“Senator Obama, are you mad at me” PART 2
Apparently Senator Obama’s campaign staff didn’t hear it correctly the candidate’s promise to “make America united.” They must have thought he said make reporters from newspapers that don’t endorse Obama fly American or United.
The Obama campaign has booted from their campaign plane reporters from three newspapers.
Not removed were some people making a documentary (not on news deadlines) and reporters from Ebony and Jet. The booted reporters were from the Washington Times, New York Post and Dallas Morning News, all of which endorsed McCain for President. (Coincidence?)
It is important to note that those removed were reporters – not columnists. The distinction is that a columnist is an opinion writer and a reporter is supposed to write facts. Earlier in the campaign Joe Klein, a Time magazine columnist, and Maureen Dowd, a New York Times columnist, both critical of McCain, were barred from the McCain plane. The New York Times and Time reporters were not.
Is this the latest episode of Obama staff retaliation? Some in the media seem to think so.
In an earlier post “Senator Obama, are you mad at me?” I commented on what I thought was a ham-handed over-reaction by Team Obama to what some claim was partisan questioning by a veteran reporter at Florida’s WFTV by barring the entire station from future interviews of top Obama personalities.
I was even ready to give Obama the benefit of the doubt and assume that the Director of Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Helen Jones-Kelley (who maxed out on contributions to the Obama campaign), was being an overly zealous Obama advocate on her own when she ordered her staff to investigate whether Joe the Plumber was behind in child support or was on welfare. Why try to dig-up “dirt” on Joe whose only offense was asking a question to which Senator Obama gave what some think was an embarrassing (but honest) response – spread the wealth around? The only plausible explanation is to attempt to discredit Joe.
This latest episode causes me to think more skeptically about the Obama campaign, if not the candidate himself. There is a troubling trend emerging — one of intolerance and revenge. As an American I hope that it is not Senator Obama, but his staff with the thin-skin and a propensity for vindictiveness. A thin-skinned president will not unite.