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Obama Campaign Confuses Their Surrogate's War Vote
March 02, 2008 8:56 PM
ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., spent the day campaigning with Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., whose endorsement he picked up on Friday.
During a rally in Westerville, Ohio, Obama argued that Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., should have read the National Intelligence Report before making the decision to authorize war with Iraq.
He then summoned up his newest surrogate, Rockefeller, as an example.
"Jay Rockefeller read it, but she didn't read it. I don't know where all that experience got her because I have enough experience to know that if you have a national intelligence estimate and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee says, 'you should read this, that's why I voted against the war,' then you should probably read it."
The problem? Rockefeller voted for war.
Obama’s statement left the impression that Rockefeller was the chair of the Intelligence Committee, read the NIE report and then voted against the war. Rockefeller, who is currently the chair, was not chair at the time and cast his vote for war, not against it.
The Obama campaign says that Obama was referencing former Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., then Intelligence Committee chair, who read the NIE report, and voted against the war. They said that Obama knows Rockefeller and Graham’s record on the war vote, but was simply not clear who he was referencing.
The Clinton campaign was quick to jump on the confusing comments, with a Clinton spokesman saying, "Sen. Obama is so desperate to divert attention from his limited national security experience that he's not just misleading voters about Sen. Clinton, he's also misleading voters about his own supporters. That is not change you can believe in."
According to Obama spokesperson Bill Burton, "Apparently, the Clinton campaign read Sen. Obama’s remarks about as carefully as Sen. Clinton read the National Intelligence Estimate. Because the truth is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2002 was Bob Graham, and he read the NIE, voted against the war, and counseled other Democrats to read the NIE before they voted -- Sen. Clinton made a different judgment and gave George Bush a blank check for war."
Slice Obama’s comment with that of the Obama campaign’s chief strategist, David Axelrod’s comments on ABC’s "This Week," when he told George Stephanopoulos Sunday morning, "Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who opposed the war in Iraq, who read the intelligence before the war, which Sen. Clinton concedes she did not, and who said that Barack Obama has the judgment and the maturity and the vision to lead."
The Obama campaign says that Axelrod just misspoke when he said Rockefeller opposed the war.
March 2, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (43)
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SJ, read it again, you didn't read what Obama said!! SJ, Obama said, "if you a nat. intell. estimate and the chairman of the Sen. Int. Comm. says, "...read this, that's why I voted against the war." I got it the very first time reading it. Obama says, the chairman of the committee said "read this, it's why I voted against the war."
Posted by: Sallie | Mar 2, 2008 10:38:55 PM
I'd like to hear Obama claim that HE reads all of the materials placed before him
So as President Obama is going to read ALL of the bills that are placed before him? IMPOSSIBLE! He'll spend all of his time reading...and will have no time to run around with his magic wand and Oprah to fix the nation and the world.
Posted by: Nicholas | Mar 2, 2008 10:42:46 PM
So, my thinking is he's surrounding himself with Rockefeller with the general election in mind, but as Bush junior noted, "he (Obama) better pay attention to his race with Clinton." It's one think to be confident, it's another to be outright cocky and arrogant, and hypocritical (especially when you are attracting young people.) That's scary.
Posted by: David | Mar 2, 2008 10:49:12 PM
See you obama supporters, BHO, including the whole campaign has no idea even what he/they is/are talking about. Is that change you can believe in from BO? If can confuse himself and the campaign, just think how confused this country will be if he is the president.
Posted by: cpmforhillary | Mar 2, 2008 10:50:40 PM
Heh, what is he a newbie? Oh, nevermind...
Posted by: belle | Mar 2, 2008 11:11:36 PM
Senator Jay Rockefeller "made a bad judgment" of supporting the Iraq war as per Barack Obama criticism of Hillary Clinton vote.
Democratic Senators including Barack Obama selected Senator Jay Rockefeller as chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee in 2006.
After endorsing Barack Obama, Senator Jay Rockefeller has been paraded in front of the press to hype Obama so call foreign policy experience against Hillary Clinton.
Of course, Obama camp is realizing that Barck Obama did not have a problem with Senator Jay Rockefeller as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee after supporting the Iraq war. But, neither should the American people have problem selecting Hillary Clinton as President because of her Iraq vote.
It appears that not everybody in the Obama camp did realize Senator Rockefeller supported the Iraq war.OOPS!!!
Posted by: Angel | Mar 2, 2008 11:15:39 PM
Everyone knows her so well, but not for Obama. We have no idea how he will behave when he is president, because he has limited history to prove how he will act in numerous issues.
He said he has the better judgment but he got confused with the positions of his supporters? Does he really knows what is going on here? All I can say he got a very good campaign and advisers behind him.
Additionally, it is too risky for Obama to be president at this time, since he can't prove it from his records. And if he is found related to the Rezko's case later after become Democrat nominee this will ruin the whole Democratic Party in Nov. Too much risk to take at this time to vote for Obama.
Posted by: MIwatch | Mar 2, 2008 11:40:34 PM
2002 speech, yada, yada, yada. you're boring us now, obama.
Posted by: so saddened | Mar 2, 2008 11:57:42 PM
DCvoter - Brzezinski isn't the ONLY highly questionable campaign advisor to Obama. Look at the radical groups James Zogby, Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrahkan, George Soros and Robert Malley have ties to and support. Obama also belongs to a church that promotes black supremacy. He is truly scary and people need to research who Obama's friends are.
Posted by: cc83 | Mar 3, 2008 2:49:57 AM
funny how three people from the Obama camp all misspoke the same misspeak.
Posted by: TeresaInPa | Mar 3, 2008 3:02:16 AM
Okay about Senator Obama and his charges yesterday regarding Hillary Clinton not doing her homework before the Iraq Use of Force Resolution. The thought that keeps running around in my head is “double standard.” While showing his support for the Kerry-Edwards ticket in 2004 Senator Obama said he didn't know what he would have done had he seen the NIE report. Then he made the comment that he didn't see himself doing things much differently then George W. Bush on the war. He gets endorsed by Senator Kerry who voted for the war just as 29 other Democratic Senators did. Then yesterday David Axelrod his strategist touts the endorsement from Senator Jay Rockefeller saying the Senator opposed the war but actually voted for it along with 29 of the 50 Democratic senators who voted in October 2002. Then talking about audacity, Senator Obama slams Hillary for not reading the NIE, while referring to Senator Jay Rockefeller who did read the NIE and who still voted for the Iraq resolution. Don't you see the “good old boys” club working here. Its okay if the guys did it, after all they were duped, but not okay if the gals do. This is a “Hillary iron my shirts” moment advanced by Senator Obama himself. I don't want the Democratic nominee to be a person who perpetuates the “double standard” which is just plain sexist discrimination. It is not okay!
Posted by: D | Mar 3, 2008 8:45:01 AM
This shows you how Obama is all fake, all words and no substance
Posted by: Raul | Mar 3, 2008 12:38:12 PM
Sounds like John Kerry.
Barack is a flip flopper.
It seems his campaign can handle the pressure. Maybe tomorrow he will win Vermont, you remember the last nutjub to win Vermont? We made him chairman of our party.
That is what is wrong with the Democratic Party.
Posted by: Brian | Mar 3, 2008 12:44:21 PM
Sounds like John Kerry.
Barack is a flip flopper.
It seems his campaign can handle the pressure. Maybe tomorrow he will win Vermont, you remember the last nutjub to win Vermont? We made him chairman of our party.
That is what is wrong with the Democratic Party.
Posted by: Brian | Mar 3, 2008 12:44:26 PM
Without a doubt, Obama has the ability to put things together -- most times inacurate to stir people up. Once people are stirred they lose their ability to think and just follow. Once this happens, people lose their sense of reasoning and then you have this group of people believing everything he says. Sorry -- the ability to reason is too important for me. Just look at all his speeches. The media seems to forget that they need to do fact checks. Happened with Bush and now it is happening again. I just hope his bubble bursts before he begins to affect us all.
Posted by: Voter | Mar 3, 2008 1:05:48 PM
Here is an example of misleading America. Read a portion of Obama's speech from Alabama. "...something happened back here in Selma, Alabama. Something happened in Birmingham that sent out what Bobby Kennedy called, "ripples of hope all around the world." Something happened when a bunch of women decided they were going to walk instead of ride the bus after a long day of doing somebody else's laundry, looking after somebody else's children. "When (black) men who had PhD's decided 'that's enough' and 'we're going to stand up for our dignity,' that sent a shout across oceans so that my grandfather began to imagine something different for his son." This is part of a speech that goes on and on. It is a stirring speech that make people forget their sense of reasoning. The problem with this is that Obama was born before this march happened and not after. The grandfather could not have sent his son who was hearding sheep to the USA before the march because Obama was already born. Yet it stirs people into this trance! It is so wrong to mislead!
Posted by: Voter | Mar 3, 2008 1:15:41 PM
H. Aslan Aslani-Far: Okay, I have read Obama's remarks carefully, and am willing to concede that he did not lie ... according to the standard definition. However, he either made a huge mistake, or purposely misspoke because his comments about what the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said and how he voted ARE directly tied to Jay Rockefeller.
The way it was done was, as noted, not lying per se, but consider this: There are three classic and creative ways to mislead people without technically "lying" -- misdirection (using wording that leads people to believe you said something that you didn't actually say); telling the absolute truth, but not necessarily all the of it, and; (most creative of all) telling the entire and absolute truth but doing it in such a way that no one will believe it. Of these three, Obama’s comments fall into the first category – misdirection. While he left himself with “plausible deniability” due to his wording, there is no way he can legitimately say he didn’t mean to leave the impression that it was Rockefeller, who voted for the war and now supports Obama, that made those comments.
Posted by: Walker Evans | Mar 3, 2008 2:28:18 PM
Obama is so much like his cousin Bush and Cheney. Neither have any idea what they are doing and they lie all day and night long.
In bed with the Iraq war are we Obama? And voting to fund the war over and over and over again is pulling the covers over your head. Obama is so full of it.
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock your bid for the WH Obama is coming to an end.
Posted by: starbuck1979 | Mar 3, 2008 2:32:21 PM
Im curious why isn't this on the front page???? 99% of his endorsements come from govt officals who did vote for the war . So whats changed???? If Senator Obama wants change why is he surrounding himself with all those war mongers.
Posted by: Carol | Mar 3, 2008 8:23:52 PM
Again, the Wizard of Oz - Unmasked. Who's in charge of the campaign - and whose words are the campaigner's - Obama or Axelrod?
If words are important, they should be factually correct!
Posted by: twinmom48 | Mar 3, 2008 10:45:05 PM
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