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Posts Tagged ‘Hillary Clinton’
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April 27, 2009The Onion: Time Magazine publishes definitive Obama puff piece
July 22, 2008The equivalent of a Pulitzer should be awarded to the major news networks after this election for avoiding any real type of journalism or investigation of Barack Obama. The line between truth and fiction is growing so thin that the Onion might not be necessary one day.
NEW YORK—Hailed by media critics as the fluffiest, most toothless, and softest-hitting coverage of the presidential candidate to date, a story in this week’s Time magazine is being called the definitive Barack Obama puff piece.
One twelfth of the light, glossy, groundbreaking surface-level feature.“No news publication has dared to barely scratch the surface like this before,” columnist and campaign reporter Michael King wrote in The Washington Post Tuesday. “This profile sets a benchmark for mindless filler by which all other features about Sen. Obama will now be judged. Just impressive puff-journalism all around.”
The 24-page profile, entitled “Boogyin’ With Barack,” hit newsstands Monday and contains photos of the candidate as a baby, graduating from Columbia University, standing and laughing, holding hands with his wife and best friend, Michelle, greeting a crowd of blue-collar autoworkers, eating breakfast with diner patrons, and staring pensively out of an airplane window while a pen and legal pad rest comfortably on his lowered tray table.
According to political analysts, the Time piece features the most lack-of-depth reporting on Obama ever published, and for the first time reveals a number of inconsequential truths about the candidate, including how he keeps in shape on the campaign trail, and which historical figures the presidential hopeful would choose to have dinner with.
“The sheer breadth of fluff in this story is something to be marveled at,” New York Times Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet said. “It’s all here. Favorite books, movies, meals, and seasons of the year ranked one through four. Sure, we asked Obama what his favorite ice cream was, but Time did us one better and asked, ‘What’s your favorite ice cream, really?'”
Time managing editor Rich Stengel said he was proud of the Obama puff piece, and that he hoped it would help to redefine the boundaries of journalistic drivel.
“When the American people cast their vote this November, this is the piece of fluff they’re going to remember,” Stengel said. “Not the ones by Newsweek, Harper’s, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Economist, Nightline, The Wall Street Journal, or even that story about lessons Obama learned from his first-grade teacher we ran a month ago.”
The article, which follows Obama for 12 days during his campaign, was written by reporter Chris Sherwood, and is relentless in its attempt to capture the candidate at his most poised and polished. Sherwood said the profile easily trumps all other fluff pieces in its effort to expose the presidential candidate for who he really is: “an awesome guy.”
“My editors told me that if I wanted to uncover the most frivolous, trivial information on Obama, I had to be prepared to follow the puff,” Sherwood said. “That meant that not only did I have to stay and watch Sen. Obama play endless games of basketball with city firemen to show readers how athletic and youthful he is, but I also had to go to NBA shooting experts to learn what aspects of his jump shot are good and what parts are great.”
Sherwood said he was granted full access to the candidate, and was permitted by chief strategist David Axelrod to ask any question he desired—an opportunity the reporter used to lob the easiest softballs at Obama yet, ranging from how happy he felt when he met his wife to what songs are currently on his iPod playlist. Sherwood was also fearless in his effort to paint the candidate as someone who is “surprisingly down to earth,” a phrase that is used a total of 26 times throughout the feature.
“If we were going to get the story we wanted, it was my responsibility as a journalist to ask the really tough questions to his two young daughters,” said Sherwood, who grilled Malia and Sasha Obama, 9 and 7, about whether they were “proud of [their] daddy.” “I also had to capitalize on every opportunity to compare the story of Obama’s upbringing and rise to power to that of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s and John F. Kennedy’s, no matter how suspect those parallels really are.”
According to the Time reporter, work on the profile was often harder than he had anticipated, with Obama at times dodging questions about whether or not he played a musical instrument, and about what Monopoly piece he thought best represented his candidacy and why.
“Situations like these are when you have to get on the phone and talk, not only to his mother, but to his aunt, his uncle, a Boy Scout leader, or maybe even one of his camp counselors growing up,” Sherwood said. “And if they don’t return your call, you turn to Sunday school teachers and former babysitters—anyone who is willing to go on record and say that Barack Obama was a really good kid who was destined for great things.”
Added Sherwood, “It’s all about getting the factoids out in the open.”
Readers have so far responded favorably to the piece, with sales of the latest issue of Time nearly tripling that of an issue last month featuring a 36-page exposé that tore apart and vilified former candidate Hillary Clinton’s health-care plan.
“I’m not quite sure how he intends to turn around the economy or get us out of Iraq,” said California resident Geoff Mills, an ardent Obama supporter who read the Time story. “But any man who prefers his steak cooked medium-rare has my vote.”
“Obama or die!”
June 25, 2008
Who wouldn’t listen to this guy? Quite a roundtable of policy advisors he hangs with.
“If we all register and vote, we will have the first black president in the history of America,” Sean “Diddy” Combs told the crowd Tuesday at the Shrine Auditorium before chanting “Obama or Die” – a declarative remix of his neutral “Vote or Die” motto from the 2004 presidential election, when he attempted to boost the youth vote.
New Hillary Clinton video-Please help me pay off my loans…please? Pretty please?
June 24, 2008
This is rich. Hillary Clinton loaned herself around half of the $20 million she’s in debt when her campaign was broke back in January. She’s got to pay it back before her party’s convention in August or she’ll face some consequences. What do to? Beg while making your supporters think they’re doing something for the good of their country/party/gender. From Cnn.com. Watch Clinton’s money grubbing pleas yourself here.
Hillary Clinton is still on the hunt for campaign cash.
The New York Democrat is well over $20 million in debt, nearly half of which Clinton loaned herself personally earlier in the year when her campaign was virtually broke and faced life-or-death primary contests.
Watch: What went wrong for Clinton?
When it comes to recovering her personal loan, it’s a race against the clock.
Under campaign finance laws spearhead by current presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, Clinton must pay herself back before the party’s convention in late August, or else she is only allowed to receive $250,000.
Earlier: Clinton postpones debt repayment
In an e-mail to supporters earlier Monday afternoon, Clinton says she “has something I want to say,” and directs readers to a Web video in which she says “Today, I still need your help.”
Text next the video reads: “By helping us pay off our campaign debt, you’re not just helping Hillary elect a Democratic president and grow our majority in Congress. You’re making it possible for her to work as hard as she can on the issues we care about.”
Clinton also continued to praise onetime rival Barack Obama, saying she knows the Illinois senator shares the same goals as she.
The Obama campaign is reportedly open to helping Clinton raise money to pay off her lingering campaign debt, though no agreement has been announced yet. Under campaign finance laws, the Obama campaign is not allowed to retire Clinton’s debt directly.
Hillary Clinton apparently lost because she was a victim of sexism
June 14, 2008
It’s so fitting that this can be the only reason she lost. Of course it has nothing to do with her Bosnia flap, or that she seems so mechanical and uncharismatic.
I have a vision of the U.S…..a place where no matter your race or gender that you can run for President, and lose because people just simply didn’t like you or your policies. A nation where people look past your gender and see you for who you really are: a compulsive liar and opportunist that felt entitled to the Office from the time your spouse won in 1992. I feel like we’ve gotten closer……
Read story here
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