… that, somehow, doesn’t turn out for the best. As Obama says:

“My instinct was to believe him.”

Who does that remind me of? Wait, wait, don’t tell me. I’m sure it will come to me in a minute….

Plus, given that this is a 5:00 Horror, I’m wondering whether I’ve been cynical enough. Because if:

… repeated lapses of judgment…

that’s the best spin possible on the story late Friday afternoon, I think next week is going to be a testing time for Mr. Hopey as well.

But let’s look on the bright side. When Obama didn’t stand up on FISA, the OFB fell silent on the “professor of Constitional law” talking point. And I notice that they’ve fallen silent on the “change” and “transformation” talking points too, as Chicago-style politics got old a lot faster than they thought it would. So, now could the OFB please fall silent on the “judgement” talking point?

Say, it’s gone nice and quiet in here!

NOTE Welcome to The Mighty Corrente Building, Susie from Philly! Honored to have you…

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

they know Clinton and fundraising makes it null and void in the media’s eyes too, sadly.

And of course, just another thing that shows the “new kind of politics” to be an utter and total crock.

Obama gets a pass and gets excused—but never her.

His decades-long clsoe relationship with Rezko is never ever covered, and while we know the GOP will exploit it (and the Wright stuff, another decades-long close relationship), the media never does.

And Obama continues to use one “judgement” on Iraq as a basis for electing him because it shows he has good judgement —and she doesn’t, while more and more of the belated vetting and exposure shows just how faulty—and old-time politics-as-usual—his really is—just like hers.

Rezco, a notoriously corrupt power player, just wanted to be friends with the up-and-coming politician for 15-20 years and not get any favors.

Even if somehow that were true, Obama’s close, long-term friendship with a slumlord who exploited people in his own district undercuts his image as a heroic community organizer who was a voice for the voiceless. This strike right at the heart of his candidacy: his authenticity.

and don’t think for one second that the GOP isn’t ready to use that one over and over and over—esp with their consistent painting of Obama as “unAmerican” and “other”—and Obama and Michelle and Wright actually helping the GOP do it, sadly.

“Keith Olberman gently asked him about this tonight and he said that there was nothing to it. Olbermann and Jonathan Alter hastened to agree and brought up Whitewater.”

Perfect!

that reflects badly on him—-they’re waiting for Clinton or the GOP to do it for them or for him to become the nominee. And that whole “balance” thing is still operative—“Well, the CLintons are all about dirty money, so …”— but they’re the ones that trumpeted every single Clinton thing like Hsu or Whitewater or Rose Law Firm or Foster or ….

I love it!

Any old hands here ever hear of the Checkers speech? Was it like that?

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/43…

This is the THIRD time he’s changed the amount of money he got from Rezko. Hmmm…

just very barely concealing his anger and resentment (or more often—turning it against those who either beat him or were attacking him) in every speech while being very skillful at making his points and reinforcing underlying themes (he was always reinforcing how normal and unrich and unglamorous and how he was really just a normal middleclass guy like the “silent majority” of voters—that was always his underlying message, i find)—Dubya is kinda like that i think altho really not as skillful, but not Obama. I don’t remember if the Checkers speech is the same as the “cloth coat” one, but Nixon was much more adept and manipulative—Obama’s a babe in the woods in terms of actual non-scripted q and a and defense, i find—and certainly can’t turn his defense into an attack skillfully—he whines a lot and derides but he doesn’t flip and then stab like most politicians.

Nixon was more like DeLay and most GOP talking heads who very smoothly turn every conversation/interview into exactly what they want to talk about instead of whatever they’re asked about or whatever they just were caught doing. Obama doesn’t do that—he mentions what he’d rather be talking about always, but doesn’t actually talk about it—he just talks about talking about it.

Obama very rarely appears on any news channel the way he just did—have you noticed? I wonder if it was scripted or if Olbermann had to submit his questions in advance too?

—unreal-O’Reilly and Hannity have been beating him about the head all night.
(and yes, I have been reduced to watching the ’enemy-Fox-because the ’friends’such as CNN are totally in the tank)

Apparently Fox bought these tapes of Wright’s sermons, which are for sale at his church (how dumb is that) and for some weird reason did not save them for the GE. They have been playing new ones about every hour and the horror show just keeps rolling on.

BO also did an interview with Major Garrett of Fox and did a terrible job of it. Garrett really pressed him and BO stumbled and stuttered alot.
Anyway, our potential potentate looked like a middle school kid who was caught with a smoke bomb.

and know it’s a big deal.

All this should have come out months and months and months ago—Wright, Rezko, the WU people, whatever’s next… everything. Did the party not vet him at all either? We know the media is only now starting to—Insane. Did no big money people look into any of this?

NYT— http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/us/pol… — “… Mr. Wright expressed frustration at the breach in relationship with Mr. Obama, saying the candidate had already privately said that he might need to distance himself from his pastor. But perhaps the two could repair things, said Mr. Wright, pointing out that Mr. Obama’s opponent, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, had faced worse.

“At least there are no semen stains on any dresses,” Mr. Wright said, one of several digs he has taken at the Clintons.

“That kind of frankness scares people in the campaign,” he added. …”

All the shows and read hundreds of comments on TPM, Taylor Marsh, the Huff Obama, TalkLeft, and RiverDaughter, I will say this:

He’s lost some support. On the Huff Obama there were a few buyer’s remorse comments. Not as many I would have liked but consider the venue. There were many more suggesting (i.e. believing) that the Clinton camp was behind it all. I don’t know why I’ve warned that this would happen 8 weeks ago when I wrote a post on onegoodmove.org entitled “Obama and His Faith.” I didn’t think it would play well in Peoria nor the Upper East Side. Safe to say we can add a lot more portions of the US now.

Still most of the comments on TPM and the Huff Obama were sticking by their man. The Huff Obama were generally the less rational and TPM more reflective. The best line was “well at least this proves he’s not a Muslim.”

On Taylor Marsh and RiverDaughter, two pro-Clinton sites, the attitudes have harden. Obama is now clearly unacceptable come what may. Two petitions are circulating, one urging a boycott of MSNBC and another calling for his resignation from the Senate. On TalkLeft, there is a mixture of disbelief and outrage.

The television shows ran the gamut. Keith Olbermann actually said “I don’t think we need to replay the video.” No, let’s rehash a story from the Torrance Daily Breeze from two weeks ago and do a Special Commentary. His interview wasn’t really an interview. Obama basically said what he wanted to say. He was never there when such sermons were uttered. He’s retired (yes, a month ago). The January 13th 2008 sermon is the one that really caught my ire. RiverDaughter has it or you can google it on youtube. However, Hardball devoted 20 or more minutes to the story and it was not that kind.

Anderson Cooper actually talked about the ABC News piece last night. He seemed stunned. How could we not know this? I didn’t watch Obama’s interview tonight. I caught Bill O’Reilly who went on a tear. Hannity & Colmes too were both outraged. I missed the interview there too which I really wanted to see. I caught Morning Joe this morning. He was stunned. Thought Obama was finished. Mika however was trying to spin it. It’s his preacher, not his adviser. Actually he’s both Joe Scarborough reminded her. Mika’s Dad it should be noted is Obama’s main foreign policy adviser yet somehow she supports Huckabee. Don’t quite get that.

Washington Week had the more erudite discussion. Gwen Ifill wondered if all this wasn’t just going to hurt the Democratic Party in the end. The panel all agreed.

Obama is likely finished but so far he has the lives of a cat. Still he is using them up fast. Washington Week also noted this via Martha Radich, Obama seems tired and in a glaze. My read his wheels are coming off and he doesn’t know what to do.

A new poll in Pennsylvania shows a drop from 39% to 35% in support for Obama. Hillary went from 52% to 55%. More polls due out tomorrow.

I’d like to think that this is the beginning of his unraveling. I know it is going to happen because Obama takes the same approach to politics as Richard Nixon. The weekend talk shows should be interesting. If this remains the story through next week, then I don’t see how he can recover. My fear is of course is that in his desperation and in the lunacy of many of his supporters (emphasis on many not all), they will blame the Clinton campaign.

that lost in all the day’s news was more bad news on the Rezko front. It’s a Friday, so smart move to get it out then and all the cover too. The President’s speech on the economy, Bear Stearns bailout, Carlyle Capital default that now puts the $16.7 billion hedge fund into liquidation, and riots in Tibet. Now of course a tornado in Atlanta. Obama now needs Britney to do her little thing and he should be safe momentarily. But that’s just it, these are just momentary saving graces. He can’t duck Rezko much longer. At some point, he won’t be able to control the news cycle no matter how pliant MSNBC is.

The Wright stuff is not rocket science. Most Americans would be appalled by the anger and the hate. It’s not that others have said the same thing. Ron Paul effectively did. It is the tone. And then Wright was so misogynistic in his remarks on Clinton. Whoopi Goldberg once noted that “there ain’t no one more misogynistic than an old black man.” That’s what gets me angry. That’s beauty of the Reverend Wright, there is something there to piss off anybody and everybody.

and you have to wonder how they thought this would not be a problem. Maybe, spun properly, they could have gotten through the primary but in the general it was always going to be trouble. How they didn’t have a better answer and a firewall ready to go is disappointing.

What will sink him, however, will be Rezko. His money is all dirty, mostly from Iraq, much of it skimmed-off oil-for-food and multiple links from Obama (and others to be sure including the current governor)through Rezko to Saddam. Spun out on Fox it will not be pretty, and a lot more damning than an angry preacher.

However innocent Barry may be, and he probably is in the naive sense of innocent, there are photos, there are newspaper articles, there will be financial tracking evidence presented in court, and it all ties to his campaign financing and the deal for that damn house Michelle just had to have. Those must be some interesting domestic conversations right about now.

… in that I don’t give two shits about either Wright, or Rezko. Surely Wright is no more crazed and evil than, say, Henry Kissinger, and probably a good deal less. As for Rezko, this is penny-ante stuff, where the real scandal is what’s legal.

For me, it’s always been the Unity schtick, the rhetoric, and policy (and a sort of meta air that’s settled over the campaign; that it’s more about what leadership would be like than actually leading).

Of course, words matter, and the Unity schtick with the rightwing talking points are both deeply fake. So I suppose one could have predicted that something like what Obama is experiencing now would have to happen; one thinks of other Democratic candidates who weren’t fully vetted, like Eagleton and Ferraro, and how that worked out for us. Obama’s innovation seems to have been to combine the air of being serenely above it all, like Dukakis, with a campaign organization as smear-prone as Richard Nixon’s. An intriguing combination, but, for good or ill, I don’t think Obama has Nixon’s ruthlessness or ability to calculate. Oratory, as he is finding out, is no substitute.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

Maybe the big money boys “believed” whatever assurances they were given. Or the insiders told them the fix was in, that Obama was a lock — “Look at the primary schedule!” Or Obama just sold them: “He’s a natural!”

I like the boxing metaphor. Sounds like Obama’s using the rules for Olympic boxing. Unfortunately for him, this is America, and the American rules apply. He’s doing fine with the refs, but the refs can only do so much, the crowd is only half with him, and he’s getting tired….

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

both the nomination and the general. Clinton taught us that a good politician can survive anything.

Yes, Checkers is the same speech as Pat’s cloth coat. I don’t remember the exact line but it went something like this: I have never taken gifts except for Checkers. The girls’ pet dog, a member of our family and we’re not giving it back. And we’re not wealthy. Pat doesn’t own a mink coat but Pat has a respectable Republican cloth coat.

BTW, did you get a pet yet?