stuff. True, but people will have already watched Obama deflect so much crap during the primary that this will be nothing new--it will be seen as more of the same. Perhaps if Kerry had faced more sliming during his primary season then the attacks of the summer might not have attracted as much attention. Early on he was the frontrunner, well out ahead of everyone else, so when the GE started the media still had a lot of appetite for controversy.

So I think this tough primary season is helping Obama define himself as a survivor. It's getting his name out there in the media, getting people more familiar with him. His responses have been classy; he has not stumbled. People are gaining more and more confidence in this relative newcomer.

So all I can say today is, Hillary, what else ya got? :)

[TexasObserver]

1. Everything she has done has backfired and given Obama practice for dealing with McCain.

She's been a useful sparring partner.

[KatieW]

2. I couldn't agree with you more. This primary run against Hillary has definitely toughen Obama up,

and if he is the nominee, I think he's much more prepared for the fight ahead than if it had been a cake walk for him to the nomination.

[thereismore]

3. Hillary's campaign is now saying he is a Somali, suggesting he is a terrorist... what else can GOP

do to him? Thank you Hillary for bringing this up this early so Obama can get develop antibodies.

[ginnyinWI]

4. anti-bodies---that's a great metaphor!

And it's more a question of building up some immunity in the electorate, so that whatever comes next, they won't become "ill" from it. ;)

[stillcool]

5. It is their modus operandi...

you would think they would change tactics. Perhaps they believe they've reached some voters..in spite of their losses.

December 10, 2007
Third Clinton Volunteer Knew Of Smear E-Mail

A third volunteer for Hillary Clinton's campaign was aware of a propaganda e-mail alleging that Barack Obama is a Muslim who plans on "destroying the U.S. from the inside out."

"Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential Candidacy," the email reads. "Please forward to everyone you know. The Muslims have said they Plan on destroying the U.S. from the inside out, what better way to start than at The highest level."

Two Clinton volunteers, Linda Olson and Judy Rose, have already been asked to resign from the campaign for their roles in forwarding the e-mail. The AP reported yesterday that Olson, a volunteer coordinator in Iowa County, sent a version of the e-mail to 11 people, including Ben Young, a regional field director for Chris Dodd's campaign. Young passed it on to the AP.
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/12/third_clinton_v.html

Hillary Campaign Acknowledges That County Chair Backing Hillary Passed Along Obama Muslim Smear Email
By Greg Sargent - December 5, 2007, 1:31PM
A day after the Hillary campaign hit the Obama camp for bullying voters in nasty phone calls, the Hillary crew has just acknowledged that an Iowa county chair volunteering for the campaign passed along the now-notorious email that smears Obama as a Muslim by repeating the false claim that he attended a madrassa as a child.
The Hillary campaign confirms that they are asking the county chair to step down from the campaign.
he identity of the "Clinton county chair" -- or, as the Hillary camp prefers it, "volunteer county coordinator" -- is not yet known.
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2007/12/hillary_campaign_acknowledges_that_hillary_backer_passed_along_obama_madrassa_email.php

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/22/america/drudge.1-156891.php
The Drudge Report warms to the Clinton camp, or is it vice versa?
By Jim Rutenberg
Published: October 22, 2007
WASHINGTON: As Senator Barack Obama prepared to give a major speech on Iraq one morning a few weeks ago, a flashing-red siren alert went up on the Drudge Report Web site. It read, "Queen of the Quarter: Hillary Crushes Obama in Surprise Fund-Raising Surge," and, "$27 Million, Sources Tell Drudge Report."

Within minutes, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's fund-raising success was injected via Drudge into the day's political news on the Internet and cable television. It did not halt coverage of Obama's speech or his criticism of her vote to authorize the war in 2002, but along the front lines of the campaign - the hourly, intensely fought effort to capture the news cycle or deny ownership of it to the other side - it was a telling assault.

Clinton's aides declined to discuss how the Drudge Report got access to her latest fund-raising figures nearly 20 minutes before the official announcement went to supporters. But it was a prime example of a development that has surprised much of the political world: Clinton is learning to play nice with the Drudge Report and the powerful, elusive and conservative-leaning man behind it.

That man, Matt Drudge, came to national prominence a decade ago as a nemesis of the Clintons who used the Web to peddle, gleefully, the latest news and rumor generated by the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

That people in Clinton's campaign orbit would tip off the Drudge Report to its fund-raising numbers is in part a reflection of her pragmatic approach to dealing with potential enemies like Newt Gingrich or Rupert Murdoch.

Clinton's communications team, led by Howard Wolfson, is not leaving Drudge to the Republicans. Five current and former Democratic officials said Clinton has on her side the closest thing her party has ever had to Rhoades in Tracy Sefl, a former Democratic National Committee official. The officials said that Sefl had established a friendly relationship with Drudge and that Clinton's campaign often worked quietly through her to open a line of communication with Drudge.

[ginnyinWI]

6. only ignorant people who respond to fear tactics will fall for it.

Is Karl Rove working for the Clintons now? Seems like it, doesn't it?

It enrages me when people equate Muslims with terrorists. The Muslim faith is a peaceful one, just like the Christian faith. Both religions have their militant extremists, which come out when economic times are bad and they are able to gain the attention of desperate people. When we've had hard times in this country, then the KKK and groups like that have gained more power. Same thing is happening in the Middle East now.

I'm not affiliated with the Muslim faith, but it still makes me mad that peace-loving people should be so vilified. I know some personally and they are wonderful people.

[stillcool]

7. It is awful....

and it's any Middle-easterner...regardless of faith. It seems we have a long history of destruction and afterwards blaming those we destroy. It's so prevalent with a certain mind-set. It's the Immigrants, the Latinos, the Blacks, the Poor, those who get food stamps, or welfare, the atheists, the gays, those that are in jail, and those who speak out about of any of these injustices. I so hope that mind-set is of a dying breed, and that the age of the internet has provided enough information so that people can see through the divide and conquer method of governing.

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. Bullying makes kids stronger!

Yeeeeehaaaaw!

[ginnyinWI]

9. sarcasm noted.

But Barack Obama is no kid. And it's not really bullying, it's smear attacks.