Clinton Campaign Disguises Negative Flier As Product of Edwards Campaign
| Thu Dec. 20, 2007 7:54 AM PST
Iowans don't like negative attacks. Time and again, when I was in Iowa chatting with attendees at Republican and Democratic events, I was told by voters that the "mudslinging" that goes on "in Washington" wasn't of any concern to them. They were less likely to vote for a candidate if he or she went negative, even if that candidate had a legitimate critique of his or her rivals.
So if you're Hillary Clinton and you want to point out that Barack Obama's health care proposal isn't as strong as yours, what can you do? How about putting out a flier that looks like it was created by the John Edwards campaign?
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The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is supporting Hillary Clinton. A recent flier that AFSCME put out in Iowa says, "For those without insurance, Barack Obama's band-aid solution is no change at all." Obama "claims his health care plan covers everyone, but his proposal does not match his words... Instead, Obama took the timid way out, offering yet another band-aid solution."
That's substantially more false than true. The Obama plan represents a significant change from the status quo, and if implemented successfully, will greatly increase the number of people with health insurance while simultaneously lowering the cost of coverage. However, the plan does not have a mandate, which means that some people could wiggle out of the system and remain uncovered. The Clinton and Edwards plans do have mandates, though the Edwards plan is widely seen as having better mechanisms for enforcing that mandate.
But when the flier concludes, "Barack Obama's plan is just more of the same," that's dishonest.
Hillary Clinton won't be taking any guff for it, however, because somehow her name is left off the flier completely. Instead, the flier quotes John Edwards as saying that "as many as 15 million Americans would be without coverage" under Obama's plan. That's a figure Clinton has repeatedly used; if the campaign had wanted to (or if AFSCME had wanted to), they could have easily used a Clinton quote.
Edwards, who has attacked Clinton before but usually declines to go negative on Obama, must hate that he's being dragged into this. His campaign released a statement saying, "It's fine to have an honest debate about policy, but Iowans deserve better than planted questions and campaign fliers designed to fool them."
Comments
Submitted by capt (not verified) on Thu Dec. 20, 2007 8:49 AM PST.
Wow, this makes it even harder to feel all warm and fuzzy about HRC.
This is the dirtiest politics I've seen. No wait, wasn't there a crime committed back in the 1970s? Something to do with Water and Gate - that was the dirtiest I suppose.
If you can't win honestly, then you don't deserve to win - look at the steroids controversy in MLB. I mean c'mon! Winners never cheat and cheaters never win! Eventually, people find out - let's hope Iowans (and every other state) find out that it is NOT coming from the Edwards camapign... before it's too late.
Edwards takes a hit because HRC cheats? Ask me, why would AFSCME poison their own well?
C'est la vie - elect HRC and you get what you see, more tricks and a dirty pool.
And Obama is really that much better? Using David Axelrod, as ugly a Chicago/Daley machinist as you can get? Do Iowans like ghost voters (i.e., Obama's plan to have Illinois college kids in Iowa temporarily switch residences) to hijack their caucuses?
Obama supporters need to look into our local politics more, because that's all the record there is on this newbie. And what you find is he campaigned for some of the most hideous and corrupt public officials you'll find: John and Todd Stroger, Dorothy Tillman, and our lovely police-torture enabling mayor Richard Daley (Hillary and Bill share most of the same record, Edwards doesn't). Oh, and Hillary's missing records? Did you know that Obama can't find his law firm billing records for Tony Rezko or his visitors log while being in the state senate?
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
This is disgusting! If she is expecting me to support and vote for her when she has to resort to this type of mud slinging, then she can forget me when election day comes around - should she get nominated.
Look at all the mud her campaign has thrown over the past few weeks. She's making Rove look like an angle!
Um, do you have any evidence *at all* that Clinton's campaign had anything to do with this? This is a mailer from the AFSCME, which is prohibited by law from coordinating with any campaign. (In fact, it even says right on the mailer that it was not coordinated with any candidate or campaign.) So unless you have some evidence that Clinton and the AFSCME are breaking election laws, it's dishonest to say that it's the "Clinton Campaign" that's doing it. Journalism, folks.
Edwards said it all. Let's have a healthy debate instead of sneak attacks.
But while we're at it, let's really look at the issue at hand: extending quality health care to all Americans. If Obama's plan would leave many uncovered, and Clinton's is marginally better, and Edwards' is best of the three ... DOES the debate stop there?
The Kucinich plan would cover ALL Americans, at a lower cost than any of the three above, while still allowing free choice of provider.
If we're so concerned about the candidates running honest campaigns and really addressing the issues, perhaps it's time we did the same. Dennis Kucinich is still in the campaign and has the most comprehensive health plan of any candidate. Granted it will ultimately mean taking basic health insurance out of the private sector ... but that can be phased out so as to allow companies to adjust AND those who want private suites in swank private clinics can STILL buy top-up insurance, just like a lot of folks here in Europe do. In the meantime, the rest of the population AND the economy will benefit from the universal, single-payer plan Kucinich proposes.
