With all the controversy over last night’s debate exchange about the connections between Louis Farrakhan and Barack Obama’s pastor, it’s worth reviewing what the candidate had to say about the topic during a meeting in Cleveland on Sunday with Jewish leaders. From the transcript provided by the Obama campaign: I am member of the Unity… More ▸
During Tuesday’s debate in Ohio Hillary Clinton argued that Barack Obama had not gone far enough in speaking out against Louis Farrakhan. After the debate her pollster, Mark Penn, was in the spin room arguing that Obama may have rejected and denounced Farrakhan, but he failed to criticize his pastor’s praise of the Nation of… More ▸
Here’s a running list of media reactions to the exchange about Louis Farrakhan during Tuesday night’s debate. Andrew Sullivan (THE DAILY DISH): Does Obama understand that saying he has consistently denounced him is not the same as simply saying, “I denounce him”? A weak response – reminiscent of Dukakis. (By the way, why is it… More ▸
Noah Scheiber of The New Republic gives Barack Obama the win in the Farrakhan exchange: About two-thirds of the way through the debate, Barack Obama took a question about Louis Farrakhan’s support for his campaign. He gave a sufficient, if not quite stellar answer–saying he’d repeatedly denounced Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic statements, that he’d long been a… More ▸
Writing on the Huffington Post, Taylor Marsh argues that Barack Obama blew his “Sister Souljah” moment. As a Scots-Irish broad, I saw Obama’s tepid response to Farrakhan, and was appalled. Emails from Jewish friends confirmed that I wasn’t alone. That Obama had to be led to this reality is proof of his ruffle no feathers… More ▸
Over at talkingpointsmemo.com, Josh Marshall and Greg Sargent slammed NBC’s Tim Russert over his handling of the Farrakhan issue. More ▸
The most Jewish moment in any debate during this campaign came Tuesday night, in an exchange over Louis Farrakhan’s recent comments praising Barack Obama. More ▸
I think last night’s Democratic debate marked some sort of important milestone in American cultural history – and, no, it wasn’t the sight of a woman and an African American battling for the nomination. That’s old news. The real story last night was the two CNN moderators – one is a convert to Judaism (Campbell… More ▸
Questioned by Tim Russert in last night’s debate about his admission that he doesn’t know much about economics, McCain denied it. “Actually, I don’t know where you got that quote from,” McCain said. “I’m very well versed in economics. I was there at the Reagan revolution.” In his recent interview with JTA, Joe Lieberman also… More ▸
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