More importantly, though, Mr. Krugman points out that spokespeople for the Obama camp, correctly in my view, attribute Hillary's repeated comebacks to her negative campaign efforts. Where the Obama apologists have it wrong, however, is that they seem to think that Hillary's campaign has engaged in some really severe smear tactics, and Paul Krugman (and I) disagree with this assessment. Because of the obvious danger of offending justly-held Democratic sensibilities, Hillary's attacks have in reality been quite muted, nothing even remotely resembling what Obama will face once his adversary is John McCain, the Republican Party, and the Swift Boaters (by any other name).
But even so, it has been her attacks that have turned me off to her, explaining my almost inexplicable drift toward Obama. They've made me not LIKE Hillary Clinton, and believe me when I tell you that I was a BIG fan of both her and her husband in years past, and initially was willing to be quite forgiving. If her attacks against Obama have offended me, and I am difficult to offend in any event, then we can only imagine with trepidation how the general public might react to her attacks against that poor, befuddled old war hero, John McCain.
But while Hillary has dissipated my positive feelings toward her, her attacks have proven quite successful against Obama. I hate to contemplate the effectiveness of Republican attacks against him, given the level of success we've seen from them in recent years against Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis and John Kerry.
I was listening to NPR's "All Things Considered" yesterday as they interviewed the Chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, an elderly-sounding woman whose voice makes you picture an antebellum dowager sitting in a rocking chair on one of those big plantation house porches. The topic of the interview was the North Carolina Republican Party's intention to run a political spot linking the two contenders for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination there to Obama, and through Obama to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor whose out-of-context phrase "God damn America" has been played so often on our airwaves lately. She was absolutely unapologetic, and stated that even if John McCain himself asked her personally to pull the ad (he has complained about it, complete with full and particularly smarmy unctionality and crocodile tears aplenty), they would not, because they consider it a legitimate issue of interest to North Carolina voters. Now, mind you, this is in their GUBERNATORIAL race, where neither Democratic candidate has even met Jeremiah Wright, but when have actual facts ever had anything to do with Republican campaigning?
On the NPR broadcast, the actually played the ad itself, several times, from sea to shining sea throughout this decreasingly great country of ours, at no cost to the McCain campaign or to the Republican Party, even as the elderly southern belle defended its contents. There was no counterpoint whatsoever. CNN and the others have shown a similar willingness to air Republican campaign ads for free, particularly when the candidate makes a big show of regretting them. It's an old rhetorical trick called "praeteritio" by some and "paralipsis" by others, and its archetypal example is where a candidate makes a statement like, "I do not agree with those others who call my worthy and honorable opponent a hoss thief and an adulterer despite the incontrovertible evidence that he is all these abominable things and more." This little trick is amplified a millionfold or more by the megaphone of television and radio.
This is the kind of thing we will face in the fall. Obama in particular is vulnerable to it, but Hillary is also vulnerable and has shown a disturbing tendency to become overtly emotional when overtired, not a good selling point in a presidential campaign.
People, we are really in bad trouble. We are facing the very real prospect of four years of a McCain administration. We need to do something to prevent it, but there is no way that our recitation of Republican failures, our cheerleading for our own candidate, our worthwhile and brilliant policy proposals, reminders of our illustrious past under Democrats, our sweeping and bold rhetoric, our promises of a better life, or the tragic unfolding of events between now and election day under the current Republican regime, can overcome the slanders and character assassinations either of these two candidates will face at the hands of the McCain campaign and its fellow travelers among the 527s and in the media. No possible way. Our chances of winning the White House under the current set of circumstances we face are very, very low.
We need to find someone else. We really NEED TO!
We screwed up by letting the media pick our candidates for us. Our best candidates, Edwards and Biden, were knocked out early.
Although I think the world of Hillary Clinton, and believe she would do far better against John McCain than Obama, she is going to have a hard time winning in the fall thanks to years of smears.
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