I was wondering how much this will hurt Jeanne Shaheen's 2008 NH Senate campaign as well. I don't think all of those Obama primary voters are going to like it one bit.

Plus, the most tawdry aspect is that he was obviously just "getting it out there," as shown by the campaign's disavowal and his quick apology. That's how the Clinton's have always played ball.

It went too far, davai

Yes, it did go to far because it is politics of personal destruction and not differences on substantative policy issues.

Fair game? Bush said he wouldn't talk about it, and then he didn't. Clinton just lied about it. The whole point is that it's completely meaningless anyway, just gutter politics of personal destruction stuff.

The fact is Obama made a big deal and joked about the lameness of Bill Clinton's line about smoking but not inhaling, pot being the substance

How so? What did Obama say that was a big deal. The remarks that I recall were made on Leno's tonight show and amounted to Obama saying 'that was the  whole point' in response to Leno's query of whether he had inhaled.  You call that making a big deal..or is it that it nailed the response as lame that bothers you?

Obama had no problem using Hillary Clinton's husband to take a swipe at her

What are you referring to here? It is a well known that Bill is campaigning as Hillary's surrogate and tells bold faced lines while at the same time coming to her rescue and accusing her political rivals of piling up on her while he takes the blame for the failure of Hillarycare and asserts that he was against the war from the beginning.

 Now we've got someone working for Hillary that explains that in the real political world of that day, saying the truth (and did anyone hear that original Bill Clinton line not know the truth?) would have been a monumental political blunder

Shaeen did not say anything about what WJClinton said or did not say being a blunder. What Shaeen did was imply that Obama was a drug dealer which is a nasty character slur that inclues racial sterotypes. As far as Shaeen working for Hillary goes, this is the same week that Hillary has been firing campaign workers for perpetuating the nasty muslim rumors about Obama. Yet, we are to believe that Shaeen was addressing 'electability' when engaging in the politics of personal destruction after Hillary attacks Obama on his kindergarten essays?. What is going on here is that Hillary is engaging in monumental blunders with these ineffective attacks. She is torpedoing her candidacy.

So Obama takes a cheap shot and yet the people who are supposedly so outraged now over the Shaheen dialog had a good laugh then. Obama's above it all except when he isn't.

Please what is this faux righteousness on your part? Obama called a duck a duck. The answer was lame and strained credulity when it was uttered just as 'it depends on what the meaning of is, is' did as well. Obama is not above it all, his answer in fact spoke directly to being human. He said he inhaled as that was the point...that is not being above anything it is being right in the thick of it!  Not a cheap shot.

I don't particularly care for Obama. He's running as a messiah.

Ahh, now we get to the core issue for you. Obama is not running as a messiah. He does not hold himself up as such. Rather, the electorate is inspired and motivated by his language and leadership on issues. He tells the truth and is genuine while acknowledging his foibles. His lifestory matches his words. He does not just have faith he as acts of faith. He worked as a community organizer and has demonstrated that he is OF the people. That is what grabs people. His sincerity and committment through his actions.  Wouldn't this country be far better off if an entire generation committed to improving this nation as volunteers, like Obama did?  He rejected the personal glory of acquiring wealth for wealth sakes when the corporations were fighting to hire the first African American President of the Harvard Law Review. Obama pursued a life based on the principles he believes in and worked instead with those who had less and are most vulnerable in our society. He is to be admired for that and is certainly a role model for this coming generation, who are proud to identify service to others and called themselves the "Obama generation" after the individual who inspire them to that higher purpose than solely personal riches.

Imagine the ego that would promote such a line.

Imagine the demonstrated courage, principles and convictions of the individual  that inspired such a line.

He's running as a minority while at the same time running away from minority concerns

This is completly false. The color of his skin makes him a minority in America. He is not however running on a minority platform as we saw with Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton etc.  Obama is the only Presidential candidate to address the Jena six as a travesty of justice. Obama also supports retroactivity for mandatory sentencing drug laws which was upheld by the US Supreme Court with Scalia voting for it, while Hillary is to right of Scalia and opposed to retroactivity. Obama opposed racial profiling and he is a strong gay rights advocates supporting not only civil unions but the complete repeal of DOMA. Obama has not run away from any minority concerns.

Sure he tells people what their concerns are, but that's not telling how he'll deal with their concerns He's worried about Social Security when that's a Republican line to destroy it. He's got a medical plan with a hole in it that he's proud of. He's against affirmative action and for loan shark interest rates.

False. Obama has specific policy plans which anyone can read at his website. Obama is the only one who has said how he will finance his universal health plan, there is no hole in the plan. Hillary wants mandates but refuses to say how to fund those mandates.Not to mention that mandates are political unviable just as her last attempt at healthcare was uncompromising and a complete failure. What is this GOP line BS? No one disputes that there is a gap and shortfall in SS, the only thing folks quibble about is when, not if there is a funding gap.  Hillary will only say that she will send SS to a bipartisian commission where Obama specifys he is willing to raise the cap on payroll and not tax seniors with includes of less than 50K .

What specifically are you referring to when you say he is against affirmative action? As far as the loan shark interest rates go that is false. He voted against the bankruptcy bill. Had he voted for the bankruptcy bill he would have been denying consumers the right to declare bankruptcy. Do you even know what the bill said? The bill also put a cap on interest rates but at the expense of consumers losing their rights to declare bankruptcy. Read the bill and get your facts straight. His plan for urban renewal is specific to improving the community while Edwards supports vouchers to move the residents out and Hillary supports funding of exurbs. Only Obama works with the residents to rebuild their own community. .  The specifics of how Obama plans to deal with all policy issues are on his website.  You may wish to vist there rather than throw out 'messianic' allegations.

That video that was posted long ago had him finish his anti-Iraq war views by saying he didn't have all the information and was waiting to see what Colin Powell would say. We all know how that went. He misses critical votes and then acts as if he voted the progressive line.

That video had him verbalizing a deductive reasoning analysis which explained everything that would happen as a consequence of going to war that proved to be true and accurate. Obama  said he beleived that folks in Congress had information he did not have ( which makes his reasoning even more valid, not less) and that his own analysis was based on the information he was privvy to as part of the public. Which turned out to be more than sufficient to understand and predict the consequences of a war that should have never been authorized and as he described at the time would be of undetermined length with undetermined consequences. His not knowing what Colin Powell would say would not have made a difference in his well reasoned judgment at the time. A very salient point  he made  as a constitutional scholar in that analysis was that the authorization gave Bush carte blanche authority to wage war and that was against the US constitutional as it violation the checks and balances  of our co-equal branches of governance. He didn't need Colin Powell to make that judgment. Obama has the most liberal voting record of the Presidential candidates with the exception of Kucinich.

Spare me this concern about "low" politics. This isn't even low and it's certainly no lower than a response Obama deserved

Amos, your post was filled with misinformation and this was a low meanspirted attack by Shaeen. Obama does not deserve to have anyone infer he is a drug dealer anymoreso than Hillary deserves lesbian rumors.

I can't think of any democratic primary race where they played nice and sweet in the primaries.

As for the Clinton dirty laundry, we had three special counsel and spent 100 million dollars to hold their underwear up to the light.

Didn't Obama raise the issue of his drug use in order to try to innoculate himself from future attacks?

No. It was public knowledge as he disclosed it in his memoir Dreams of My Father which was published in 1995.  So, unless you are using this as evidence of his ambitions like his kindergarten essay it would be a stretch to say he was innoculating himself from future attacks.

will go after Obama for his drug use.

Raising the issue of drug use was not the problem. what shaeheen did was raise the issue of Obama being a drug dealer which is a helluva lot different.