Blog Controversy (What Else?): Did Obama Give Hillary Clinton The Finger?
April 18th, 2008 by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
Iraq. The economy. Terrorism. Foreclosures. Taxes. Education. These among the issues facing the U.S. but a new firestorm has started sweeping the blogosphere via a You Tube embed: Did Democratic Senator Barack Obama give Democratic Presidential nomination rival Hillary Clinton the finger?
Did he try to signal it to the crowd? Wasn’t that a knowing look? And, it stands to follow, since he did this (an assumption some are already making — so each viewer is urged to watch the video) doesn’t it therefore mean he lacks class and should immediately apologize? And — not said yet — shouldn’t this disqualify him from the Presidency if he refuses to admit it? And, if he won’t come clean and admit it, shouldn’t he resign his Senate seat?
See the video below. To my mind, this is totally in the eye of the beholder. Republicans and Democrats who are vehemently anti-Obama are looking for things now to discredit him — just as Obama’s supporters and looking at things to discredit Clinton and McCain supporters are looking for things to discredit Obama and Clinton. Welcome to 21s century seek-and-destroy politics.
Once again, American politics boils down to seemingly discussing anything but actual issues that impact the country and the peoples’ pocketbook. But you judge for YOURSELF:
We mentioned this item in our Around The Sphere roundup. But now it has moved to a major newspaper’s blog…which means it will be on TV and most assuredly the partisan cable talking head shows.
So American politics has now moved to a stage where LITERALLY every gesture is analyzed and given the worst interpretation on it — as if unconfirmed suspicion equals reality.
Here’s a list of a cross section of sites commenting on this “issue” so far. Most sites that contend he was giving the finger are pro-Clinton and Republican sites (but then pro-Obama sites would deny it even if it proved to be true). Note that some bloggers on the left and right are skeptical:
The Democratic Daily
The Campaign Spot
Balloon Juice
Taylor Marsh
Ed Morrissey
Red State
No Quarter
Don Surber
Corrente
Talk Left (a must read pro-Clinton blog that seriously analyzes issues and dismisses the allegation)
No More Mister Nice Blog
The Divine Democrat
Chicago Ray
FOOTNOTE: Candidates don’t usually give other candidates the finger.
However, some believe the Bush administration has done to the United States what the gesture commands.
This entry was posted on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 7:31 am and is filed under Journalism, Newspapers, You Tube, Internet, Spin, Newsweek Blogitics, Demonization, Raging Blogs, Negative Campaigning, MSM, Videos, Internet News Media, Talk Radio, 2008 Elections, Politics, Democrats, Republicans, Media, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Blogging. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
