Delving into the "Novak affair"
The controversy that erupted yesterday over Bob Novak's column is continuing today, as Barack Obama took the topic on directly and in person:
As yesterday, the question is why Obama chose to engage this harshly on what is a complete non-issue, since the Clinton campaign had not done anything and Novak was only referring to vaguely-sourced rumors. Today's comments give us two indications:
(1) It's all about electability! Clinton loves to say that she has gone through the Republican attack machine and knows how to deal with them. She insists that she is the only Democrat capable of responding to the attack-machine. The subtext here is that Obama's politics of hope do not equip him for the ugly attacks the GOP will throw his way. Obama is here explicitly disputing this argument: See, he is saying, I can respond too, I can be tough and I have an effective response room.
(2) Drawing contrasts with Clinton: Voting starts in 45 days and the Obama campaign is stuck where it was 10 months ago. Clinton is still on top of the polls, they have do make something happen, and quickly... Look for the Obama and Edwards campaigns to engage on any issue they can in the coming weeks to draw Clinton down to the tussle, make her vulnerable, and remind voters of why they should not trust her. And in the minds of the Obama campaign, the voters will reject Clinton because she is politics-as-usual. And that involves Karl Rove-ian smear tactics. Whatever the merits of the Rove article, Obama must believe that this has the potential to play into the image voters already have of Clinton.
At the same time, by hitting too hard, too fast, the Obama campaign risks undermining its own message. I have never believed that Obama contradicts his message of non-partisanship by criticizing Clinton -- that is a silly accusation, and Obama has been remarkably consistent in laying off certain types of attacks Edwards is more comfortable waging. But this type of response seems over the top, and could place Obama back in politics as usual. But with 45 days to go, he has no choice... Expect the next 6 days to be very heated on the Democratic trail, with all camps increasingly hitting each other with everything they've got.
Update: Bob Novak appeared on Fox News to stand by his sources and repeat that the Clinton campaign was spread rumors that it had damaging information without saying what it was, comparing the tactic to Richard Nixon saying that he knew of communists supporting McGovern but that he would not say who because it would not be right. You can watch the video here.
I really value my reputation and my character and my family... In the era of the blogosphere, we have seen what happened with John McCain in 2000, what happened with John Kerry in 2004. If you don’t get on this stuff quickly, then it starts drifting around, and that is not something I am going to accept... Our campaign will not tolerate this type of slime politics.
As yesterday, the question is why Obama chose to engage this harshly on what is a complete non-issue, since the Clinton campaign had not done anything and Novak was only referring to vaguely-sourced rumors. Today's comments give us two indications:
(1) It's all about electability! Clinton loves to say that she has gone through the Republican attack machine and knows how to deal with them. She insists that she is the only Democrat capable of responding to the attack-machine. The subtext here is that Obama's politics of hope do not equip him for the ugly attacks the GOP will throw his way. Obama is here explicitly disputing this argument: See, he is saying, I can respond too, I can be tough and I have an effective response room.
(2) Drawing contrasts with Clinton: Voting starts in 45 days and the Obama campaign is stuck where it was 10 months ago. Clinton is still on top of the polls, they have do make something happen, and quickly... Look for the Obama and Edwards campaigns to engage on any issue they can in the coming weeks to draw Clinton down to the tussle, make her vulnerable, and remind voters of why they should not trust her. And in the minds of the Obama campaign, the voters will reject Clinton because she is politics-as-usual. And that involves Karl Rove-ian smear tactics. Whatever the merits of the Rove article, Obama must believe that this has the potential to play into the image voters already have of Clinton.
At the same time, by hitting too hard, too fast, the Obama campaign risks undermining its own message. I have never believed that Obama contradicts his message of non-partisanship by criticizing Clinton -- that is a silly accusation, and Obama has been remarkably consistent in laying off certain types of attacks Edwards is more comfortable waging. But this type of response seems over the top, and could place Obama back in politics as usual. But with 45 days to go, he has no choice... Expect the next 6 days to be very heated on the Democratic trail, with all camps increasingly hitting each other with everything they've got.
Update: Bob Novak appeared on Fox News to stand by his sources and repeat that the Clinton campaign was spread rumors that it had damaging information without saying what it was, comparing the tactic to Richard Nixon saying that he knew of communists supporting McGovern but that he would not say who because it would not be right. You can watch the video here.
posted by Taniel at
1:15 AM
1 Comments:
Or maybe because this story was featured on the Drudge Report and the Clinton campaign wasn't quick to debunk it. For more see here: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/11/19/2146/5480 or the Drude Report screen capture here: http://www.drudgereportarchives.com/data/2007/11/17/20071117_113225.htm
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Anonymous, At
19 November, 2007 06:08
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