Usually a Presidential campaign wants to be friendly with the media, but that wasn't the case for Obama's outfit on this frigid day in Iowa. Several anti-war protesters came to the office in Des Moines to get an answer to why he will not support getting the troops out and the press wanted cover the story, but that wasn't going to happen with staffer Josh Earnest around. Instead of this being a minor story, Earnest blew it up by kicking the press out the front door while having the protesters escorted out the side into the waiting arms of the police.
From The Atlantic Free Press:
Though he knew who the protesters represented and why they had come to Obama campaign headquarters (this reporter heard an Obama staffer say, “We knew they were coming and we have a plan to deal with them”), Earnest told one Iowa newspaper, “They basically just sort of came into the front office and were talking loudly and being disruptive.”
In a remarkably short-sighted and unsuccessful bid to minimize news coverage of an event that he perceived to be unflattering to Obama, Earnest did not stop at ejecting reporters and insisting that they conduct their work on the city sidewalk, about 30 feet from the headquarters main entrance. When he decided to have the non-violent peace activists arrested and removed by Des Moines Police Department, Earnest had the officers take the activists out through a side door, away from the gaze of reporters and the cameras of photojournalists.
According to Brian Terrell, executive director of the Catholic Peace Ministry and one of the eight arrested, VCNV has noted a number of areas in which Obama’s positions are troubling.
“Not only has Obama supported sanctions against Iran, he has also stated emphatically that in dealing with Iran, all options including military ones have to be on the table,” said Terrell.
“It’s astonishing, too, that he supports an increase in military spending,” said Terrell.
I can't wait to see the back-pedaling Obama is going to have to do because of this staffer. A good assumption is that he'll be fired either today or tomorrow. The important thing however is why those protesters from the Catholic Peace Ministry were there. Obama refuses to talk about a real plan to get our troops out and shows it by not even responding to anti-war activists. Plenty of Iowans and the majority of Americans want us out of Iraq, but while Obama vaguely talks about change, he certainly does not seem committed to making it so.
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