Clinton Says Obama Is as Un-Transparent as They Are
In a "kitchen sink" conference call this morning, the Clinton campaign argued that Barack Obama is not as transparent as he says he is, delivered a statement on John McCain's economic policy, and then tried to adjust expectations for the Pennsylvania primary, which Hillary Clinton was always expected to win comfortably. (“If [Obama] fails to win in Pennsylvania, it will be a significant defeat for him," said Howard Wolfson).
Then they opened the call. The first questions came from Jeff Toobin, who referenced the negative ad the Clinton campaign released today and asked, “I wonder if there’s any concern at all in the Clinton campaign whether this is a death spiral that will begin to damage the party?”
“Well first, I appreciate the question,” Wolfson said. “I think I would take some issue with the facts as presented.”
The Clinton campaign continues to argue that Obama does not live up to the standards he sets for others, and shortly after the call they released a statement saying that Obama has not released his tax returns from 1997, 1998, and 1999—the time he was a state senator in Illinois—even though his campaign has criticized Clinton for her reluctance to make all her records available. Obama, who has made transparency a theme of his campaign, has said he has lost his legislative records that time.
The Clintons are coming, of necessity, from a defensive position on the transparency issue. While they have released decades of tax returns, they have not yet made available the 2007 returns that many reporters are interested in. And the donors to Bill Clinton's presidential library remain unknown.
So the Clinton argument isn't really that they are perfect about transparency, but that Obama isn't, either. As the campaign says in the statement "When it comes to transparency, the only thing transparent about Senator Obama is his claim to be transparent."
Full statement:
To: Interested Parties
From: The Clinton Campaign
Date: April 15, 2008
RE: Tax Day Test: Is Sen. Obama As Transparent As He Claims?
For all of Sen. Obama's rhetoric about the need for tax return transparency, you'd think he'd have released all of his tax records. Guess again.
For weeks, Sen. Obama and his campaign relentlessly demanded that Hillary release all of her tax returns even though 20-years of them were already publicly available. His campaign held an endless string of conference calls, issued press releases and flooded the airwaves with surrogates attacking Hillary for not immediately releasing the returns for the last few years she has been in public life.
Sen. Obama said the American people "deserve to know where you get your income from," stressing the need for "full transparency" and bragging that his campaign has "set the bar."
Well, Hillary released tax returns earlier this month and is now the only candidate in this race who has made thirty years worth of tax returns public.
But despite his rhetoric, Sen. Obama doesn't abide by the standards he sets for others.
Sen. Obama has refused to release his tax returns for 1997, 1998 and 1999, even though he was in public life as a state senator during those years. During this period of time, Sen. Obama was accepting contributions from special interest lobbyists, PACs and even directly from corporations.
In fact, Sen. Obama has a habit of demanding higher standards of transparency for others than for himself. The National Archives has released hundreds of thousands of pages of documents from Hillary's years as first lady, including her entire schedule. Throughout the campaign, Sen. Obama has demanded Hillary release more documents, even though they are not under her control. Meanwhile, Sen. Obama refuses to release any documents that are more than three years old. At first, Sen. Obama and his campaign told the press that he had records from his state senate years. Later, he said he threw them all out.
Whether it's tax returns or legislative records or his relationship with indicted political fixer Tony Rezko, Senator Obama seems to take "the dog ate my homework" approach to disclosure.
When it comes to transparency, the only thing transparent about Senator Obama is his claim to be transparent.
- Poll
- Obama (D)
- McCain(R)
- Spread
- RCP Average
- 46.5
- 41.7
- Obama +4.8
- Candidate
- Favorable
- Unfavorable
- Spread
- Obama
- 55.7
- 32.7
- +23.0
- McCain
- 52.4
- 34.7
- +17.7
The pot calling the kettle black! How about those Clinton Library Donations? Obama is much more Transparent, in his past actions and what he plans to do as President. Clinton has shown to be anything but, until the public pressure boils over and they must act, with a good portion redacted.
These Hillary people are just incredible. There is this obsession to win the nomination at all cost. Hillary, saw this whole thing as a walk over ab initio and, the fact that the dream has indeed slipped away is unacceptable to her. Well, she has herself to blame. A leader urrounds him/herself with likes. Hillary has run a very unorganised campaign, and Obama should not be held responsible. There are rules of engagement to the campaign, and no one should seek to change the post to suit personal desires. The Clintons should wait until 2012 to try again.
-
Gallup Daily: Obama 51%, Clinton 40%
Both Democratic candidates have 46% to 44% margins over McCain
USA Election 2008 Gallup Daily Americas Northern America PRINCETON, NJ --
Barack Obama is maintaining his lead over Hillary Clinton among Democrats nationally in the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking, with a 51% to 40% margin in the April 12-14 average.
The current 11 percentage point lead is the largest for Obama this year, and marks the ninth consecutive day in which Ob
ama has led Clinton by a statistically significant margin. The current Gallup Poll Daily tracking average is based on interviewing conducted Saturday, Sunday and Monday -- after the initial reports of Obama's controversial remarks about "bitter" small-town residents began to be reported in the news media.
The Hillary camp is sinking to the lowest of lows. Hillary and her cronies are just incapable of facing the facts and telling the truth.
She shoots arrows at her opponents to divert attention from how incompetant she is. If the way she's run her campaign is any sign of how she would run the presidency, the american people are just going to be told lies after lies after lies. Hillary has only one interest in mind and that is her own. Want to see a real elitist? Just look at Hillary. You think she really cares about small town americans? Think again. She'll sell her mother just to get votes.
This is such a double-standard. Clinton releases her tax returns at his request, now he says he "lost" 3 years of his own tax returns? People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Obama is not the right choice for President.
i would tell the wicked witch to release library donars and he wil realease his tax returns
How tough would it be for Obama to fill out a form and ask for copies from the IRS? Just like you or I would do. And how could somebody who "loses" 3 years of files be trusted with our future?
Obama: The Con
Obama has fixed this race by deception to Americans. He has lied about his background and his connections with radical, Anti American, anti semitic leaders until just a few months ago. He has hidden his relationship with Reverend Wright,, Farrakhan, the “Nation of Islam’ leader, Syrian Criminal, Anton Rezko and his Black Liberation Theology since the beginning of the primary. Most of my community have changed their minds about this man and will not vote for him in the general election because of this lies and deception
This whole election process, especially not seating Florida and Michigan with almost 400 delegates, is a disgrace for the American people. John King keep showing his map with only 48 states. These maps and math are convincing superdelegates that Obama is in the lead. There are 50 states in our country. Obama has done everything in his power to convince everyone that there is only 48 by not having a revote or even seating them. The postponement of seating these state is a deliberate act. Senator Obmama is deliberately postponing this decision to brag about his lead.
For those people that were too young to know President Clinton.He is not liked, but loved through out the world. Our country was thriving, the era was "upbeat" and there was peace in our country.
There is no way to compare "Bush" and Clinton. The Clintons were the BEST!
The media has painted President Clinton as a racist in spite of the fact that he has an office in Harlem His years in office were spent fighting for civil rights and for the underdog, especially African American.
The coverage of this campaign is disgraceful in this regard above all. African Americans should be ashamed of how they have treated all of the Clintons.
Trinity United Church of Christ, Tony Rezko the Syrian Criminal, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers a 60’s radical that bombed government buildings and Muslim upbringing should be a wake up call to Democrats. Please don't blow the change with a man that has not only little known about these issues before the first primary and kept it away from the media until the end of this race. Senator Obama will lose this election if he's the nominee. Lastly and something that needs to be evaluated is the race issue; There will never be a fair an accurate poll determining how many people will really vote for Obama. McCain will win if the Democrats don't wake up.
On Fox News Sunday, Williams claimed Obama's Muslim father "presents a problem"
On the January 21 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, National Public Radio senior correspondent and Fox News contributor Juan Williams noted that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) "comes from a father who was a Muslim" and added that "given that we're at war with Muslim extremists, that presents a problem."
How much more bad news do we need to know about a Democrat candidate before we realize that this man is laughing up his sleeve at all of us.
Wake up Democrats. We can not and will not win this election unless we run from Obama and start supporting the Clintons.
Please keep the unsettling issues pertaining to Senator Obama in the forefront.
There are too many issues surrounding this man that disturbs many Americans and believe me, there will be many more to come.