NPR’s Scott Simon on Obama’s Exploitation of the Race Card
By SusanUnPC on June 27, 2008 at 10:35 PM in Barack Obama, John McCain, Race Card
Eloquent, elegant, and eminently fair — to John McCain who, Simons makes very clear, has NOT attacked or in any way insinuated Obama’s race. Instead, as we know here, it is Barack Obama who has played the race card.
I can only imagine the torrent of nasty e-mails that Scott Simon, a revered longtime NPR reporter and commentator, had to endure for having the courage to speak his mind.
If I could read between the lines, I’d say that Mr. Simon is very disappointed in Obama exploiting race.
Obama is also doing this, I believe, as a preemptive strike — to intimidate anyone who attacks him on his record. The unspoken message is that any attack is open to charges of racism.
What an ugly way to run a campaign, Mr. Obama.
View this and other videos at our No Quarter USA channel at YouTube.
Thank heavens for Scott Simon! If it weren’t for him, they would be calling it National Obama Radio.
wow, scott simon really nailed it. terrific piece.
Skip all the comments by treason pete holds the elephant’s seat. It’s a complete waste of time.
He’s only trying to scare us away from Senator McCain. Typical Obama tactics!
We can talk about McCain when Hillary is the nominee.
In the meantime, let’s just concentrate on Obama’s dirty laundry.
He posted 28 or 29 comments totally off topics. His goal is to derail the topics and build doubt about McCain.
If someone decides not to vote at all - instead of voting for McCain, he already won a vote for his candidate!
THIS is why I can’t stand “obama” the “post-racial” candidate.
BS!!
He had a golden opportunity to really bring people together..but I guess that’s not possible when you’re knee deep in dirty money, and you have to invent your entire life to make it acceptable for the people you say you’re representing.
How right you are. NPR and PBS have both become very disappointing to me, giving Obama a total pass and ganging up on the Clintons. I’ve been a liberal all my life, but I’m really starting to look at liberals in a new light. I could never be one of those neocons, but it appears there’s some very icky, undemocratic stuff on the other side as well.
Right ON NPR you are WAKING THE HAIL UP!!!
SIGH! ABOUT TIME DUDES! :-/
Too late for our Lady Hillary?
me thinks NOT!
Why isn’t McCain being vetted, too?
Even the republican trolls seem obtuse to the dangers McCain can present.
Shouldn’t he at the very least be vetted so people are at least aware of Rick Davis relationships to Russia, isn’t this just common sense?
It’s very difficult to sit here and read about Ayers, but not even investigate Davis relationship to Deripaska..
Are Russia and it’s loose nukes not a threat anymore, or Russia, Iran and oil, no longer a threat to America?
Col Lang has a front page diary today about oil prices and the implications, are we choosing to stay willfully ignorant, cause everything will be OK, really, it’s OK to run two batshit cripples for President, while Russia is gaming us, asymmetrically, in part, with oil, and in cyberspace, because really, how can the US fail?
Even the idiot republcain trolls, (I call this one, “Eliot,”) miss it.
Which should explain everything…
IMO, Russia is gaming us with it’s business community, in part.
And our best game player has the intellect of failed businessman Dick Cheney, and his good buddies from Enron, or Halliburton.
The Republicans and their democraitc can’t see past the money, and it’s a clog in the sink.
Huh?
You should read, google is your friend.
Of course, if you’re simply saying people are uninformed, with our MSM failure, I guess you’ve given me the answer.
No. I’m saying try to be clear and concise in making your points. Don’t haphazardly state names and ideas without constructing them in some in a focused framework. You’re throwing out thoughts and references with not the slightest exposition.
This is my third post in regard to this issue.
Secondly, any informed voter would know who these people are, perhaps it was my mistake assuming you were informed in regard to Mccain, Russia and the issues facing the US.
Or should I just say “Obama sucks?”
Hey- everybody- this is his THIRD post- wakeup everybody. Go through all the other threads to find them. This guy sounds important.
It’s actually his fourth.
Actually one was zapped, so that makes it five, but who is counting?
You dont strike me as smart enough to count.
Distort, and dance, and expose and confuse and we have the same old troll plan of attack see every time they bump into a problem…
A gang troll pile, ugly girls gone batshit!
Goodbye, Treason Pete.
– I received too many complaints about you –
Most smart people are informed about McCain.
You’re not, nuff said.
So you’re not only a bad troll, you’re a flaming shithead, too.
Truth about you.
See how you’re fleshed out, moron, you and your lil troll tactics of attack?
You suck.
A functioning intellect, and critical reasoning are your friend.
Now dig that hole, MO.
Pete’s been drinking again…can’t suppress his bestiality urges. Finds girls ugly…prefers pachyderms.
Told Michelle Obama to dig a ditch, I think, hard to decipher that line.
PETE HAS LEFT US. I ATTEMPTED CONTACT BY E-MAIL. IT BOUNCED. That’s a big no-no. If someone posts something questionable — which I heard about yesterday about Pete — we like to give them a chance to reply by e-mail. But if they post a fake e-mail, they’re done here. And, from these last few comments, I would have eliminated him without sending him an e-mail anyway.
We do not mind contradictory viewpoints. Those, in fact, are welcome. But they must be reasoned and without sexist or racist terminology.
Your writing is incoherent. The previous poster was politely calling you on it.
“Comment by treason pete holds the elephant’s seat | 2008-06-28 00:20:33
Actually one was zapped, so that makes it five, but who is counting? (Zapped? Why not just say “disappeared, or deleted”
You dont strike me as smart enough to count. (does that mean count literally, or just doesn’t “count” as a valid contributing member?)
Distort, and dance, and expose and confuse and we have the same old troll plan of attack see every time they bump into a problem…
(distor’s ok, but dance? expose? what are they exposing? confuse? what are they confusing? who’s being a troll here?)
A gang troll pile, ugly girls gone batshit!” (gang troll pile? wtf is that? the last sentence is just plain offensive; there are ugly GUYS responding to your lame ass too, dummy.)
With that said, barackula DOES suck!!!
McCain has one shining attribute; he’s not barackula!
F-off. Do your Oblahblah research. We have. He’s a disengenuous and dangerous man who (if he is a Democrat) is the worst sorth.
Somehow I don’t think we need to worry John McCain will be too soft on the Russkies. Frankly, I’d prefer McCain to be the one dealing with Putin.
Make your argument, prove me wrong, I’m open to it, nothing I’d love more than a President with no ulterior motives, or a staff full of nitwits who have no respect for the Constitution.
But because you say so?
With all due respect, no.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCeImyvNnZ0
I think you are on the wrong thread Peter. Scroll up and read- You are on a tangent.
No, Kelly, not.
As a regular poster here at NQ, I use different names, though my IP stays the same, I’ve seen the trends over the past year, and we are simply not vetting McCain the way we did Obama. I see relentless repeated attacks on Obama, but McCain given a free pass. He’s not a saint, he’s got some dirt, too, perhaps some that threatens national security, just like Obama. We do not have a functioning MSM, anymore, and Larry’s blog is the closet I’ve seen to a free press.
And I respect his blog.
And if there’s a chance Larry is open to really vetting both candidates, I’ll take it.
If not, I understand.
But you know, if the trolls want to light up their defense, again, and again, and again, and again, that’s Ok, too…
Patterns.
I’m getting it. And you’re right.
Larry is no fan of McCain, if you have read what he has written you would know this.
He’s just working to get him elected.
No. We’re all just working to ensure that obama is NOT ELECTED. Big difference.
And that difference is what?
Gee. Home schooling isn’t working out so well for you is it there sleepy? Being opposed to Hopey doesn’t necessarily make you the supporter of McCain. Logic is not your forte, is it?
What part of NO OBAMA don’t you understand? If you are so mentally challenged it’s better to stay quiet.
It must be only me, but I don’t understand your point.
We are stuck with him. He is half as good as Hillary Clinton and a thousand times better than Obama.
If you really want to know about him, read his bio, his voting record. It is pretty easy to find the data - unlike about Obama.
He will make a very decent President. From all what I hear and see, he is a patriot, a hero, and a politician who cares about the people of the country. He even seems to improve on issues, such as economy, women’s interests, etc.
It is good enough for me.
If you have a problem, why don’t you ask him? He seems to be pretty accessible. We would love if you shared the results with us.
And we are not the free press. We are bloggers. Some of us (like me) are not particularly well versed in the nuances of politics - we just started. Do you think that my support worth nothing because I don’t know everything?
At least McCain won’t have to turn to Hillary to find out the name of Putin’s “successor” — as BO did so obviously, and sadly, in that debate.
The question was posed to both candidates. BO immediately looked at Hillary like, “You’re the smart one here who knows the answers. You go first.” She did, of course.
McCain on Putin: “when I looked into his eyes, I saw three letters — K…G…B…”
And one’s campaign manager shouldn’t do business with the KGB.
He can throw his campaign manager under a bus. Can Obama throw himself under a bus?
I’ll trust a candidate tortured by commies over one who sought out Marxist friends in college and had a commie mentor.
Get that weak sh*t out of here. No-one in his right mind will believe McCain has any love for Russia and its commie holdovers.
Hi Treason Pete! We’re not voting for Obama!
Kim, they have medication now, for your level of schizophrenia.
Maybe your paranoia will no longer compel you to engage in worthless trolls, over and over.
Pete, I’m sorry. For you, there is no cure. Asshole-ism. It’s terminal.
I suppose next Pete will tell us McCain works in cahoots with the little gray space aliens.
That’s why we should concentrate on nominating HRC at the convention. She can stand up to the Russians, she has been vetted, and she has all the requisite experience required to be a great president. FL and MI can be seated fully and fairly and the will of the people can be fulfilled. That’ll help eliminate all these big Democrat fundraisers and pols from become GOPers…all because BO terrifies them and us and we recognize him as a danger to America.
That’s not going to happen, Ann, though it sure would be nice. Unless something phenomenal happens, Obama is the nominee.
I agree, you’re right, he is, and that election was stolen from Clinton, and should be exposed.
It’s OUR government, we’re going ot sit back and allow this?
I joined PUMA, and I’m supporting Women for Fair Politics. We’re still very young, but I think there’s a lot we can do.
Exactly. If we let the talking heads tell us that BO is the nominee because they want him to be, then it is our fault. I mean he may end up being the nominee but we need to make them do it against our wishes…if delegates vote for HRC and make our choice clear…supers will have to override the will of the voters.
This is the way all revolutions go. The colonists were told that independence wasn’t possible as well. The Democratic Party is not a fascist regime (or it didn’t use to be.) and the rules state that nominees are elected at the convention by the delegates.
So right. We need some pledged Hillary delegates who can scream into a mic. They will roll right over you if you can’t make enough noise. Any delegates here? If there are, you probably know what to do. It will be crowded and noisy. Find the person with the loudest voice, make sure you are there for the critical vote, nominate her and get a second. I would imagine there will be a caucus of her supporters and you can decide what to do, but don’t let time get away from you because they play dirty. If they try a vote by aclimation, scream your heads off. You only get one chance. I hope something will work. There may be problems with the credintials commettee too. It’s still two months until Denver so who knows what will happen. Challenge everything.
Russia has no need to game anything, but they can name the game. Their economy is stronger and they have no obligation to take sides with the US on Iran. You seem to be under the illusion that doing business with another country amounts to treason when American companies do business all over the world.
If you are against free trade, well bully for you. There are many people who feel that way, but to single out Russia because they do business with Iran is, well, excuse me, none of our business. These days only fools manage to piss off every oil producing country in the world. Trading with them certainly makes more sense than invading them and one place we have a meeting of the minds would be on the current administration and Dick Cheney.
One thing that would be helpful is for you to investigate Obama’s position, through his foreign policy advisers, what he will do with Bush’s plan to establish missile bases in Poland. Even if it doesn’t pose a threat now, it probably will after four years of Obama.
Get this. I am not defending John McCain and if you have a reasonable argument to make you don’t need obscuration. Come on. Just spit it right out there. Could you, for example, explain to me how McCain is responsible for “loose nukes”? Obama is the only candidate to minimize the threat from Iran and some exaggerate. Maybe you have a solution?
As far as Russia gaming cyberspace, when I look at your post I can believe it’s true.
here’s an idea, why dont we try to stop General Electric frm doing business with Iran and with Russia when we can control our own corporations? Cause right now our corporations are cog our election..
Maybe then GE and Sam NBC will go back to journalism, business and Nunn well I dont care Nunn goes as long as its not to the WH or God Forbid as VP..
Of course, Nunn is also on the board of Chevron who IS also full of interests with dictator Chavez for example..so yeah, Uhhbama has connections too and Zbieg Uhhbamas foreign adviser is so anti Russia he still calls it the Soviet Union.
Excellent point. I couldn’t remember his name.
Hey! I told you! Stay away from here until tomorrow! It’s sfhillary has this blog until then! Now get lost!
And how many Obama trolls see the pitfalls in Obama? Obama has NEVER BEEN VETTED, that’s not John McCain’t fault. I’m really tired of the two wrongs approach to politics. If Obama is looked at objectively then we are diverted by suggestions of wrong in McCain. It all really doesn’t matter, though, because Obama is just a puppet the same way that Dubya was just a puppet.
Good someone is speaking out.
AnninCa, What’s Pete talking about, I’m lost here?
Hey typical troll move to ostracize, this is old, batshit.
Still don’t know what you’re talking about Pete.
McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, is a lobbyist, a major lobbyist for a Russian aluminum billionaire, who arranged for a meeting between McCain, and his client, Oleg Deripaska.
Deripaska is loyal, and connected, to the Kremlin, and Putin, and given Putin’s’ relationship to the middle east, Iran and such, Russia is still a threat to America, if one looks at it in terms of an asymmetrical war. Even McCain has started Russia still presents a threat to America, which it does, from what I have read.
To me, Rick Davis clearly has a conflict of interest, business tends to do what is best for it’s short term gain, as opposed to whats best for the country, America.
Meaning Davis has McCain’s’ ear, and Deripaska pressures him, pays him to tell the future president to enact policy in Russia’s best interests, against the US, say, and MCCain, like Bush, has to rely on his advisers.
They should be subject to the same scrutiny Obama’s people are, right?
All sorts of cracks in that relationship.. It’s Obama’ Ayers connection, say, but with businessmen, instead of political ideology.
At the very least, it should be outed, and discussed, if only to hold McCain’s feet to the fire.
Common sense.
We’d like to think this is not an issue, but it is, unfortunately, and this is why there were laws against this, until, Reagan, probably,Putin is ex KGB, this is still relevant.
http://www.robertamsterdam.com/2008/01/the_mccainderipaska_link_expos.htm - 21k
Qe went through this with Bush, already, don’t they ever learn?
This is the first I’ve heard of this. I will keep an open mind and look into it but I will tell you that McCain loves this country and is no idiot.
Yeah but Pete’s an idiot so he doesn’t get it. Try to get him to leave, OK?
The problem is, Pete, there’s really no one left that’s worthy of my vote. We’re screwed either way, but I figure if I put an unpopular Republican in the White House, then he’s easier to unseat in 4 years.
Of course in 4 years I’d like to be supporting a strong candidate running on a centrist 3rd party, but alas it ain’t happening this year.
I agree with you about holding McCain’s feet to the fire, though. I think there’s going to be a lot of that. What’s really important is the down line races. We need to unite to be sure that all of the weak minded idiots that put us in this situation (Dems and Reps alike) are ousted at the earliest possible opportunity.
Now, yes, but rather than co opt Mccain, or Obama, why can’t we have a functioning press that exposes them both?
For a start.
And maybe within 12 years we can finally get a President worthy of American law?
Thanks for refocusing. Your points are quite valid.
I did not need to refocus, the problem is yours, period.
Stop zapping the rebuttals, take it like a man.
Wuss.
NO wonder your’e so weak.
SHUT UP you jerk.
THis thread is bout Obama playing the race card.
You trolls are jerks — grow up and change your diapers.
WE are not voting for an inadequate male for Prez.
So shut the fuck up.
don’t encourage him.
The media isn’t going to be responsible. That’s clear. It’s entertainment only.
Today, vetting is being done by bloggers. For no pay, I might add.
Clever of them……
Unfortunately, the answer to that question is simple. Money.
As long as we keep eating tripe, they’ll keep serving it. I’m open to ideas, though…
It’s the blogs. Go around the mainstream media.
Quality will be the next step. Blogs that are solid journalism and will charge us for news.
AP is trashing itself. It’s an open market.
Small publishers have always found a way to spout up in our history. And if someone isn’t horribly greedy, there’s a market waiting to be tapped.
Look at Craig’s List. Total success. Not greedy. Making huge money anyway.
The Blogs will provide the alternative to the mainstream news media.
The next big site will be similar to Huffington Post but with a more reasonable focus.
And I really mean…..charge. Get the corporate ads out of the picture.
That gives true freedom of the press.
And many thanks to Larry for providing that to us. Probably a good time to mention the Donate button on the main page…
And add a few clicks on the ads down the right side too. BTW, I bought one of the hand made backpack pieces made in Seattle, advertising on this site and it is well made and a very clever design.
Gave it as a graduation gift.
pete,
In 12 years, with the many and complex issues facing us today, and the advent by a DNC coup of a candidate, who is being supported by George Soros and Zbigniew Brezinski, I have very little confidence that we will have any resemblence of a real democracy by then.
I agree the American people and the MSM need to keep McCain’s feet to the fire, however, for some strange reason BO has been given a free pass thus far.
I find it to be a huge red flag everytime the MSM exclusively supports, protects, makes excuses, looks the other way, when one candidate constantly flip-flops on issues they swore they would never flip-flop on; distorts their opponent’s record and plays the race card against them with not one scintilla of evidence to back it up and the MSM laps it up as the gospel truth. This should concern you because as I have stated in prior posts, the progressive community has always considered the media to be owned by corporations. However, now that they are in the tank for BO, these very same progressive individuals and groups are no longer critical of the press.
The last time the press was in the tank for a candidate was with GW bush. They helped market him ast the “compassionate conservative” to the American people.
Now the press is helping market BO as the candidate of “hope and change”.
In essense, we aren’t electing a president. Instead, the MSM is treating this election much in the same vein as how people elect the next American idol, which is based on a subjective opinion of how a particular person makes them “feel” and not whether this person is qualified to be the president of the U.S.
I hope that the American people look beyond the image that the media is projecting of BO and look behind the curtain and see who’s calling the shots. That’s where we’ll find the truth about BO.
So you’re talking about McCain and a guilt by association deal.
My only concern with this type of worry is that it gets absurd after awhile. All consultants today are global. How many will we throw out due to their global connections? And why do we assume it’s necessarily bad?
Is this not Bush paranoia because of how his buddies benefited from the war?
I’m not big on worrying about Ayers and Obama either.
I think Obama is the worst case of marketing package only that I’ve seen in my lifetime. What’s horrid to me is that when he actually talks, he lacks clarity to the point that I know he’s deliberately trying to obscure his position.
I’m tolerant of politicians being tactful. But it bothered me a lot that Hillary was skewered because she was clear about her positions. That’s what I want.
But it was definitely used against her.
McCain is clear on a lot of issues.
Obama, rarely.
But it is a problem, this man does business with enemy, is this sound policy?
What is our true position with Russia, what are Russia’s greater goals, how to we integrate this information, analyze it?
Those questions haven’t been answered, it’s not like anyone can read Putin’s mind, it’s not the the CIA owns the KGB, shouldn’t we figure this out, before we accept and trust, at face value?
Cheney and Bush dont do this, the republicans don’t, or they put profit before country.
The democrats?
Who cares, at this point, Obama is so weak…
BTW, Col Lang had a very informative post about oil prices, and future implications for the global economy.
Russia is a player in the oil markets.
Yes, but it doesn’t mean that McCain is guilty of anything. That would require a bit more than just an association. The guy can run a political campaign without tainting the mind of the candidate.
That was my point.
I was glad to see Hillary’s manager go, but not due to his consulting associaton.
I’m just a bit tired, I guess, of all the complex guilt stories based upon associations.
Heck, I know ex-cons. Doesn’t make me a criminal.
yeah, anninca…but you are not running for the presidency, obama’s associations express his bad judgement, not guilt by association…
He should provide an example of McCain actually advocating a policy that would benefit the Kremlin.
He can’t, so it’s conspiracy-mongering mode.
McCain’s policies: We don’t need Russia in G-8; let’s have a League of Democracies so we can bypass Russia’s veto in the UNSC, let’s build electric cars so we don’t prop up the petroruble.
He is an insidious Obama troll smearing McCain.
Rather absurd in light of McCain’s decades-long record of being tough on Russia and communism.
See, Pete, that’s the difference between having a record and not. McCain has credibility. Obama? Not so much.
It really is such a Twilight Zone experience listening to people who claim to have supported Hillary Clinton singing the praises of John McCain for his foreign policy acumen — this a man who doesn’t know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites. You really are around the bend.
So what’s our choice…the man that doesn’t know how many states are in the U.S.A.?
Oh, the Sunni-Shia talking point. Give it a rest, already. This from a supporter of a guy who has dazzled the nation which such foreign policy gems as “let’s attack Pakistan” and “let’s talk to Iran without preconditions.”
Hillary’s campaign has called his foreign policy views “naive” and “irresponsible”, btw. Nothing he has said since provided proof to the contrary.
McCain made the error 3 or 4 times in the space of a few months, leading me to believe he really is confused, which is utterly shocking. As for Obama — he didn’t say “let’s attack Pakistan.” Are you foolish or dishonest? He said that we need to get serious about destroying Al Qaeda, which has had a free ride for the past 7 years while we blundered around in Bush and McCain’s idiotic war in Iraq, and that if as CIC he had actionable intelligence, he wouldn’t hesitate to attempt to take out the Al Qaeda leadership, even if he didn’t explicitly have Pakistan’s permission to do so. I agree with this philosophy completely. I also have no problem with my president talking to the leadership of Iran without preconditions; the only reason to argue otherwise is if one is prey to the sort of foolish strutting American machismo that led to such successful foreign policy triumphs during these wondrous Bush years.
I’m aware of what HRC said while she was running against him. She was wrong then — or let me put it this way; she was either lying then or she is lying now in endorsing him — and you are wrong now in putting such faith in that dumbass McCain, who has clearly demonstrated that his knowledge of pretty much every subject he discusses in public is frighteningly limited, and who has made clear that he supports practically every major foreign and domestic policy priority of our current president. Go ahead — vote for a third Bush term. Enjoy it. Revel in it. As I will revel in Obama’s landslide victory.
Or, put another way — are you such a hardliner that you feel that the U.S. President shouldn’t even speak to adversarial governments unless they meet certain demands in advance — but also such a softie that you feel the U.S. president shouldn’t defend the nation by attempting to defeat Al Qaeda unless he has the explicit permission of the authoritarian, terrorist-coddling thug who passes for a leader of Pakistan?
You do understand how utterly incoherent your position here is, don’t you?
Have you seen that he has CHANGED this position as well? He has changed EVERY position that he used to differentiate himself from HRC in order to get maniacs like YOU to vote for and caucus for him. Now you and everyone like you is under his wheels. He used you for traction and nothing more. Each decision was calculated. Just like the black voice for black audiences and the white voice in San Francisco. YOU HAVE BEEN USED!!!! Doesn’t that stick in your throat just a little bit, sweetie?
Obama’s landslide victory??? I don’t think so…not if we can help it.
I know you don’t think so. You think the candidate of the incumbent party is going to be elected in a year when the economy over which his deeply unpopular party has been presiding is sliding into a deep recession, and the war that he and his party have long supported is moving into another period of increased violence, in an era when the opposing political party is the chosen party of far, far more Americans, against a candidate capable of raising far more money, and whose volunteer network is the most potent in the history of American politics, in an electoral cycle where demographic changes — more Latinos, more Asians, more under-30 voters, more non-affiliated — all favor his opponent, by a very wide margin.
You think Mccain is going to win. This is because you don’t know squat about actual real-world national politics.
Wow, they must pay you to spin for Bambi.
Exactly how is this policy different from Bush? They’ve been going after Al Qaeda in Pakistan. Yet despite all of their mistakes and “machismo” they’ve never been so idiotically tin-eared as to say the words “attack Pakistan” (a country with nukes, no less) publically. If Obama becomes president, you’re going to tell the Muslim world “no, he really meant this” every time he sticks his foot in it? Sounds pretty macho to me. That’s going to win hearts and minds in the Middle East?
As for talking to every tinpot dictator “without preconditions”, that’s something Obambi pulled out of his rear end. That has not been a policy of any US administration, Republican or Democratic to date.
Which is why he eventually had to backpeddle the hell back.
So take your kool-aid BS back to DailyIdiots or wherever it is you dwell. Let Obama move to Fairfield and take over for the Maharishi. The presidency is one job he’s unqualified for.
Sorry — you’ll have to show me the exact quote where he said “attack Pakistan.” And you’ll have to explain why that’s a worse blunder than HRC saying she would “obliterate Iran” — implying the mass murder of tens of millions — or McCain confusing Shiites and Sunnis, or saying he’d be glad to stay in Iraq for 100 years, or that the date that U.S. soldiers come home “doesn’t really matter,” and on and on. This is why you PUMAs come off to most observors as simply silly — you take a minor gaffe by Obama and blow it up into a truism that he’s “unqualified” or “misogynist” or whatever, while utterly ignoring gaffes of equal or greater weight by his opponents. This is not a sign of intellectual seriousness.