Democratic Party Cage Match
So far, I haven't taken Barack Obama very seriously as a Presidential candidate, mostly because of his lack of experience. I've suspected that his real objective is to be someone's--likely Hillary Clinton's--running mate. After today, though, that may be less likely.
Maureen Dowd stirred the pot by quoting Hollywood tycoon David Geffen, who once raised $18 million for Bill Clinton, in her column. Geffen is now supporting Obama; he had this to say about the Clintons:
* Marc Rich getting pardoned? An oil-profiteer expatriate who left the country rather than pay taxes or face justice? Yet another time when the Clintons were unwilling to stand for the things that they genuinely believe in. Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it’s troubling.* God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton?
* It’s not a very big thing to say, "I made a mistake" on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can’t. She’s so advised by so many smart advisers who are covering every base. I think that America was better served when the candidates were chosen in smoke-filled rooms.
Many worse things have been said about the Clintons, but, for whatever reason, Hillary was unwilling to take it in stride. Her communications director, writing on her campaign web site's blog, made this heated response:
While Senator Obama was denouncing slash and burn politics yesterday, his campaign's finance chair was viciously and personally attacking Senator Clinton and her husband.If Senator Obama is indeed sincere about his repeated claims to change the tone of our politics, he should immediately denounce these remarks, remove Mr. Geffen from his campaign and return his money.
While Democrats should engage in a vigorous debate on the issues, there is no place in our party or our politics for the kind of personal insults made by Senator Obama's principal fundraiser.
Most interesting to me was this reply from Obama's campaign:
We aren’t going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters. It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom. It is also ironic that Senator Clinton lavished praise on Monday and is fully willing to accept today the support of South Carolina State Sen. Robert Ford, who said if Barack Obama were to win the nomination, he would drag down the rest of the Democratic Party because he's black.
So: Barack Obama is playing the race card against Hillary Clinton! The fireworks continued as Clinton's spokesman updated his blog entry as follows:
By refusing to disavow the personal attacks from his biggest fundraiser against Senator Clinton and President Clinton, Senator Obama has called into serious question whether he really believes his own rhetoric.How can Senator Obama denounce the politics of slash & burn yesterday while his own campaign is espousing the politics of trash today?
When one of Senator Clinton's supporters made an inappropriate statement, her campaign disavowed it immediately and the supporter apologized for his words. Why won't Senator Obama do the same?
It's interesting how quickly the two campaigns came to blows, figuratively speaking. After all, it was David Geffen, not Obama, who attacked Hillary. Her campaign didn't have to respond by pinning the attack on Obama, but it did. Likewise, Obama didn't have to ratchet up the hostility by playing the race card. But he did.
2008 is a long way off, of course, and there's plenty of time for the candidates to make up. Still, it's striking how little it took for the first fur to fly; much worse aggravations will occur before the primary season is over. Whether the candidates are able to unite on a ticket may ultimately depend on whether the Clintons are forgiving people or vindictive people.
Hmm.
Forum participants are talking about the Clinton/Obama dustup here.
