NOVEMBER 20, 2007
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I see that this video of Obama engaging a voter on terrorism and immigration is getting some play around the web. The title of the YouTube clip--"Obama yells at elderly Iowa voter"--tells you all you need to know about the context in which it's been circulating. (According to this site, Drudge linked to it earlier today, though I can't find it now.) Having attended the event in question yesterday, I can tell you that the video has been framed and edited in such a way as to misrepresent what actually happened. The woman in question was a Republican named Jane Svoboda, who asked her questions in a pretty sharp and mean-spirited way. Obama began to answer them in a perfectly calm tone. The woman proceeded to interrupt and hector him several times over the course of the response. Each time she did, he would grow more animated--not nasty by any stretch, just the way someone gets when they care quite a bit about an issue. It's true that at times he almost had to yell, but that was only to make himself heard above the cheering of the crowd, which was very much sympathetic to what he was saying and unsympathetic to the woman, who'd outed herself as a bit of a bully.
All of which is to say, "Obama yells at elderly Iowa voter" is almost completely backward as a description of what happened.
--Noam Scheiber
11 comments
what a horrible woman, so representative - Obama shines in dealing with such a wretch.
- Wandreycer1
November 20, 2007 at 8:54am
Note how they've turned off commenting on youtube - so no one can explain the context.
- virginiacentrist
November 20, 2007 at 9:33am
Isn't it obvious by now that Drudge is in Hillary's pocket? Another Clinton in the WH = good for Matt Drudge
- teplukhin2you
November 20, 2007 at 9:35am
Totally agreed, teplukhin.
- wgcreeley
November 20, 2007 at 12:03pm
greeley - credit goes to Philip Weiss. Weiss points out this weird gay/mama's boy angle to Drudge's affection for HRC in this superb profile in NY Magazine: www.printthis.clickability.com/.../cpt
- teplukhin2you
November 20, 2007 at 1:28pm
Amazing that some dude named Barack Hussein Obama can be on the ballot. Especially given his absolutely zero experience in government. What has he done as senator in the last 2 years? Used it to get free airline tickets to stump for the presidency? If he was white, he'd be just another white guy in the Senate.
- jwl2672
November 20, 2007 at 5:03pm
shorter jwl12672: This paste tastes good!
- kenpiggee
November 20, 2007 at 5:33pm
svoboda means 'freedom' in russian. odd footnote.
- theferrarigirl
November 21, 2007 at 1:15pm
Hey, jw12627, I heard that Hussein Obama is actually a mooslem and that he went to one of those terriable madrasa things when he was a kid. I wonder if he's actually a terrorist who is trying to infiltrate the American Presidency by using the Senate to make him seem lagitimate? what do you think? I'd be interested in your opinion!
- mdichner
November 21, 2007 at 4:03pm
JWL, I don't think it is amazing at all that someone named Barack Hussein Obama can be on the ballot. Americans are actually a pretty decent bunch of people, and willing enough to not judge candidates by their ethnic background. I've always been happy about the fact that Wisconsin, while having a 0.5% Jewish population, has a Jewish representative and two Jewish senators. And nobody cares, or raises any objection. That's America for you.
- WillPastor
November 21, 2007 at 7:05pm
JWL, that someone born in 1961 happens to share a middle name with a dictator who came to power in the early 80s bothers you? Also, you may want to consider that people don't name themselves. Then again, here's doubting you consider much at all.
- skipper2379
November 24, 2007 at 5:43pm