He is losing and he is trying to draw distinctions to stop his slide.  He is lucky the media is going easy on his uneven performance.  Huckabbe's lunacy is helping some there.

But if Hillary calls the sky blue tomorrow a jittery Obama will call it green.

Susan Rice's area of expertise is Africa. Her commenting on Pakistan is like Condoleeza Rice commenting on Pakistan.

Fittingly, the most Pakistan versed of Obama's advisors is Brzezinski. His advice? "Shut up and let the Pakistanis figure it out."

Obama should stop misrepresenting Hillary Clinton's positions and focus on patching up his own campaign.

Exactly how are these two statements in opposition:

"Whereas Obama feels that democracy and human rights in the context of Pakistan are essential to our security."

''It is important to us to not give the idea that Pakistan is unable to handle its own affairs," he said.

WTF are you doing? Trying to stir up trouble when none exists?

As far as Pakistan handling its own affairs, Obama apparently missed the Pakistani Minister of Interior's claim that Bhutto wasn't assassinated, but that she died from striking her head on the latch of her vehicle's sunroof.

I think what you have is a case of smart people not conferring with each other before they make their pronouncements.  And if they do this badly now at reining in their individual egos to the need for teamwork, one can only imagine their gawdawful performance in a time of real crisis for the US.  Not to say that Bhutto's death is not a crisis, but what it is bringing about is not an immediate threat to our national security.

I think the Obama camp are saying all of these things to get the Clinton camp to respond to all of their attacks. They know that the mainstream media will barely cover Obama's flubs. But if they can get Clinton to respond, the media will say that she's desperate; she's being nasty etc.

It's why he said something like this on the campaign trail today:

"It's that experience, that understanding, not just of what world leaders I went and talked to in the ambassador's house I had tea with, but understanding the lives of the people like my grandmother who lives in a tiny hut in Africa"
 http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/ 12/28/oh-oh-tempest-in-a-teapot/

Obviously, Obama's campaign must think that this is a winning strategy for him. His supporters don't have a problem with it. I don't see the media giving him a hard time about it. So I guess it's all kosher? :shrugs:

Obama is falling apart! Just think if he were our Commander in Chief. Scary stuff if you ask me!

my favorite part about this whole story, is how much play it's getting in the media......ZERO

Maybe desmoinesdem could give us some insight on any local coverage of the story, if there is any.   Thats what matters at this point.

And I'm just as mad at what Axelrod said as anybody else before the whole Hillary clan jumps all over me.  It was wrong, and he shouldn't have said it.

Other than CNN and Fox News, it hasn't played in the media. I haven't seen MSNBC cover the story yet. It's not been the top issue like some of Hillary's recent gaffes. No, Obama will get away with it like he always gets away with everything.

Let's say the Clinton campaign did make it an issue. Then the media would turn it around and say that Hillary is just being negative and that experience really doesn't matter anyway b/c this is a change election. Cue all the MSNBC pundits, some CNN pundits etc. So you tell me exactly how this would benefit Hillary when the media won't cover it and in the slight chance that they did cover it or HRC made it an issue, they just give Obama a pass?

No, I think HRC should just ignore Obama and focus on her positives in the closing days. The national media probably would try to find some gaffe within her campaign and continue to talk it down (what's new?) and give glowing reports of the Obama rallies. Tim Russert will give Obama a softball interview while George S. tears into Hillary etc, etc, etc, but in the end, just maybe Iowa voters will ignore the national media's coverage of the cammpaign. Who knows?

Wow, I'm blown away by this.  The idea that Musharraf is a benevolent leader and we must ACTIVELY vouch for his credibility is straight out of the Bush Administration.  I never would have expected Obama to take this position.

I agree with BTD that it really looks like Obama is trying as hard as he can to create a distinction here.  I usually have a pretty good sense for when there's a real difference and when someone is trying to create the appearance of one.

When I read Rice's comment from this morning I scratched my head a little bit because it really didn't seem like an accurate characterization of the candidates' positions.  As fate would have it, susanhu's recommended diary from earlier had links to video of both Clinton and Obama talking to Katie Couric about Pakistan.  Hillary's answer was all like "democracy, democracy, democracy" and advancing the interests of the Pakistani people, while Obama's was much more focused on safeguarding our own interests.  That's not necessarily right or wrong, but it's kinda 180 degrees from how Rice put it!  I think Rice was talking out of turn a little.

i've said it before

susan rice is a fucking idiot, an African "expert" commenting on the middle east... sort of like Condi, the "soviet" expert, trying to handle the middle east.

When will Bush/Obama get a MIDDLE EAST EXPERT to talk about the MIDDLE EAST.

Unbelievable.