If anyone is under any illusion that Kerrey's recent advancing of smears via feigned compliment was somehow unintentional or a matter of pro-Obama spin, Ari Melber of the Nation has an interesting piece today which shows this tactic goes back to late October, and was even worse before:
Finally, some readers defend Kerrey by noting that he raised the smears before, in an Economist interview posted on October 30. The Politico's Ben Smith cited the interview as one reason not to jump to "conclusions about the motives of the former Nebraska Senator." There are a few sentences from the interview quoted on the Economist site, here is a longer passage of Kerrey's answer, after a clip was played of Obama saying he would talk to friends and enemies of the U.S.:
Q. Fine words, But is, is--K: Well they are fine words. Look I - I look at Barack Obama I think he does have substantial experience in areas that matter to me, personally. For example, he's addicted to nicotine. He's trying to kick the habit. You got a million adolescents every year in America who take up smoking. So he gonna be able to lead in the area. Second he's black. And you know, some black leaders are saying he's not, but he's black. And he can speak to youth in America, as he did in Selma, and tell them, that look, I'm for civil rights, I'm for more money in health and education, but if you don't work harder, if you aren't a good parent, if you choose self-destructive behavior there is nothing I can do to help you. And finally, I love that his name is Barack Hussein Obama; that he was educated for a while in a secular madrassa. I know the right wingers are saying that he's, you know, sort of an Islamic manchurian candidate, but he can speak like no other candidate to a billion Muslims on this earth and say we're not your enemy unless you make us so.
Got all that? First, "he's addicted to nicotine." "Second, he's black" -- even if people say "he's not," he really is. And "finally," some people say he is "an Islamic manchurian candidate," but Bob Kerrey thinks otherwise. If this interview is supposed to make Kerrey look better, then he's really in trouble.
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