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  A Reversal!

  Posted Tuesday, February 26, 2008 10:22 PM | By Christopher Beam

  Obama’s old stammer is coming back. When Russert brings up Obama’s promise to accept public funds during the general election, Obama denies that’s what he said.

  “Tim, I’m not yet the nominee. When I’m the nominee—if I’m the nominee,” I’ll sit down and figure out whether to take public funds.

  He stammers again when trying to qualify his denunciation of Louis Farrakhan’s expression of support for him. “I can’t say to someone that I think he can’t say that I’m a good guy,” Obama says. He denounces Farrakhan’s remarks about Jews, but seems uncomfortable insulting Farrakhan on national television.

  Clinton sees an opening and tries to nail him on it. There’s a difference, Clinton says, between “denouncing” Farrakhan and “rejecting” his support. (As Clinton rejected donations from the Independence Party in New York.) But, in fact, she gives him an opening here to poke fun at her parsing. If Hillary thinks there’s a difference between reject and denounce, Obama says, and she wants him to do both, then he will “reject and denounce” Farrakhan’s remarks. Laughs, applause, commercial break.

  Now that is a reversal.

About Christopher Beam

• Christopher Beam is a Slate political reporter.

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