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Originally Posted by Slon
I'd say it's less of a defense and more of an offense on the "attackers." In the OP's quote, Obama appeared to not be refuting the statements, but attacking the people who made the statements for simply making said statements.
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If someone insults your wife, and you say, "Don't you have anything better to do than insult my wife," would you be defending your wife, or attacking the person who made the insult? It's pure semantics to suggest that there is much difference between defending one's wife against attacks and denouncing the individual who made the actual attack.
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Obama: What happened was that the conservative press—Fox News and the National Review and columnists of every ilk—went fairly deliberately at her in a pretty systematic way...and treated her as the candidate in a way that you just rarely see the Democrats try to do against Republicans. And I've said this before: I would never have my campaign engage in a concerted effort to make Cindy McCain an issue, and I would not expect the Democratic National Committee or people who were allied with me to do it. Because essentially, spouses are civilians. They didn't sign up for this. They're supporting their spouse. So it took a toll. If you start being subjected to rants by Sean Hannity and the like, day in day out, that'll drive up your negatives...And I think that it is an example of the erosion of civility in our political culture that she's been subjected to these attacks, and my attitude is that the people who have attacked her in the ways that they have...if they've got a difference with me on policy, they should debate me. Not her.
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