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Poor Obama

By wt

The problem with not being a ruthless politician is that you often get out-politicked by them.

The Clintons attack, then Obama defends by saying the Clintons aren't telling the whole truth. But then Clinton attacks again. Trailhead describes the sad state of events for Obama:

[Obama] seems to struggle with his irritation at having to engage in this at all and then sometimes seems afflicted with a wicked case of staircase wit, issuing comebacks a little late?--after he's thought of a good one?--even as the Clintons have moved on to calling for an elevated debate.

In other words, Obama is George Costanza thinking of the Jerk Store joke just as Hillary et al are saying hey let's be friends and get along.

Slate says there's at least some value in the spat, since it's a good test for the general election this November.

The theory goes, if Obama can't handle the Clintons, he'll never be able to handle the Republicans.

Really?

I totally disagree. No GOP candidate is as good as the Clintons at 1) being able to get favorable press so frequently; 2) message framing so as to style a narrative before its out; 3) ramming an issue home so that it sticks once the message has been framed.

If the conventional wisdom is that the current feeble GOP candidates, armed with a skeptical press and no prior presidential campaign experience, can really be as successfully ruthless as the Clintons, I think that's clearly false.

Full post as published by Expressio Unius on January 26, 2008 (boomark / email).