Bills in the Pocket
March 21st, 2008Bill Richardson crawled out of the woods today to throw his support and supporters, all five of them, to Barack Obama. Of far greater interest to me are the latest comments by the former President, Bill Clinton. What he said was quite bizarre but, I think, prophetic: “I think it would be a great thing if we had an election between two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interests of the country and people could actually ask themselves who is right on the issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.”
He was talking about his wife and John McCain; he was, it is widely believed, implying that Barack Obama’s patriotism would be a major general election issue. This is, undoubtedly, true, and one of the more foolhardy harms Barack Obama is exposing himself to. He won’t wear an American flag-pin because he does not want to display “false patriotism.” I certainly understand and agree with his position but this, coupled with his wife’s infamous “This is the first time I’ve ever been proud of my country!” comment, will be a potent punch against an Obama candidacy that will be coupled with charges of Islamic treachery, anti-Christianity and radicalism. Obama is right that flag-pins are false patriotic images; he is naive (Yahtzee!) to continue this tradition in a campaign for the Presidency.
There are countless attacks candidates will face without walking into landmines unnecessarily. Clinton recognizes this, and the criticism stands true. I’ve been predicting that an Obama candidacy would ruin politics for an entire young generation due to the nastiness the Republicans would destroy him with, and Clinton is hinting at that. I’ve also long said that nothing is ever certain in politics, so we’ll have to wait and see, but I think the former President’s warning is true enough. (His wife is weak, too, but on different levels than Obama.)