To those who think that Shaheen's drug comments were justified, did HRC screw up...

[MadBadger]

When the campaign said they do not condone his comments?

[Pirate Smile]

1. He has now apologized.

It doesn't matter (its too late) but they are trying to back-track out of this debacle.

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. Shaheen's drug comments were not justified

They went way overboard. For example his reciting a bunch of leading questions about Obama's youth that he imagined the media might later ask Obama was far beyond the pale. There is a fine line somewhere about how to handle this type of "issue" and Clinton's staff was already dancing on the edge with the earlier statements and Shaheen danced right over that cliff with his.

I recall that famous quote from a Supreme Court Judge about pornography being hard to define in words but "I know it when I see it". Let's say Shaheen raced right past any pretence of erotic art and landed directly in smut.

I commented on some other threads here that since Obama wrote those words about his earlier drug experimentation himself it wasn't a classic smear for Clinton's team to literally call attention to them and suggest that they might cost him some votes in the General Election. I honestly believe stuff like that will get dredged up by Republicans to use against Obama if he becomes our nominee. It's lying out there waiting for them, it doesn't require a skilled investigative team to dig up, so it's not like the G.O.P. didn't know where to find it. I also wrote that I thought Obama had the skill needed to come out of this looking good, but if I was wrong about how well he would handle it I would rather know now than later.

Clinton seems to have been trying to make a point lately that Obama hasn't been roughed up by the media hardly at all yet, unlike her I assume the point is meant to convey. Same thing about revealing the answer' to that Obama 1996 campaign questionaire that Obama now says weren't really his answers after all. How well Obama reacts to real heat is a real question that has some political relevency. But it requires a delicate touch to raise that type of question in a civilized way. Those questionaire answers "coming to light" was handled relatively deftly. To call Shaheen's comments heavy handed and inappropriate however is an understatement.

[suston96]

3. So lemme get this straight.....

Obama tells about his misspent youth, doing drugs and whatever else, and now he is running for the Presidency......

So why did he say what he did in public? Preemptive?

In other words he expected his "youthful indiscretions" to surface and be questioned?

What part of a presidential candidate's past is "off limits" to public scrutiny during a campaign?

[Tom Rinaldo]

5. The part that the Republicans agree to keep "off limits"

Like I said, I think Obama has the personal power to do exactly what he did in him memoirs, bring his life journey to life illustrating the lessons he learned that prepared him for leadership. I think he can not only handle crap thrown at him about this, I think he can score points while doing so. He will be tested, do you doubt that? If not now than later if and when he becomes our nominee. I think he can handle it but anyone who doesn't see it coming is at the least naive. Since Obama chose to run for President knowing full well what the political climate has been like for over a decade, than he better be tough enough and skilled enough to stand up to those types of attacks. If he isn't he would risk us losing the White House to Republicans again.

[Maven]

4. Why would they say otherwise? nt