A lot of the Podesta revelations have been rather interesting. Despite the claims that they're all lies, here's Tony Podesta, John's brother, admitting that they did prep a "He's Muslim" attack on Obama.
But it's no big deal. It's just Hillary's people testing things out.
Lobbyist Tony Podesta on Friday downplayed the latest WikiLeaks release that showed his brother John in a conversation about poll-testing personal attacks against then-Sen. Barack Obama regarding his father’s Muslim heritage.
John Podesta is now Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman. The poll question about Obama, as written in the 2008 emails, included:
" - Obama (owe-BAHM-uh)'s father was a Muslim and Obama grew up among Muslims in the world's most populous Islamic country."
But Tony Podesta told The Hill the question was never actually used.
“I think pollsters ask all kinds of questions, but the real test of character is whether or not any of that material was ever used by the Clinton campaign and wasn’t,” he said. “The other test of character is did Donald Trump run around the country for five years saying that the first African-American president isn’t American.”
Podesta said there should be no comparison between Trump’s questioning of Obama's birthplace and the conversation in the leaked emails.
“The notion that somebody asked and polling question and creating that as a moral equivalence seems preposterous to me,” he said.
The real test of character is apparently that you're a good guy if you prep an attack and don't use it... but you're a monster if you do use the attack. That's not how ethics and morals work. But what would a Clintonite know of those? Anyway, since Obama is backing Hillary, there's no problem.
Podesta pointed to President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama’s endorsement of Clinton as evidence that the polling question is a non-issue.
Sure. Because that is how politics works. If you campaign for someone, then you have no resentment of them. Just ask Hillary. Back when she was campaigning for Obama.