Hillary Clinton frustró la emboscada de Russert en su programa Meet the Press

January 13, 2007 (LPAC)--Tim Russert, virtually reading from an Obama campaign memo, attempted to ambush Hillary Clinton today on Meet the Press, but Clinton refused to be bullied and instead went on the offensive to accuse the Obama campaign of "deliberately distorting" remarks that she made about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and that Bill Clinton made about the "fairy tale" that Obama has gotten away with about his consistent opposition to the war in Iraq.

After his loss to Clinton in New Hampshire, Obama's campaign released a memo, which lists contact information and the name of Obama's South Carolina press secretary, Amaya Smith, and which cites five incidents in which either Hillary Clinton, her husband Bill Clinton or campaign supports made comments, which were allegedly "racially insensitive."

Continuing the role of the media, which prior to the New Hampshire primary had committed vote fraud by trumpeting fraudulent polls in an effort to destroy the Clinton campaign and pave the way for a Michael Bloomberg independent fascist candidacy, Russert, proceeded to follow the script handed him by repeatedly playing tapes of comments made by the Clintons without presenting the full context in which they occurred.

First, Hillary had told Fox News: "Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the president before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done." Russert insisted, consistent with the Obama memo, that this comment was an effort to demean Martin Luther King, Jr., someone whom Hillary Clinton told Russert "is one of the people that I admire most in the world."

Second, when Russert played a comment made by Bill Clinton in Hanover, New Hampshire characterizing Obama's consistent opposition to the war in Iraq as "the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen," Russert left out the context and thus tried to portray it as a comment on Obama's campaign as a whole. Hillary said: "Tim, let me--let me just stop you right there." Russert: "But, no..." Clinton: "No, wait a minute." Russert: "No, I didn't stop you. Let me just go through..." Clinton: "No, but you did not give the entire quote and so..." Russert: "No, but you..." Clinton: "The entire quote was clearly about the position on Iraq." Russert: "But I'm..." Clinton "It was not about the entire candidacy."

Russert didn't stop there. Next, referring to an interview she gave to Newsweek, he said; "You seem to compare Barack Obama to, you say, demagogues like Huey Long." When that failed he asked her: "Is Senator Obama a work horse or a show horse?" He twice asked her whether Obama is "ready" to be president.

In insistently attempting to portray Obama as the anti-war candidate in opposition to Clinton, Russert actually gave Clinton an opportunity to provide the context for Bill Clinton's comment, pointing out that although Obama gave a speech in 2002 opposing the war, by 2003 he had removed the speech from his website, by 2004, he was saying he didn't know how he would vote on the resolution authorizing force in Iraq and that he basically agreed with George Bush on the conduct of the war.

Clinton also successfully exposed Russert when she pointed out that, contrary to the treatment she is receiving: "When Senator Obama's chief strategist accuses me of playing a role in Benazir Bhutto's assassination, there's silence." Needless to say Russert was silent.

Russert then interrogated Clinton on her involvement in the pardon of Marc Rich by Bill Clinton. Russert: "No one talked to you whatsoever?" Clinton: "No. No." Russert; "His ex-wife gave $109,000 to your campaign." Clinton: "Well no one talked to me about it, Tim." Russert: "Nobody?" Clinton: "Nobody." Russert: "And you will follow Justice Department guidelines?"

Russert then succeeded in ambushing himself by claiming that polls showed that Obama would be able to unite the country, whereas she would not: "A lot of Democrats have--are concerned about ... whether you can win a general election." Clinton responded: "You know, Tim, one thing I think everybody should've learned; after New Hampshire is let's not pay so much attention to polls." [emphasis added]