Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, N.J., called a new Obama campaign attack ad on Bain Capital “nauseating,” during an appearance on Meet the Press Sunday. As a surrogate for the Obama re-election campaign, the comments appeared “off-script,” but he was praised by conservatives, including John McCain via Twitter and Joe Scarborough on Morning Joe.
Using words like “ridiculous” and saying such attack ads made him “very uncomfortable,” the mayor suggested this type of campaigning, on both sides, is a “distraction from the real issues.”
(Video after jump.)
Salon.com's Steve Kornacki labeled Booker the “surrogate from hell,” and said his comments were possibly meant to further his “own long-term political prospects.”
Kornacki also reminds readers why Booker might not want to, in the mayor's words, “indict private equity.”
The allies he’s cultivated on Wall Street and in the financial industry (think, for instance, of his chummy relationship with Michael Bloomberg) have made Booker a prolific fundraiser, and when he ventured into the ultra-expensive statewide game, he’ll need them more than ever. Many of them have turned fiercely against Obama over the past few years, convinced that he’s unfairly targeted them.
Booker tried to soften his comments later in the day with a YouTube video, praising the “strong job” that President Obama has done and clarifying that he hates negative ads only because it means serious issues don’t get through. “I get very upset when I see such a level of dialogue,” he said.
He also suggested that Mitt Romney is not being entirely honest about his role and legacy at Bain Capital.
CNBC's Jim Cramer and Newark Mayor Cory Booker discuss the campaigns' political attack ads on Meet the Press.
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The threat is a strategy between battling Super-Pac's and is really simple to see, it is just a declared truce, between warring dollars or just another lie. The huge money involved in elections must sooner or later suggest that the constant assault on the whole idea of the Vote, too obvious intended undermine democratic process, and take power and influence rather than earn it. The whole of governance taking in all the variations today points to the equivalency between the Dollar and the Vote.
Had we a Constitution that held the Vote as sacred inviolate duty to performed by all citizens to elect the best representatives for the whole voting block it still digress into pendant definitions of who a citizen is, are they old enough, is disables can they exercise good judgment, are responsible for family, property, then we might not necessarily improve over the current system.
But if we had a Constitution that represented the Dollar in the same role as the Vote then no qualifications, no limits, or sources, or ownership, or inheritance then all Votes are for Sale. Vote for Sale is not what is going to pass for a winner takes all democracy and servers to replace the current elected tyrant with another tyrant of a different ideology. It would as foolish as to at one time choose a builder fond of round houses in one election, and in another election to choose a builder of octagonal houses, when the pubic really wanted houses fashioned after soccer balls. It's just another ideological soccer ball to kick around, with you inside.
The individual circumstances surround an individual's vote is always determined by a variety reasons. There are no limits on those details, and those limits are never going to be perfect, just as having no reason at is often the case. The fact that we cannot perfect the vote is not an excuse to use dollars, we vote imperfectly to form and elected government of representatives who we trust will carry out what needs to done, and certainly not to carryout out was does not need to done. The vote is imperfect, and the result is not superfluous, as the next vote is needed to remove a failed represented.
The issue of this election seems intentionally vague and disordered, but it ought to be about generalized dysfunction. The houses of representative government are not working, and they are failing badly, the houses of commerce are not working either, they are running because the squirrels in cages keep chasing their tail. The generalized dysfunction is that when all these distractions are removed because they serve no valid purpose, we are still left with system that does not work; taking the Dollars out of the government system would be act of religious faith, taking the meaning away from Voting means the chaos of no control.
The consequences are in play but yet to realized, allowing the Dollar to run amuck in Super-Pacs against the house of government, and allowing the Dollar to run amuck intangible investments of no return against the obvious value of each area of responsibility.
If the system is to be composed of dysfunctional businesses, and dysfunctional governments, then how is it to be repaired by letting a dysfunctional election run its course?
Allowing Super-Pac do their damaging extravagances of churning up chucked chime, might do enough obvious damage, to break enough backs, to destroy enough good that it might just dawn on us that those playing the system are all it worth are not going to fix either.
Do we need another slick politician and media powered mogul to manipulate the system for their advantage? If so the voter might just well give up and let tyrants rule.
None of them wants to talk about the real issue.it's also funny how Romney seem to be running away from the media.Romney has not been truly vetted by the media.what of his tax returns? what is he doing wasting all his time on fox only?
Romney is brain damage, June 1968 vehicle accident lay in a coma 5 weeks! Refused MRI, information about accident gone missing, just like his record as Governor where he had destroyed or ordered destruction of his record as Governor. He failed to protect the children of sex abuse by the Catholic Priest by not extending time for prosecution. Where is the beef in the 100,000 jobs Romney created, he has destroyed the records from Bain.
Where was the nincompoop when Newt Gingrich and governor perry were raising similar issue during the Republican primary?