I think that the Spin Doctors were in overdrive again, earlier this spring when Obama was rebuked by the White House and the Right in general for issuing a statement saying that “Soldiers Lives were being wasted in Iraq”. I believe they were responsible for making Obama revoke and apologize for the statement, which I felt marked Obama’s first cardinal sin of this campaign. In fact, high level Republicans, including , I believe Chuck Hagel went on to reiterate exactly what Obama had said soon after.
Obama, your instincts are and were correct on this occasion. There was never a need to lend credence to the Right’s views and opinions, and thus giving them free publicity by rescinding your commenets. In fact the real news was the apology rather than the comments or what the right wing media were saying. The real gaffe in my opinion, is the revoking and rescinding of comments, not the actual statement. I'm forced to hark back time and again to one particularly unlikely source, President Bush, whose administration has successfully deflected the now famous millions of gaffes issued by the beloved clown president. I had not heard of the so-called gaffe until Obama made headlines by apologizing or re-clarifying what he had meant to say
“What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."
I remember working on a similarly feverish campaign of one, Gov Howard Dean. To this day I am convinced that the Spin Doctors cost Dean the Dem primary and consequently the DNC the presidency. I knew Kerry could never cut it – he had never shown any real stand on any issue nor had his public speaking been particularly impressive. While Dean lacked the oratory skills of our candidate, however, I still think that his ideas and values - had democrats not lost faith - would have won him not only the primary, but they would have won over independents and even republicans as well and delivered the south and ousted the president and would have saved us another painful four years of this awful regime. Spin Doctors went into overdrive sending him on a frenzied PR crusade to salvage his image, an image that in my opinion needed no saving.
1 comment:
You're exactly right. Democrats need a candidate with Howard Dean's chutzpah to make statements and then not backpedal. It looks like the Democrats are already backpedalling on the withdrawal of troops from Iraq at a time when we have the Bushies squarely by the proverbial balls. Say what you mean, mean what you say, even if other's might think it's mean!
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