Barack Obama says Hillary Clinton too old to unite U.S.

[Alamom]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/11/08/2007-11-08_barack_obama_says_hillary_clinton_too_ol-2.html



Barack Obama says Hillary Clinton too old to unite U.S.


BY MICHAEL McAULIFF
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Thursday, November 8th 2007, 4:00 AM



WASHINGTON - Barack Obama sparked a generational fight Wednesday by trashing White House rival Hillary Clinton for being too old to unite America, saying she and others her age have fought the same tired fights for too long.

"I think there's no doubt that we represent the kind of change that Sen. Clinton can't deliver on, and part of it is generational," Obama, 46, said on Fox News. "Sen. Clinton and others, they've been fighting some of the same fights since the '60s, and it makes it very difficult for them to bring the country together to get things done."

Experts and opponents pounced, saying Obama's remarks could offend the most reliable voters, people older than 50 - especially in early-voting Iowa. "You are counting precisely on an older group of Democrats in Iowa," said Iowa State University's Steffen Schmidt. "You can't tell them they're backward-looking. Somebody should be fired in his campaign."

Obama's older competitors agreed. "We think Iowa caucusgoers would reject the notion that anyone over the age of 50 should be disqualified from serving in elected office," said Phil Singer, a spokesman for the 60-year-old Clinton.

"It is an odd thing to say for someone who is looking for votes in a state where the average caucusgoer is in his or her 60s," said Hari Sevugan, an aide to silver-haired candidate Christopher Dodd.

[Benhurst]

1. Please refute this Obama supporters. Surely, he couldn't have

said anything so stupid.

[rodeodance]

7. looks like he did not say 'old'---but the implication is sure there!

[Recursion]

23. I don't think it's stupid; he has a point

And there's always generational politics in Presidential elections; this is nothing new.

[MaineDem]

2. What????

Oh I hope he didn't really say that.

I couldn't support someone with these views.

[MethuenProgressive]

3. Obama said this -- on FOX?

First McClurkin, now FOX - looks like he's found his target audience.

[ccpup]

4. seriously, Go-Bama people,

please tell me he didn't actually say what the report is claiming he said.

[Bitwit1234]

5. I saw this and posted it yesterday

So now in addition to being against gays, Obama is against senior citizens. How out of touch..look at all the seniors who are active in politics. Velvet revolution for one.

[Alamom]

9. Apologies Bitwit. I missed it. nm

[TheUniverse]

6. So is Barack Obama's plan to unite America is to trash gay people and old people?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. .

.

[cuke]

70. And boomers

He's trashing them too

[Mass]

10. Read what he actually said, not what a few people understood.

How is it that the only thing you did not emphasize was what Obama said?

"I think there's no doubt that we represent the kind of change that Sen. Clinton can't deliver on, and part of it is generational," Obama, 46, said on Fox News. "Sen. Clinton and others, they've been fighting some of the same fights since the '60s, and it makes it very difficult for them to bring the country together to get things done."

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. What Were They Fighting In The Sixties?

"Sen. Clinton and others, they've been fighting some of the same fights since the '60s, and it makes it very difficult for them to bring the country together to get things done."


What were they fighting against in the 60's?

-imperialist wars

-racism

-sexism

-homophobia


Which of those fights should no longer be fought?

And should we condemn the folks who are still fighting those fights?

[MethuenProgressive]

19. It's the Woodstock Generation v. the Donnie McClurkin fan club, I guess.

8 tracks v iPods. Kids like Obama (he's what, 29?) can't stand us old farts.

[Alamom]

20. What about all the other times? (the short list - there's more)

He came on strong with it early in the year, saw it didn't play well and eased back.
Now, he's back on it again......desperation?

Didn't think we would forget did 'ya? (he did)



12/31/06

Talkin' 'Bout My New Generation
Barack Obama says the baby boomers' time has passed.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/061231/8obama.htm


01/21/07

THE time has come, Senator Barack Obama says, for the baby boomers to get over themselves.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/weekinreview/21broder.html?_r=1&ref=weekinreview&oref=slogin


January 10, 2007

The Baby Boomer's last Chapter

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beth-dozoretz/the-baby-boomers-last-ch_b_38295.html

08/2007

Obama on Daily Show: "Judgment" is everything

"When people talk about experience, what they really want to know is, 'Does he have good judgment?'" Obama said.

One hopes that more experience means better judgment, he said, but "everybody knows a lot of 50-, 60- and 70-year-olds that don't have good judgment, because they keep on making the same mistakes over and over again."


http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/08/obama_on_daily_show_judgment_i.html

[emilyg]

65. Made my blood pressure go up.

[AtomicKitten]

11. No, he didn't say that.

"I think there's no doubt that we represent the kind of change that Sen. Clinton can't deliver on, and part of it is generational," Obama, 46, said on Fox News. "Sen. Clinton and others, they've been fighting some of the same fights since the '60s, and it makes it very difficult for them to bring the country together to get things done."

[Alamom]

21. Senator Barack Obama says, for the baby boomers to get over themselves.(post20)nm

corrected post #

[AtomicKitten]

25. Post #10 is the same quote you neglected to highlight in your OP

and both post #10 and my post showing Obama's actual quote fail to validate the claim made in the OP. It appears the Media Heathers have added their commentary to Obama's actual quote and off some of you go. Weeeeeeeeee.

[Alamom]

29. Corrected . post 20......nm

[Tellurian]

35. Obama doesn't WANT to represent ALL the people..

particularly the Baby Boomers b/c they can't be fooled. He doesn't have any use for the GLBT Community because they don't fall into his paradigm of religious beliefs. What next? Is he suddenly one day going to announce, he is not inclined to believe that if you are NOT Christian, you are ineligible for the benefits of *HIS* government?

What I see is, Obama's candidacy is a mission to destroy everything Boomers have worked hard to accomplish, replacing our Civil Rights with HIS neoconic vision of a New World Order.

Obama has only lived in this country for for less than 25yrs. Where does he get off espousing the disenfranchise of millions upon millions of people who were born and brought up here, and who's families have lived here for generation upon generation.

Send this assh*le packing!

[joeybee12]

12. Obama is right! To deny that there is a large number of people

out there who hate old people, and think they're worthless is to deny reality. We have to bridge the gap and bring them all in under our big tent. We must reach out to them.

Next up--holocaust deniers.

:sarcasm:

[riqster]

13. Like I have always said, he's inexperienced

Can you imagine a President who shot off his mouth like that? Holy shit, we'd become an international pariah.

Oh...wait...we already ARE a pariah nation, and we DO have someone in that office who shoots off his mouth. Imagination not required.

[emilyg]

67. No i can't imagine. We have that with Bush.

[Scriptor Ignotus]

68. funny how so many foreign leader seem very open to an Obama Presidency,

I think your hypothesis needs some more work.

[BeyondGeography]

14. Hillary's dip in the polls has created a fair amount of hysteria here

If you think the way out for her is to claim Obama wants to put all old people in concentration camps, live it up.

[ellacott]

18. I can see the commercials now

They will definately live it up. If that muslim email still has traction you know this will be eaten up by those opposed to Obama.

[Tellurian]

40. Hillary is just fine..

The more we get to what Obama represents, the less we like him as a presidential candidate.

[Armstead]

16. I understand his point -- but he made it stupidly

Obama has always called himself a change candidate, and he has put it in generational terms before.

In some respects, he has a point. As a Baby Boomer, I can relate to the notion that we have been dealing with the same matrix of issues in the same ways for decades. And that makes it more difficult to take a fresh look at things, or embrace change that may seem outside our framework.

But it's a gross overgeneralization, and he made that point stupidly. You don't have to lose your mental flexibility as you gain maturity. That's an insult to everyone over a certain age. I will even say that Hillary is capable of change.

After all, Teddy Kennedy has been fighting the same battles in the Senate for decades, and yet he was one of the Senators who "got it" about Iraq, and who gets it on many contemporary issues more than his younger colleagues.

Obama should have put it in a more positive context. Not setting it up as an age vs. youth comparison, but in more positive terms of bringing fresh energy and a new perspective into the mix.

[Tellurian]

42. "He made his point stupidly/"

No, you're just trying to white wash what your candidate represets.."oppression and disenfranchisement!"

Isn't Obama the one promoting himself as the candidate with GOOD Judgment?

[ecstatic]

17. The other campaigns have professional "You Offended Me!" folks on staff

Nowhere in that quote did Obama mention age.

Look at it this way--Hillary's generation did fight to accomplish a lot of things: women's rights, voting rights, minority rights, etc.

At what point do we begin to relax and enjoy the new unity that those fights garnered us--a turn the page sort of thing? The fights are not over... but I don't think we still have to be in 100% fight mode anymore.

If we're going to bash candidates, the bashing should be based on real stuff, not purposeful misinterpretations.

[durrrty libby]

22. Marginalizing mature people has been an ongoing theme from Obama

Really dumb on his part, because they are the biggest block of voters

I hope he keeps it up:evilgrin:

[illinoisprogressive]

24. as a boomer, why can't we accept our flaws as a generation?

why is it that any legit critique brings about so much anger. we have brought great things but, also alot of bad.

[ellacott]

27. Because it's hard for people to look in the mirror n/t

[durrrty libby]

28. I believe you, when you state that "you" have many "flaws", but

you need to speak for yourself only. This "We" stuff is stupid assumptive, disingenuous shit

[BeyondGeography]

30. Yah, Da Libbsta be flawless

just like her favorite candidate.

[durrrty libby]

44. You got it bud

:hi:

[wyldwolf]

26. hold up. The fights of the 60s included...

..civil rights, women's rights, war protests... is Obama proposing we abandon those fights? If not, which fights of the 60s does he want to end?

[Yuugal]

31. HUH?

"Sen. Clinton and others, they've been fighting some of the same fights since the '60s"

Exactly which fight was the Goldwater girl so deeply involved in again?

[Lucinda]

64. You appear to be uninformed. May I suggest a little reading?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/about/

[Yuugal]

69. yeah, I'll get right on that

Hmmm, in wiki it says this:

"Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) is the junior United States Senator from New York, and a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election. She is married to Bill Clinton—the 42nd President of the United States—and was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.

A native of Illinois, Hillary Rodham attracted national attention in 1969 when she delivered a controversial address as the first student to speak at commencement exercises for Wellesley College. She began her career as a lawyer after graduating from Yale Law School in 1973, moving to Arkansas and marrying Bill Clinton in 1975, following her career as a Congressional legal counsel; she was named the first female partner at Rose Law Firm in 1979 and was listed as one of the one hundred most influential lawyers in America in 1988 and 1991. She served as the First Lady of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992, was active in a number of organizations concerned with the welfare of children, and was on the board of Wal-Mart and several other corporate boards."

So, she loves kids and was on the board of walmart, yup that answers all my questions about her political views in the 60's. Thanks a bunch for the link.

As for your 2nd link, I suppose when someone tells you that Pat Robertson is an evil bastard you goto patrobertson.com to see if its true?

So far as my senator Hillary has succeeded in approving of all of Bush's wars past and future, cuddled up to the banking interests by voting for the bankruptcy bill and screwing every poor person in America, she loves lobbyists and thinks they are vital to our "system", and she thinks outsourcing is just fine and dandy.

Instead of resorting to the old "you need to read more" response when you dint have an answer, why not just answer the question? Exactly which fight was the Goldwater girl so deeply involved in again?

I'm glad she'd like to help kids but every politician I've ever heard of says they want to do that. The fact is that many times shes had the chance to help those kids, like maybe by voting against the bill that would have their mommys and daddys branded for life after a bankruptcy, but instead she went with the bank lobby that told her they needed to be able to charge people 30% interest. She did her time on the board of Walmart though making sure all their kids' parents wouldn't make dirt for a living. Thanks a bunch, Hill.

When even poor people like myself knew the Iraq was a load of crap, Hillary tells us there was just no way she could've known beforehand what a disaster voting for the war would turn out to be.......and you people believe her? And I should read more?

What this country needs is a populist who wants to help average people. Hillary has never been that or she wouldn't be breaking bread with Murdoch. She is a shill for the same corporate class thats been running America into the ground for decades.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MaineDem]

33. I'm neither a Clinton nor Obama supporter and I'm offended

It has nothing to do with supporting a candidate. It has everything to do with generalizations about a group of people.

And bringing up a woman's cheating husband as if it was her fault is also wrong, by the way.

[zulchzulu]

41. It's time to call a spade a spade

If people are too stupid to see the obvious truth about the many flaws of the Clinton candidacy, then too damn bad. This OP is a distortion of what Obama said. I'm not going to let it pass without hitting back.

Either we want to win as Democrats or we want to lose. If we have the Clintons to have the Republicans beat up and the media to flail at for the next four years, we are nothing but pitiful fools wanting to stick our hands in a garbage disposal...for fun and cackles.

[hijinx87]

38. it's posts like this

that make it all but impossible to discuss anything of
significance here at DU.

[Alamom]

39. Of course we get it. Obama nor his supporters can count. I hope I didn't ramble....

That happens quite a bit lately over "candidate" stumbling and bad choices and many OP's and responses simply make no sense.

[William769]

45. I am convinced that Obama supporters want BIGOT in the White House.

He also seems to be on Fox news a lot (I wonder why), courting the Religious right, living in a glass house.

It has become apparent to me that Obama is what I thought he was but could not bring myself to call another Democrat. SCUM!

[mmonk]

34. He's beginning to reach IMO.

[hijinx87]

36. I will certainly give him credit . . .

for flying in the face of conventional wisdom. I'm not sure
what demographic he is fishing for here, but pissing off the
boomers seems a little suicidal.

I wonder if this is part of a new message, or an off the cuff
remark. The guy is interesting, I will give him that.

[Alamom]

43. Not new. He started his campaign with Baby-boomers,...step aside.

Check post 20. There's more. These were handy.

[hijinx87]

46. ah. thanks for the info.

but that just makes it more difficult to figure out.

running against the baby boomers just doesn't sound
like a winning strategy to me. I may need the federal
government to level the playing field against corporate
interests, for example, but I just don't feel threatened
by the freaking baby boomers.

[mtnsnake]

37. Age has nothing to do with it although I will say that Obama would be the best uniter of all of them

He talks about it all the time, and he means it. I think the Goddess of Peace would ultimately be a great uniter, too, although I think it would take her a little longer to unite this divided country than it would with Obama.

[info being]

47. Fun to watch Obama and Hillary self-destruct

Go Edwards.

[hijinx87]

49. I suppose that could happen

but (depending on the poll, of course) it looks like
obama's rise in the polls is coming as much from edwards
as it is from hillary.

but to employ a baseball analogy, edwards needs two teams
to tank at the same time you get hot and reel off a 10 game
win streak. not impossible, but I like obama's chances much
better right now.

[KoKo]

48. Sigh....bad enough to have 'Class Warfare' ...now it's Generational Warfare...

Sorry to see him go this route. Why isn't going after the Repugs disastrous policies?

[hijinx87]

55. because he had two months to make up 20 points

nationally, at any rate.

and the only way to do that is to go negative. it's a political
maxim that going negative works.

[Renew Deal]

50. Is this going to be the fake outrage of the day.

Whoo hoo. Pile on!

[Laurab]

56. It sure looks like it

and as one of the generation he supposedly "insulted", after seeing all the posts about it, I'm just going to run out and vote for Hillary now I guess..... :sarcasm:

[desi]

51. "Somebody should be fired in his campaign."

No need to fire anyone...just don't hire Barack Edwards.

K&R

[durrrty libby]

52. Exactly. They are "both" fatally flawed

[oasis]

53. Obama's hidden message: Experience doesn't really matter.

[Bluebear]

54. 'fighting some of the same fights since the '60s' - LIKE CIVIL RIGHTS!!!

[dansolo]

57. I'm not convinced that Obama can represent my generation

The moment Obama set foot in the Senate, he aligned himself with the same people that he is now criticizing. Obama was originally my choice, but he is turning me off more and more as each day goes by.

Obama is trying to portray himself as the next Bill Clinton, appealing to the younger voters. It's not going to work.

[Scriptor Ignotus]

58. the NY Daily News

is a tabloid. Obama's point is that generations have their own fights and that they fight in their own styles. He's not telling old people to sit down and not be involved, although that's the impression you get from the Daily News and other anti-Obama DUers.

Read the original source:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,309297,00.html

[redqueen]

60. Just the headline enough should have been a clue.

Man, this place!

[DURHAM D]

61. Try reading the other links posted upstream.

Pay particular attention to the New York Times article of January 21, 2007 - prior to his announcement. He has issues with his parent's generation.

[beachmom]

59. He didn't say she was too old. Find me that quote? It ain't there.

The title of the article is misleading.

[CyberPieHole]

62. Does Obama thinks HE'S a "spring chicken"?...

And Clinton is an "old stewing hen"? Is he saying he is of the same generation as the 18-27 crowd?:silly:

[Tellurian]

66. K&R

[Colobo]

63. More distortions from desperate people

who know that Hillary is slipping in Iowa and NH.

[William769]

71. Whats distorted about it?

Obama said it, baby boomers are pissed should I also mention that the majority of the GLBT community is still pissed. If this is his strategy, I hope he keeps it up.

[cuke]

72. Has he ever gotten the repukes to stop any of their crap?

Did he stop them from bashing gays in 2006? Will he stop the upcoming assault on immigrants? Has he gotten them to admit that Global Warming is real? Evolution?

What is he waiting for?

[Perry Logan]

73. Obama seems to be using age as a wedge issue. Not a good sign.