Ambition is not the problem. All presidential candidates are ambitious people to some degree. More, our concern is where will the candidates' ambition take the nation. Who can start the long process of cleaning up the horrible mess in which we find ourselves after years of war-making and tax cuts for the wealthy and corporate types who are in least need of more money. Who can bail us out of the oncoming recession. Who can begin to reset America's reputation. Whomever we elect can only begin to turn the nation around. It may take generations to overcome what the Bushites have done to it.
This Clinton attack on Obama could boomerang
by Frank James
When a political candidate opens a line of attack against an opponent, it's usually wise to avoid the kind of criticism that will be viewed by many observers as the pot-calling-the-kettle-black, the sort of finger-pointing that can easily be turned back on the finger pointer.
That would seem to be the case with the renewed effort by Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign to dirty up Sen. Barack Obama by accusing him of wanting to be president ever since he was just out of the womb and not being honest about it. The Clinton campaign issued a press release Sunday that included this:
In third grade, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want To Be a President.' His third grade teacher: Fermina Katarina Sinaga "asked her class to write an essay titled 'My dream: What I want to be in the future.' Senator Obama wrote 'I want to be a President,' she said." [The Los Angeles Times, 3/15/07]
In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want to Become President.’ "Iis Darmawan, 63, Senator Obama's kindergarten teacher, remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked up the local language and had sharp math skills. He wrote an essay titled, 'I Want To Become President,' the teacher said." [AP, 1/25/07 ]
Yes, you can believe your eyes. The Clinton people are citing a kindergarten essay by Obama as evidence against him in a presidential campaign. Good thing he was born before widespread pre-natal ultrasounds. Who knows how they might've used that against him?
Clinton's people have thrown similar jabs before at Obama but it hasn't fazed him. So their seems to be a little more fury behind the punches as now that Obama's may have taken the lead in Iowa according to the Des Moines Register's most recent poll.
Obama, of course, has gotten under the Clinton campaign's skin by saying that unlike some in the race (read Clinton) he hasn't been angling for the White House for decades.
Coming from the same political school as her husband, who himself appeared to be eyeing the presidency since at least toddlerhood, a school which holds as a first principle that no opponent's charge can go unanswered, the Clinton campaign decided it needed to respond in kind.
Note that It hasn't gone the route of saying the former first lady hasn't been calculating her White House bid for years. That wouldn't be credible.
So the only other attack is to try a little political jiu jitsu, to turn try and turn Obama's attack against him.
One goal is to show that the senator from Illinois is no stranger to ambition, calculation and all those other attributes often ascribed to the junior senator of New York. That might help blunt such charges against Clinton if she can make it appear that she and Obama are really very much alike in this respect.
But it's also a play at catching out Obama as not the man of integrity he portrays himself as in order to turn down the wattage on that halo voters seem to see when he walks into a room.
The problem for Clinton is that her campaign's attempt to paint Obama as a calculating type who precociously hungered for the presidency runs the risk of reminding voters of some of the very questions they have about her, that she herself has wanted the presidency for decades and has plotted her course with that in mind. There's the real possibility of blowback because of perceived hypocrisy.
But the situation in Iowa has clearly gotten so dicey from the Clinton campaign perspective, that it's clearly willing to run that risk.
Here's a press release the Clinton campaign issued Sunday:
SEN. OBAMA REWRITES HISTORY,CLAIMS HE HASN’T BEEN PLANNING WHITE HOUSE RUN
Today in Iowa, Senator Barack Obama said: "I have not been planning to run for President for however number of years some of the other candidates have been planning for.”
Oh really?
“Senator Obama’s comment today is fundamentally at odds with what his teachers, family, classmates and staff have said about his plans to run for President,” Clinton spokesperson Phil Singer said. “Senator Obama’s campaign rhetoric is getting in the way of his reality.”
Immediately after joining the Senate, Senator Obama started planning run for President. "'The first order of business for Senator Obama's team was charting a course for his first two years in the Senate. The game plan was to send Senator Obama into the 2007-2008 election cycle in the strongest form possible'...The final act of the plan was turning up the talk about a potential Presidential bid, which was greatly aided by his positive press and suggestions by pundits that he run for President." [U.S. News and World Report, 6/19/07 ]
His law school classmates say that Senator Obama has been planning Presidential run for 'more than a decade.' [A]ccording to those who know him, he has been talking about the presidency for more than a decade. "It was clear to me from the day I met him that he was thinking about politics," says Harvard Law School classmate Christine Spurell. [Washington Post, 8/12/07 ]
15 years ago, Senator Obama told his brother-in-law he was planning to run for President. Craig [Robinson] pulled him aside [in 1992] and asked about his plans. "He said, 'I think I'd like to teach at some point in time, and maybe run for public office,' recalls Robinson, who assumed Senator Obama meant he'd like to run for city alderman. "He said no -- at some point he'd like to run for the U.S. Senate. And then he said, 'Possibly even run for President at some point.' And I was like, 'Okay, but don't say that to my Aunt Gracie.' I was protecting him from saying something that might embarrass him." [Washington Post, 8/12/07 ]
In third grade, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want To Be a President.' His third grade teacher: Fermina Katarina Sinaga "asked her class to write an essay titled 'My dream: What I want to be in the future.' Senator Obama wrote 'I want to be a President,' she said." [The Los Angeles Times, 3/15/07]
In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want to Become President.’ "Iis Darmawan, 63, Senator Obama's kindergarten teacher, remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked up the local language and had sharp math skills. He wrote an essay titled, 'I Want To Become President,' the teacher said." [AP, 1/25/07 ]
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.
No comments:
Post a Comment