Hillary Campaign Supplies Person Who Claims To Have Received "Dirty Tricks" Call From Obama

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Let the "Barb Therriault is a liar" threads begin! (I have no idea if she is lying, let alone whether a call can be reliably attributed to a source. It is what it is.)
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Hillary Campaign Supplies Person Who Claims To Have Received "Dirty Tricks" Call From Obama
By Greg Sargent - December 4, 2007, 1:01PM


Late yesterday the Hillary campaign sent out an email alleging that the Obama camp is engaging in dirty tricks of various sorts against her. The email claimed that Hillary supporters were reporting that they'd received a variety of strange phone calls from the Obama campaign, adding: "In both Iowa and New Hampshire, we have heard that Obama staffers are berating Hillary supporters on the phone with negative attacks against her."

Earlier today the Obama campaign put out a statement adamantly denying any involvement in such calls, saying that this was a "flat out falsehood."

Now the Hillary campaign has supplied a woman who claims to have gotten such a call, and I've just gotten off the phone with her. Here's what the woman, a Hillary supporter named Barb Therriault, who said she owns a hair salon in Plymouth, N.H., told me:

Last Tuesday evening I received a call from the Obama campaign, a gentleman identifying himself as from the Obama campaign in New Hampshire. He wanted to know my thoughts about the upcoming election in New Hampshire. I identified myself as a Hillary supporter.
He wanted to know what my thoughts were and why exactly I was supporting her. He started to argue that Hillary did nothing as a First Lady, what makes you think she'll do something now. It was definitely prepared.

Then I went on to say, well, women's rights are important to me. Then he had another prepared statement. He claimed that when South Dakota passed legislation to outlaw abortion, Hillary refused to fight it and to help try to support women's rights. He claimed that Obama was the only one would aid the people in South Dakota trying to fight that.

Then when I talked about her experience, he went on to say, I must be the sort of person who likes dirty tricks and politics as usual and said I would be supporting someone who would never change anything. I said he was insulting my judgment. He wanted to fight with me more, but I ended the call at that point... (snip. more at link)

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/12/dirty_tricks.php
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Background: Hillary Camp Accusing Obama Team Of Dirty Tricks
http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/12/hillary_camp_accusing_obama_team_of_dirty_tricks.php#more

[glowing]

1. Uhhh.. We have a war that is killing children and running up a national

debt, we have President who breaks the law everyday and still isn't impeached, and then we have the childish b.s. of Hillary and Obama on a daily display. Who can take either of these two serious.

[CoffeeCat]

10. I"m wondering if the Obama/Hillary fighting...

...will only help Edwards emerge as the leader, as people
grow tired of this nonsense?

[Forkboy]

20. That's pretty much my take on it.

[Dawgs]

2. That's it.

Yeah, the guy sounded like a jerk, but I don't see how this relates to the original statement from the Hillary campaign. And, isn't this woman a Hillary supporter? Isn't there a chance she might be exaggerating?

[sandnsea]

3. So a volunteer can't criticize Hillary???

When I phone bank and criticize the other candidates, I'm party of a dirty tricks campaign???

Oh brother. These people are unreal.

[jefferson_dem]

5. Hillary's people want Obama to stop running an ad they don't agree with and now

they try to blame his campaign for one of his "supporters" phone banking on his behalf, and having the gall to promote him as the best candidate for the job. Bozo time at the Hillary Headquarters...

[jefferson_dem]

4. Even if it's true that she actually got this call...which none of us know...

...what's the big deal? Is that really over-the-top? If this is the only *there* there...it reflect worse on the Hillary camp for making such 'ado' out of nothing.

-- "Asked if she was certain that she'd heard the caller identify himself as from the Obama campaign, she said, "I couldn't say 100 percent," but added she recalled clearly that he had identified himself this way "immediately" during the call."

[zulchzulu]

6. If true, the guy went beyond where he should have...

...but that's hardly something that should be in a press release by the Clinton camp that there are "dirty tricks" being used.

The next thing I'd expect to hear from the Clinton camp is that Obama callers were giving false caucus information to New Hampshire voters.

Does Barb have caller ID? She could find out where the call was generated from.

[AtomicKitten]

8. Unvetted inflammatory info on blogs is the lifeblood of many here.

:)

[hughee99]

7. A couple of things...

First of all, I think that it's ENTIRELY POSSIBLE that Barb got such a call. I find it far less likely that Obama (or any other candidate for that matter) would find it an effective campaign tactic to call up random voters and argue with and/or berate them for not supporting the right person, so I have serious doubts that this would have come from Obama's campaign. Of course, if it didn't come from Obama's campaign, why would anyone make phone call and berate people AFTER telling them "I'm with the Obama Campaign"?

Dirty tricks indeed. Something stinks here.

[CoffeeCat]

11. Exactly... I got a push poll call...

..and among the questions about Edwards was, "Are you concerned
that John Edwards continued campaigning after his wife Elizabeth
was diagnosed with cancer?"

The caller could not reveal who commissioned the poll, because
she didn't know. She was calling from American Research or some
other organization and she said that she made the calls, but didn't
know who was behind the polls.

You don't reveal, "Hi I'm from the Obama camp!" and then proceed
to be rude, insulting and belligerent.

I smell a rat. A rat in a pantsuit.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

19. I Got The Same Call And Then I Woke Up

DSB

[CoffeeCat]

21. What exactly are you saying?

Are you saying that I didn't, in fact, get this call?

[Perry Logan]

9. What the heck. I believe her.

[Adelante]

13. I believe she got the call, no reason not to

Whether it was a call from Obama's operation or some other campaign wanting Obama to look bad, I don't know. This sort of thing went on in 2004, too.

[rinsd]

12. Well I would like to see more than a single source on this.

[geek tragedy]

14. Breaking: Obama campaign volunteer behaves poorly.

Wow, this should TOTALLY decide the primary contest.

[Orangepeel]

15. ha!

it's funny that people on DU would be surprised that a volunteer from any campaign would act badly in support of their candidate! What board are they reading? :D

[FreeState]

17. Reading from a script provided to the volunteer is not behaving poorly n/t

[applegrove]

16. Sounds like Rove has been busy. This wouldn't be the first time the GOP or their actors

have tried to start a major dustup between Hillary and Obama. I don't know but that is what it looks like to me.

[Madam Mossfern]

18. Oh my!

He was rude!

:nopity: