Lieberman: Obama "A Good Young Man"
Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) on Meet the Press earlier this morning:
Also on This Week political consultant David Gergen called out the McCain campaign on what Gergen called the racial subtext of some of the campaign's ads and messages:
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Comments (24)
Wow, that is despicable. Notice he also said "eloquent" -- how is this different than Joe Biden's "clean and articulate" comment, for which he was pilloried? And he stayed on-message, repeating the "celebrity" smear.
August 3, 2008 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Will the media call him out on this? This is clearly appealing to racists out there....
August 3, 2008 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I say I say that boy juss ain't ready to be president."
(and to think I voted for this guy as VP once)
August 3, 2008 5:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. "Young man" = boy. Absolutely disgusting.
August 3, 2008 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did Lieberman open the door ?Can Obama now refer to McCain as a nice "Old" man ?
August 3, 2008 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, Obama can't comment like that about McCain. But, Hegal can call McCain a mean old bastard. Then both senators would be pretty close to being on track.
August 3, 2008 10:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
The reason I'm voting for Obama is that I know he's not going to have a Lieberman or a Graham or any holdovers (like Rove)in his Cabinet or advising him.
I'm a senior and although I'm pretty sharp and a few years younger,I have my moments, but McCain has shown by his recent gaffes that he has to be reminded quite often of the facts and as he gets older, I can see that it will be increasingly easier by those handling him to shape his policies to their liking.
As we have seen with Bush, Presidents don't lead in a vacuum and Obama will no doubt carefully choose Advisors with expertise in the needed fields for his Cabinet.
Since his main claim to fame is his POW experience, can't we say that his Swiftboating buddy Bud Day is just as qualified as McCain to run for POTUS?
August 3, 2008 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
The racial undertones scream out if you understand the terminology used.
I believe the MSM is backing McCain (at no charge to him) playing and re-playing these disgusting ads to purposely poison the minds of the lesser educated people. Most do not use other resources to get the truth. "If the TV man says it, it's true" is their level of understanding current politics. Pretty sad, unfair and disgusting.
August 3, 2008 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
August 3, 2008 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
They're trying to get Obama to lose his cool and be an Angry Black Man, but they have to be so extreme to even get a chance at that that they are disgusting more people than they are converting.
August 3, 2008 6:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The racial undertones scream out if you understand the terminology used.
I believe the MSM is backing McCain (at no charge to him) playing and re-playing these disgusting ads to purposely poison the minds of the lesser educated people. Most do not use other resources to get the truth. "If the TV man says it, it's true" is their level of understanding current politics. Pretty sad, unfair and disgusting."
I agree with your post 100%. The more I see the MSM NOT asking the hard questions of McCain, such as "why did you go on television shortly after the Anthrax scare BEFORE the invasion of Iraq and tell the world that the anthrax may have come from Iraq when there was no indication that it did"? "why do you always revert any question regarding the surge, BACK to the surge when it is suggested a surge would have never been necessary had there never been an invasion of a sovereign country that had nothing to to with 9/11"? the MSM is giving McCain a free pass and I only hope that when it comes time for the debates some of the questions are asked.
August 3, 2008 9:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you want to be elected President, one of things you need to do is study the campaigns of those who have won that race and those who have lost that race. Then, if you are wise, and you have a choice, you copy the winning campaigns and not the losing ones. Now, isn't that profound?
Well, Obama and his staff don't seem to be aware of that. They seem to be doing what they can to follow the campaigns of Kerry and Gore, but not Bush. So we have Obama taking the "high road", demonstrating his superiority over McCain at every opportunity (an extremely easy thing to do). As I recall, that tactic was a resounding success for Kerry and Gore (NOT!)
It isn't necessary for Obama to refer to McCain as a disgusting old codger, with his best years, and those weren't all that great, far behind him. But, he certainly has to get the voters to thinking about McCain and his weaknesses instead of about Obama and how different he is.
But, what do I know? I "knew" both Kerry and Gore were shoo ins for the job.
August 3, 2008 10:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama opted out of public financing. McCain needs this to become a negative ad war before the general election funding kicks in. That's why they went so absurdly negative. Once the general election funding kicks in, Obama will nail McCain's ass big time. What we should have learned from the Dem primary season is that Obama is a very effective political counterattacker. He makes a list and a few weeks later hits you even harder than you hit him. McCain's campaign better brace itself from what's about to happen.
On another note, it was dumb of the McCain campaign to go so negative right at the end of July. They don't understand how Obama's online fundraising works. Half of his June total was raised on the last day of June. If McCain wanted to do these ads, he should have waited until August 1 instead of effectively donating some extra money to Obama's campaign by giving Obama supporters reasons to donate some money.
August 4, 2008 3:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
I completely agree with you. A big part of the problem is that there is a sizable bloc of the Democratic electorate who thinks the real difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is in their respective campaign styles. You see them pop up in comment threads here from time to time when a Democratic candidate starts flirting with the hardball tactics the GOP uses - "this is terrible," they wail, "we're supposed to be better than them."
Well, we are better than the Republicans, and that shows through in our agenda. But we'll never get the chance to implement it if we don't fight the GOP as hard as they fight us.
August 4, 2008 6:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
You are mistaking obviously viscious on the surface with effective. Obama has been and will continue to hit back. He did it by responding to a McCain ad with, "Is that all you got?" He responded to Hillary by brushing his shoulders. Just wait until the debates. They will once again be the deciding factor. Once people see the way that Obama schools McCain they will line up behind him.
August 4, 2008 10:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. The Dems are setting themselves up for yet another loss. The correct response to Lieberman et al is NOT to Kerry's "did so" approach. They should be immediately taking it right back to McCain: "You want to talk about who's inexperienced and unprepared to lead? How about the candidate who voted the wrong way on the war? John McCain! How about the candidate who can't keep his countries and chronologies straight? John McCain! How about the candidate who in the last six months has changed his position on virtually every major issue and is blindly following the failed policies of George W. Bush?
This race is between someone who is thoughtful and prepared to lead: Senator Obama and the other candidate who is practicing tired, old negative politics in support of policis that have damaged America both at home and abroad.
August 4, 2008 8:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
All Sen Obama needs to do is say some thing like, 'I believe you ment Iraq not Iran.", in response to some McCain gaffe at a debate and it will be all over for McDemented.
August 4, 2008 10:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
hoppycalif2
What you failed to say in your critique of the Obama campaign ... comparing to Gore and Kerry is:
Gore won but the court gave it to Bush
Kerry won but Diebold gave it to Bush
Recalling this I'm not real certain that the Obama Campaign is on a wrong road. I do believe he needs to continue to firmly defend all of this literal "crap" McCain is handing out in pure desperation ...
August 3, 2008 11:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
hoppycalif2,
Oh what a joy it would be to have ANOTHER President just like Bush, one that campaigns like him, has policies like him, when the vast majority of the country believes we are on the wrong track.
Senator Obama does not have to stoop to gutter politics like the GOP to win an election, not when people with half a brain realize the last two were stolen. It's not going to happen again.
August 4, 2008 12:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Is traitor Joe still in the Democratic Party? He should be thrown out immediately. He and Zell Miller would make a fine duet.
NOTLA
August 4, 2008 12:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
And Joe is not a so-good old man... thank God in January he will no longer have any power in the Sentate....
August 4, 2008 1:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Re: Okay to call McCain "nice old man?" Perhaps, but what's clear is it's time to refer to our favorite Joe as Granny Lieberman. His caricature of himself is so over the top there aren't words adequate to the ridicule he deserves. What a lame excuse for a Senator, "Independent", person.
August 4, 2008 9:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
August 4, 2008 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I've been waiting to see what Obama and his team does in the wake of these ads: He forgot Latin America (let's keep the animosity and suspicion between blacks and Latinos going); the Celebrity Ad; the False Messiah ad.
If Obama is indeed doing well with working class white voters, then the chances are that he'll win the election unless the GOP poisons the water, and you the Republicans are masters at that.
On the front burner, McCain and the Republicans really don't seem to have much of anything going for them except the proposal for off-shore drilling, which Obama now supports in some limited and compromised capacity.
August 4, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink