Barack Obama’s problem associations with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, and William Ayers have really got the creative juices flowing on the Left as they twist themselves into rhetorical and intellectual pretzels trying to downplay or dismiss, their candidate’s monumentally poor judgment in hanging around with these folks for much of his adult life.
Some may read this apologia for Obama’s associations from Reed Hundt at TPM Cafe and shake their heads in wonderment at the cluelessness of the author. Others may marvel at the sheer brazenness of Hundt’s dismissive comments about Ayers and Wright, admiring the guts it took to reveal oneself as an idiot.
Still others may laugh at the appellation “swiftboating†as a descriptive for people who tell the truth about what Wright and Ayers have sermonized and accomplished in the past that makes them such problematic friends. Even the candidate has accepted as true what these hateful FOO’s (Friends of Obama) have said and done thus making the charge “Swiftboating†Obama pretty silly – as if the candidate would “Swiftboat†himself.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/challenges.php?id=1387390
Here is Reed Hundt's screed :The Swiftboating Begins
Clinton did not make a dent in Obama's lead by her win in Pennsylvania but what has happened is that the republican attack machine has begun the swiftboating in the wake of her negative attacks rightly decried by the New York Times.
It is bootless to speculate about the self-destructive tactics of the Clinton camp. What matters is going on the offense against the author of the typically bizarre, distracting, and hideous rightwing attacks: John McCain.
It ought to be beneath senator McCain to have his side label Obama as a terrible person because he has failed to shun a fellow who did wrong 40 years or is not a patriot because he neglected to wear a flag on lapel, or declined to disavow a Korean War vet and pastor because he spoke too harshly one Sunday.
snip
Hence, it ought to be beneath McCain to tolerate attacks against Obama that closely resemble the despicable charges bush launched against McCain in South Carolina in 2000. It should be the case that mccain doesn't just pretend to stop these attacks, but actually does so.
Aside from his laissez-faire positions on iraq and the economy, McCain's primary disqualification for the oval office is that he knows these vile, crazy attacks are wrong for America but he won't stop them.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/24/the_swiftboating_begins/
