I don't think Clinton has ever said Obama could not be elected solely because he is black, but when you combine this with his inexperience, the Rev Wright controversy, and the detachment from middle to lower class white community values - is that that not open to discussion?
On the nonelectable because he is black point, it's been an almost openly stated point of the Clinton campaign since before PA.
On the point of his inexperience, I don't see any issue debating that. In fact, if I were Clinton, I would drive that point as hard as I could, commensurate with how much I wanted to draw attention to my own experience. The primaries have debated this issue to a fairtheewell. I thought the mistake Clinton made with this one was to say that she and McCain had enough experience ot be commander in chief and Obama did not. That's definitely a no no for a Dem candidate to give the edge on an issue like that to a Rep.
On the Jeremiah Wright stuff, I thought Clinton should have made it clear that she was not going there. Wright's views were clearly not Obama's so it was guilt by association campaigning. She should not have legitimated that kind of campaigning.
But not only did she nudge that sucker along, she deliberately brought up the Ayers stuff. Same argument. Guilt by association.
On the values detachment point, I didn't see any serious problem with pushing that button. It was clearly a slip of the tongue on Obama's part so he should have been given a pass after he noted he didn't really mean it. But she didn't campaign that way.
Having said that, I have no doubt that the fact some portions of Clinton's campaign were Republican in style and, occasionally, in content, will help Obama. If for no other reason, than his campaign can do a lot of "been there done that" talk in the fall.
I wonder if you could just stand back a little and see the unfairness of your position.
Mary, I simply don't see it. Obama has run a much better campaign both as a political tool and engaged in much less genuinely negative stuff. Her negatives were sufficiently bad that when she stepped up her negative stuff on Obama her unfavorables increased. |
