A little dig at John Edwards here .... Fairly innocuous... Obama's been using it since the South Carolina debate. But now that he wants Edwards's endorsment and has spoken a few times to Edwards over the fast few days, the context is a little different.
« Obama To Air Super Bowl Ads | Main | Romney To California » Same Obama Dig, Different Context03 Feb 2008 04:21 pm Comments (34)
Yes, is there a clip you can show that has what he said after that? Does he praise him right after? Does he praise him earlier in the speech? 
If this is innocuous why does the same item showed up on top of Ben Smith's blog, Mark Halperin's and yours within 15 minutes ? Let me guess. Someone directed you to it. Urgh. Why not point out something substantive instead which is that the fact Edwards is not endorsing before Feb 5th is a subtle dig at Obama that is much more consequential.
The "dig" has nothing to do with poverty as an issue, by the way. What Obama is joking about is honesty and candor in debates. But Mark is too lazy to point that out...
I agree with the others. Without the context after this--he could easily go on to praise Edwards' anti-poverty crusade--this video is useless. And I'm not really sure where this "dig" is at in that video.
If this is innocuous why does the same item showed up on top of Ben Smith's blog, Mark Halperin's and yours within 15 minutes ? Good catch. Ben says it was an Edwards backer who alerted him to this, but it seems a bit odd that this one person would be able to e-mail it to all 3 of these people and get them all to run it at about the same time. My guess is that it's actually the Clinton campaign behind this. And given the fact that Marc has lied about getting info from Clinton sources before, that wouldn't surprise me.
I was there earlier today in Wilmington. He praised Edwards for lifting up the issue of poverty during the campaign. David's comment is exactly right: he was talking about how he didn't speak "Washington-speak" when he answered the question truthfully, instead of a way to brag about himself.
Doesn't matter what the "context" of the comment is; it won't get ex-Edwards supporters to switch to Obama, that's for sure. Silly.
First, the point that Obama was making was a good one, regardless of whether Edwards has dropped out of the race: on that question, only Obama gave an honest answer. Anyone who has ever interviewed someone for a job (or been interviewed) knows that there is nothing as insincere or insulting to the interviewer as answering a question about you weakensses with a compliment about yourself. Second, the fact that this showed up as once on three "real time" campaign blogs is suspicious. More importantly, it demonstrates that in the Internet age (or at least these early years)cutting and pasting is becoming a substitute for stopping and thinking. The laziness on some blogs (and sadly this one in particular) is dismaying: the "report" here yesterday of 6,000 showing up at an Obama rally at the very time there were 20,000 in the arena wouldn't meet the standards of the average high-school newspaper. Maybe we need a little less "twittering" and a bit more actual reporting.
Oh look. Another duplicitous YouTube video with another so-called slip-up from Obama from yet another YouTube user with one video to their credit (eg the Reagan clip from his interview w/ the Vegas Journal-Review). Google's got tons more Obama donors than Clinton ones; someone should reverse lookup the IP addresses from all of these clips. I'm surprised it showed up here before TaylorMarsh.com
Frankly, I'm tired of the Edwards love-fest...the idea that he alone is responsible for Democrats talking about issues of poverty is sort of ridiculous. He may have been the first, but that is only because he was the first to run.
If it's anything like previous tellings of this joke, Obama quickly followed this by noting Hillary's response, and then saying if he knew how the game was played he would have said "I try to help old ladies across the street and sometimes they don't want to go." First whining about the snub, then trying to spin Florida, then this bullshit - team Clinton is flailing, flailing, flailing.
Maria Shriver just endorsed Obama.
Thank you, Jack! At least some people know real news when they see/hear it.
Obama just rolled out Maria Shriver. HUGE, and probably means he wins California and the nomination. My recap here: http://www.politicalinaction.com/2008/02/cspan-now.html
Maria Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s wife, just endorsed Obama at Oprah’s rally in LA! Ah-nold’s wife for Obama… The Obama train is pulling out of the station. Get on board!
Marc, Seriously, come on now! Barack has class and everyone knows it and he was simply being funny about what being honest gets you sometimes. On another note, not only was it amazing that Maria Shriver endorsed Barack today, it was totally unexpected. She was backstage waivering as to whether she should make her endorsement public or not but it was her daughter and the power of the moment and the chance for change that took her on to the stage today. Quite a moment, indeed. It will make a difference here in CA!!!!! In fact, why isn't that on your front page, Marc?
Poor journalism....Karl Rove tactics. This statement was made at a rally in Las Vegas following a Democratic debate where each candidate was asked to tell his/her biggest weakness. He was referring to this point by making light of a true story. Barack Obama went first and said he had to have staff give him papers a few minutes before he needed them ...desk disorganized HONEST Then it was Hillary Clintons turn .... she said that she gets too impatient to make changes. John Edwards said it's too personal to me, caring about the middle class and poverty etc. SO WHY DON'T YOU BE HONEST AND PROFESSIONAL instead of trying to tear Barack Obama down. Call me a fool, but I expect The Atlantic to report the truth.
Obama had committed himself to fighting poverty long before Edwards began talking about it. Edwards folks need a reality check, as Hillary might say.
Quite frankly, little stuff like this (regardless of the candidate) makes people roll their eyes and want to "turn the page".
Obama may be committed to fighting poverty but he was/is not stressing that issue. Edwards was obviously far from perfect, but he campaigned on economic justice all three times he ran for office.
WTF have you been doing today, Ambers? My God. Update your fricking blog. News doesn't stop on the weekend.
Woo Hoo! Giants win the Super Bowl! Nice distraction from all the politics. But horrible news from Illinois, where a robber cold bloodedly MURDERED FIVE WOMEN. Execution style. Murderer is described as 5-9, 240 pound African-Amercian, wearing dark clothing. Keep your eye out for him, and may he rot in Hell once he is apprehended.
Obama's shtick about that question is humorous and makes a good point. Too bad this video clips all the rest of it. Shoddy journalism.
Ugh... we know that he wants Edwards endorsement... and we know that he wouldn't purposely dig at Edwards.. the context isn't really needed because we all know what the most part it is... There has been a lot of Marc bashing recently...the fact of the matter is that its just not the greatest thing in the world to say if you Obama... its not going to lose him an endorsement (not that Edwards is going to endorse). Obama's paper mess is funny.. and I can totally relate. Can't we all?
This clip being cut the way it was and taken out of context is exactally what is wrong with the Main Stream Media in the US. Thanks for bringing it to the blogosphere. For some context, I was at the rally. Most of you have heard the joke before.... "what is your biggest weakness"...."I am too pasionate about the poor"...etc
I watched the UCLA rally today and Shriver was really an amazing moment after a series of really incredible speaking. I'm sure the shock value of Shriver will help...somewhere...but it may be too late for California. They started mail in voting over a month ago and the Clintons had a 20+ lead in that. Obama may get a lot closer than anyone expects there, but to win it is almost an impossibility. That said, vote hope not fear.
According to police, the women slaughtered in the Chicago Illinois suburb, were beaten beforehand. Their bodies showed signs of bruising. They HAVE TO catch this perp. You would think they would have an artist's rendering of him up by now. Strange that they don't. In other news NFL football player, Charles Grant was stabbed in the neck in a Georgia night club incident in which a pregnant woman was shot to death. Neither mother or unborn child survived. Awful world out there, isn't it? At least in Illinois and Georgia.
Since I don't remember many thinking Barack Obama made a serious mistake by talking about not keeping is desk straight as a "flaw" (and let's be honets, he chose to mention a non-serious issue as a flaw), and since I believe there was even some agreement that his "honest" and non-canned answer was more "candid" than those of Clinton or Edwards, then his continued use of this minor issue does not show he is "self-deprecating." It is intended to draw attention to his truth-telling and authenticity and implies that the competing candidates are traditional politicians and less phony. One can draw the inference that he is implying that Edwards' anti-poverty message, at least in that response, was merely par of a conventional debate tactic, but in a subtle way, in the context of "humor" it plants the impression that Edwards didn't really mean what he said about these economic issues. Very well done Mr. Obama, continuing to inserting the knife in Edwards hardly hurts at all when its done by such a "self-deprecating" and courageous truth-teller.
Last post should have read: Since I don't remember many thinking Barack Obama made a serious mistake by talking about not keeping is desk straight as a "flaw" (and let's be honest, he chose to mention a non-serious issue as a flaw), and since I believe there was even some agreement that his "honest" and non-canned answer was more "candid" than those of Clinton or Edwards, then his continued use of this minor issue does not show he is "self-deprecating." It is intended to draw attention to his truth-telling and authenticity and implies that the competing candidates are traditional politicians and Barack is less phony. One can draw the inference that he is implying that Edwards' anti-poverty message, at least in that response, was merely part of a conventional debate tactic, but in a subtle way, in the context of "humor" it plants the impression that Edwards didn't really mean what he said about these economic issues. Very well done Mr. Obama, continuing to inserting the knife in Edwards hardly hurts at all when its done by such a "self-deprecating" and courageous truth-teller.
Wow! what thin skins obama supporters have! That marc blogs about the same things other bloggers blog about? that he has sources on hillary campaign as well as obama campaign and edwards campaign. Aren't reporters and news people supposed to have sources?
This is dumb. This is part of his stump speech, I heard it in KC. He says that in the debate he said he was disorganized, while Edwards and Clinton both said they just care too much, which are stupid answers. Much ado about nothing.
This video clip is misleading, to say the least. I was at the rally in Wilmington. As he has when relating this story in previous speeches, Obama criticized Edwards AND Clinton for saying that their "flaws" were, respectively, perhaps caring too much about helping poor people and being impatient to get to work on America's problems. The point Obama was making was a very important one: when you've been in Washington for too long, you lose the ability to talk straight with people. I don't think this little jab at Edwards has any real bearing on any potential endorsement/VP talks.
I thought Edwards said his flaw was that he takes things too passionately. In general, and politics specifically.
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Thanks for including the context of this statement, Marc...
Good journalism....yay Harvard education!
Posted by David | February 3, 2008 4:26 PM