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Hmmmm So Chris Hayes and Dave Weigel Are Currently Discussing the Hillary-Birther Theories
their conclusion: FALSE.
Chris says he did a long report on this when he wrote for The Nation and discovered it was started by some serial lawsuit filer and was picked up. Weigel has reported on this nonsense for a long time and says difinitively that "Hillary's campaign did not start this" despite "playing around the edges" with the claims.
Hayes also notes that the people who once embraced birtherism--tRump and Cruz--are now saying "but it was Hillary first!" in an effort to disavow their culpability in creating their demon child.
16 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Ron Fournier thinks it's something so DU has to run with it. 
Clinton Staffer Caught Spreading Obama Muslim Rumors
link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/03/15/477190/-Clinton-Staffer-Caught-Spreading-Obama-Muslim-Rumors
In the wake of the Geraldine Ferraro controversy-you would think the Clinton campaign would do everything in its power to stop the racial undertones from the campaign. In the past the Clinton campaign have been accused of using aggressive tactics like race to undermine Senator Barack Obama. Recently, Los Angeles Times reporter Don Frederick visited the Philadelphia field office of Hillary Clinton and witnessed a staffer making calls on behalf of the campaign and discovered a disturbing pattern we've heard before.
The Clinton campaign has been accused of smearing and spreading rumors about being a Muslim. In Decemeber two staffers from the Clinton Iowa office were fired for spreading Muslim email rumors. Again, as Recently, in Ohio there were rumors of her volunteers spreading Muslim rumors. These string of rumors are not accident. What we continue to see from the Clinton campaign is a pattern to deliberately undermine Obama as candidate. Hillary cannot go after Barack Obama on the issues, so she would rather resort to personal attacks. Here is what Los Angeles Times reporter Don Frederick discovered.
link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/03/15/477190/-Clinton-Staffer-Caught-Spreading-Obama-Muslim-Rumors
In the wake of the Geraldine Ferraro controversy-you would think the Clinton campaign would do everything in its power to stop the racial undertones from the campaign. In the past the Clinton campaign have been accused of using aggressive tactics like race to undermine Senator Barack Obama. Recently, Los Angeles Times reporter Don Frederick visited the Philadelphia field office of Hillary Clinton and witnessed a staffer making calls on behalf of the campaign and discovered a disturbing pattern we've heard before.
The Clinton campaign has been accused of smearing and spreading rumors about being a Muslim. In Decemeber two staffers from the Clinton Iowa office were fired for spreading Muslim email rumors. Again, as Recently, in Ohio there were rumors of her volunteers spreading Muslim rumors. These string of rumors are not accident. What we continue to see from the Clinton campaign is a pattern to deliberately undermine Obama as candidate. Hillary cannot go after Barack Obama on the issues, so she would rather resort to personal attacks. Here is what Los Angeles Times reporter Don Frederick discovered.
No legitimate news org would run with the photo of Obama in a turban, so it was "leaked" to Drudge. The Clinton campaign did not deny it.
CLINTON STAFFERS CIRCULATE 'DRESSED' OBAMA
link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/02/25/463607/-SECOND-UPDATE-Clinton-Staffers-Circulate-Picture-of-Obama-in-Tribal-Costume
Mon Feb 25 2007 06:51:00 ET
With a week to go until the Texas and Ohio primaries, stressed Clinton staffers circulated a photo over the weekend of a "dressed" Barack Obama. The photo, taken in 2006, shows Obama dressed as a Somali Elder, during his five-country tour of Africa.
"Wouldn't we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC?" questioned one campaign staffer, in an email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.
In December, the campaign asked one of its volunteer county coordinators in Iowa to step down after the person forwarded an e-mail falsely stating that Barack Obama is a Muslim.
The Politico reports that the Clinton campaign did not deny the charges they leaked this to the Drudge Report.
link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/02/25/463607/-SECOND-UPDATE-Clinton-Staffers-Circulate-Picture-of-Obama-in-Tribal-Costume
Mon Feb 25 2007 06:51:00 ET
With a week to go until the Texas and Ohio primaries, stressed Clinton staffers circulated a photo over the weekend of a "dressed" Barack Obama. The photo, taken in 2006, shows Obama dressed as a Somali Elder, during his five-country tour of Africa.
"Wouldn't we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC?" questioned one campaign staffer, in an email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.
In December, the campaign asked one of its volunteer county coordinators in Iowa to step down after the person forwarded an e-mail falsely stating that Barack Obama is a Muslim.
The Politico reports that the Clinton campaign did not deny the charges they leaked this to the Drudge Report.
HillaryClinton.com spreading Obama=Muslim smears and other racism.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/03/14/476539/-HillaryClinton-com-spreading-Obama-Muslim-smears-and-other-racism
As Ari Berman notes for The Nation, the Clinton campaign has been pushing rightwing smears against Obama for over a year:
<snip>
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/03/14/476539/-HillaryClinton-com-spreading-Obama-Muslim-smears-and-other-racism
As Ari Berman notes for The Nation, the Clinton campaign has been pushing rightwing smears against Obama for over a year:
Even if the false claims about Obama originally emanated from the neoconservative right, the Clinton campaign has eagerly pushed them. Clinton operative Sidney Blumenthal has e-mailed damaging stories about Obama to reporters, including a recent article by (rightwing Human Events author John Batchelor). Clinton fundraiser Annie Totah circulated a column by (American Thinker founder) Ed Lasky before Super Tuesday, with the inscription "Please vote wisely in the Primaries." Clinton adviser Ann Lewis falsely referred to Zbigniew Brzezinski, a critic of AIPAC, as a chief adviser to Obama on a conference call with Jewish reporters. "I can tell you for a fact people from the Clinton campaign are calling reporters and asking them to pay attention to things involving Obama and Israel," says Shmuel Rosner, Washington correspondent for the Israeli daily Ha'aretz. The volume of e-mails about Obama in a given state tends to track the election calendar--hardly a coincidence.
<snip>
Election 2008: Hillary Struggles Against Sexism But Regularly Plays Race Card
In the face of raw, media-driven misogyny, Clinton resorts to playing the race card and loses some women's support in the process.
The Nation May 1, 2008
link: http://www.alternet.org/story/84150/hillary_struggles_against_sexism_but_regularly_plays_race_card
<snip>
The sexist attacks on Clinton are outrageous and deplorable, but there's reason to be concerned about her becoming the vehicle for a feminist reawakening. For one thing, feminist sympathy for her has begotten an "oppression sweepstakes" in which a number of her prominent supporters, dismayed at her upstaging by Obama, have declared a contest between racial and gender bias and named sexism the greater scourge. This maneuver is not only unhelpful for coalition-building but obstructs understanding of how sexism and racism have played out in this election in different (and interrelated) ways.
Yet what is most troubling -- and what has the most serious implications for the feminist movement -- is that the Clinton campaign has used her rival's race against him. In the name of demonstrating her superior "electability," she and her surrogates have invoked the racist and sexist playbook of the right -- in which swaggering macho cowboys are entrusted to defend the country -- seeking to define Obama as too black, too foreign, too different to be President at a moment of high anxiety about national security. This subtly but distinctly racialized political strategy did not create the media feeding frenzy around the Rev. Jeremiah Wright that is now weighing Obama down, but it has positioned Clinton to take advantage of the opportunities the controversy has presented. And the Clinton campaign's use of this strategy has many non-white and non-mainstream feminists crying foul.
<snip>
In the face of raw, media-driven misogyny, Clinton resorts to playing the race card and loses some women's support in the process.
The Nation May 1, 2008
link: http://www.alternet.org/story/84150/hillary_struggles_against_sexism_but_regularly_plays_race_card
<snip>
The sexist attacks on Clinton are outrageous and deplorable, but there's reason to be concerned about her becoming the vehicle for a feminist reawakening. For one thing, feminist sympathy for her has begotten an "oppression sweepstakes" in which a number of her prominent supporters, dismayed at her upstaging by Obama, have declared a contest between racial and gender bias and named sexism the greater scourge. This maneuver is not only unhelpful for coalition-building but obstructs understanding of how sexism and racism have played out in this election in different (and interrelated) ways.
Yet what is most troubling -- and what has the most serious implications for the feminist movement -- is that the Clinton campaign has used her rival's race against him. In the name of demonstrating her superior "electability," she and her surrogates have invoked the racist and sexist playbook of the right -- in which swaggering macho cowboys are entrusted to defend the country -- seeking to define Obama as too black, too foreign, too different to be President at a moment of high anxiety about national security. This subtly but distinctly racialized political strategy did not create the media feeding frenzy around the Rev. Jeremiah Wright that is now weighing Obama down, but it has positioned Clinton to take advantage of the opportunities the controversy has presented. And the Clinton campaign's use of this strategy has many non-white and non-mainstream feminists crying foul.
<snip>
Keeping the Obama-Muslim Smear Going: What on Earth is Bob Kerrey Doing?
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2007/12/keeping-obama-muslim-smear-going-what-earth-bob-kerrey-doing
When former Nebraska Governor and Senator Bob Kerrey endorsed Hillary Clinton yesterday at a campaign stop in Iowa and added these lines about Barack Obama—"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"—I was willing to give him a pass. Sure, it seemed like a sneaky way to work the Obama-is-a-secret-Muslim falsehood back into the media and into the consciousnesses of Iowa voters (Obama is a regular Christian churchgoer), but Kerrey has been a loose cannon throughout his career. And following so closely after the Obama-is-a-drug-dealer fiasco from a different Clinton campaign surrogate... it would just be bad, bad politics for the Clinton campaign to coordinate something like this in Iowa's friendly confines.
But then Kerrey went and did it again. He went on CNN today and tried to backtrack on the first comment—"He is a Christian. Both he and his family are Christians. They've chosen Christianity."—but couldn't help stirring the pot some more. "I've watched the blogs try to say that you can't trust [Obama] because he spent a little bit of time in a secular madrassa," he said. "I feel quite opposite. I think it's a tremendous strength whether he's in the United States Senate or whether he's in the White House."
<snip>
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2007/12/keeping-obama-muslim-smear-going-what-earth-bob-kerrey-doing
When former Nebraska Governor and Senator Bob Kerrey endorsed Hillary Clinton yesterday at a campaign stop in Iowa and added these lines about Barack Obama—"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"—I was willing to give him a pass. Sure, it seemed like a sneaky way to work the Obama-is-a-secret-Muslim falsehood back into the media and into the consciousnesses of Iowa voters (Obama is a regular Christian churchgoer), but Kerrey has been a loose cannon throughout his career. And following so closely after the Obama-is-a-drug-dealer fiasco from a different Clinton campaign surrogate... it would just be bad, bad politics for the Clinton campaign to coordinate something like this in Iowa's friendly confines.
But then Kerrey went and did it again. He went on CNN today and tried to backtrack on the first comment—"He is a Christian. Both he and his family are Christians. They've chosen Christianity."—but couldn't help stirring the pot some more. "I've watched the blogs try to say that you can't trust [Obama] because he spent a little bit of time in a secular madrassa," he said. "I feel quite opposite. I think it's a tremendous strength whether he's in the United States Senate or whether he's in the White House."
<snip>
