Posted on 12/13/2007 5:15:16 PM PST by Anti-Bubba182
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - A top campaign adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton resigned Thursday, a day after suggesting Democrats should be wary of nominating Barack Obama because his teenage drug use could make it hard for him to win the presidency.
Clinton herself apologized to Obama as they waited to fly to Iowa for a debate.
Bill Shaheen, a national co-chairman for Clinton and a prominent New Hampshire political figure, had raised the issue during a Wednesday interview, published on washingtonpost.com.
"I made a mistake and in light of what happened, I have made the personal decision that I will step down as the co-chair of the Hillary for President campaign," Shaheen said in a statement released by the campaign Thursday. "This election is too important, and we must all get back to electing the best qualified candidate who has the record of making change happen in this country. That candidate is Hillary Clinton."
Shaheen, an attorney and veteran organizer, had said much of Obama's background is unknown and could be a problem in November 2008 if he is the Democratic nominee. He said Republicans would work hard to discover new aspects of Obama's admittedly spotty youth.
"It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'" said Shaheen, whose wife, Jeanne, is a former New Hampshire governor and is running for the U.S. Senate next year.
"There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome," Shaheen said.
Clinton personally apologized to Obama when they were on the tarmac at Washington's Reagan National Airport Thursday morning, preparing to fly to Des Moines for a debate, according to aides to both candidates.
"Having been on the receiving end of unfair attacks for years, she doesn't think this is what the campaign should be about," said Clinton spokesman Jay Carson. "She told him she wanted to win the presidency, but not through tactics like that."
Clinton's campaign said it had nothing to do with Shaheen's comments.
Obama's campaign did not have a direct comment on the conversation or Shaheen's ouster.
However, Ned Helms, an Obama co-chairman in New Hampshire, said he saw a pattern after the recent resignations of two Clinton volunteer coordinators in Iowa who had forwarded e-mails raising questions about Obama's religion.
"When you see a pattern of people making statements and the follow-up statement, 'Oh, that wasn't authorized,' it doesn't take a genius to see that there's a thread going on here," Helms said.
Obama wrote about his teenage drug use in his memoir, "Dreams from My Father." His rivals have largely remained silent on the subject.
"Junkie. Pothead. That's where I'd been headed: the final fatal role of the young would-be black man," Obama wrote. Mostly he smoked marijuana and drank alcohol, he wrote, but occasionally he would snort cocaine when he could afford it.
New polling shows Clinton and Obama basically tied in New Hampshire. A CNN-WMUR-TV poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire shows Clinton at 31 percent support, Obama at 30. The same poll had Obama trailing by 20 points in September.
Clinton's campaign has distributed its first flier that criticizes Obama's health care plan for leaving 15 million people without insurance. TV ads following the same theme also have been prepared.
“If hillary really cared about ethics, then Sandy Berger wouldnt be on her campaign payroll”
They want to make sure this toady (Berger) doesn’t rat them out.
Shaheen took one for the team. And she apologizes? HA HA!
Richelieu: Clinton Campaign Kremlinology
Weekly Standard Weblog | 12-13-07 | Richelieu
Posted on 12/13/2007 7:56:28 PM PST by CellPhoneSurfer
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1939240/posts
This movie trailer looks devastating for Hillary Clinton!
No Hillary Clinton | Vince Foster
Posted on 12/13/2007 5:27:40 PM PST by V.Foster
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1939181/posts
And I recall all those Freepers who were (and remain) terrified of the ‘inevitability’ of Hiliarly being nominated and sweeping the general election.
That stupid cow has never run a national political campaign, and it’s showing.
Incompetence reigns supreme.
She’s a goner, and THAT is what’s ‘inevitable’
Yet Hitlery’s campaign issued a campaign email the day before Shaheen made the charge saying the same thing in very similar words, according to the liberal Huffington Post.
I’m looking for the link, but I heard Rush say this today.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/11/as-iowa-nears-clinton-al_n_76235.html
On Monday morning, Hillary Clinton’s campaign included a cryptic, somewhat ominous, note in an email to journalists and supporters:
Something to Chew On: Respected columnist David Yepsen notes that “it’s important for Democrats to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate. Clinton’s negatives are well-known, Obama’s less so. Any shortcomings, inconsistencies or misstatements in Obama’s past will be exploited by Republicans in the fall campaign if he’s the nominee. It’s best for Democrats to vet them now.”
The Clinton campaign email did not spell out Obama’s “shortcomings, inconsistencies or misstatements,” but other Democratic activists have quietly received messages from Clinton allies pointing in the likely direction. Those messages provided a link to an Iowa Independent story by Douglas Burns headlined “The Politics Of Obama’s Past Cocaine Use.”
Burns’ article on Obama posed a question that Clinton has been unwilling to raise herself and that has received little attention during the Democratic primary battles: If Barack Obama becomes the nominee, will the GOP be able to turn his acknowledged cocaine use into a debilitating issue.
The questions Shaheen brought up are legitimate, and will almost certainly be asked if he wins the nomination.
Hillary Clinton-who was married to a man whom even Charlie Rangel has derided for his lax efforts at enforcing our drug control laws-raising these charges is the height of hypocrisy, but that doesn't make the charges themselves illegitimate.
To me, Obama's discussion of this issue has raised some disturbing questions about his fitness for office.
Doesn’t Rush always say this? That since Democrats don’t HAVE ethics, they are not ever hypocrites and never have to worry about keeping to any kind of standard. Standards and ethics are old fashioned, and Republicans believe in them and therefore are fallible. Not having any ethics at all of any kind is far preferable in the Democrat playbook than to have high standards and fall short. The perfection of low expectations is the Democrat way.
Here’s what I plan to tell the next Hillary supporter I meet:
Why Hillary? If it is time for a woman president, why does it have to be one that was recently called “America’s Mother-in-law?” Maybe it’s asking too much for the Democrats to run a conservative woman, but couldn’t they at least find a liberal with a pleasant face and personality? Lord knows, I see plenty of them in everyday life; the local health food store would be a good place to start. If we elected Pamela Anderson, for instance, and she made a mistake, most of us would just say, “Don’t worry your pretty little head over that,” and move on to the next issue. And she’d probably get along all right with the foreign leaders who annoy us now, like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.
One of our more recent FR "Hillary Promos"...
Then my life really went to hell when I adopted socialism as a political philosophy. I've never been able to recover from that. I know it's hurt millions of people, but I just can't seem to shake it.
Hillary likes to fire people. She enjoys it. I just can’t imagine her having an “advisor”. She’s always in charge and nobody could advise her about anything because she’s the smartest woman in the universe.
Stop it.
You're killing me.
Bring me dorothy! Do what you want with the others but bring me those ruby slippers! Now fly, FLYYYY!!!
Otoh, we can do better than elect a cokehead.
:’) “America’s Mother-in-law” — and if she’s elected, Meet the Fokkers 2?
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