Clinton introducer goes ballistic on "two-faced" "wunderkind" Obama

Hillary Clinton supporter Tom Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, went off the deep end last night in true Zell Miller-esque fashion, as his introduction of Senator Clinton turned into a 12-minute tirade against Barack Obama.

Buffenbarger derisively dismissed Obama as a mere "wunderkind," a "man in love with the microphone," and "a poet, not a fighter." He repeatedly and pointedly called him "the junior senator from Illinois" (as if Hillary isn't the junior senator from New York?). He compared Obama to "Janus, the two-faced Roman god of ancient times." And then he really got going:

The Barack Show is playing to rave reviews, sold out on college campus after college campus, standing-room-only crowds to hear his silver-tongued oration. Hope! Change! Yes, we can! Give me a break! I've got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust-fund babies crowding in to hear him speak! This guy won't last a round against the Republican attack machine!

Heh. But the most offensive and ridiculous line, IMHO, was Buffenbarger's blatantly anti-intellectual argument -- repeated twice -- that Obama can't "fight" for the working class because he was "the editor of the Harvard Law Review." I guess Hillary's stint as an editor of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action establishes her credentials as a real union stiff?

Anyway, here's the video:

I suggest the creation of a new verb: "to buffenbarger," meaning "to engage in an inappropriately vitriolic attack on a member of one's own political party."

To their credit, Hillary's supporters were not impressed by Buffenbarger's buffenbargering. In the above video clip, you can see the supporters standing behind the podium growing visibly uncomfortable -- several of them sit down during the speech -- and, as Fox News points out, "midway through his remarks, [Buffenbarger] could barely be heard over the yells of the crowd - which was alternately shouting for Hillary and agitating for him to leave the stage." Here's a video, taken from the crowd, of Buffenbarger being heckled and booed.

More here. (Hat tip: Andrew Leyden.)

Comments

[Mad Max, Esquire]

Well the race has just gotten very, very ugly. According to the NY Times, McCain may have been having an affair with a lobbyist...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/politics/21mccain.html?_r=3&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

"May" being the operative word. I'm not really sure if this story merits coverage in the NY Times, but apparently the news media is getting bored.

Worse for Obama, there is this nut out there saying he had gay sex with Obama in a limo in 1999....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVeFVtcdSYY

The Swiftboats have left the dock.

[Condor]

That may have been the most painful 11:59 of my life. The end was funny, though, when he tries to start the unchantable chant: "Hillary: we've got your back," and it fails miserably.

[Becky]

Buffenbarger? It sounds like a really bad burger.

[Gardner]

Didn't the NY Times endorse McCain? Why would they do such a thing when they had such devastating evidence like this. Why? Why?

[Mad Max, Esquire]

I don't really get it myself. The McCain thing seems to be a non-story, yet the NY Times is acting like it is Monica Lewinsky. If the editors have nothing more than what they are reporting now, it really does seem like a calculated hit job.

[JD]

Gardner, that's a rhetorical question, right?

[Andrew]

The attack may have been unusually vitriolic by intra-party standards, but there is nothing "deep end" about it. In fact, it's kind of refreshing to hear a Dem call it like it is, even when it's his own party member and likely presidential nominee he's throwing under the bus.

[Gardner]

Yes, the question is rhetorical.

[dcl]

In other news, there is talk of Voter Fraud in New York in the Democratic Primary. For some reason the Mayor thinks it rather fishy that Obama didn't get any votes in several precincts... A fact that the official tallies are saying is, well, way off...

[sandy underpants]

Good 4 McCain. What's the big deal? It's not like that's more baggage than the rest. Unfortunately he's about 200 years old, which is what will kill his campaign before anything else.