Once Obama Became A Serious Threat, Mark Penn Recommended "Releasing The Tapes." What Tapes?

[malik flavors]

Penn in December 2007 on Plan for Two-Way Race Against Obama: "Release the Tapes"
August 11, 2008 8:17 PM

In a December 30, 2007 memo written on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, Mark Penn writes to his fellow Clinton staffers that after the caucuses, if Obama "is riding a high we will have to take him down."

He runs through a series of potential attacks against Obama -- he has taken a bunch of liberal positions that make him unelectable, has been inconsistent on Iraq, has flip-flopped on issues, and voted present a number of times in the Illinois legislature instead of taking a position.

Then, playing out a number of scenarios, Penn writes that if they come out of Iowa and it's a two-way race with Obama, "on Friday we do a media interviews (sic) and basically say that he is unvetted, discuss his ever-changing positions. Release the tapes. Create immediate pressure that deprives him of oxygen.'

"Release the tapes"????

What tapes?

- jpt

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/08/penn-in-decembe.html

Audio tapes from his books?

The supposed "Whitey Tape?"

What tapes would they have released, and if they existed, why didn't they?

[TwilightGardener]

1. Rev. Wright tapes, I'll bet.

[malik flavors]

4. Ahhh. You're probably right. I wonder if Mark Penn had anyhting to do with those surfacing?

[Radical Activist]

2. Probably Rev. Wright.

It probably came from a tip through Clinton camp.

[Colobo]

3. Rev. Wright.

[MadMaddie]

5. Fuck Mark Penn and other people who claim they are of

the Democratic Party. This is exactly why Hhillary lost, short sightedness did they not think this shit would haunt them? Once Obama wins we need to ensure mark Penn and others like him should be shunned.

[malik flavors]

6. Uhh, it was a primary. Democrats typically attack each other during primaries.

Let's not get too silly over this.

[Colobo]

10. To what extent?

[LVjinx]

16. To a much greater extent than the play-slapping we saw this time around

[chascarrillo]

11. Quisling.

[MadMaddie]

13. Yes Democrats attack each other but in the past

they didn't use these Rovian tactics. Just because these actions are done it doesn't make them right. And by Americans saying it is acceptable or going along with it because it's politics it lands us and the country in the dismal political environment we are in. I am by no means naive to think that politics aren't dirty but there are limits...

I stand by saying "Fuck Mark Penn and others like him"!

[Gold Metal Flake]

7. These tapes.

"The tapes? Or, as Jake Tapper over at ABC wrote: "Release the tapes???? What tapes?"

Could Penn have been referencing the long-rumored "October surprise" that may still be lurking? Was this an admission that the Clinton campaign had shopped around the footage of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, which nearly derailed Obama's candidacy?

Actually, neither.

Asked about "the tapes" a former Clinton aide who had direct knowledge of the footage, deflated all the drama from the room.

"These were various tapes we acquired from previous campaigns that showed Obama had flipped positions. Penn was obsessed with these. This actually pretty much played out. One of the tapes aired on ABC News and others were published in the Washington Times."

Sigh. But, did Penn's obsession make a difference"

"No one cared," said the aide."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/11/the-innocent-obama-tapes_n_118318.html

[Drunken Irishman]

12. Mark Penn really is in idiot.

[flamingdem]

15. I like your Irish O'bama button, can we buy those anywhere? n/t

[AspenRose]

23. Yep

http://www.democraticstuff.com/Barack-O-bama-St-Patricks-Day-Button-p/bt22449.htm

[angee_is_mad]

8. Give me a break

The tapes are the Rev. Wright tapes that the clintons got a hold of. They were the ones behind the leak. Before you ask, no I don't have proof, but I do have a gut feeling about this.

[redstate_democrat]

14. Some would say they were behind everything. And I do mean everything.

[leftynyc]

21. Those Wright tapes

were available on the church's website. You make it sound like the Clinton's got them through a watergate type deal in the dead of the night. And without proof, you're no better than a tabloid spreading gossip.

[donco6]

24. I have no doubt.

And that's what turned me off her for good.

[Thrill]

9. Heres an idea.....Just debate the issues?

[anonymous171]

17. Rev. Wright. I bet HRC's campaign got them before the media did.

The "w*****" tape doesn't exist, so don't even reference it.

[miles 2 go]

18. Tapes of him flip flopping?

thats what it sounded like he meant to me. Different clips of him giving different stances on the same thing?

To change ones mind when presented with new evidence is not a weakness. We wouldn't want someone like * who refuses to hear opposing views and adjust his thinking on issues after hearing those views.

I don't know what flip flopping they are talking about but I see it as a strength not a weakness.

[ErinBerin84]

19. they were supposedly tapes of him "showing different positions"

, as a poster above noted in the Huffington Post article. Sounds like another one of Penn's boneheaded ideas that the rest of the campaign rolled their eyes at, and they've been aired by news outlets already.


also, on another note- I saw this on ABC world news, and one poster noted in on TPM, that Jake Tapper reported last night that a conservative group has been filming in Indonesia, around where Obama grew up. Probably a 527.

[WeDidIt]

20. Wright, no doubt about it.

They were going to push Rev. Wright.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

22. Pastor Wright tapes. Hillary had them and never used them. What a bitch!

[AtomicKitten]

25. The Rev. Wright tapes that the Clinton campaign disseminated.

They were pestering the media outlets to "vet" Obama, often resorting to Faux News and Drudge to get that bit of nastiness out there, which they did and he survived.

[ContinentalOp]

26. "discuss his ever-changing positions. Release the tapes"

In other words, get a bunch of news clips of him saying one thing in 2004 and the opposite in 2007 or whatever.