John, I've been wondering what you and the other Obama supporters on the thread thought about this event. I watched it this weekend.....where General McPeak made his charges during an Obama rally.
Kate, my first reaction to these Bill Clinton comments was some fairly serious anger. I read them as McPeak did--there were two candidates, loyal to the US, in the campaign. And those two didn't include Obama. I wouldn't have taken it to the level of a McCarthyism charge but I thought it was a deliberate attempt to question Obama's loyalty.
However, on second thought, I decided it was a very typical Clinton mistake. I get there via the following logic, hopefully not too tangled. He wants to get the Wright stuff out badly because he sees it as potentially bringing down the Obama campaign. It's her best shot to get the nomination and to do so without creating a calamity in the party. But, quite obviously, they can not get close to using it. The metaphorical no fingerprints bit.
So that's sitting in his head as he gives the speech. And he's trying to simultaneously say and not say. So he comes up with the loyalty bit.
Thus, my reading hinges on his point being the "all that other stuff" bit, rather than the loyalty bit. This interpretation simply says he should have found a better way.
But his problem is the Clinton campaign problem. They have so gone after Obama, the fabled kitchen sink approach which they have not denied, that the most obvious interpretation is McPeak's. |
