The headline
in the Chicago Tribune, Obama prepares
for full assault on Clinton, inspired the Clinton camp. As was said on a Clinton conference call today, Obama’s scared about something.
“This is a tried and true technique of the Obama campaign that has repeatedly shifted negative when they find the momentum shifting against them.” Mark Penn.
I, too, am outraged
at all the campaigning going on!
But so much for grace and loyalty. The web video above is embarrassing for
Senator Obama. The first words out of his mouth are about Rev. Wright giving
his last speech and retiring. Translation: This guy is so gone, baby, kicked
to the curb. Wright has also been erased from Obama’s website, as if 17 years
of religious guidance never happened. But in a hilarious moment of hacktacular
spin, David Axelrod said on their conference call that the reverend didn’t deliver
the invocation last year when Obama announced for president because of… wait
for it… weather.
The Clinton campaign did a conference call today as well. With Pelosi’s recent
statements about this being a delegate race, a reporter from the AP asked about it as well. The audio is below.
Clinton
Conference Call: Obama going negative
“… the automatic delegates have a role and responsibility to vote
for the person they believe can beat John McCain in the fall… That’s why
the automatic delegates were created. .. … This process is a long way to
go. … … They clearly know that there is a clear way to victory for Senator
Clinton. … The reason they know we can win is that there are many states
to weigh in. .. .. This party will not nominate anyone who cannot pass the
commander-in-chief test. The automatic delegates will play an important role. …
..” – Howard Wolfson
On the call, Mark Penn interjected that Obama had “not closed the deal.”
At the end of the tape, Sam Stein asks about disclosure and transparency. Wolfson
said that goes both ways, though the passion in his response can only be heard
on tape. In addition, not on the tape above, Andrea Mitchell again asked about Obama being Clinton’s veep if they think he doesn’t pass the commander in chief test. On every single call Mitchell continues to ask this question. Today Wolfson called her on it and said he had nothing to add. I like Mitchell, but evidently she thinks this is the pressing issue of the campaign season.
The reason for the call was to draw attention to Obama’s turn to attack Clinton’s
character. No one can doubt it’s in response to the withering incoming on Reverend
Wright, which has damaged Obama deeply, regardless of where he stands in the
delegate count. The problem for Obama is that his back door negative campaigning, which started last summer, flies in the face of his public face of a different kind of politics.
At this point, the lines have so hardened on both sides among Clinton and Obama supporters there’s no turning back. The DNC has made it worse through botching Florida and Michigan. But Reverend Wright was the final straw. No matter what Obama says today, he could have gotten in front of this a long time ago, but didn’t. He didn’t see it coming. Think John Kerry and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Democrats who think Wright won’t matter in the general election are exhibit A in why Democrats lose presidential elections so readily. They just don’t get it.
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