Obama: Guess who wins the mudslinging match?
posted at 6:10 pm on September 15, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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ABC News catches Barack Obama in an ironic, if meaningless, gaffe in the midst of a complaint about campaign ads. Obama complained about the attack ads that John McCain has launched against him for the last two months. But when he had to defend his ad about e-mailing, Obama tried to pretend it didn’t have anything to do with age — and inadvertently claimed the title of Mudslinger in Chief:
It was Obama’s turn to defend his campaign tactics when pressed by Cuomo today.
“It paints him as an old man. You say he can’t use a computer, he’s never sent an e-mail. What does that all mean?” Cuomo asked.
“What it means is that we’ve got a 21st century economy. And John McCain does not have a vision for how to move that forward,” Obama replied. …
Obama rejected suggestions that his campaign ad was a low blow.
“If we’re going to ask questions about, you know, who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily,” Obama said.
Well, alrighty then! Barack Obama — champion of pointless negative advertising!
But seriously, can Obama be serious about playing the victim here? He started smearing McCain three months ago by claiming McCain and the Republicans would attack because of his race. Team Obama has had its surrogates talking about his age and his cancer, which aren’t exactly the “issues at hand”, as Obama puts it. And unless the fate of the world hinges on an e-mail, then his ad is equally pointless and has nothing to do with “being out of touch”. It’s a snarky shot at McCain’s age, and everyone knows it. Pretending otherwise is not just risible, but outright dishonest.
And besides the dishonesty, the whininess hardly commends Obama to a position where he’ll have to deal with a lot more hostility than being called “the world’s biggest celebrity”. McCain has made this mistake with its responses lately as well, but not as consistently as Obama has. America doesn’t elect victims to the Presidency — it elects strength.
The candidate that stops whining and starts acting like a champion will win this election. The other will win false titles, such as the one Obama assigned himself by accident here.
Update: Want an example? Michael Dukakis tried this in 1988 … and look how well it worked out:
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Ed – you should put up a video of Hitler in your next update. A Obama-Hitler connection is more appropriate, IMO.
an_abstraction on September 15, 2008 at 8:59 PM
Won’t work. The Democrats already have a corner on the dogs and dead people vote.
tgharris on September 15, 2008 at 9:01 PM
Barack Obama: Same sh!t, 20 years later.
Wow…..
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on September 15, 2008 at 9:03 PM
Democrats lounched the Countthelies website.
Conservatives should lounch one called Counterthelies.
Entelechy on September 15, 2008 at 9:03 PM
alphie? You back?
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on September 15, 2008 at 9:04 PM
That Dukakis flashback is hilarious. To use a phrase Barry and the Elites would approve of, Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
Buy Danish on September 15, 2008 at 9:05 PM
You mean like this?
tgharris on September 15, 2008 at 9:07 PM
Same whines, different face. Is this campaign coming down to who the biggest victim is?
oakpack on September 15, 2008 at 9:20 PM
So,Dukakis is still running against Bush,
do the Democrats know which election there in?
canopfor on September 15, 2008 at 9:28 PM
tgharris on September 15, 2008 at 9:07 PM
No… they were at least using words spoken by McCain. You guys in this thread are pretending that Obama said something that he simply did not say.
DaveS on September 15, 2008 at 9:29 PM
Oh this is getting good,me thinks me has an idea,
how about setting up a political ambush for der
Hopeless/Changeless,and get Obama into a perpetual
whinning mode!
Then we can hear Hopey say,”ENOUGH,ENOUGH,ALREADY”!
So,get on the ad,get it on tv,and ‘Lets Roll”!haha.
canopfor on September 15, 2008 at 9:36 PM
What? NO WAY! A member of the liberal left actually told the truth? WOW, a moment in history!
allrsn on September 15, 2008 at 9:59 PM
The racists were not ready for a Greek president. There were those that said he would be assassinated. The fact that he belonged to a Greek Liberation Theology church was never really an issue since he never listened to any of the sermons ranting on about the Turks or how English stole all the really good Greek words. Hope, Change and Feta was a pretty snappy slogan.
Hening on September 15, 2008 at 9:59 PM
Uh, no. Obama and Biden both quoted part of what McCain said to use his comment wholly out of context.
tgharris on September 15, 2008 at 10:00 PM
That would be like awesome, Dude, but using Obama or Mohammad’s image as a joke is strictly forbidden. It’s both racist and a sacralidge.
Hening on September 15, 2008 at 10:04 PM
Video of Obama’s gaffe here: Obama Defeats McCain.
Cuffy Meigs on September 15, 2008 at 10:08 PM
Elizabetty on September 15, 2008 at 7:14 PM
I can safely say O will not win WV this year way to many gun totein bible lovin beer drinkin bitter people here will not vote for him,heck the head of the Dem. party in the county I live in are writing in Hilary because they won’t vote for the O. lol
tee866 on September 15, 2008 at 10:09 PM
The things you learn about Obama when he’s without his precious teleprompter…
SuperCool on September 15, 2008 at 10:29 PM
tgharris on September 15, 2008 at 10:00 PM
Whereas you are completely fabricating something that Obama “said”. LOL… that’s pretty much exactly how I summarized it in my previous comment.
DaveS on September 15, 2008 at 10:51 PM
Darn…that Dukakis ad sounds almost like the Dem ads today. Deja Vu!
coyoterex on September 15, 2008 at 10:58 PM
I remember a bumpersticker from the Dukakis days which read:
“Do you want your kids to grow up and say DUDUKAKA ?
CynicalOptimist on September 15, 2008 at 11:36 PM
In 1988 potty training Moms all over America told their children: now dear Dukakis.
Obama seems to think media bias will get him elected and he needs the realize this isn’t 1992 and he isn’t headed for a Clintonation and a crown.
Cool word Dude. Liberals are always laughable.
Speakup on September 15, 2008 at 11:47 PM
You asked for it, you got it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4mKWceq0vY
Paul-Cincy on September 16, 2008 at 1:10 AM
Dems just keep running the same campaigns over and over. How sad. I mean sad in a good way.
Ronnie on September 16, 2008 at 2:39 AM
Dave S, I am a birkenstock wearing Obamanation member and my heart is with you, but after careful reflection it has come to my attention that Senator O’bama’s tax policy is allowing tax breaks for the rich. I make 140,000 a year and Senator Obama’s plan allows me to keep an unfair portion of my ill-gotten financial gains. I have always made a point of voting for the politician running who sticks it to the man the best.
Since through raw luck I have become “the man” I am going to have to vote for Senator McCain this year despite my heart being with you.
Jim
sven10077 on September 16, 2008 at 7:29 AM
This is a joke, right?
You believe McCain has run a clean, fact-based campaign to this point? Really? You don’t think he has run negative ads? Really?
And exactly how is saying your opponent lacks computer skills mudslinging? The ad in question said nothing about McCain’s age, so why are you claiming it’s about that? You’re just making mud up and claiming Obama is throwing it.
Who gave Obama this stupid world’s biggest celebrity title? You did. You’ve repeated it so may times to yourselves you actually believe his supporters did.
Dave Rywall on September 16, 2008 at 7:50 AM
Dave perhaps you’ve been in hibernation or in some alternative consciousness universe the past week since the ageist anti handicap Obamanation ad came out. But a simple search of google by the Obamanation campaign on why McCain doesn’t/can’t use computers would have pointed directly to the Boston Globe article of 2000, wherein it was reported that due to the fact that McCain’s arms and hands were broken in captivity in the Hanoi Hilton (you know your liberal friend’s, Jane Fonda’s, hope and change nest) McCain’s injuries prevent him from using a keyboard. Later articles show that McCain relies upon his wife and staff for computer usage, because they have normal functioning digits whereas he does not. But the ad also ignores the fact that Sen. McCain is head of the Senate Committee on Telecommunications which has passed legislation by McCain concerning computer and information technologies during the period 1995-2004, which shows that although McCain has a physical obstruction to using these devices, he has an acute mental knowledge of how they operate and of sound policies to further assist telecommunications in all its forms, including computers/internet. So the Obamanation has now thrown seniors and disabled persons under the bus, on a patently false assertion. If this is how the Obamanation gets tough, he needs better advice.
eaglewingz08 on September 16, 2008 at 9:21 AM
LOL!
Does anyone have a video of that bolded quote? That’s hilarious.
You know what I’m looking forward to most if Obama wins this election? All those cute little “Obama-isms” desk calendars that are sure to fill up all the book stores.
I mean, they will make those for him… right? Even though he’s a Democrat? RIGHT?
Jewels on September 16, 2008 at 10:50 AM
Did you even follow the link to the ABC interview? Does not Obama use the word “promulgating”? Do you know what it means to “promulgate”?
Its either a gaffe, or Obama is calling himself a mudslinger. Take your pick.
tgharris on September 16, 2008 at 12:10 PM
Ha ha, Tank Commander Mike complaining about negative campaigning in 1988, the same year he put out the plagiarism video that sunk Joe ‘Lord Kinnock’ Biden’s campaign. That’s pretty rich.
Chickyraptor on September 16, 2008 at 1:01 PM
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