The China Syndrome
Halle-freaking-lujah. “Bitter-gate,” the largely manufactured outrage over Barack Obama’s comments about small town (natch working class) voters and their interests, seems to have run its inevitable course. After a few weeks of whining and complaining, the mainstream media and the Clinton campaign seem to have backed off that particular line of attack line.
Why? Because it didn’t work.
Thank God. I was really getting tired of this particular chapter in the campaign. Everyone (with half a brain) knew what Obama meant when he said that small town Americans were “bitter,” and that many of those people cling to “God and guns” to deal with the stresses and strains of modern life.
My question is this: What’s the next line of attack? Because we know something’s coming.
So does Obama. As he told ABC News’ Sunlen Miller, “You know, over the last several weeks since she fell behind, she’s resorted to what’s called ‘kitchen sink’ strategies. She’s got the kitchen sink flying, and the china flying, and the, you know, the buffet is coming at me.”
Bud, trust me: She’ll throw the whole freaking house at you before all is said and done. The entire building — if she can get her hands on a crane. Luckily, the Obama campaign is creating a rapid response team to deal with future Swift-boating from all those opposed to his candidacy. On their agenda to combat: Obama’s ties to 60s radical Bill Ayers and developer Antoin Rezko, among others.
In this day and age, you’ve got to create that kind of staff before you start campaigning but that’s a whole other story. Still, I’m glad that Team Obama has finally realized that they have to be aggressive about deflecting incoming china. An annoying task, but crucial in today’s blood sport of politics.
I, for one, speculate that the china will continue to be hurled right up until the second that Obama takes the stage in Denver. And a glance inside their playbook might look something like this:
-Street artist and Obama supporter Shepard Fairey used red to color his sad little poster for Obama’s campaign. Did Obama sign off on the use of that color? If so, we should look into that, because it’s a clear nod to Mao lovers and misguided Che fans everywhere.
-The bowling video suggests that Obama is not a “bowler.” Wink wink. Hopefully, he’s gay. Keep looking.
-Obama spent a few years at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, CA. An area not too far from gang-controlled territory. Not inconceivable that Obama stood in a taco truck line with a Cypress Park “gangsta.” If so, did they talk? And about what? Investigating…
The McCain folk are in on the china throwing as well. His deputy campaign manager emailed donors about the fact that the chief political adviser to the Hamas Prime Minister supports Obama and added, “We need change in America, but not the kind of change that wins kind words from Hamas, surrenders in Iraq and will hold unconditional talks with Iranian President Ahmadinejad.”
What do you think? I’d say that was both a salad plate and a saucer.
This is interesting food for thought…
Is Hillary Preparing to Run in 2012?
Friday , April 25, 2008
By Dick Morris & Eileen McGann
Does Hillary Clinton really believe she can overtake Barack Obama among elected delegates? No way. The math is dead against her and she’s a realist. Even after Pennsylvania, Obama still leads by more than 140 in elected delegates. They’ll likely break even in Indiana and he’ll win North Carolina where one third of the vote is African-American. After that? If she wins Kentucky, West Virginia, and Puerto Rico by 15 points and they break about even in Guam, North Dakota, Montana, and Oregon, she’ll still trail him by at least 130 votes among elected delegates.
Does she believe she can persuade super delegates to vote for her? Again, probably not. Obama has steadily eroded her edge among super delegates and now they are almost tied among committed super delegates. And the prevailing sentiment among those that remain is not to overturn the will of the voters.
So why is Hillary still running so hard? Why is she especially focused on pushing up Obama’s negatives?
Until the last vote is counted on June 3rd, we can chalk up her persistence to determination, courage and sheer obstinacy. But if she persists in her candidacy after the last primary, we must begin to consider whether she has an ulterior motive.
Does Hillary want to beat up Obama so that he can’t win the general election in November, assuring McCain of the presidency so that she can have a clear field to run again in 2012? Obviously, if Obama beats McCain, Hillary is out of the picture until 2016, by which time, at 69 years old, she might be too old to run. But if McCain wins, she would have to be considered the presumptive front runner for the nomination, a status which she might parlay into a nomination more successfully than she has been able to do this year.
Every day that she stays in the race and punches Barack Obama, she must realize that she is decreasing his chances of getting elected in November. Each time that she waves the bloody shirt and says that only she is strong enough to fight the war on terror, she obviously raises doubts about Obama’s strength and leadership. Every time she criticizes him for not switching pastors or for saying downscale white voters are bitter, she raises issues that are very destructive to Obama should he win the nomination.
When does fighting for the nomination in 2008 end and seeking to sabotoge Obama’s chances in November to keep her options alive for 2012 begin? Doubts about Hillary’s motivation are going to keep on growing with each inconclusive primary. After she loses North Carolina and fails to carry Indiana by any significant margin (North Carolina has twice as many delegates as Indiana), people will begin to wonder out loud about why she is staying in the race. And if she remains obdurate after the last votes are cast on June 3rd, it will become an increasingly accepted presumption that she is running a campaign of sabotage against Obama.
There is a way to run without waging a scorched earth campaign. Mike Huckabee continued to fight for the Republican nomination until McCain reached the magic number to clench the battle and did not attack McCain. He waged a positive campaign and exercised his right to stay in the contest as long as it was undecided without hurting the party’s chances in November. Obviously, Huckabee could have attacked McCain and drawn more votes for his candidacy, but, in the interests of party victory, he chose not to do so.
Why isn’t Hillary making the same choice?
In 2004, it is pretty obvious that Hillary did nothing to help John Kerry beyond giving a speech at the convention and waging a token campaign on his behalf. Bill did even less. Their goal was obvious: they wanted Kerry to lose to Bush so that Hillary could run in 2008. Is she playing the same game now? Only time will tell.
Dick Morris served as Bill Clinton’s political consultant for twenty years, guiding him to a successful reelection in 1996. He is the author of New York Times bestsellers Because He Could, Rewriting History (both with Eileen McGann), Off with Their Heads, and Behind the Oval Office, and the Washington Post bestseller Power Plays.
Copyright Eileen McGann and Dick Morris 2006. To obtain free copies of all of the columns and newsletters by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann for non-commercial use, please sign up at http://www.dickmorris.com.
thanks much, dude