In the midst of the obsession of the mainstream media to watch every McCain grimace, and count the number of times that Obama agreed with his opponent, or catch the few McCain gaffes on names and facts, thus far I see that no one today has said much about his idea to create a league of democracies that will apparently move across the globe like the Fantastic 4 thwarting evil-doers like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (pronounced AK-Ma-DEEN-ah-JAD, senator McCain).McCain's idea of international diplomacy seems to sadly be...
OPINION - If you haven't noticed, the "Best Poltical Team on Television" at CNN has been playing a kind of epic spin game to keep the campaign close. While CBS, NBC, ABC and MSNBC have been done what they always do, hunt down stories on Sarah Palin to tell us more about her, identify inconsistencies, fibs and outright lies in her stump speeches, and document the immense waffling of John McCain on every politically sensitive issue on the economy this week, CNN covers it very lightly, and is always careful not to step on the McCain camp's toes, even when they have to follow the press pack into a story.While dozens of media outlets were lambasting McCain for saying that he would fire the SEC chairman one day, and then do a 180 on the next, news cycle or come up with a "Plan" for the bailout even though everyone knows that the Fed and the Treasury Secretary will have a "plan" long before McCain can do anything about the financial crisis, CNN reported the facts of the event, and kept its talking heads away from calling McCain on any of it.
Wolf Blitzer Interview with Obama on Larry King Live, December 27
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDo-XOpoaFU
Ben Smith of Politico.com took time to note that Obama had already identified issues and concerns in Pakistan, and recognized that the goal is "not simply an ally, but a democratic ally".
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7590.html
Smith also blogged that Axelrod's comments were in response to a question from a reporter asking specifically about how the the assassination might "put foreign policy credentials on the front burner".
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1207/Obamas_Pakistan_spin.html
The full text of Obama's speech on Global Affairs is on the campaign website, titled "The War We Need To Win." The speech, given on August 1, included his warning that if Musharraf doesn't act, "we will". He was already critical at that time of the Bush Administration's decision to offer military aid to Pakistan without pressing Musharraf harder to enact democratic reforms.
http://www.barackobama.com/2007/08/01/remarks_of_senator_obama_the_w_1.php
Obama's hardline stance on Musharraf scared Musharraf and led him to suspend the constitution, in part because he was afraid that US pressure would reduce his political power. National Public Radio reported the following:
"Tariq Azim, the minister for state information ... said talk from the United States about the possibility of U.S. military action against al-Qaida in Pakistan 'has started alarm bells ringing and has upset the Pakistani public.'"
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12623071
In reality, it sparked and encouraged opposition from the lawyers, students, and others who opposed Musharraf's continuing control of the military and his dictatorial role which put democracy at risk in Pakistan.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16067515
Musharraf put Bhutto under house arrest during this time of emergency rule. He suspended the Constitution and instituted 10 handpicked judges while refusing to give up control of the military. Bhutto called on Musharraf to resign.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16243418
Obama rightly pointed out that the Bush Administration's support of the Musharraf regime was undermining democracy at the same time that Bush claimed to be supporting democratic reforms in the Islamic countries of Afghanistan and Iraq. To the Middle East, it appears that Bush gave special considerations to Pakistan because Musharraf has his hands on the trigger of a nuclear weapon (the only Islamic nation to have nuclear weapons).
To sum up, David Axelrod's comments were directed to point out that Obama has had better judgment on these issues than his top two rivals for the Democratic nomination, and that Bhutto's tragic death was an illustration of the serious problems in Pakistan which have not yet been addressed by Bush and were never addressed adequately during the Clinton years. More on that from NPR as well: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1065239
But suddenly, CNN had spun the story into the following headline: "Did Hillary Clinton kill Benazir Bhutto?" A blog post suggests that "Barack Obama's right hand man thinks she may have had something to do with it."
http://edition.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2007/12/did-hillary-clinton-kill-benazir-bhutto.html
Irresponsible journalism on a very touchy subject at a particularly dangerous time. Axelrod's comments were tough enough as they were stated. But to escalate and exaggerate those claims creates an even greater risk. And because CNN was trying to spin the Bhutto assassination into an "experience matters" argument, they were only too happy to leave out important details.
UPDATE: 12/28, 3:00 PM CST
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/28/clinton.obama/
CNN continues to spin the story on Axelrod, accusing him of saying that he "seemed to link" Bhutto's death to Clinton's vote on Iraq. It goes on to say that he "backed away" later.
Strangely enough, Hillary Clinton says that she regrets that anyone would politicize Bhutto's death, then goes on to politicize it further by calling on Bush to conduct an international investigation. CNN gives her a free pass on this and 2 minutes of uninterrupted air time.
UPDATE: 12/30, 2:10 PM CST
http://baltimorechronicle.com/2007/111307Palast.shtml
Clinton's close ties with Arkansas-based Entergy International and Entergy's connection to Pakistan's military leader Pervez Musharraf have been called into question. Note that this article was posted on November 13, around six weeks before the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. I visited Entergy's website and learned more about their global strategy by reading their corporate history. There is no direct mention of Entergy's relationship with the Clinton administration, although former US House member Billy Tauzin (D-LA) is a board member of the corporation in addition to serving as one of the major members of the pharmaceutical industry. I have yet to see a post on this in any of the major blogs - CNN, Politico, NY Times, Washington Post, etc. Bill Richardson, who called for Musharraf's immediate ouster, was Secretary of Energy under the Clinton administration starting in 1998 and may have some knowledge of these issues.
