Latest Attempt by Obama’s Media Groupies and His Supporters to Smear Hillary Clinton Falls Flat

In today’s NY Times, Paul Krugman sets the record straight on the latest attempt by Obama's media groupies and his supporters to smear Hillary Clinton. Krugman’s op-ed piece is titled Healthcare Horrors, and he details how the Washington Post inappropriately identifies Trina Bachtel, the victim in a tragic anecdote that Hillary Clinton has woven into her campaign speeches on the trail.

Predictably, Obama supporters gleefully seized the opportunity to brand Hillary Clinton a liar.

But Krugman notes, “In fact, Mrs. Clinton was accurately repeating the story as it was told to her — and it turns out that while some of the details were slightly off, the essentials of her story were correct. After all the fuss, The Washington Post eventually conceded that “Bachtel’s medical tragedy began with circumstances very close to the essence” of Mrs. Clinton’s account.”

Krugman continues:

“And even more important, Mrs. Clinton was making a valid point about the state of health care in this country.

“In other words, this was a disgraceful episode. It was particularly sad to see a number of Obama supporters (though not the Obama campaign itself) join enthusiastically in the catcalls against Mrs. Clinton’s good-faith effort to put a human face on the cruelty and injustice of the American health care system.”

Krugman concludes by reminding overly zealous Obamaphiles, whose candidate has consistently offered himself as the harbinger of the “new politics,” about what being progressive really means:

“Look, I know that many progressives have their hearts set on seeing Barack Obama get the Democratic nomination. But politics is supposed to be about more than cheering your team and jeering the other side. It’s supposed to be about changing the country for the better.

“And if being a progressive means anything, it means believing that we need universal health care, so that terrible stories like those of Monique White, Trina Bachtel and the thousands of other Americans who die each year from lack of insurance become a thing of the past.”

Oops! Canadian Memo Exposes Obama Camp’s “Wink-Wink”

Photo credits: ChicagoTribune

Despite the Obama campaigns earlier denials of contacting the Candadian government about NAFTA in the run-up to the Ohio debate, Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press reports today:

“SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Barack Obama's senior economic policy adviser privately told Canadian officials to view the debate in Ohio over trade as "political positioning," according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press that was rejected by the adviser and held up Monday as evidence of doublespeak by rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“The memo is the first documentation to emerge publicly out of the meeting between the adviser, Austan Goolsbee, and officials with the Canadian consulate in Chicago, but Goolsbee said it misinterprets what he told them. The memo was written by Joseph DeMora, who works for the consulate and attended the meeting.”

In her report, Pickler notes:

“NAFTA is widely opposed in economically depressed Ohio, which holds its presidential primary Tuesday and is a key battleground between Obama and Clinton. Both candidates said in a debate in Cleveland last week that they would renegotiate the trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico, which is the largest trading partnership in the world, and threaten to pull out if it doesn't include more protections for workers and the environment.”

The Clinton campaign is on top of the latest from Canada: Pikler cites a statement from Hillary Clinton on Monday that Obama's campaign gave the Canadians "the old wink-wink."

Clinton added: "I don't think people should come to Ohio and tell the people of Ohio one thing and then have your campaign tell a foreign government something else behind closed doors. That's the kind of difference between talk and action and that I've been pointing out in this campaign." To read more, go here.

UPDATE:

According to an article in ABC News today, Barak Obama may have a role to play in the Rezko trial:

"Sen. Barack Obama's name could well come up in the trial of his longtime friend and accused Illinois fixer Tony Rezko, according to Chicago lawyers following the case.

"'I think it's realistic that that could happen during the trial,' said Zach Fardon, a former Chicago federal prosecutor who was part of the team that convicted former Illinois Gov. George Ryan on corruption charges.

"Jury selection for Rezko, accused of bribing public officials and taking kickbacks, began this morning in a Chicago federal courtroom."

To read more, go here.