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Ferraro's "Swiftboating" of Obama - A Republican Preview.
I feel that the recent comments made by Ferraro falls right in line with the classic Rovian strategy of attacking a candidate's strength and turning it into a weakness. The most famous example of this was the the "Swiftboating" of John Kerry, by taking Kerry's greatest strength: his military service and his Purple Heart and creating a cloud of doubt and suspicion around it -- rendering it useless.
The same can be seen here with Ferraro's comments. One of Obama's greatest strengths is the idea that he was able to overcome great hardship to get where he is despite being a Black man from a broken family. But she has turned that on its head and made the claim that he is where he is thanks to the fact he is a Black man.
I can see the Republicans using this strategy to the fullest extent in every state, every opportunity they get. I think Hillary is giving us an insight into how the Republican line will play out in the General Election if Obama wins the nomination. Hillary will just hand the baton over to McCain.
Comments (6)
She's just giving the super delegates a glimpse of what they'll see if they give the nomination to Obama. Did you think she was going to give him the nomination? He has to win it. If he does, she'll be there for him. She has already instructed her supporters to get behind him if he is nominated.
March 13, 2008 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, except now the Republicans have the benefit of being able to cite a former Democratic V.P. candidate and Clinton fundraising chair for their talking points so that no longer are they Republican talking points, they are now bi-partisan talking points.
March 13, 2008 12:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
no longer are they Republican talking points, they are now bi-partisan talking points.
Hillary knows this. Billy knows this. The other Hillary supporters who contort themselves to try to justify Hillary's tactics know this.
They simply don't care. It's a scorched earth campaign that is focused only on tearing down Obama, even in ways that directly help McCain, in the hope that somehow they might get the super-delegates to overrule the primary and caucus voters. Any damage they do to Obama's chances in the general election, or to the Democratic party, is fine with them.
Hillary supporters sometimes argue that the attacks on Obama aren't anything that the GOP won't do in the general election. And let's pause here to think about what they're actually saying. The defense is that Hillary isn't any worse than Rove in the way she attacks Obama. As if "not worse than Rove" is the standard by which to judge a campaign against a fellow Democrat.
But it's worse than that, as you point out and as Josh points out on the main page today. Yes, they're doing what Rove would do in the general election. But they're giving those attacks the seal of approval of a Democratic candidate.
March 13, 2008 1:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why should the rest of America give any more credence to what Ferraro says than you do? What I sense here is impending defeat. You're already looking for an excuse for Obama to lose if he gets nominated. This is Gore redux. Nader did me in! I lost 250,000 Democrats to the Republicans in Florida and didn't even carry my home state, but it was all Nader's fault! So your whine will be Ferraro did us in. Hillary did us in. Billy Glad did us in. Don't give us so much credit. You're doing yourselves in.
March 13, 2008 1:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
So you admit that Hillary is acting just like republicans.
March 13, 2008 1:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Admit it? They're proud of it!
March 13, 2008 1:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
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