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Kneecappers

By SusanUnPC on March 29, 2008 at 11:30 PM in Bamboozling, Barack Obama, Chicago politics, Health Care, Hillary Clinton, Hoodwinking, John Edwards

Oh, and lest anyone here still think that Obama’s an angel — that he’s your messiah come to save the United States of Amerikkka and the entire globe — let me inform you that it wasn’t some anonymous DNC official who invented and then whispered the line about Tonya Harding last week to ABC’s Jake Tapper. It was Obama himself who first exploited the Tonya Harding analogy at a campaign rally clear back in December 2007.

You wanna know Barack’s big problem? He can’t close the deal. My daughter said to me months ago, “Mom, if he were really that charismatic, he’d have had this sewn up a long time ago.” As Blake, the character played by Alec Baldwin in the film adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross, says — and I’m saying this to you, Barack Obama:

You can’t close the leads you’re given, you can’t close shit, *you are* shit, hit the bricks pal, and beat it, ’cause you are going *out*.

There’s another reason Obama can’t close the deal (or win the gold). He’s a phony. Regular Americans see through him. They can tell that he’s an Elmer Gantry type. They see that he is full of shit. And so do John Edwards and Elizabeth Edwards.

This is from Jeralyn’s terrific post tonight at Talk Left blog, “Why Edwards Didn’t Endorse Obama, Superdelegates and More,” in which she quotes John Heileman at New York Magazine:

According to a Democratic strategist unaligned with any campaign but with knowledge of the situation gleaned from all three camps, the answer is simple: Obama blew it. Speaking to Edwards on the day he exited the race, Obama came across as glib and aloof. His response to Edwards’s imprecations that he make poverty a central part of his agenda was shallow, perfunctory, pat.

Clinton, by contrast, engaged Edwards in a lengthy policy discussion. Her affect was solicitous and respectful. When Clinton met Edwards face-to-face in North Carolina ten days later, her approach continued to impress; she even made headway with Elizabeth. Whereas in his Edwards sit-down, Obama dug himself in deeper, getting into a fight with Elizabeth about health care, insisting that his plan is universal (a position she considers a crock), high-handedly criticizing Clinton’s plan (and by extension Edwards’s) for its insurance mandate. …

Jeralyn notes the takeaway from Heileman’s article:

The implications of this story are several and not insignificant. Most obviously, it suggests that the front-runner’s diplomatic skills could use some refinement. It also raises the issue, which has cropped up in a different form after New Hampshire, Super-Duper Tuesday, and the Ohio and Texas primaries, of Obama’s capacity to close the deal.

Jeralyn has a lot more to say about the state of the primary, and the next couple months. Check it out.

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Special thanks to MassDemm for creating the “Kneecappers” video.

  • barbh

    Go Susan!!!! Love the video, best laugh I have had all day.

    Your daughter is very astute in her observation – why can’t he close the deal.

    It seems to me that whenever the BO camp sees that they are not going to win one, the cries about her quitting come up. Seems like this same game was being heard before Texas and Ohio.

    If he’s so great, how come he hasn’t closed the deal.

    It would be refreshing if a few more people in the media beside Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan would point that out, it’s so dam obvious.

  • jwrjr

    It sounds like if Edwards is going to endorse anybody, it will be Clinton. Excellent.

  • Andy

    The video is great; loved it. Yeah!! Hillary KEEP FIGHTING!!

  • typical.white.person

    youtube video from Jeralyn’s web site:

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=nROKBU_KlZw

    Shows an Obama volunteer trying to steer Hillary delegates to Obama

  • Strawberrybitch

    Edwards could really help if he came out and endorsed Hillary. I still can’t figure out why boneheads like Kerry and Kennedy would push such a flawed candidate? I mean, they’ve got to have access to all this dirt on Obama as well…right? Unless they WANT to lose in November. Let the fall of Iraq and the crash of the American economy hang around the neck of every republican for-EVAH! Than let Hillary take 2012. Hell who knows anymore…silly me, I keep thinking the guys in charge are smarter than we are.

    • kenoshaMarge

      Strawberry,
      That’s where so many of us go wrong when we try to figure out what the hell is going on. We believe that these clowns are smarter than we are. Maybe not so much.

      Because if they’re so smart, i.e. Kerry & Kennedy, how come they didn’t become president? Hell Kennedy couldn’t even win the nomination over a much weakened Jimmy Carter. (Although he did manage to help weaken Carter even more and thus helped elected Reagan. I tend to remember things like that.)

      As for Daschele? He couldn’t even keep his seat in the Senate. Now he has some wisdom to impart? Scuse me but wasn’t he a really wimpy Minority Leader? Maybe he could talk to Boehner and find out how to be an effective Minority Leader since the Republicans seem to pretty much get whatever the hell they want whether in the majority or minority.

      And finally if they were all so damn smart why the hell don’t they understand that there are large numbers of Democrats out here that are really pissed off about FL and MI., that don’t like and won’t vote for “their” candidate and that the Party is about to implode? Even silly old ladies like me know that.

      I never thought they were smarter, just more politically astute. Now they’ve blown that too.

      • mimi

        Answer to this question:

        They’re ALL EGO!

    • Gregoryp

      There is no telling what is motivating these folks. As a science person I am very familiar with the concept of Occam’s razor and it usually serves me well in getting to the root of some phenomenon. In this case it seems that the most simple explanation is that this is really about MYSOGENY. For years the democratic party has strived to label the republicans as the party of sexist women haters and racists. It apparently was just to cover their own “crimes” in these areas.

      As for the concept of leaving the mess for the republicans to take the fall I think it is hogwash. If they really think like that then they need to get out of politics and disband the party. Real leaders view problems such as the ones we are facing as challenges to be solved and they don’t shy away from tackling tough situations. By shirking their responsibility they would be committing an egregious sin agains the American populace. Not to mention that by nominating and electing the most dynamic leader, Hillary, and having control of the entire congress they could actually succeed in fixing our economy, ending the war and stopping global warming. This would lead to democratic rule for maybe a generation or more. But the reality is that they don’t want to rule and they don’t want to elect someone who can get the job done. If they would rather elect McCain and hopes he fails then they don’t deserve any support at all. As American’s we have to hope that every administration succeeds because it is imperative that they do. Frankly, I’m about done with the democrats.

      • http://www.writehillaryin.com jm korbel

        As for being about done with the Dems, I’m with you. As to explaining the party’s current insanity, I think there are explanations (whether accurate or not) that do make sense to them (even though they’re wrong and bungling badly.)

        I believe they are convinced that barry boy was doing well for the party by building black voter motivation (not a traditionally high turn out vote) and getting young new registrants. I think they wanted these things so badly they were willing to overlook a lot.

        It’s like the United Church of Christ. Wright’s is the only black church and the very biggest of their churches. So, what then if his doctrine and sermons don’t faintly resemble Christian charity and his “christian” church includes African holidays in its “church” calendar. They’d rather look the other way and let him roll in the people and bucks however he does it.

        So, in my mind, it’s the same thing. The DNC believed the Media Darling was doing the party good. As for Hillary, well they know she’s been slapped around so long they expect her to just take it. Obviously, the fact that they have given NO support to the votes or voters in 2 critical states is insane. . . but barry boy wants it that way and we all know how he cries foul as a chief tactic of his dirty little game.

        I tend to believe that Hillary, more mature and wise has been willing to wait out the obama balloon loosing its hot air to drift down from the heights. . . and to let the SuperDels finally come to their senses and see that giving this chicago crook (and I am from chicago, so I know) the nomination is party suicide. .. think his slander of the middle class is helping that strategy along… analysts indicate his snafoo has done most damage on his potential race against the Republicans.

        So, I’m holding out that the polls and votes will be affected significantly enough by this recent turn of events for the critical Super Delegates to see they have everything to gain with Hillary and too much to lose with pretty boy.

        Anyway that’s the vision I’m holding. Then coward Howard can take undeserved pats on the back and his pal Nancy can smile her big smile and we can all just look the other way at that, because, at least, we will be on our way to President Hillary and be in the direction we need for this country to survive.

        Otherwise,

        http://www.writehillaryin.com because “our vote shouldn’t be a lie” -

  • DisenfranchisedVoter

    Check this video out of the Obama campaign calling a Clinton delegate in TX and trying to confuse her into not showing up to the re-caucus:
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=nROKBU_KlZw

    • Strawberrybitch

      Dis, that video pisses me the hell off, and if you read the comments, the best Obamatrons can come with is “Well, Hillary does it to!” but with no sources, no video, no sites, nada. And if you call them on it and ask for proof, they call you a racist or a bitch or an uneducated working stiff that is too dumb to vote.

    • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

      It’s upsetting. But the big problem with that video is that it is entirely anecdotal and we have no idea who that woman is or why she was videotaping herself having that conversation. I’d never post it in a story here. But, I’ve seen plenty of remarks from many people that there are a lot of Obama shenanigans going on in Texas.

      • DisenfranchisedVoter

        Well, Greta over at FOX posted it on her blog and asked if anyone knew what the heck was going on and apparently the young woman in the video left a comment. Her name is Kim Frederick (she says her last name in the video). Hopefully FOX follows up on this. If there are a ton of people in TX who got this phone call I hope they go to FOX or their local media outlets.

        Comment by Kim Frederick
        March 29th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
        I am the person in the video. I could write a thesis on dirty tricks that have been going on in Texas…but I’ve been up for about 24 hrs now. We had received a letter from the Obama campaign saying that we were Obama delegates. We also got a robo call from the Obama campaign that we were Obama delegates. We also got a phone call from Meyer Associates who was hired by the Obama campaign. The Meyer Associates group called friends of mine telling them their convention was moved. This group was hired by the Obama campaign. In any case…in this video…we called the Obama campaign because of the Obama robocall. My partner called first and it was REALLY misleading. So I called and decided to videotape it. I am a Hillary delegate and have been volunteering for the campaign for two months. If I wasn’t up to speed on things…I could have been easily confused and decided not to go.
        Greta…if you want the full story of what has been going on…email me…I’ll give you my number, let’s talk.
        Kim
        http://gretawire.foxnews.com/2008/03/29/report-any-political-dirty-tricks-right-here/#comment-751967

        • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

          Wow. I hope Greta e-mails her. It’s a legal issue, so I would think Greta would want the story. Kim will have to show her proof. (And haven’t some Obama people complained about Clinton supporters’ tactics?)

      • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

        Hang on … I just read an e-mail from someone who knows a lot of people in the campaign. She writes:

        The woman in the video, of course, has video evidence of the call. She’s a huge Hillary person and has made a ton of other videos leading up to the primary, and then doing activism for PA. I believe she is a precinct captain.

        So that may give it more credibility.

        Btw, I read a report on El Paso tonight, and Hillary WON BIG TIME!

  • http://bluespotblog.com Marc1A

    Just heard that Obama said Hillary should stay in the race and he also said that fears that the prolonged primary battle is dividing the party are “somewhat overstated.”

    • mel

      The negative feedback is killing Obama from the cries of wanting Clinton to quit and the rest of his statement is the SD need to finish it off before the convention, new tactic cuz it’s showing now Obama knows he will lose a convention floor vote!

    • Andy

      Yeah, right, after he compared this primary to the Bataan death march…

      “For those of you who are just weary of the primary, and feeling kind of ground down or that it’s like a Bataan death march, I just want everybody to know that the future is bright.”

      http://thepage.time.com/pool-report-for-thursday-obama-new-york-city-fundraiser/

    • hillarysmygirl

      He didn’t say she should “stay” in the race, he said “she is WELCOME to stay in the race.”

      Oh thank you, your Highness.

      • mimi

        Geez, I’d like to smack that sexist pig upside his head with a cast iron frying pan! He really needs an attitude adjustment!

        • kenoshaMarge

          And I’d like to watch you do it!

          • eurogirl70

            Count me in as well!!

        • TeakWoodKite

          You can use mine, but keep in mind according to an article I read about his life in Jakarta, his mates say he has a hard head..er boneheaded.

          The article was posted by the Chicago Trib. I

        • LandOLincoln

          Hey Mimi, how’s about we take turns? I’ll even provide the frying pan. ;-)

    • TeakWoodKite

      It won’t change my opinion of the messiah that quacks like a duck.

      Susan that Obama messiah link is wack! Herman Hesse’s “Magic Theater” has nothing on it.

    • Hope

      Why is he backtracking about this? He wants her out, the bastard, so is this a counterbalance to his highly questionable ridiculous call he made to Rendell?

  • mel

    Question, any fake fainters lately?

    Has Obama lost his magical touch of causing women to faint and throw their panties on stage?

    • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

      I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.

      He’s not shiny and new anymore.

      The fake gold plating on that halo is wearing off, and the cheap tin is showing.

  • Greenley Greene

    I’m getting the feeling that there is something behind the scenes that the Obama campaign is afraid of. They want to shut this down as fast as they can because they know the nature of the trouble that is out there.

    Is it Rezko?

    Rezko, Wright and Obama are all set up in million dollar homes and many of those served by these three are stuck in unlivable tenements.

    Is it the Muslim issue?

    On barackobama.com it says, “Barack Never Attended a Muslim School”

    Yet in “Dreams From My Father” Obama writes: “In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell my mother that I made faces during Koranic studies.”

    If I’m a Republican operative, I see gold. You are going to see record 521 fundraising this summer and fall if Obama is the Democratic nominee.

    • MarkL

      No, I think the bottom line is that Obama likes winning, but doesn’t like fights.

    • TeakWoodKite

      …”I made faces during Koranic studies”…

      He hasn’t stopped since.

  • Palomino

    The BSDs that put Obama up as their Manchurian candidate will stop at nothing in their deranged campaign to destroy the Clintons, even if it means letting Barry take the Democratic Party down in flames in November. They’re dogs in a manger. Could be that actually standing up and governing is “off the table” now too, like so much else.

  • Louise

    Umm the Tanya Harding comments have been on all the big blogs since approx. Mid November. Just do a search.

  • http://thehorizontalworld.blogspot.com/ Mary Jo Kopechne

    I received an email today inviting me to “take another look at Obama” now that “the writing is on the wall.” Oh yeah, you know what that writing says, Fuck you!

  • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

    Kind of OT, but I want to make sure you all get to read this:

    “Disloyalty That Merits An Insult”
    by James Carville, Sunday’s edition of the Washington Post

    – It’s great. It hits Richardson between the eyes. Yet it is very funny.

    • jwrjr

      Whatever you might think of Carville’s comments (I thought they were pretty accurate), He has either a good working relationship with the English language (or a good spell-checker). These are things woefully lacking in the majority of Obama supporters.

    • SirScud

      INCOMING>>>>>

      And….don’t forget to read the comments by the readers of this Cajun rage.

    • mimi

      Bravo, James Carville!!!

      I agree, if Richardson did say that he would never endorse any of Hillary’s opponents, then he deserved the Judas assignation. And what’s this business about not returning Bill’s phone calls.

      I emailed Richardson the day after. I basically think he is slime.

    • mimi

      Bravo, James Carville!!!

      I agree, if Richardson did say that he would never endorse any of Hillary’s opponents, then he deserved the Judas assignation. And what’s this business about not returning Bill’s phone calls?

      I emailed Richardson the day after. I basically think he is slime.

    • kenoshaMarge

      Never been a big Carville fan. But this in one time I am in his corner. I like that he said what he said, he acknowledges what he said, and he sticks by what he said. Are we sure he’s a Democrat?

      • eurogirl70

        I especially liked the fact that Carville acknowledged that Bill Clinton “made him”. Bill Richardson himself got his national “break” due to Bill Clinton. If you promise not to do something for a friend, and then you do it anyway; the moniker “Judas” fits.

  • Patti

    Obama is an asshat.. Who the hell died and left him in charge…

  • http://tersaona.net MoodSwingeR

    I picked this from TM comments:

    http://www.raila07.com/vision.html

    Now that’s some eerie similarity.

    (Raila Odinga, Obama’s distant cousin, mounted a presidential bid in Kenya, that ended up in bloodbath.)

  • http://www.despair.com/changewinds.html Smilin’ Jim

    What’s the kid going to do with all those steak knives?

  • typical.white.person

    Clinton Vows To Stay in Race To Convention

    “I know there are some people who want to shut this down and I think they are wrong,” Clinton said in an interview during a campaign stop here Saturday. “I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan. And if we don’t resolve it, we’ll resolve it at the convention — that’s what credentials committees are for.

    • typical.white.person
  • TeakWoodKite

    “His campaign rejected the plan that was put forward,” she said. “For the life of me, what Barack was afraid of in Michigan I will never understand.”

    Senator Clinton is the “Little Engine that Can”

  • CognitiveDissonance

    Great video! I’ve loved the metaphor of Hillary as a boxer ever since she was given the gift of boxing gloves after that pile-on debate. I’ve been hoping she would do an ad for Pennsylvania running up those steps with her boxing gloves on and the Rocky theme song playing in the background, then the voice over talking about how she’ll fight for all Americans. They’d be talking about that until June. (And Obama would be whining that long, too!)

  • Mr.Murder

    Obama:
    “The truth is that my foreign policy is actually a return to the traditional bipartisan realistic policy of George Bush’s father, of John F. Kennedy, of, in some ways, Ronald Reagan, and it is George Bush that’s been naive and it’s people like John McCain and, unfortunately, some Democrats that have facilitated him acting in these naive ways that have caused us so much damage in our reputation around the world,”

    (h/t Carolyn’s e-mail newsletter)
    http://www.correntewire.com/now_i_feel_better_about_everything

    Needless to say, this kind of talk could have lost him some support.

  • Mr.Murder

    Sarah has her own diary as an alternate delegate at Corrente also. Interesting comments as well.

  • bob h

    We all know that something like the following situation could exist in July:

    Having succumbed to the pressure to close down the race and prematurely chosen Obama, superdelegates see that:

    a. Massachusetts, California, etc. are in play. Every blue state except Illiois is in play.

    b. National polls look uniformly unfavorable.

    c. Republican slime are starting to hang the millstone of Rev. Wright around our necks, with toxic ads running
    in the district of every superdelegate.

    What are the Party leaders going to do then?

    • simon

      Massachusetts, California, etc. are in play. Every blue state except Illiois is in play

      They’re still discounting FL, and MI.

      As much as TPTB, the loser boys in the democratic party, want to ignore those states, and the crisis, wishing it would just go away, it won’t.

      If they truly want to win the Nov election, the delegate situation in FL and MI must be addressed.

      They should go to Clinton.

      It would also give Dean and co a face saving way of easing Obama out, while mitigating voter tensions.

  • mimi

    “it suggests that the front-runner’s diplomatic skills could use some refinement.”

    Basically, this is what scares me about Obama. He just isn’t ready for primetime. Imagine him acting this way with foreign dignitaries?

    • salo

      Although it was called for, Australia’s PM Mr Howard o a tngue lashing about Australia NOT sending enough troops into Iraq.

      I think the Aussies put in about 200 SAS operatives.

      They are worth their weight in gold btw.

  • silver

    Now that video made me laugh!! Thanks!!

  • Cee Hussein

    Regular Americans

    LOL! Unlike Whole Foods shoppers.

  • http://vbonnaire.wordpress.com valentine bonnaire

    Thought you and Larry might get a kick out of this…
    (ouch)

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/29/AR2008032902031.html

  • anna shane

    This exposes his end game, America somehow loves to see the mighty woman get kneecapped, he’s crowned and they throw tomatoes at her. Martha Stewart going to jail, Leona Helmsley’s troubles, they’d like Hillary to join the show and be ridden out on a rail, it seems to me. That’s our sexist media and the fascination some have with powerful women. I find his remark repulsive, that poor working class girl Tonya who was making her way in figure skating without having the right ‘culture,’ she smoked and she has asthma and she was tacky and made her own costumes, and she had a really creepy boyfriend who decided to be a thug. I’d like to see poor Tonya get some rest, and Ms. Brittany, how could any young girl stay sane while being mobbed by looters. This kind of discourse in politics is beyond tacky, it’s hateful, inspires hate and the worst of human sensibilities. Shame on him.

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