jk Defends Senator Obama

Swiftboating. The term deserves its place in the language and history, but not as Senator John Kerry and the Democratic Party define it. In their version, to swifboat is to propagate lies about a candidate in such volume that they cannot be rebutted (McCain's "100 years in Iraq" or "Third Bush Term" come to mind but I haven't time to digress).

I would define switboating as "taking legitimate criticism one step too far, thereby diminishing its efficacy." John O'Neill and The Swiftboaters had several substantive and legitimate points to raise in criticism of Senator Kerry and his use of his war record in politics. T. Boone Pickens has still not paid his $1 million bounty for positive disproof.

Yet I think most of us agree that they went a little too far, denigrating his service, and levying accusations that were impossible to prove or disprove. In the end, these weakened their arguments, calling all of them into question.

I would also accuse Special Prosecutor Ken Starr of this in the Clinton Impeachment. Judge Starr thought the laundry list of infractions in the footnotes would bolster his case with their sheer volume. Yet opponents pointed to them to portray his entire case as frivolous and unsubstantial.

Today, Gateway Pundit posts, and Instapundit links, to yet another "Another One Under the Bus" for Senator Obama.

Mike Klonsky, the Maoist Hardliner, Obama supporter and former best friend of the Weatherman terrorist group founders William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, received a $175,000 grant from the William Ayers/Barack Obama-led Annenberg Challenge to run the Small Schools Workshop.

Klonsky had a blog that has been "airbrushed" off the Obama site. Yes, Klonsky is a piece of work, yes, it was likely a mistake to let him blog on the official site.

Yet GP fails to prove that Klonsky was ever in the Obama circle. He received a grant from Ayers and Obama's Annenberg Challenge "to run the Small Schools Workshop." A little embarrassing, but this is no Reverend Wright, Professor Goolsbee, or even racist granny. This is more like Rev. Hagee and Senator McCain. Because a whackjob may support a candidate does not make said candidate responsible. Having a blog at the hip, Web 2.0 Obama campaign is not really an official designation.

Let's not diminish the serious and serial examples of bad judgment and under-the-busism that Senator Obama has displayed by reaching too far.

Dem2008 Primary Posted by jk at June 26, 2008 12:23 PM