Good Political Combat
March 13th, 2008Barack Obama’s campaign put out a hilarious response to Clinton campaign criticisms which you can read at USAToday, here. It is, as was once said of me, “scathingly brilliant” and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, though I would note, in the interest of intellectual honesty, that Obama’s declaration of victory in “fourteen of the last seventeen” states and his criticism of Hillary that she only thinks the states she’s won are important is fair enough but there are no caucuses in the general election and that is something Democrats should be aware of. The great silent majority of the general electorate won’t be impressed by good organizing and enthusiastic young supporters, even if it is possible that they’ll be wooed by his staffers’ ability to make a funny.
Slate magazine’s Trailhead has a good look at today’s “Pork” vote in the Senate, at which all three candidates were present, and I had to share it for the good humour and insight it holds:
To coincide with the vote, Obama’s campaign released all the earmarks he secured for Illinois in fiscal year 2007 and challenged Clinton to do the same. It’s the latest volley in the Obama campaign’s case that Clinton lacks transparency; they’ve been urging her to release her papers stored in the Clinton Presidential Library as well as her tax returns. However, the Associated Press points out that Obama has ignored requests for the same information related to his years as an Illinois state senator.
The funny thing is, you can barely call the earmarks issue a “debate” anymore, at least on the campaign trail. The candidates all agree! Sure, they can bicker over who opposed earmarks first and most vigorously. McCain sent out a memo today congratulating Democrats on their “new-found enthusiasm for suspending this practice for a year.” Obama’s transparency gambit is meant to make Clinton look soft on the issue. But in the end, they’re all anti-pork—a fact that could neuter what would otherwise be a strong weapon for McCain. Now if only they could vote on it.
You know, I almost want to watch Barack Obama campaign against John McCain because they genuinely can not stand one another and because they are both often hilarious. “New-found enthusiasm for suspending this practice for a year” is a delicious line as was his punch a few weeks ago about “al-Qaeda in Iraq [is in Iraq and it is called] al-Qaeda in Iraq.” Obama, on the other hand, has a good sarcastic sense of humour and it would amuse me to watch them duel even if I am certain that McCain would eat his lunch. That said, I don’t believe that Democrats, Obama or Clinton have an advantage or draw with McCain on ethics, campaign finance or pork-barrel spending as he is quite strong on these issues and they are tentatively positive but not associated with those reforms. Plus they are both quite vulnerable, and Obama might become moreso as the Rezko trial continues.
On another note, completely unrelated to politics: one of my cousins is dying of cancer, and she’s been quite ill lately. I’m worried for her, and I want to use this space to send all of my karma and love because I care more than I can say and it hurts very much to know that someone as wonderful as Marta is ill.