Madrassagate Part II

[ruggerson]

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2007/12/madrassagate-part-ii-the-clari.html

It may have sounded like a dirty campaign trick, but Bob Kerrey, a decorated war hero, U.S. senator and supporter of Hillary Clinton for president, indicated in an interview today that he was speaking honestly and respectfully of Barack Obama when he said that the Illinois senator’s experience with the Muslim world is a big plus in terms of his experience.

This is what Kerrey said Sunday in Iowa that started the flap: “It’s probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There’s a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal.”

While some Obama backers say it was a smear on par with the ex-top Clinton campaign official in New Hampshire who just days ago brought up Obama’s admitted cocaine use, people familiar with Kerrey’s style and soul believe it was a straight up compliment about a candidate who has unique experience that not even the globe-hopping Hillary Clinton can match.

Asked about the comment today on CNN, Kerrey said, “There is a smear campaign going on, and people are acting as if he’s an Islamic Manchurian candidate … I feel it’s actually a substantial strength. He is a Christian. Both he and his family are Christians. They’ve chosen Christianity. But that connection to Indonesia and a billion Muslims on this Earth I think is a real strength and will add an awful lot of value in his foreign policy efforts.”

It’s so powerful a compliment that one might think he was on the stump for Obama instead of Clinton.

For the record, as one campaign aide pointed out, Obama made a similar comment about himself to The New York Times recently. “If, as president, I travel to a poor country to talk to leaders there, they will know I have a grandmother in a small village in Africa without running water, devastated by malaria and AIDS,” Obama said.

“What that allows me to do is talk honestly not only about our need to help them, but about poor countries’ obligation to help themselves. There are cousins of mine in Kenya who can’t get a job without paying an exorbitant bribe to some midlevel functionary. I can talk about that…I have lived in the most populous Muslim country in the world, had relatives who practiced Islam. I am a Christian, but I can say I understand your worldview, although I may not agree with how Islam has evolved. I can speak forcefully about the need for Muslim countries to reconcile themselves to modernity in ways they have failed to do,” he told the Times.

- Ken Bazinet

[Renew Deal]

1. That's why I didn't get too worked up about this.

I think this is something that Obama can AND should be able to deal with. He's not evasive about it either.

[ruggerson]

2. It's a completely manufactured issue

Kerrey was being gallant and complimentary. And saying nothing Obama himself hasn't said.

[K Gardner]

4. Are you saying... are you saying... we the people here at DU blew something

out of proportion?? I can't belieeeevee it. :wow:

:sarcasm:

[frazzled]

3. It’s probably not something that appeals to her,

but I like the fact that her name is Hillary Rodham Clinton, and that her father was a Republican and that her mother is a Republican, and that she was a member of the Young Republicans. There’s millions of people in the country who are conservative Republicans, and I think that experience is a big deal.

That would really help Hillary in a Democratic primary, wouldn't it? (Just as the statement about Obama is meant to cast doubt on him in an election.)

Look, the operative term here is Muslim. He's not, no matter what his paternal forebearers were. When Obama has spoken of his experience abroad or his family, he does not speak of it in religious terms--jobs and AIDS have nothing to do with religion.

[ruggerson]

5. "I have lived in the most populous Muslim country in the world, had relatives who practiced Islam."

Reading is your friend.

[Cameron27]

6. Thanks ruggerson,

I had no idea that Obama made that statement, but it seems Bob Kerrey isn't the devil after all.

[NMMNG]

7. So it wasn't an evil smear campaign after all

Everybody can throw away their hankies now.

[Mojorabbit]

8. I thought his father

left him when he was a small child. How much experience did he have with the muslim community after that if his mother was a christian?

[Hekate]

9. His mother remarried--an Indonesian Muslim named Lolo, & moved there with young Barry

His younger sister Maya is Lolo's daughter. Their mother decided she didn't really want her son to acculturate to Indonesian society, so she prepared him to move back to Hawaii ahead of her, where he lived with his grandparents while attending Punahou School.

Barack Obama's "Dreams from My Father" is well worth the read. It was originally published in 1995, then re-issued in 2004. It's pretty much available everywhere in paperback now.

That 1995 pub date should tell us that his biographical details are no secret and never have been. He deals with his youthful drug experimentation, among other things. Big deal, in other words.

The American people can be swayed by prejudice against Muslims, but I hope that overall people will come to see that Obama's experiences abroad are an advantage to have in a US president (or veep).

Hekate

[ruggerson]

10. Which is exactly what Kerrey was saying

"The American people can be swayed by prejudice against Muslims, but I hope that overall people will come to see that Obama's experiences abroad are an advantage to have in a US president (or veep)."

[Armstead]

11. Looks to me like another convenient "slip"

[JTFrog]

12. Spin Part Duex.

Respectfully my ass. This type of dirty politics needs several more spin cycles to get the reek out.

[ruggerson]

13. So now "dirty politics" is redefined as

something the candidate himself has said and that an admirer repeats?

Fascinating.

Not buying.

[JTFrog]

14. Redefined?

I merely recognize it for the veiled attack that it was. No matter how you dress it up, it will still need another run through the spin cycle.

[geek tragedy]

15. Where did Obama talk about his 'madrassa?'

Oh wait, War Criminal Kerrey made that shit up.

Kerrey is scum.