GOP pans Obama's effect in 'The Obama Effect'
By Tom Humphrey, Rocky Mountain News
Published August 24, 2008 at 4:56 p.m.
Updated August 24, 2008 at 6:04 p.m.
16TH STREET MALL — While the official GOP "war room" critiques of Barack Obama and fellow Democrats begin Monday, some Republicans got a head start today.
The premier showing of Hype: the Obama Effect, a documentary-style movie depicting the soon-to-be Democratic presidential nominee as a radical who has received undeserved acclaim, was held at Denver Pavilions Theater on the 16th Street Mall.
One of those featured in the movie, former Illinois state Sen. Steven Rauschenberger, was on hand to tell reporters that Obama was "a big disappointment" to him and other legislators who served with Obama in the Illinois Senate starting in the late 1990s.
"He was one of the smartest people I ever worked with," Rauschenberger said. "At first, we (Republicans) thought he would be someone who could bridge the gap between the parties, someone we could work with."
Instead, Rauschenberger said, Obama was partisan and devoted little time to his legislative duties.
"He was there to sign in and sign out," said Rauschenberger, who now operates a Washington-based consulting firm. "He's not a bad guy. But he was not an agent of change in the Illinois legislature."
David Bossie, president of Citizens United Productions and producer of the movie, said plans call for airing the movie in theaters around the nation, one city at a time, through the campaign season while making videos and DVDs available through the Internet. Citizens United is a political advocacy group funded by donations, he said.
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August 24, 2008
5:41 p.m.
Suggest removal
SL10 writes:
The GOP (Greedy, Oil, Pervs) really are scared of Obama. To stoop to this level. Hmmm.
August 24, 2008
6:11 p.m.
Suggest removal
fencergal writes:
Maybe a funnel cloud will touch down at Invesco Field on Thursday and the Obamessiah will ascend into the heavens.
August 24, 2008
6:15 p.m.
Suggest removal
rickg19611 writes:
Even Democrats admit that the Obama show is a charade....
"Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell was supposed to give “closing remarks” during this afternoon’s Shorenstein Center-sponsored panel discussion with all three Sunday show moderators — NBC’s Tom Brokaw, ABC’s George Stephanopoulous and CBS’s Bob Schieffer — but instead, he opened up a can of worms about bias in 2008 election coverage
"Ladies and gentleman, the coverage of Barack Obama was embarrassing," said Rendell, in the ballroom at Denver's Brown Palace Hotel. "It was embarrassing."
Rendell, an ardent Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter during the primaries, now backs Obama in the general election. Brokaw and Rendell began debating campaign coverage, including the on-air comments by Lee Cowan, and when MSNBC came up, Rendell went after the cable network.
“MSNBC was the official network of the Obama campaign," Rendell said, who called their coverage "absolutely embarrassing."
Chris Matthews, Rendell said, "loses his impartiality when he talks about the Clintons.”
At that point, PBS's Judy Woodruff, who was moderating the moderators event, said: "Why don’t we let Governor Rendell sit down."
That was met with applause from the crowd of big-time media figures, which included Arianna Huffington, Gwen Ifill, Al Hunt, and Chuck Todd.
Woodruff allowed Brokaw to respond, and in defending the network, he said that Matthews and Keith Olbermann are "not the only voices" on MSNBC. "