"One day after his worst showing in a month, Obama blamed negative attacks by the former first lady for his defeats and quickly made good on a promise to sharpen his criticism of her."(Huffington Post)
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'His campaign aides on Wednesday urged Mrs. Clinton to release her tax returns from 2006, as well as her papers from her years as first lady, which Mr. Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, described as “secreted in the Clinton library.”
“She’s made the argument that she’s thoroughly vetted, in contrast to me,” Mr. Obama said to reporters aboard his campaign plane. “I think it’s important to examine that argument.”' (NY Times)
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"If he indulges his inner Chicago pol, formed in a city where politics is conducted with crowbars, he risks taking the shine off. But his advisers say he has little choice." (NY Times)
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This sequence suggests that the Obama campaign has not yet had the necessary insight into what is needed now.
Yes, he should sharpen his attacks. But no, her income tax forms is NOT the kind of thing he should be talking about. And this matters greatly, because if he makes the wrong kind of attacks he does sacrifice his "shine," as his aides fear. But there is another and much better way of sharpening the attack that will add to the shine rather than squander it.
Here's the key point:
The attacks should be integrally connected with the primary theme of Obama's campaign: I AM OFFERING AMERICA A DIFFERENT, BETTER KIND OF POLITICS, AND HILARY CLINTON AND JOHN MCCAIN ARE THEMSELVES FULLY EMBEDDED IN AND CARRIERS OF THE OLD KIND OF POLITICS.
When Hillary attacks him with fear-mongering, as in the red telephone ad, Obama's reply shouldn't be, "No, I'm better than she is at answering that phone." Rather, it should be:
"For the past seven years, we've had leaders who have worked continually to inflame and then exploit the fears of the American people. They did that to get us into a disastrous war. They've done that to get us to surrender our precious rights as Americans.
"Americans are a proud and strong people. We are a great power. We do not need to be running scared. And we do not need leaders to frighten us for their own political purposes.
"Any of us, as president of the world's one superpower, will have what it takes to protect the American people. That is not the issue.
"The issue, I would suggest to Senator Clinton, is whether we will continue to exploit the fears of the American people for political advantage or whether we will help Americans come from a place of hope and vision, so that we can be empowered to achieve positive goals for our society and summon forth what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature.
"I invite Senator Clinton to raise her campaign up from the fear-mongering level to offering the country a positive vision of how we can realize our hopes to become a better society."
Andrew Bard Schmookler's website www.nonesoblind.org is devoted to understanding the roots of America's present moral crisis and the means by which the urgent challenge of this dangerous moment can be met. Dr. Schmookler is also the author of such books as The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution (SUNY Press) and Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (M.I.T. Press). He also conducts regular talk-radio conversations in both red and blue states.
Great article! It obviously illustrates a paradigm shift in the discourse that needs to happen. But will it ? Let's face it. The corpstream media and it's pundits love the drama of the slugfest. They expect it even as they supposedly disdain it. Obama is being called out by "a girl!" Will he fight her? It is so superficial and unimaginative. How do we get to the next level?
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Char Stellamaris (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 35 comments)
on Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 10:17:49 PM
As for the concern about the media... True, the media thrive on conflict. But Obama can satisfy that media lust for such drama without getting into a slug-fest, much less a food fight.
Conflict is implicitly central to Obama's campaign message: when he talks about Washington being a place where good ideas go to die, when he talks about enlisting the people to end the domination of the lobbyists, when he talks about having a president who knows and who RESPECTS the Constitution-- in all these instances he's saying (either explicitly or implicitly) that he's leading a fight against an entrenched system of dysfunctional and corrupt politics.
So I believ, Char, that Obama can enter into the ring against Hillary and satisfy the media by throwing punches-- but punches of an entirely different kind from the mere search for mud to sling, punches that help the American people understand the significance of what his opponent(s) is (are) enacting before their eyes, and how that reinforces the need for Americans to say "Yes" to the Obama alternative.
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Andrew Bard Schmookler (297 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 140 comments)
on Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 11:10:09 PM
He just put up a bill of 453Billion, to send to other countries. He wants socialism, free (ho) health, (Look at England problems - out of money & denial of heath care to most.) Has the most leftist voting record (for his 6 mo.'s) New direction=you having less & paying more. says he is Christian,but was swore in using Muslin Book?, No questions from you on his past, his "fast" rise, who his big financial backers are? (Soros, etc.) his background as a Muslin, wants to play Chamberling (Britian's apeasement) until Churchill came. (or there would be no England. etc. Please do not respond, just research "this new direction". Scary. and, in case you missed it, last week house Bill H.R. 5321, passed, adding 18 Billion in taxes to citizens to pay at the pump, while giving Chavez exemption for his oil Co.So our Congress (Pelosi & anti americans co-harts just gave Chavez a raise. You may like above & want to regress in life style & choices in your life but you cannot sell this to normal thinking folks.
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migtex1234 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 7 comments)
on Friday, March 7, 2008 at 12:19:28 AM
"says he is Christian,but was swore in using Muslin Book?,"
That you believe this canard, by now widely demonstrated to be a lie generated out of the usual disinformation circles on the right serve to call into question the credibility of where it is you get your information.
The rest of it is quite suspect as well. If you are what you mean by "normal thinking persons," then certainly part of the task that faces America is to help such normal thinking persons learn better how to distinguish between valid information and disinformation that is being fed by sources whose purpose is not to inform but to manipulate.
One cannot find one's way using a map that has been deliberately falsified.
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Andrew Bard Schmookler (297 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 140 comments)
on Friday, March 7, 2008 at 6:02:08 AM
A related way to go is to judge each cynical attack etc by reference to how it is people behave in a (loving) family.
The home and hearth has too often been invoked by gangsters who believe in FRAT power not the norms of our peaceful Motherland, our true homeland which starts in every home, every community ('matrisphere'), every region all the way out to Mother EARTH as a community of kinship.
Womanism (that isn't anti-male) not careerist white-Western feminism - can have a huge resonance. Those who are invoking 'Homeland security' (with its arms budget already greater than the rest of the world combined) are fanatical supporters of Fraternity values, Gang values, Lodge values, corporate values, regimental values,
e.g. over nukes, which menace every non-combattant, every unborn child in the world - that sort of threat posture is not how people in my home community behaved, we were brought up to believe in nonviolent communication, negotiation and where unavoidable only focussed force (without hatred) - not burning down the bully's hourse with kids and aged relativges getting killed, nor poisoning the entire neighbourhood and the ovaries of women the world over with uranium and plutonium (all the time being spread around wildly in Mid-East/Central Asia).
The source of true values is always by reference to a nurturing fair-but-firm family = society-to-aim-for. Obama has nothing to lose by hanging out much more with mums, aunties, at school gates, etc and using them as his touchstone for decent values - in a way which doesn't alienate males, because it summons them too true loyalty - to the motherland at all levels - return to loyal sonhood, useful work making things, growing things, feeding people, caring for people - how a good mother treats us and loving co-mothers of any gender.
True values, true worlds, good work - these have a secret power the frats disdain.
You may like to check out www.keith-mothersson.co.uk for further thoughts on these lines? (first two sections on menu on left)
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Keith Mothersson (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 39 comments)
on Friday, March 7, 2008 at 7:43:29 AM
