Hallelujah!

You are absolutely right! But he needs to do it without being attached to the message - he needs to stay above the fray.

Abso-friggin-lutely! I sent an email to Axelrod earlier today:

Dear Mr. Axelrod,

I am a contributor and supporter of Senator Obama. I congratulate you on what has so far been as brilliant campaign. However...

I understand why you don't want to get down in the gutter with the Clintons. But the fact is that they have been able to control the news cycle - and the news media - for the past 2 weeks with negative attacks. The result became clear last night in Ohio and Texas.

Yes, you maintain a decent delegate lead. Yes, your message and method on pursuing a new, positive politics are integrated and crucial to maintain. But you are not immune from politics itself. You and other surrogates must go after the Clintons on several fronts.

First, and most important - why is Hillary Clinton the only major Democratic candidate for President in memory who has refused to release her tax returns? What is she hiding? Why has she still not released her White House records after having repeatedly promised to do so? Where are they? What is she hiding?

Second - exactly what 35 years of experience is she talking about? First lady of Arkansas for 12 years, first lady of the U.S. for 8 years, partner in the Rose Law firm - a job she won because she was the wife of the Governor? A Director of Wall Mart - also because she was Mrs. Bill Clinton. Would anyone know who Hillary Rodham even was if she wasn't married to Bill Clinton? Could she run credibly for anything without the fact that her husband is Bill Clinton? Her one formal assignment in the White House was to lead their health care reform effort - an unmitigated disaster.

Finally, she has slammed Senator Obama because of his relationship with Tony Rezko. What about her relationship with Norman Hsu? How about Johnny Chung? How about Charlie Trie?

One final point that should be raised with the voters - especially in Pennsylvania. Mark Penn is the CEO of Burson-Marsteller, the premier union-busting PR firm in the United States. Has there ever before been a professional union buster at the very top of a Democratic Presidential campaign in modern history?

I will contribute again to Senator Obama. My support has not wavered. But before I do I want to see some old fashioned hardball - not of the Chris Matthews spittle spewing variety, or of the Clinton we-have-to-destroy-the-Party- to-save-it type, but simply insisting that the Clintons be held to account.

I don't think it really matters whether he "stays above the fray" or not. I think what really matters is how the arguments are made. Was Whitewater really a scam that people went to jail over? Did Norman Hsu really raise that money for the Clintons? Lewinsky isn't a bad dream we all had. She brought up her 35 yrs of experience. Anything she did from age 25 on is fair game. Its not like he'd need to make up any swiftboat thing. The worst part about all of the dirt out there on the Clintons is that it is all true.

I don't see him losing anything by going all out. He has the delegate lead. The longer she lingers the more opportunity there is for jackasses like Goolsbee. He needs to put her down and fixate on McSame. The longer he waits to put her to bed the worse it is for him.

It would seem that the Obama camp agrees with me.

Obama has seen that Clinton scorns his campaign's insistence that she simply can't win, and that to win, he'll need to shove her off the stage.

``We have not hesitated to draw distinctions between the candidates and we'll continue to do that," said Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod. "If Sen. Clinton wants to take the debate to various places, we'll join that debate. We'll do it on our terms and in our own way, but if she wants to make issues like ethics and disclosure and law firms and real estate deals and all that stuff issues, as I've said before, I don't know why they'd want to go there, but I guess that's where they'll take the race.''

I don't know why Hillary would be so stupid as to bring up shady real estate deals. Does she really think her "35 Years of Experience" wouldn't hit her hard when brought up? Last time I checked, Billary wasn't "vetted" they were publicly destroyed and the Democratic Party was in ruins by the time it was over.

"McSame". Good one TM!
I'm sure it will be "borrowed" alot in days to come.

What about those final-hour pardons by Bill Clinton including Marc Rich and Hillary's brother? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1184118.stm#top
gives the cast of characters in a BBC article from 2001. Or just Google "Bill Clinton Pardons" and take your pick.

I'll never vote for
Obama and I ALWAYS VOTE>
So good luck with that.
If he is the nominee he will lose.

You have to know in -- was it January, 1999 -- Hillary Clinton looked her husband in the eye and asked if any of these allegations about Monica Lewinsky were true. He said no. She believed him.

After 25+ years of marriage and a string of infidelities. She believed him.

She took George Bush "at his word" that he wouldn't take us to war.

That's the judgment we want from Day One?

All the convoluted connections on the pardons -- I'd forgotten all of that. And now Bill has a billion dollar foundation and a library that rakes in cash. No conflicts of interest? Give me a break.

Expect the tax returns to be sanitized. Let's demand them, but stop thumping our chests. They'll be able to say, "see we told you we were clean." You think they're stupid?

Obama has to start connecting the dots. The dots all connect back to Mark Penn. Mark Penn's company needs to get into the narrative. Since guilt by association is so important to the Clintons, let's do the same.

Right you are, 57andFemale! Hillary does not represent the kind of feminism I thought I was working for the last 40 years! At 65 I cannot understand why "older" women remain so firmly in her demographic! What are they thinking? She is everything we were supposed to loath!

Dudes! She kicked his a$$ last night even after he tried to buy the election in Ohio! Get over it. Your acting like whining, desperate Obama fans; you're throwing in the kitchen sink!

Yes, bring up all those past stories of the Clinton years. The 40 million dollars of taxpayer money that was spent to destroy them. It really worked so well the last time...wait, Bill Clinton left office with a 60% approval rating and Hillary was elected a US Senator. hmmm

If you are going to take off the gloves, you better find some new material. I don't think the tax returns are going to work either. I think most people in the country already know that they have made alot of money. All of those papers you want to see from their records, well..it may just show that she actually was involved. If I were her, I would find those and release them first.

In your dreams "inyourfacepeaceseeker"!

Clinton has shown that she is not prepared to challenge Obama on the issues and wants to get down in the mud. My bet is that there is a lot more dirt to throw her way and I have no doubt that the past 8 years may be quite fertile.

lets see now...the media keeps harping on the fact that Obama's base is white collar, college educated.I must say,that by the meanspirited,vile,juvenile comments I see posted on this website I finally must accept that the state of our education system is actually worse than I tought.You guys are frightening. Isn't your candidate running as "the unifier candidate"?
Gee, but Bush also said he was "a uniter,not a divider".I think Obama is uniting the lunatics.

Such a wonderful post. (ignore my comment above-it was actually a comment to a comment above by stravu9). I should have read and commented on this post before putting up my own post:

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/03/obamas-kitchen-sink-bathtub-st.php