Letters to the Editor
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Dear America
I did felony class drugs and didn't get caught. If you're doing 7-20 under mandatory sentencing guidelines then it officially sucks to be you. Please make me your President.
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It looks like...
The poor Edwards guy was just trying to find an excuse to jump in. I expect otherwise he'd be made to stand uncomfortably for the rest of the interview.
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She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie...
Cocaine!
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Grow up, guys!
I am older than Obama and I'd like to find anyone in my generation who wasn't at the very least exposed to drug use and who probably, whether they admit or not, didn't try something. It didn't get better as time went on. I find Obama's matter-of-fact disclosure of his youthful struggles refreshing and honest and I'm pretty sure most adults in America can identify with him. I'm truly sick and tired of hearing holier-than-thou pundits talking about it. The Dems tried to make a big thing of Bush's alcoholism and addiction, which was far more serious than high school indiscretions that he transcended in college. They tried to get the National Guard story to stick. We somehow managed to elect an addictive, draft-dodger who had failed at every business he ever touched as President and allow him to wrap himself up in the flag and the Bible at every opportunity without question. So I'm not too worried about Obama's teenaged years and the more these people talk about it, the better Obama looks. If everyone just "came clean" and moved on, we'd have a much more "real" political process.
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Holy hell . . .
And with one exchange the Democratic frontrunners regress to the elementary school playground.
Though I have to admit it was quite artful on the part of the Edwards rep to repeat the talking point "Cocaine!" while sounding like he was decrying the tactic.
Well played.
That said, why wasn't this much issue made of W's past cocaine use? Or his DUI's for that matter?
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Turnabout
I suppose this is the time to turn the classic administration excuse of the last 7 years back around and say: "But George W. Bush did it!"
I don't really care who put what in their lungs or up their nose in the past, but I do care about what they're doing now and what they're likely to do in the future. Could we kindly focus on that?
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Smug and smarmy...
is how Mark Penn comes off. My second thought after watching this ridiculous slappy fest was.....You would think Hillary's camp could do better than be represented by this obnoxious fat-faced creep. Maybe he is a good "strategist", but for crying out loud, keep him in the back room.
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This Update from the War On Drugs!
A presidential candidate admits to using illegal drugs.
Another presidential candidate mentions it.
This reflect poorly on the presidential candidate that... mentioned it.
HAHAHAHAHA!!! Drug Rule!!!!
Calling my dealer now. Gonna smoke a phattie for Obama!
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re: Holy hell . . .
EMStoveken,
"That said, why wasn't this much issue made of W's past cocaine use? Or his DUI's for that matter?"
Well, the cocaine use is not a proven fact...at least as far as I have been able to ascertain. I may be wrong about this one.
The DUIs he admitted to upfront...which kind of defused the story...at least it did in those days.
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Obama crybabies
Now the Clinton campaign, which hasn't told a single word that isn't true, can't mention the word drugs? Mathews, the insane man, and Newsweek and the Russert orbit, are Obama central.
Since when is it a smear to bring up the fact that this past admitted drug use will not be the subject of a smear in the general? It's been perfectly all right for every "progressive" supposedly to the left of Hillary -- and Obama's to her right on most things -- to refer, darkly, to the attacks that will (shudder) inevitably come if the people are crazy enough to nominated the "unelectable" Hillary. Of course, poll numbers had to be cherry-picked and lied about to say that she was "unelectable," but that's fair game. Of course the opposition candidate is going to say you -- but not they -- are "unelectable." Well, here we have what might be the first African-American nominee. He will be the subject of whisper campaigns in all kinds of states, and his admitted past drug use will be part of it, you can bet. And nobody can talk about it, because the truth is a "smear"? Oh, be still my beating heart! I'm with Erik Alterman. I don't see it as a smear, and people would be wise to ask Obama to respond to that, and not accuse the person still way ahead of him in national polls to apologize. The Swift Boaters were very much in public in the spring of that year. Wouldn't it have been a good thing to ask how Kerry would respond to this, instead of just dismissing those creeps and trying to ignore them? (It didn't work, by the way.)
This whole subject has been a missed opportunity for Obama. He could have closed that gap by showing us his mettle. Instead, he's just manipulated a good man and a good democrat out of his position, for a cheap political point. Hope he'll do better than that if he does get the nomination. If Hillary doesn't get it, I'm voting for Edwards. I don't vote for candidates who lie and manipulate.
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Clinton's Desperation
Is getting more and more apparent with every passing moment. What's next?
Wake up Democrats. Hillary cannot win nationally. If you want to spend the next eight years under Guilani's Boot or in a Huckabee Religious Re-Education Camp, be my guest...I'd rather not.
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plague on all their houses on this one
This sort of thing is exactly why people get disgusted with politics--it's all just theater.
The point Shaheen brought up was absolutely valid and logical--Republicans will try to use Obama's admitted drug past against him. Some of them have already mentioned it so he isn't saying anything new or illogical or over the top. Then the theater begins.
Obama's people start crying foul and demanding a resignation and apology. For what--for pointing out what their own candidate has said? Please. Manufactured outrage.
Then the Clinton campaign distances itself. "We in no way want to associate ourselves with remarks that make perfect sense"
Then Shaheen resigns. "I in no way want to associate myself with remarks I said"
Then we get the idiocy on Matthews. More manufactured outrage from the Obama spokesman. More silly distancing from Penn. Then Trippi chimes in like a Monty Python skit--"he said it! He said it!" In other words, Penn actually spoke about what they were, umm, speaking about.
My favorite part was then how Matthews, with no sense of irony whatsoever, then asks them to end the segment by encapsulating in "one sentence" their candidate. One sentence. Oh, the self-parody is rich