Playing 'hardball'


	Playing 'hardball'

MHacker

5-31-2008 3:32 PM

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MHacker says:

Ben Smith on Obama's supposedly rough means of winning his first significant political victory.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/aa2bbc4e-19eb-4b19-98d4-f6786c33d4a5/F2B5D305-0537-4E22-9741-0D3F36CB5256/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Playing_hardball.html" href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Playing_hardball.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.politico.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Playing_hardball.html"><P>If there's one particularly absurd storyline about Obama's early political career, it's the claim getting a rival knocked off the ballot in his first state Senate race was a form of something called "hardball," a dastardly form of politics endemic to Chicago.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Playing_hardball.html">with some exceptions, it's considered madness to let a rival who hasn't met the legal qualifications stay on the ballot.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Playing_hardball.html">anybody with the wherewithal to mount a large scale campaign and convince a lot of people to vote for her really should be able to gather, in the Obama-Palmer case, the signatures of <A href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070403obama-ballot,1,57567.story?page=3"><EM>757</EM></A> local Democrats. Candidates usually gather several times that number to be safe, a shadowy urban political activity involving feeding pizza to a bunch of volunteers.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Playing_hardball.html">His opponent had failed to meet a minimal legal qualification for running for the office.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Playing_hardball.html"><P>To have let her on the ballot would have been the equivalent of, say, his giving John McCain some money.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/F2B5D305-0537-4E22-9741-0D3F36CB5256/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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