Soros, Barack And Abu Ghraib
Berkowitz joins in with Lynn Sweet complaining about the Obama team not being forthright enough about outstate fundraising–Jeff adds in complaints about policy information–though I’ve heard and in a couple small cases experienced very different response time everyone can see what he has to say. The outstate fundraising issue is one of those issues that the public doesn’t care about, though I think all campaigns should be better about it. Ultimately, campaigns want to stay in control of their message and questions regarding outstate events takes away from that.
However, let me take issue with Jeff over this quote:
Robert Bluey writes, “Obama, however, is different from most Democrats because of his willingness to embrace the controversial Soros. Shortly after Soros equated the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Obama joined him for a New York fund-raiser [on] June 7, 2004.” See CNSnews.com, June 27, 2004
Now did Soros equate Abu Ghraib and September 11th? Yes, but not in anyway like is implied above. The above implication assumes Soros indicates the two incidents were of the same moral standing–which is not what Soros said.
Here is what Soros did say:
So for about 18 months the critical process, which is so essential to a democracy, was stifled. And it is only when things started going wrong in Iraq that it was re-opened. I think that the picture of torture in Abu Ghraib, in Saddam’s prison, was the moment of truth for us, because this is not what this nation stands for.
I think that those pictures hit us the same way as the terrorist attack itself, not quite with the same force because in the terrorist attack we were the victims. In the pictures we were the perpetrators, others were the victims. But, there is, I’m afraid, a direct connection between those two events, because the way President Bush conducted the war on terror converted us from victims into perpetrators.
This is a very tough thing to say, but the fact is that the war on terror as conducted by this administration has claimed more innocent victims than the original attack itself.
What is being compared is how the US’s higher standards of morality are challenging US citizens when they see such acts being undertaken by the US Soldiers. It is because the US has higher standards of morality than Al Qaeda that it had a similar effect.
The next line is true, though certainly whether it is better in the long run is a question many would debate.
More importantly though, the only “radical” view that Soros seems to have concerns drug legalization, but people continue to spread the story that he is some sort of fringe political character.
September 10th, 2004 at
He is trying to have it both way however, trying to come off as the small upstart and rasing money all over the country.
It will be interesting to see how his fundraising breaks out for this quarter. They give Crain a lot of flak (and rightfully) for raising so much out of state. It would be nice to see if Obama is anywhere close to his %’s for out of state cash.
The B-Rock the house is nice and plays to the whole Dean Dozen thing and all of that, but I am suspecting such things are now tip change to his guys.
September 10th, 2004 at
Obama could sit in a chair in a darkened room for the next 60 days, all staff let go, all checks returned, website taken down, no news conferences, no tv ads, no travel, and he’ll still get at least 60 percent of the vote. Money and hype doesn’t count for everything.
September 10th, 2004 at
And I think that is the problem they aren’t quite realizing–the Dean model works really well in primaries, but in the general election you need to–not just can–but need to raise money from lots of sources.
To me the Crane issue isn’t so much the out of state money–but the PACs. Certainly raising money from PACs is acceptable, but that is most of what he can do right now. More of a sympton of his long time in DC than anything. He doesn’t have significant networks left to support him.
As I’ve said for some time–Obama is going to raise a lot of cash outside of the state and that was before the Key Note.
September 10th, 2004 at
And that is probably why it is unwise to handle it this way, Cynical. He can’t be hurt electorally at this point–so why not avoid these issues. Not a huge deal, but why even bother with it. I get the campaign’s reasoning (or what I’m assuming it is)–it takes away from message, but now it is doing it anyway.
September 10th, 2004 at
The problem with having a clean image is that any speck of dirt shows up better, not that Soros is dirt. People don’t like the “foreign-sounding” name, to start, which makes him easy to paint as a Dr. Evil. If his name was Joe Smith, his funding would be less in question.
And isn’t the word of the day “shadowy” rather than “fringe” .
My solution is every time they say Soros, we say Scaife.
September 11th, 2004 at
This all seems like a desperate attempt to cause “drama” in a race where everyone knows who will win. Lynn Sweet wrote an absurd story months ago about Obama not being honest on his real position at Chicago University. Then she wrote a story about his not being honest about his book. She thinks that if she calls him a liar often enough, then Alan Keyes will get more support. That also seems to be Berkowitz’s reasons for raging — because papers that he apparently sees as liberal (cause all those liberal papers endorse George Bush) did not kiss up to Alan Keyes often enough. These people are upset that they don’t have a reliable Republican shill to batter Obama around with, so they have to do the heavy lifting themselves.
Obama is doing nothing wrong, and there’s no real reason to inform people on his website all about where he travels. If he did, then GOP shills like Sweet and Berkowitz would spend even more time wringing their hands about how they have been kicked in the stomach and Obama is an awful liar.
September 11th, 2004 at
Obama did make a mistake in the mailing–whether Barack saw it or not is a good question–he is not a tenured professor and that is a mistake. A friend of mine running for Congress had to be careful about the same thing because he was an Instructor and not a professor.
I think Sweet likes Obama actually–she just wants to point out his weaknesses like a skeptical reporter–its just that with Keyes in the race, Obama’s faults are pretty minor.
September 11th, 2004 at
Lynn Sweet wrote an absurd story months ago about Obama not being honest on his real position at Chicago University. — Umm that was an acurate point she made there is a BIG difference in the academic world of lecturer vs. professor.
It’s interesting to see the reaction anytime anyone questions the ‘holier than thou’ viewpoint on Obama.
September 12th, 2004 at
Ummmm it’s University of Chicago, not Chicago University. Easy to make the mistake…
There’s plenty of real issues out there to talk about.