lily
01-25-2008, 02:06 AM
Link (http://www.newsweek.com/id/101173/?rf=nwnewsletter)
The Clintons' Patronizing Strategy
The latest attacks on Obama insult voters' intelligence.
Jan 24, 2008 | Updated: 11:29 a.m. ET Jan 24, 2008
The last major presidential candidate from Illinois, Adlai Stevenson, was
approached by a voter in the 1950s. "Governor, you have the vote of every
thinking American," she said. "That's nice," Stevenson replied. "But I need
a majority."
Politics, as Bill Clinton said Tuesday in South Carolina, is "a contact
sport." And while Barack Obama is trying hard to shed his professorial and
all-too-Stevensonian air, he's just not a good enough eye-gouger at the line
of scrimmage, especially with two people teaming up against him.
Obama's best hope is that Democratic voters aren't as dumb as Hillary and
Bill Clinton think they are. The outcome of the primaries depends on
whether, amid their busy lives, voters can get a general fix on who is more
often telling the truth about the barrage of charges and countercharges.
This is ironic, because the way Bill Clinton survived impeachment was by
betting on the intelligence of the American public. Now he's betting against
it.
In South Carolina, Hillary is airing a radio ad that goes back to a theme
she pushed in the debate there Monday night: that Obama liked Republican
ideas. As Obama pointed out in his response ad, this is "demonstrably
false," as referees from ABC News to the Washington Post to factcheck.org
have established. (The Obama response ad ends with a new tag line that
Hillary will "say anything and change nothing.")
The Republican story goes back to an interview Obama did with a Nevada
newspaper in which he praised the way Ronald Reagan communicated with the
public and changed "the trajectory of American politics." He added that,
unfortunately, the Republicans had some fresher ideas than the Democrats in
recent decades.
These are completely ordinary comments. In fact, as Obama pointed out in the
Myrtle Beach debate, Hillary is considerably more effusive about Reagan in
Tom Brokaw's new book, "Boom." Bill has also made many statements over the
years that were much more complimentary toward Reagan. Nobody paying
attention thinks either Obama or the Clintons likes Reagan's right-wing
politics.
But instead of moving on to another line of attack with more grounding in
what Bill Clinton called "indisputable facts," the Clinton campaign decided
to bet that this Reagan horse could be flogged for more votes among less
educated voters in South Carolina who might be inclined to believe Hillary's
preposterous version.
Less educated? Yes, downscale voters are their target group. Obama is
stronger among well-educated Democrats, according to polls. So the Clintons
figure that maybe their base among less educated white Democrats might be
receptive to an argument that assumes they're dumb. Less well-educated
equals gullible in the face of bogus attack ads. That's the logic, and the
Clintons are testing it in South Carolina before trying it in Super Tuesday
states. They are also road-testing major distortions of Obama's positions on
abortion, Social Security and the minimum wage.
The Clintons' Patronizing Strategy
The latest attacks on Obama insult voters' intelligence.
Jan 24, 2008 | Updated: 11:29 a.m. ET Jan 24, 2008
The last major presidential candidate from Illinois, Adlai Stevenson, was
approached by a voter in the 1950s. "Governor, you have the vote of every
thinking American," she said. "That's nice," Stevenson replied. "But I need
a majority."
Politics, as Bill Clinton said Tuesday in South Carolina, is "a contact
sport." And while Barack Obama is trying hard to shed his professorial and
all-too-Stevensonian air, he's just not a good enough eye-gouger at the line
of scrimmage, especially with two people teaming up against him.
Obama's best hope is that Democratic voters aren't as dumb as Hillary and
Bill Clinton think they are. The outcome of the primaries depends on
whether, amid their busy lives, voters can get a general fix on who is more
often telling the truth about the barrage of charges and countercharges.
This is ironic, because the way Bill Clinton survived impeachment was by
betting on the intelligence of the American public. Now he's betting against
it.
In South Carolina, Hillary is airing a radio ad that goes back to a theme
she pushed in the debate there Monday night: that Obama liked Republican
ideas. As Obama pointed out in his response ad, this is "demonstrably
false," as referees from ABC News to the Washington Post to factcheck.org
have established. (The Obama response ad ends with a new tag line that
Hillary will "say anything and change nothing.")
The Republican story goes back to an interview Obama did with a Nevada
newspaper in which he praised the way Ronald Reagan communicated with the
public and changed "the trajectory of American politics." He added that,
unfortunately, the Republicans had some fresher ideas than the Democrats in
recent decades.
These are completely ordinary comments. In fact, as Obama pointed out in the
Myrtle Beach debate, Hillary is considerably more effusive about Reagan in
Tom Brokaw's new book, "Boom." Bill has also made many statements over the
years that were much more complimentary toward Reagan. Nobody paying
attention thinks either Obama or the Clintons likes Reagan's right-wing
politics.
But instead of moving on to another line of attack with more grounding in
what Bill Clinton called "indisputable facts," the Clinton campaign decided
to bet that this Reagan horse could be flogged for more votes among less
educated voters in South Carolina who might be inclined to believe Hillary's
preposterous version.
Less educated? Yes, downscale voters are their target group. Obama is
stronger among well-educated Democrats, according to polls. So the Clintons
figure that maybe their base among less educated white Democrats might be
receptive to an argument that assumes they're dumb. Less well-educated
equals gullible in the face of bogus attack ads. That's the logic, and the
Clintons are testing it in South Carolina before trying it in Super Tuesday
states. They are also road-testing major distortions of Obama's positions on
abortion, Social Security and the minimum wage.