h/t reader & Edwards supporter HM
Edwards was the first to pull back on his Iraq war vote, committing himself
against the $87 billion way back during the ’04 race. More importantly, Edwards
was the first to go after Clinton for her vote Kyl-Lieberman vote, which he
continues to do now that Iran is coming into sharper focus. It took Obama weeks
to get it together on that front, but when he did he also had the unfortunate
truth following him that he didn’t bother to stand up and be counted on that
vote himself. Edwards has Obama whooped in another sense: Obama also backed legislation that would declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization. My view is that we deal with the Iranians in a situation by situation basis, starting with their involvement in Iraq, if any action is found and proven, not just guessed, but we should not be distracted, because the current rhetoric ignores reality.
… .. If we look at what’s going on behind the scenes in the two capitals, we can begin to disentangle the strands of this crisis. First, the military option: Despite all the saber rattling from Bush and Vice President Cheney, the United States doesn’t have good military choices now — and the Iranians know it. That’s one reason they are being so provocative; they believe that a U.S. military strike would hurt America more than Iran…
So now, all of a sudden, Barack Obama and his team have evidently awakened to their candidates poor presence and they’ve decided to start an offensive against Clinton. In a d’oh!
moment, team Obama has decided kumbaya campaigning isn’t paying off and taking
them where they need to be. Never mind that if you’ve got policy differences you talk about them, instead of believing that the force of personality will be too hard for anyone to resist. A campaign based on ego without comparative policy dialogue is worthless.
Oh, and there’s another problem for Mr. Obama: John Edwards is making him look like a punk.
Mr. Obama’s vow to go on the offensive comes just over two months before
the first votes are cast for the Democratic nomination, and after a long period
in which his aides, donors and other supporters have battled — and in
some cases shared — the perception that he has not exhibited the aggressiveness
demanded by presidential politics. … ..… .. His senior aides said they were now spending much of their day fielding
calls from concerned donors and other supporters asking why Mr. Obama was
not challenging Mrs. Clinton more forcefully and warning that he could cede
the role of the main anti-Clinton candidate to former Senator John Edwards
of North Carolina, who is running an aggressive campaign in Iowa. … ..
The sense you get from reading the piece above is that even
Obama’s supporters, those “concerned donors,” are clearly feeling
that Edwards is doing what Obama should and they’re worried. They should be.
Obama’s in image and effectiveness free fall. There’s no evidence so far he’s got what it takes to fight
hard let alone dirty when he’s put up against Republicans, which is the only way we’ll win in ’08. That he has to announce he’s
going to now go after Clinton shows the ineffectual nature of his entire campaign. Political winners don’t promise or
proclaim a new strategy because their last one failed. They just do it because the issues inspire renewed action.
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