Hillary's artful smear about Bernie's blurb.

[thesquanderer]

Look at how cleverly this is phrased by Hillary in the debate:

He {Sanders} wrote a foreward for a book that basically argued voters should have buyers' remorse when it comes to President Obama's leadership and legacy

Okay, let's start with a small thing... as everyone knows, it was a blurb, not a foreward. Maybe that could come off as an accidental mis-speaking. But I don't think that was accidental, it's more significant than it may appear, and not only because it implies a greater amount of involvement. I'll come back to that.

Let's get back to the full quote. Due to the ambiguities of the English language, it is unclear exactly what it was that argued that voters should have buyer's remorse. Was it the book or the foreward? Either could properly be inferred.

Of course, it was the book. But this careful phrasing allows the listener to easily think it was the "foreward"--Bernie's words!--that made that argument, since the ambiguity plays equally well to that interpretation. So that was pretty artful, allowing the listener to very easily attribute to Bernie things that were not actually said by him, but rather were said by the author of the book, and she does this without actually misstating the truth!

Now for a litte icing on the cake, let's go back to the word substitution. If you hear someone say "he wrote a blurb for a book that put forth the argument" you will almost certainly assume it was the book that put forth the argument, since blurbs don't typically serve that function. But if you hear "he wrote a foreward for a book that put forth the argument," you are now somewhat likely to believe that the argument was, itself, put forth in the foreward. So by that minor "accidental" word substitution, she's increased the odds that someone could think these were Bernie's thoughts and not the book's author's.

(BTW, here is what Bernie actually wrote: "Bill Press makes the case why, long after taking the oath of office, the next president of the United States must keep rallying the people who elected him or her on behalf of progressive causes. That is the only way real change will happen. Read this book." How damning!)

[frylock]

1. Hillary took umbrage because the last thing she wants is to..

rally the people who elected her on behalf of progressive causes.

[UglyGreed]

2. What a little lie here

or there????

[Nanjeanne]

3. What's so stupid about the whole thing is these people haven't even read the book

It's an analysis. Do progressives feel that Obama has let them down? As a progressive and active supporter of candidate Obama in a very big way - I was disappointed - so much so that I left the OFA after Pres Obama stopped advocating for the public option. Press details ways that this is true for many progressives.

It's a legitimate question and I simply do not understand why we extol the freedoms of living in a democracy where you can actually speak out about things you disagree with our leaders about - and then someone writes a thoughtful book and gets slammed.

Bill Press also wrote the Obama Hate Machine all about the personal attacks and lies spread by about the President. I guess that is OK - he's a good guy then. Not now - and certainly not Bernie Sanders who write a "blub" saying the book was worth reading.

Boy have Democrats gotten thin-skinned and unable to look at the party and our leaders with anything other than what used to be called Republican group-think.

[thesquanderer]

4. Right, it's not even that the book is bad.

Hillary is basically using it's title to paint Sanders as disloyal to Obama, probably as part of a strategy to maintain her lead among AA voters.

[TCJ70]

6. Bill Press is definitely a solid Dem...

...and he just tells it like he sees it. If you listen to his radio show he has no love for Republicans at all.

[JudyM]

5. Thanks, I didn't know this. I imagine her little lie impacted a lot of people. Nt

[LAS14]

7. People don't typically write blurbs for books they don't agree with. nt

[thesquanderer]

8. Saying you think a book is worth reading...

...does not necessarily mean you agree with everything the author says.

[ohheckyeah]

9. Saying someone is worth voting for doesn't mean you agree

With everything the candidate has done or believes.

[thesquanderer]

10. Equally true!

I don't think there are many Sanders OR Clinton supporters here who wouldn't ideally like to tweak one or more of their candidates' positions...