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Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Clinton Attacks Obama for Third Grade Essay

Can it get any sillier? Of course it can, we're a year away from the election!

As Democratic primary voters experience pre-emptive buyer's remorse--that is, second thoughts about Hillary Clinton's "inevitability"--a desperate Mrs. Clinton stands on the brink of losing all dignity. This is from a press release she put out last night:
At an event in Boston this evening, Senator Obama claimed for the second time today that he is "not running to fulfill some long held plans" to be elected President, contradicting statements his friends, family, staff and teachers have all made about him. . . .

In third grade, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want To Be a President.' His third grade teacher: Fermina Katarina Sinaga "asked her class to write an essay titled 'My dream: What I want to be in the future.' Senator Obama wrote 'I want to be a President,' she said." [The Los Angeles Times, 3/15/07]
In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want to Become President.' "Iis Darmawan, 63, Senator Obama's kindergarten teacher, remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked up the local language and had sharp math skills. He wrote an essay titled, 'I Want To Become President,' the teacher said." [AP, 1/25/07]
Honest, we're not making this up. Mrs. Clinton really is attacking Obama for something he wrote in kindergarten. It's as if she took those adorable Swift Kids for Truth ads seriously.
Wait, it gets even sillier. The
New York Sun reports that Mrs. Clinton's description of Obama's third-grade essay isn't honest:

The missive from Mrs. Clinton's operation omitted an interesting, and arguably germane, part of the anecdotes from Mr. Obama's childhood. Although Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii, when he was in kindergarten and third grade, he lived in Indonesia. It is not clear, therefore, whether the young Mr. Obama was aspiring to be president of Indonesia, America, or the whole world for that matter.


In March, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mr. Obama's third-grade teacher, Fermina Katarina Sinaga, said the future senator "wrote he wanted to be president" in response to an assignment about what he wanted to be when he grew up. The Clinton research sheet picks up that part of the story but ignores the quote that comes next. "He didn't say what country he wanted to be president of. But he wanted to make everybody happy," Ms. Sinaga said. The similar kindergarten anecdote, which comes from an Associated Press dispatch, has no indication of what country Mr. Obama hoped to lead. . . .


Yesterday may not have been the first time the Clinton campaign seized on the report about Mr. Obama's kindergarten dreams. A Web logger for Time magazine, Ana Marie Cox, reported on November 11 that "a little birdie" had urged her to fact-check the Illinois senator's claims against his kindergarten record.

She did not indicate whether the tip came from Mrs. Clinton's campaign, but many who posted comments online assumed that was the source.

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