Video: Obama praising Donald Rumsfeld (2001)

[agdlp]

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4216276

Discussing his opposition to Attorney General nominee John Ashcroft, Obama praised newly-elected President Bush's new nominee for Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.

“The proof in the pudding is looking at the treatment of the other Bush nominees," Obama said. "I mean for the most part, I for example do not agree with a missile defense system, but I dont think that soon-to-be-Secretary Rumsfeld is in any way out of the mainstream of American political life. And I would argue that the same would be true for the vast majority of the Bush nominees, and I give him credit for that.

"So I don’t want to be pegged as being far left simply because I find certain aspects in John Ashcroft’s record to be divisive or offensive," Obama continued. "I think it’s legitimate for me to raise that. As I said before, if he brought before us a nominee who didn’t agree with me on affirmative action and yet said that, you know, I do think that and showed a history for showing regard and concern for racial justice, if he came before us and said I oppose a woman’s right to choose, or I oppose abortion, I find it religiously offensive, and yet I do respect, for example, the notion that we shouldn’t be solving these things with violence, historically, if that had been what was said, then I don’t think I would object. And I think that’s a fair position to take.”


http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/01/obama-in-2001-r.html

[Radical Activist]

1. If Obama had written Rumsfeld a blank check for war

as Clinton did, then I'd have a reason to be upset.

This attack is weak.

[JackORoses]

2. Just what we need, another Hillarite attempt to paint Obama as a Repuke

give it a rest.

Did the Clintons learn nothing from the whole transformative Reagan fiasco?
Their lies regarding that blew up in their faces.

[Kahuna]

3. 2001? And? Is that the best you can do? nt

[FrenchieCat]

4. January 2001? Rumsfeld had been Defense Secretary once before.....

Under Pres. Ford, one of the most begnine GOP President, and had served as United States Ambassador to NATO......and hadn't quite shown us yet how much of a monster Rumsfeld was.

Let's see what the senate vote was to confirmed Donald Rumsfeld.

Oh...yeah..... confirmed via a "voice" vote....meaning absolutely no opposition to his confirmation whatsoever.

So what you are peddling, ain't nothing to buy.

What I did understand was that Obama was against a Missile Defense system. That I heard clearly, and that was good.

[Tweed]

14. Clinton was in the Senate at the time too

These attacks against Obama are so lame.

[DS1]

5. Of course, this is well before Rumsfeld got to actually do anything

You're two for two from what I've seen. Are you going to go for three? How long can you hold your breath while you reach arm deep into that pile of shit you call a stack of arguments before you pull out the next steamer?

[Occam Bandage]

6. In 2001? 9/11 hadn't even happened yet. How would he know?

[papau]

7. Obama's judgement that Rumsfeld was "mainstream" sounds like Lieberman -not the same as holding your

and allowing a nominees confirmation because a President deserves his own choices unless they are far far from the mainstream.

[Occam Bandage]

11. In 2001, Rumsfeld *was* mainstream. He was confirmed unanimously.

[papau]

21. But if Obama's judgment is better than Hillary's - not just the same - why didn't "IWR" WISDOM show?

[elizm]

8. Where is that rock you crawled out from under.....

...Like just 6 freakin' days ago???

[boston bean]

9. I guess Hillary was right when she said he was weak on pro choice. nt

[Occam Bandage]

10. Care to defend that comment? He was talking about his opposition to Ashcroft. What does

Rumsfeld have to do with abortion?

[boston bean]

12. Read it and try to comprehend that he basically said a pro life appt. is ok with him

because it is a good argument.

[Occam Bandage]

16. That he wouldn't object to a Republican

appointing someone who happened to be pro-life but yet who renounced extremism? Why would that be bad? In case you had forgotten, abortion rights are protected by the Supreme Court, not the AG.

[Alexander]

13. And how many of these bullshit copycat threads must we endure?

Never enough for the Shillbots. Never enough.

[Blue-Jay]

15. That's hardly "praise".

[beachmom]

17. That was in 2001. Rumsfeld remained popular among mainstream

people until he bungled Iraq. Only when Abu Ghraib happened did people start demanding his resignation (notably Kerry did as the presidential candidate).

[Occam Bandage]

18. And Clinton voted for him. This is pathetic.

[papau]

23. voice vote - so abstain is possible

[Joe the Revelator]

19. You've been a member for six days, and have 174 posts attacking Obama

Interesting, very interesting.

[Nailzberg]

20. Rumsfeld was confirmed unanimously by voice vote.

http://edition.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/stories/01/20/senate.vote/

Clinton voted for him, as did all our Dems.

The senate record shows that Obama's assessment was in agreement with the consensus opinion at the time.

[Thrill]

22. LOL 01?

[OmahaBlueDog]

24. I have a completely different takeaway...

If a modest amount of research can come up wit a statement like this, from a relative newcomer like Barack Obama, imagine how many fun comments and news clips we'll be able to dig up on a Republican Senator from Arizona who has served since 1980. I'd be surprised, for example, if Johnny Boy doesn't have fundraiser pix with people who make Rezko look like Ma Teresa, like Enron officials, or Dennis Kozlowski.

Just saying....

[sellitman]

25. Are you a paid staffer?

99.9% of your few posts are hit pieces. I haven't decided on who to vote for yet but you aren't picking up points for Hillary