"Obama" "cocaine" - "BOO!"
Even after the depature of Shaheen, the Clinton campaign is still pushing the "Obama is a scary drug dealer!" story. In an interview yesterday on Hardball, Clinton PR front man Mark Penn slid in yet another cocain reference - and then immediately denied having done so.
http://www.youtube.com/...
(comes at 3:46)
Relevant Transcript:
Chris Matthews: These comments that are coming out of your campaign from different directions -- and I'm not sure how they're coming, nobody does -- but going after his perhaps youthful drug use, which he admitted in his book, and going after comments he made as a kindergarten student, at the age of 5. . . do you think those are appropriate shots at the opponent or are they below the belt?
Penn: Well, I think we've made clear that the issue related to cocaine use is not something that the campaign was in any way raising, that I think that's been made clear. I think this kindergarten thing was a joke after Senator --
Joe Trippi: He just did it again! He just did it again!
Penn: This kindergarten thing after what the senator did . . .
Trippi: Unbelievable . . . He just literally--
Penn: Excuse me.
Trippi: No, no, no, Mark, excuse me. This guy's been filibustering this thing. He just said 'cocaine' again. It's like --
Penn: I think you're saying "cocaine," I don't know. I think you're saying it.
Trippi: You just did, and I think there's something wrong. . . .
If I didn't find the tactic so repellant, I would have to take my proverbial hat off just for sheer audacity. The audacitiy of a dope.
I do agree with Matthew's question that perhaps this detour into the politics of desparation might create an opening for Edwards....