What information is more vital to national security – that Barack Obama’s New Hampshire campaign chair, Jim Demers, is a lobbyist – or that Hillary Clinton believes Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf is facing a presidential election soon (amongst other inaccuracies – Video: Smartest woman in the world doesn’t know the first thing about Pakistan)?
In a piece published by Atlantic Free Press, “Obama, What Drugs Are You Using?” – a title that resurrects the Clinton smear that Obama is a crack dealer and implies he still uses – Larry Johnson calls his supporters, “Suckers.”
Former CIA agent (1985-89), Deputy Director in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism (1989-93), and presently CEO of a terrorism/security consultant firm, Johnson is helping to disseminate Hillary Clinton’s “gotcha” moment (YouTube) during the New Hampshire Democrat debate.
Clinton challenged Obama’s change rhetoric by revealing that the chair of his New Hampshire campaign is a lobbyist. He responded, “That’s not so,” and shook his head side-to-side. In this post on Johnson’s blog, No Quarter, SusanUnPC links to a New York Times transcript of the debate emphasising that it does not record Obama’s “no” and head moves.
Clinton continues to complain that she’s a victim of tougher press scrutiny than other candidates and demands that Obama be held “accountable” and “to the same standards.”
Prominently featured in SusanUnPC’s post is what appears to be an ad for “WHO IS JIM DEMERS?”, a video produced by the TIME.com sponsored blog of Mark Halperin, The Page. She updates with Halperin’s follow-up that includes this link to what she describes as the “PROOF” that Demers is a lobbyist for Pfizer and PhRMA and Halperin’s statement that the “Obama campaign repeatedly declined Sunday to explain his debate denial.” (The Page’s emphasis.)
Clinton and others on her campaign bus share more than a few laughs during the Halperin interview. I find her mania and Johnson’s pushing her as the candidate of experience to be unsettling. Halperin posted the transcript of Clinton’s Pakistan moment with George Stephanopoulos so he was aware of it. Perhaps a question regarding it and her comments to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer (.pdf) two day earlier would have sobered the senator. In the Stephanopoulos interview she claims that her “touch and feel” tell her she’s going to win the nomination. Apparently, emotions are unreliable only if you’re an Obama supporter.
Discussion of Obama-mania taking place on LBO-talk, interesting despite the sour grapes of Edwards supporters, and where I found this link to a video on change that might provide a few chuckles but should not induce hysteria.