Clinton Campaign Prepares To 'Swift Boat' Obama In Ohio

Always known for their dragonslayer attitude in politics, the Clinton campaign now prepares to pull a Republican tactic, by 'swift boating' Barack Obama, according to ABC news and an email from the Obama headquarters. I guess it's do or die time for Mrs. Clinton. Seems to me that every time they have gone negative in this campaign though, they tend to lose voters rather than gain any. Below is the Obama email that was sent out.

News broke yesterday that a few wealthy Clinton supporters are gearing up for a massive spending campaign to boost her chances in the big upcoming contests in Texas and Ohio on March 4th.

The so-called "American Leadership Project" will take unlimited contributions from individuals and is organized the same way as the infamous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

ABC News reports that this group is seeking 100 Clinton supporters to each give $100,000 to fund its $10 million effort to promote Senator Clinton and "contrast" her positions with Barack Obama's.

That's the opposite of how politics should work, and the opposite of how Barack Obama has run this campaign.

The same day this group's activity was revealed, we announced that nearly 1 million individual people have donated to this campaign.

Stand up against politics-as-usual. Be one of the million supporters who are calling out for change.

If you give as part of our matching program, your gift will be doubled by a previous donor. You can even choose to exchange a note with them about why you are part of this movement.

Make your matching donation now:

http://donate.barackobama.com/match

Groups like this are forbidden from working primarily for the purpose of electing or defeating a candidate.

Yet here we have a committee that springs up on the eve of an election, promotes a specific candidate, and has no history or apparent purpose of lobbying specific issues outside the benefit to the candidate of these communications.

This raises a number of legal and ethical issues, but more than anything it reveals an attitude towards politics as a game that is played to win at all costs.

Americans are ready for change. We are tired of Swift Boat-style groups and smear campaigns.

Be one of a million voices calling for a new kind of politics and a new kind of leadership.

Make a matching donation now:

http://donate.barackobama.com/match

I'll keep you updated as the situation with this group evolves.

Thank you for your support,

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

Here is an example of one of the ads:

You can read the ABC News article by clicking here.

The leader of this group is a man by the name of Jason Kinney. A blog by the name of The California Majority Report gives the following biography on Kinney:

Jason Kinney, a veteran political/communications strategist and co-Publisher of the California Majority Report, is a Partner in California Strategies and Communications LLC, a sister company of California Strategies LLC, one of the state's premier public affairs consulting firms.

Before surrendering to the foolish temptation of sane working hours and a livable wage, Kinney was a state government employee, serving as Chief Speechwriter and Senior Communications Advisor to Governor Gray Davis for more than four years and, prior to that, as Communications Director for now-Senate President Don Perata (D-Oakland) and as Chief-of-Staff to now-Senator Elaine Alquist (D-Silicon Valley).

He has also worked as a consultant to numerous statewide, legislative and local candidate and ballot measure campaigns. (A few of them have even won.)

A native of Bloomington, Indiana, Kinney launched his glamorous, Mountain Dew-fueled career of political "hacktivism" at the age of 13, when he helped run his mother's successful campaign for State Senate. His mother is still serving in the Indiana State Senate today and Kinney has not managed to get a life since.

Kinney is married to the beautiful-on-the-outside, Republican-on-the-inside Mary Gonsalves Kinney, is father to a newborn daughter/iron-fisted autocrat named Stella Josephine, and has long harbored a "man crush" on former U.S. Senator Birch Bayh.

The last paragraph was not made up by me.