The Bitchy Birther Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Strategic Memo Exposes Hillary Rodam Clinton and Bill Clinton Barack Obama and others - Secret Memo's
The
Hillary Clinton Memos - describe how Hillary Clinton plans to expose Barack
Obama as a fraud, illegal alien and gangster thug criminal running for
president. Donald Trump was never the originator of the Birther Movement but Hillary Rodham Clinton was the gangster trying to trip up the Thug Barack Obama
The links to these documents and stories are being removed.
The links to these documents and stories are being removed.
A
complete index to the internal communications referenced in "The
Front-Runner's Fall"
· JOSHUA
GREEN
· SEPTEMBER 2008 ISSUE
“The
Plan,” October 2006
Clinton
had forbidden her advisers from openly discussing her presidential ambitions
until after she’d won reelection to the Senate. But behind the scenes, planning
was already underway. In this October 2006 strategy memo, Mark Penn sketched
out the campaign’s strategic principles (“HRC is the power candidate”) and
assessed potential opponents. He worried that Al Gore was “waiting to swoop in
later.”
Penn’s
“Launch Strategy” Ideas, December 21, 2006
Shortly
after Clinton’s reelection, Penn tried out some themes in this flattering memo
to his boss. He suggested former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as a
role model: “We are more Thatcher than anyone else.” Penn believed that voters
view their president as the “father” of the country. “They do not want someone
who would be the first mama,” he counseled. “But there is a yearning for a kind
of tough single parent.” (He did not propose divorce.) Penn thought voters were
“open to the first father being a woman.” But he warned again about the perils
of being seen as too soft. “A word about being human,” he wrote. “Bill Gates
once asked me, ‘Could you make me more human?’ I said, ‘Being human is
overrated.’”
Penn
Strategy Memo, March 19, 2007
More
than anything else, this memo captures the full essence of Mark Penn’s campaign
strategy—its brilliance and its breathtaking attacks. Penn identified with
impressive specificity the very coalition of women and blue-collar workers that
Clinton ended up winning a year later. But he also called Obama “unelectable
except perhaps against Attila the Hun,” and wrote, “I cannot imagine America
electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center
fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values.” Penn proposed
targeting Obama’s “lack of American roots.”
Karl
Rove Strategy Memo to Bill Clements, Jr., September 4, 1985
As
a contrast to Mark Penn’s memos, here’s a fun piece of political arcana: a Karl
Rove strategy memo written to former Texas governor Bill Clements, Jr., on the
eve of the 1986 gubernatorial race. Clements was elected governor in 1978 but
lost his bid for reelection. He was attempting a comeback. Note the tone of
bracing honesty: Rove lays out his client’s “potentially explosive” weaknesses,
including arrogance and bad press relations. Then he explains how they can be
overcome. (Let’s forgive Rove the hackneyed Napoleon quote—Clements won the
race.)
Harold
Ickes Lists the Campaign’s “Key Assumptions,” March 29, 2007
Soon
after Clinton’s presidential campaign got underway, senior adviser Harold Ickes
circulated this list of “Key Assumptions.” They include his belief that
February 5 would decide the nominee; that Clinton could not survive losses in
Iowa and New Hampshire (but that John Edwards and Barack Obama could); and that
the prevailing view of her as the incumbent was potentially dangerous.
Fatefully, Ickes cited the need to maintain a $25 million reserve fund for use
after Iowa—but following Clinton’s loss, he confessed to colleagues, “The
cupboard is empty.”
Penn
Strategy Memo, April 8, 2007
With
Obama’s popularity and fund-raising strength becoming clearer by the day, Penn
seemed to absorb the public criticism of Clinton as behaving imperiously. “Show
more of the happy warrior,” he counseled. He was also becoming attuned to the
importance of the “change” theme Obama was touting: “Let’s talk more about a
movement for change coming from the people.” He proposed the slogan “America is
Ready for a Change, and HRC is Ready to Lead Us.”
The
“Kindergarten” Attack, December 2, 2007
On
December 2, Clinton exploded at her staff on a morning conference call,
frustrated that her campaign wasn’t on the attack. Hours later, in this series
of emails, her panicked staff reacted by putting together an ill-advised attack
on Obama for having written a kindergarten essay titled “I Want to Become
President.”
Harold
Ickes Memo on the Delegate System, December 22, 2007
Harold
Ickes was the adviser with primary responsibility for the campaign’s delegate
and targeting strategy. While the Obama campaign shrewdly exploited the
Democratic Party’s complicated system of allotting delegates, Ickes and the
Clinton campaign did not. On December 22, just twelve days before the Iowa
caucus, Ickes finally laid out the system for the campaign’s senior staff in this
somewhat impenetrable memo.
Penn
Strategy Memo for New Hampshire, December 30, 2007
On
the eve of the Iowa caucus, the race was too close to call. In this memo, Penn
ranked the “six potential scenarios coming out of Iowa” in order of preference.
The best had Clinton winning and Obama finishing third. The worst-case scenario
had Obama on top and Clinton in third—which ended up being the result. Penn
laid out options for how the campaign might respond, including attacks on Obama
and Edwards.
Patti
Solis Doyle Welcomes Her Eventual Successor, January 13, 2008
In
the wake her Iowa loss, Clinton chose not to fire anyone. Instead, she added
another layer of advisers, including Maggie Williams, her former chief of
staff. In this email, Patti Solis Doyle, Clinton’s embattled campaign manager,
welcomes the woman who soon succeeded her.
"Move
Your Cars!"
A
memo to the entire D.C. staff.
Guy
Cecil Memo Projecting Clinton’s Super Tuesday Performance, January 21, 2008
With
the February 5 primaries just ahead, senior adviser Guy Cecil circulated this
targeting memo to staffers. While Clinton had once expected to wrap up the
nomination on Super Tuesday, Cecil recognized just how imperiled her candidacy
was as that fateful date loomed. Nevertheless, he predicted that she could net
58 delegates.
Internal
targeting projections for February 5th states, January 21, 2008
Harold
Ickes post-Super Tuesday strategy, February 4, 2008
In
this strategy memo on the eve of Super Tuesday, Harold Ickes surveyed the grim
landscape ahead. Having cut the polling budget for many February 5 states, the
campaign was essentially flying blind. “We are in for a real fight,” Ickes
wrote, “but ... given some breaks, it is a fight that she can win.”
Letter
of Complaint from the Washington Post’s Managing Editor, Philip Bennett,
February 11, 2008
The
Clinton staff engaged in epic battles with the press. As the campaign’s
fortunes worsened, resentment at the press turned into personal attacks against
reporters. In this letter to Clinton’s campaign manager, the Washington Post’s
managing editor complained that Phil Singer, a senior Clinton spokesman, was
spreading malicious—and false—rumors about a Post reporter to one of her own
colleagues.
Penn
Strategy Memo, March 5, 2008
On
the heels of critical wins in Texas and Ohio, Penn continued pushing the ideas
of “strength” and “leadership.” He worried that white male voters were
“steadily eroding” and railed against the idea of showcasing Clinton’s softer
side. “The idea,” he wrote, “that this can be won all on smiles, emotions, and
empathy is simply wrong.”
Robert
Barnett Email to Clinton and senior staff, March 6, 2008
A
Washington wise man loses his cool.
Penn’s
“Path to Victory,” March 30, 2008
After
death-defying wins in Texas and Ohio, Mark Penn circulated his “Path to
Victory,” which included portraying Obama as “a doomsday scenario.” He chided
his adversaries for their timidity about attacking Obama’s pastor, Reverand
Jeremiah Wright, Jr. “Many people,” Penn wrote, “believe under the surface that
20 years sitting there with Goddamn America would make him unelectable by
itself.”
Harold
Ickes Email, May 4, 2007
Harold
Ickes was Clinton’s point man on the issue of Florida and Michigan. Throughout
the campaign, he kept tabs on the ongoing strife between the two states and the
Democratic National Committee—he did not try to influence it until too late.
Harold
Ickes Email, August 24, 2007
More
Florida-Michigan back and forth.
The
“Florigan Plan I,” February 25, 2008
With
Clinton’s delegate gap looming as a serious problem, a group of her advisers
drew up a proposal to seize back momentum by demanding revotes in Florida and
Michigan. Dubbed the “Florigan Plan,” it called on Clinton to issue a challenge
to Obama on the morning of March 5, the day after her expected wins in Texas
and Ohio.
The
“Florigan Plan II,” March 5, 2008
Their
initial suggestion ignored, the advisers behind the “Florigan Plan” again
pushed the campaign to act on the issue of revotes in Florida and Michigan.
The
“Florigan Plan III,” March 10, 2008
With
hope fading that Clinton could close the delegate gap, several of her advisers
made a final, unsuccessful push to address Florida and Michigan right away. The
campaign did not do so until nine weeks later, on May 21.
Geoff
Garin Email, April 12, 2008
When
Geoff Garin replaced Mark Penn as chief strategist, he was appalled at the
leaking and backstabbing. “I don’t mean to be an asshole…,” he wrote in this
admonitory email to the senior staff.
Geoff
Garin Email, April 25, 2008
Geoff
Garin thought that a positive strategy, backed by a new infusion of spending,
could revive Clinton’s campaign. He believed he could deliver a big win in
Indiana and narrow the margin in North Carolina to single digits, as he
explains in this email to senior staff.
The
Clinton Campaign’s Final Pitch to Superdelegates, June 3, 2008
As
the Democratic primaries drew to a close, Mark Penn put together a final
presentation for superdelegates arguing why they should support Clinton over
Obama. Note the provenance of Penn’s maps: Karl Rove & Co. faux pas?
.
New analysis from the Washington Post removes any doubt that the
anti-Obama Birther movement was started in 2007 and 2008 by Hillary Clinton,
her campaign, and her Democrat supporters.
As Breitbart News reported earlier this month, other left-wing
media outlets, like Politico and the Guardian, had already traced the Birther
movement back to Democrats and Ms. Clinton. Using his wayback machine on Wednesday,
the Post‘s David Weigel took an in-depth look at the origins of the false
rumors that President Obama is a practicing Muslim who was not born in a
America. Weigel’s reporting contains the final pieces of a very disturbing
puzzle.
What Weigel found and re-reported was astounding, details many
of us had forgotten or never heard of, including a 2007 bombshell memo from the
Clinton campaign’s chief strategist.
What the left-wing Weigel left out of his reporting was even
more astounding, including a documented confrontation between Clinton and Obama
over the Birther issue, and video of Hillary herself stoking doubt about
Obama’s Christian faith.
Because the Washington Post‘s primary job is to protect Democrats, Weigel’s headline
and conclusion are an objective lie. Despite the fact that what he uncovered
(and chose to not cover) points directly to Ms. Clinton and her campaign,
Weigel concludes she had nothing to do with the Birther movement.
Naturally, Weigel’s own facts support the exact opposite conclusion.
His research, however, is all that matters.
Defcon 4: Mark Penn’s March 2007 Strategy Memo
Everything began in March of 2007 when Hillary’s chief
strategist, Mark Penn, wrote a now-infamous campaign memo laying out his
overall plan to win the election.
Weigel sums up the Birther elements of Penn’s memo as a
nothingburger; indeed, according to Weigel, the memo actually proves that the
Clinton campaign wanted nothing to do with Birtherism: “But Penn wrote that as
a warning, not a strategy,” Weigel writes.
While most of Weigel’s lies in his defense of Clinton are of
omission and deflection, the wrist-flicking of Penn’s memo is pure audacity.
Because this is important, I’m not asking anyone to believe my
interpretation of the memo. You can read the memo for yourself here. Below are
two mainstream media sources. [emphasis added] As you’ll see, the idea that the
memo was a warning against “othering” Obama is preposterous:
The Atlantic:
[Penn] wrote, “I cannot imagine America electing a president
during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his
thinking and in his values.” Penn proposed targeting Obama’s “lack of American
roots.”
Bloomberg
The idea of going after Obama’s otherness dates back to the last
presidential election—and to Democrats. … Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist,
Mark Penn, recognized this potential vulnerability in Obama and sought to
exploit it. … Penn wrote: … “[H]is roots to basic American values and culture
are at best limited. I cannot imagine America electing a president during a
time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and
his values.”
Penn also suggested how the campaign might take advantage of
this. “Every speech should contain the line that you were born in the middle of
America to the middle class in the middle of the last century,” he advised
Clinton. “And talk about the basic bargain as about [sic] the deeply American
values you grew up with, learned as a child, and that drive you today.” He went
on: “Let’s explicitly own ‘American’ in our programs, the speeches and the
values. He doesn’t … Let’s add flag symbols to the backgrounds [of campaign
events].”
Bloomberg adds: “Penn was not a birther.”
His memo didn’t raise the issue of Obama’s citizenship.
Furthermore, he was acutely aware of the political danger that a Democrat would
court by going after Obama in this way, even subliminally: “We are never going
to say anything about his background,” he wrote.
That is what the memo said. The truth, though, is that the
attacks on Obama’s background would come the following year, and those attacks
would not only come from Hillary’s supporters but directly from her own
campaign and her own mouth during a nationally televised 60 Minutes interview.
In March of 2007, the campaign could afford to attack Obama’s
otherness “subliminally.”
By the following year, as the primary losses mounted, the gloves
came completely off.
Defcon 3: Hillary Clinton and Her Supporters Birth ‘Birtherism’
Weigel’s superb reporting uncovered how the Clinton campaign and
legions of diehard Clinton supporters took Penn’s othering campaign and the
questions surrounding Obama’s faith and birthplace to the next level.
It was no longer subliminal.
By now Clinton’s 2008 presidential aspirations were in serious
jeopardy. Pay special attention to what Weigel writes about John Heilemann.
Weigel’s lie of omission here is crucial and I’ll address it below: [emphasis added]
According to John Heilemann and Mark Halperin in Game Change,
the most ludicrous “othering” theory that Clinton allies engaged in was that a
tape existed, somewhere, of Michelle Obama denouncing “whitey” — and that
Clinton herself believed it when consigliere Sid Blumenthal talked about it.
But the Clinton campaign never pursued the idea that Obama was
literally not American, and therefore ineligible for the presidency. A small
group of hardcore Clinton supporters did. Specifically, anyone reading the
fringe Web in the summer of 2008 could find the now-defunct blog called
TexasDarlin, the now-defunct blog PUMAParty, and the now-conservative blog HillBuzz
posting updates on the hunt for a birth certificate. It was a thin reed, and
they knew it.
“It looks like Obama was born in Hawaii, based on a recently
discovered birth announcement found in a Hawaiian newspaper,” one HillBuzz
blogger wrote in July 2008. “It also looks like the reason Obama refuses to
produce his actual birth certificate is that it very likely records dual Kenyan
and U.S. citizenship at Obama’s birth.”
Weigel’s sleight of hand here is genius. Let’s unpack the lies
of omission.
1. Weigel uses Bloomberg’s John Heilemann as a witness for the
defense of Hillary but intentionally chooses not to tell his readers that a
mere two days earlier, on Monday, Heilemann confirmed on MSNBC’s Morning Joe
that the Birther movement began with the Clinton campaign.
Again, I’m going to quote a left-wing source:
Host Joe Scarborough called Clinton’s attack on Trump “rich,”
saying, “For Hillary Clinton to come out and criticize anybody for spreading
the rumors about Barack Obama, when it all started … with her and her campaign
passing things around in the Democratic primary[.] … This started with Hillary
Clinton, and it was spread by the Clinton team in 2008.” …
Heilemann, author of the insider account of the 2008 election
Game Change, said it was the case that Clinton spread the rumors. “It was the
case,” he said. “I’m affirming the Scarborough-Brzezinski assertion.”
2. Weigel also chose not to report:
It was not until April 2008, at the height of the intensely
bitter Democratic presidential primary process, that the touch paper was
properly lit.
An anonymous email circulated by supporters of Mrs. Clinton, Mr
Obama’s main rival for the party’s nomination, thrust a new allegation into the
national spotlight — that he had not been born in Hawaii.
3. Pretending to be naïve, Weigel uses these third party
Democrat attacks on Obama’s identity as proof! that Hillary’s hands are clean,
you know, because it’s her supporters raising the conspiracy, and not Hillary.
Apparently, it’s only Republicans who are held accountable for
the actions of their supporters.
Apparently, only Republicans are capable of coordinating with
outside groups to do their dirty work.
Despite more smoke than you’ll find in Jeff Spicoli’s van,
Weigel uses that smoke as proof that there is no fire. This isn’t journalism,
it’s desperate partisan spin.
4. Weigel says nothing about the Clinton campaign’s shattering
silence during this smear campaign.
5. Weigel doesn’t want his readers to know that Barack Obama
himself believes Hillary Clinton started the Birther rumors, even though this
fact was reported by no less than Weigel’s own employer at The Washington Post:
Obama and Clinton were both at Reagan National Airport on their
way to Iowa for a [2007] debate, and the candidates met on the tarmac for what
became a brief but heated conversation. Then-Obama personal aide Reggie Love
witnessed the event and describes it in his new memoir:
[Obama] very respectfully told her the apology was kind, but
largely meaningless, given the emails it was rumored her camp had been sending
out labeling him as a Muslim. Before he could finish his sentence, she exploded
on Obama. In a matter of seconds, she went from composed to furious. It had not
been Obama’s intention to upset her, but he wasn’t going to play the fool
either.
Why Weigel chose to leave all of this crucial information out is
obvious.
Defcon 2: The Clinton Campaign’s Obama-Is-a-Scary-Muslim Emails
Weigel writes: “In December 2007, a Clinton campaign worker
named Judy Rose sent an e-mail asking whether Obama was a secret Muslim who
intended to destroy America from the inside. She was fired and denounced.”
Here’s what Weigel doesn’t tell his readers:
The email wasn’t meant for public consumption. It was an
internal email sent to just a handful of Democrats.
Rose was only fired after the media discovered the email.
Rose wasn’t merely a “Clinton campaign worker,” she was the
volunteer chair of the Clinton campaign in Jones County, Iowa.
A second Clinton staffer resigned just a few days later for the
same offense.
The emails were sent just a little more than a month before the
crucial January of 2008 Iowa Caucus, which Hillary lost.
Defcon 1: The Obama-In-a-Turban Photo
Weigel writes: “Three months later, when the Drudge Report
claimed that a photo of Obama wearing a turban was sent from “stressed Clinton
staffers,” the Clinton campaign denounced it but didn’t find a scalp.”
This is Weigel glossing over one of the most crucial elements in
Hillary’s Birther campaign. Here is the photo in question…
0225_obamaturban_460x276
…and Weigel not only buries and downplays this seismic campaign
moment in the middle of a paragraph; laughably, his witness in defense of
Hillary is the Hillary Clinton campaign. Because they couldn’t find who did it
— “a scalp” — we’re asked to conclude that the campaign is innocent.
Here’s what Weigel doesn’t tell his readers:
1. The Obama campaign believes the photo came from the Clinton
campaign.
Another left-wing source:
Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, described it as “the
most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we’ve seen from either party in this
election”. Obama has had to spend much of the campaign stressing he is a
Christian not a Muslim and did not study at a madrassa. …
Plouffe described circulation of the picture as part of “a
disturbing pattern.” “It’s exactly the kind of divisive politics that turns
away Americans of all parties,” he said.
2. Again, Weigel ignores crucial information published by one of
his own employers, in this case his former-employer Slate.
After the Drudge splash, Plouffe released the statement above
condemning the Clinton campaign at 9:29 am. Less than two hours later, Clinton
campaign manager Maggie Williams shot back with a response that, as Slate
notes, “never refuted Drudge’s piece.”
Then, at 10:54 a.m., Clinton’s campaign manager, Maggie
Williams, pierced the quiet with her own release. “Enough,” she wrote. “If
Barack Obama’s campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing
traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional
clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.”
She goes on to say Obama is trying to “distract from the serious issues.” Note
that they never refuted Drudge’s piece. (More detail on that piece of the story
is trickling in .)
Let’s take a moment to review: Obama’s campaign thinks Clinton
is trying to be divisive by encouraging the Obama-is-a-Muslim myth. Clinton’s
campaign thinks the Obama campaign is being divisive because it thinks
Clinton’s campaign is being divisive.
The Clinton campaign would eventually deny sending the photo,
but only after it became obvious that the release of the photo was blowing up
in their face.
Mushroom Cloud: Hillary’s “As far as I know,” or Weigel’s ‘Big
Lie’ of Omission
In his attempt to let Hillary off the hook, it is imperative
that Weigel not remind his readers that in March of 2008, in the middle of her
campaign’s Birthernado, and on no less than 60 Minutes, Hillary herself stoked
the Birther rumors.
Obama is not a Muslim “as far as I know,” Clinton told Steve
Kroft.
—
—
Hillary Clinton Is Birther Zero
My singling out of Weigel is a bit unfair. But it was his
reporting that put the final details into place. And what he’s attempting to do
is what most of the mainstream media is attempting to do: protect Hillary from
her own racist past with half-truths and the omission of facts.
Once you do what the mainstream media refuses: put all the facts
together as I did here, only those who don’t believe in science would let
Hillary off the hook.
Here are the facts:
More than a full year before anyone would hear of Orly Taitz,
the Birther strategy was first laid out in the Penn memo.
The “othering” foundation was built subliminally by the Clinton
campaign itself.
Democrats and Clinton campaign surrogates did the dirtiest of
the dirty work: openly spread the Birther lies.
Staffers in Hillary’s actual campaign used email to spread the
lies among other Democrats (this was a Democrat primary after all — so that is
the only well you needed to poison a month before a primary).
The campaign released the turban photo.
Hillary herself used 60 Minutes to further stoke these lies.
Of course Hillary Clinton is the grandmother of the Birther
Movement. But now that she might be the only thing between a Republican and the
White House, Dave Weigel’s reverting back to JournoList form, as is the rest of
the media.
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