Democrat Taylor Marsh offers an interesting analysis of Obama's history with cocaine.

Gosh Jerome. You are the best! Love it!  

Now I'm waiting for the Barry supporters to swarm the your post.

Does this explain why supporters and superdelegates for Obama are now resurrecting Monica?  And does this explain why Michelle Obama mentioned Hillary's inability to run a household while campaigning in SC?  Or is only Obama allowed to make direct and vague references to all the salacious gossip surrounding the Clintons?

He is a hypocrite.

"Hillary Clinton Was Supposed to Know How to Rumble"

That was her whole argument, that she could play hardball politics, that she could go toe to toe with the toughest the right had to offer...

And instead she's been flailing all week and sinking fast.  The minute she went on the offensive, she fell apart.  Her campaign has been tripping over itself all week.

Ah another day, another Obama attack by Jerome Armstrong.

the more of this we get the more we know who is winning and who is not.

i do have a sense that he's overreaching in trying to get political points off of this.

i like both Barack and Hillary, so no real dog in this fight. but my first reaction is, damn, they're going to rip each other to shreds. Reaction #2, though, is that (particularly for Barack) better to get this out now than in the GE.

i still think they'd make a great ticket.

kumbaaaya....

The latter part of the post-- "if he can't handle this type of attack"-- is something I keep seeing repeated (on this and other sites). I just don't get it, though.

Obama seems to be handling it just fine. He took a charge/attack and effectively turned it, forcing the campaign making the charge to publicly apologize and fire the person who made the attack. Earlier, with the silly kidergarten item, the Obama campaign also effectively turned that, making it a point of ridicule for the Clinton campaign.

He seems to be handling these thinge very well. What am I missing?

The Clinton campaign is in a meltdown and so are their supporters it won't be pretty as she goes down though.

that's a meltdown. it's more her supporters that are panicing rather than Hillary, but some of the CW pushers believe her campaign is teetering on the brink.

Is Jerome shorting Obama contracts on Intrade? Hard to explain the pre-occupation.

but then I realized I'd be missing some good laughs while Jerome freaks out about Barack overtaking Hillary in Iowa and New Hampshire Polls.  

I still think one day soon he's going to admit it was all snark to mess with your heads...

especially if Obama hires him.

Axelrod was on national TV last night.  This is the predictable response.

Jerome, you do know that you're hurting this blog, right?

Don't you think the right move for you is to resign?

Hey , if Obama can go through the drug issue right now and still win Iowa , i doubt the media would want to spend more time on it.

Also , lets not forget that Huckabee has some problem of his own...Letting loose a rapist out of jail when some folks begged you to not do it , then have the same rapist that you freed when many were warning you against it , to raped and kill...This is much worst then a guy who did drug during his teenager years.

I'm hearing that Obama has the momentum in Iowa but whether this drug issue can slow him down a bit is anyone guess.

I think the Clinton are desperately trying to slow his momentum right now and they are throwing everything at him....The problem here is that Hillary has hit a ceiling and she's probably maxed out as far as support...Second choices voters does not favor her and you better believe undecided will not break to her.

Is Jerome going to endorse or supporting anyone?

I think he is supporting Clinton.

I've been wondering whether the story is true or not. I know that Obama/mainstream media keep saying that the Clinton campaign is in meltdown mode b/c they won't let the story die.

But there are a few things that I just can't shake. First, the Clintons have been in the campaign business for a long time. Both President and Senator Clintons worked on McGovern's campaign. Senator Clinton worked on Jimmy Carter's campaign in 1976 in Indiana. They both collaberated on Bill's campaign in 1992 and 1996. I just don't think that they would float a rumor/innuendo out there w/o backing it up in some way.

But for the sake of argument, what if they did decide to float a rumor about Obama selling drugs? Would the huge backlash by the AA community be worth the flack they received especially if it was just a rumor?

Third, why would they let the story continue to play it self out with first Mark Penn's appearance on Hardball and then today's appearance by HRC where she said that she was fully vetted?

Fourth, I noticed that in her press availability today HRC said in response to a question about whether it was fair to attack Obama for past drug use, her campaign wouldn't make it an issue. But that doesn't mean a 527 wouldn't make it an issue, if the allegations are true, would it. Will we see a 527 or someone who knew Obama from the past pop up to make these allegations against him this next week?

My final thoughts are would someone have enough hubris to get in the presidential race if that person had a past where he sold drugs? Would he think that he could get away with it in the press? Other opponents wouldn't take a shot at him if they found out? Could we have a Stephen Glass candidate in our midst?

I guess anything is possible in politics, right?

The rule of thump with Jerome is to never take whatever he says about Obama seriously.

He's not a bias nor fair when he writes about Obama and as long as you uderstad that , i thik it's fine.

There should be a disclaimer stating that he just hate Obama so that new readers does not get fooled by thinking he's bias.

I actually get a kick of this type of response because it reflects not only an immaturity but more importantly an awareness that Obama is getting the better of Clinton.  The media is tearing her apart.  Fox loves this.  They are running with the story that her campaign is in shambles and she is swinging wildly.  Kelly Anne (the blonde pollster) said tonight that Bill Clinton is sabotaging Hillary because he has no desire to live under the spotlight again.  

Keith Ohlberman also tore Hillary a new one and showed the video of a Hillary precint captain switch to Obama.  ABC and CNN talked about Clinton's new ad with her mother and one of Bill's kids.  They treated it as pathetic.

The great thing is that the media always points out that Obama was upfront with his drug experimentation in his book.  And they love to remind people that Bill and Hillary claim they didn't inhale.

So, there is only reason to rejoice.

The idea that the length of time this remains a story has anything to do with the Republicans ability to "re-open the issue", as Jerome now claims in the update, is blatantly absurd, and really is so naive you can't even imagine it is being said with a straight face from someone in the political consulting business. You can be damn sure the Republicans have poured over Obama's two books long ago just as they've poured over every association the Clintons have had since he left office.  

It is Hillary who has kept this story going! When you read the articles they are all about what Hillary said how she doesn't condone etc...

Hillary has kept it going.

On day one Shaheen apologized , then Shaheen resigned on day 2, and today has been all about how Hillary apologized yesterday and her answering questions about it.

Its Hillary who has kept it going.

I am not sure what her campaign is after.

Do they feel they need to get out in front over and over again because the damage to her campaign is so strong?

now that MyDD has become a Hillary supporter chat room for Daily Kos gossip.

This place is much cooler than it used to be.

Oh and I liked the nice use of the word "smack" in the lede. Swell framing.

There is no difference between Obama's current indignation over drugs and Hillary's indignation any time any one brings up Bill's penis.

Not to make people angry - but there is something to the vetting process and Obama is really very new to the scene.  His history and his life are not really known and though I guess in the back of my mind I remembered the story of Obama and cocaine, I had forgotten it.  As a realistic front runner for the Presidency, maybe I should not have forgotten about it - not because of what it meant to me, but what it probably means to the bigger number of voters we want to garner next year.  And no - the Republicans or a 527 will not let him or us forget his cocaine use, or apologize to him for mentioning it if he is our nominee.  The battles of the 60's have not ended, unfortunately.

There's something most of the posters here seem to be missing:

On the front burner, the talk might be about Hillary's campaign but on the backburner there's the constant refrain of "Obama did cocaine", "Obama did cocaine". Voters are deciding right now and the fact that they are still talking it tonight and probably on the Sunday shows can not be good. Don't underestimate this kind of stuff. The majority of Democrats don't have a lot of confidence in Obama due to his experience etc. It could have an effect. Once some polls come out next week we'll see if it worked against Obama.

This nearly insulates Obama from any future attacks in this regard.  It's quite similar to how the Republicans hyped the Dan Rather Memo about Bush's national guard duty...it totally took any wind out of any future attacks on Bush's guard record.

I think all this nonsense between Hillary and Obama needs to stop.

I, too, am concerend about how Obama will handle
all this in a general election.  We could nominate
someone who will be a worse candidate than Dukakis and Kerry combined.  He may be doing better than Clinton some GE matchups now, but the polls can and will change once the GOP attack machine ramps up.

Who would you trust in response--Clinton or Obama?

It doesn't matter. The media won't cover Obama's insults to Senator Clinton. They got what they wanted, a horse race.

Obama is winning now because the democrats learned that you actually have to like the person your nominating.

This seems to be a tepid defense of Mark Penn's Willie Horton style campaign tactics.  I hardly come on this site anymore because of the seething Obama hatred here, but c'mon, no need to defend the indefensible.  Obama had every right to react like he did, and frankly, he has been above the fray on this one when he didn't have to be.  If you watched Hardball today, it was Trippi who took most offense to Hillary's strategy, not Axelrod.

And to the anti-Obama trolls like Truthteller, please take into consideration that the man you're slamming with reckless abandon may in fact be the Democratic nominee for President.  There are far worse politicians out there to demonize as the Antichrist.  I'd have a hard time believing that truthteller insults George Bush any more viciously than Obama.

I'm out of this site until after the primaries.  It's too dangerous with all the torches and pitchforks.

This seems to be a tepid defense of Mark Penn's Willie Horton style campaign tactics.  I hardly come on this site anymore because of the seething Obama hatred here, but c'mon, no need to defend the indefensible.  Obama had every right to react like he did, and frankly, he has been above the fray on this one when he didn't have to be.  If you watched Hardball today, it was Trippi who took most offense to Hillary's strategy, not Axelrod.

And to the anti-Obama trolls like Truthteller, please take into consideration that the man you're slamming with reckless abandon may in fact be the Democratic nominee for President.  There are far worse politicians out there to demonize as the Antichrist.  I'd have a hard time believing that truthteller insults George Bush any more viciously than Obama.

I'm out of this site until after the primaries.  It's too dangerous with all the torches and pitchforks.

This is so lame. There are many legitimate criticisms to be made of Obama's campaign - this isn't one of them. Jerome's anti-Obama argument is too clever by half: first Obama is said to not be able to punch back, and then when he is criticized for landing a punch. He is making political hay out of an attack by an opponent and inoculating himself against further attacks later on by Republicans. As someone who was concerned that Obama had painted himself into a corner with the rhetoric of "a new politics" it makes me happy to see him turning Hillary's attack back at her.

Give the man some credit. I don't know what makes you so wild eyed with contempt for Obama, but it's disconcerting. Chill hombre.

Don't forget "McClurkin-Gate", "My-Space-Gate",  "Geffen-Gate", and the latest John Millin-Gate.

I seriously doubt that the media will hold Obama accountable for his hypocrisy here.  After all, accountability is a standard to which only Clinton is held.

Jerome,

Great Diary. My fear about Obama supporters is that many of them are not actually Democrats. They seems to be taking the page right out of the GOP and Naders attack against Gore. Remember Nader saying there was no difference between Gore and Bush. Obama says the exact same thing when he calls Clinton Bush-Cheney light. It would be laughable, if it wasn't coming from a contender for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

I hope Obama crashes soon and ends his political career. Being from Illinois, I am looking forward to campaigning against him in his senate re-election primary in 2010.