The Clinton camp is currently lined up behind a buffet of crow. Just earlier this day, a Clinton supporter wrote an article about how Bernie Sanders was yet again caught deceiving voters. Earlier this week, Bill and Hillary both laid into Bernie for his “artful smear” against Hillary’s campaign.
Whatever. You guys have already addressed the issues around Sanders. I’m sure there are robotic keyboard warriors (like myself) on both sides of the divide, screaming about how Clinton is right or Sanders is right. You guys sort that out on your own.
My issue here is the blatant hypocrisy exhibited by the Clinton campaign and its supporters in criticizing Bernie, even assuming the criticism applies to Sanders. Let’s take a quick peak into the folds.
As mentioned above, a DKOS user today just about scored an immense victory exposing Sanders for improperly using an American Legion logo on some campaign literature. This is kind of a common practice mistake in campaigns—brand new volunteer graphic designers will include the logo of a source they are quoting. This gives the impression that whatever group is endorsing the message or the candidate in question, even though it’s intended to show people who the source is. Campaigns get cease and desist letters, investigate, and change course. It’s really obnoxious, but it’s never a scandal.
That, combined with the Clinton camp complaining about Bernie doing negative campaigning, seems highly ironic since the Hillary campaign is literally using Politifact New Hampshire and the Concord Monitor’s logos on campaign literature which specifically only attacks Bernie Sanders, while mentioning him by name.
Where is all the faux outrage at Clinton’s campaign for using these logos and going for a full-fledged smear against Sanders? It doesn’t serve the narrative that Bernie is some scheming troglodyte pulling out all the stops to stop the first woman from becoming president.
Maybe before you go on crying about what are typical mistakes made by campaign volunteers, perhaps you should look at your own camp and see if they’re using the same tactics. Is it deplorable to attempt to mislead voters by using an organization’s logo without permission? Yes. Is it common practice in campaigns? Yes. Does it represent a scandal for any candidate? Nope. Let’s keep this about the issues.
But since we’re so quick to say that the candidate we don’t like is deceiving voters, let me just drop this video here.
