Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

Well, this is news. Building on his Republicans had all the ideas in the last 10-15 years Reagan talking points, Mr. Obama has decided to go after Bill Clinton. Actually, he’s making the argument some Obama bloggers have made against Bill Clinton. But considering the economy is in the trough, I’d say attacking the prosperity presidency of Bill Clinton is a tad, shall we say, shortsighted. But attack he is, from all angles. Notice that Mr. Obama never mentions the wholesale hunting of the Clintons by the right-wing his entire presidency, starting with the day they walked into Washington.

You can always tell the impact of an election by the reaction the day after. As I posted earlier, it’s tight, but with all the momentum behind him, the Kennedy machine, John Kerry, you name, Obama still couldn’t swing it. Calitics:

That’s Angelides-like numbers for Barack. Maybe you CAN’T run a ground campaign with precinct captains in California. Maybe it is too big. Now, there’s a long way to go, and I do expect it to tighten, but not a lot. Clinton SMOKED Obama in the hard-to-reach areas of SoCal and the Central Valley.

Reality bites:

Hillary Clinton’s strength among core Democratic constituencies — women, Latinos and working class whites — pushed her to victory in the mega-state primaries of California, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts on Tuesday, slowing, at least for the moment, the momentum that had been building behind Barack Obama’s bid for the nomination. … .. … .. But Clinton won the biggest states, and six of Obama’s 13 wins were in caucus states. A caucus state victory is generally considered less significant than taking first place in a primary, although there is no difference between caucuses and primaries in terms of the number of delegates to be won. … .. - Tom Edsall

Via
Sam Stein:

At a recent campaign stop in Denver, Sen. Barack Obama portrayed his primary opponent Sen. Hillary Clinton as a hyper-cautious poll-driven candidate — a criticism that Clinton critics are often lob. “If you choose change, you will have a nominee who doesn’t just tell people what they want to hear,” Obama said. But a look at campaign finance filings reveals that it is Obama not Clinton who has spent more on polling and surveying. According to year-end research tabulated by the Center for Responsive Politics, Obama has spent more than $2.55 million so far in the campaign on “Polling/Surveys/Research,” six hundred thousand dollars more than Clinton’s $1.92 million. … ..

More Obama myths smashed.

It’s time
to get down to his record, as has been done around here.

A couple of observations coming out of Super Tuesday: The “Phenom” phase of Barack Obama’s campaign may be ending. The shine may be off the star. Yes, it’s still a tight race between the junior senator from Illinois and the junior senator from New York. But up to this point Obama has had the distinct advantage (and disadvantage) of being less well-known; that era is starting to end. Most damaging to Obama so far is a New York Times article published several days ago showing he claimed to have “passed” a bill regulating nuclear power plants that never did pass the Senate. Worse yet, he participated in negotiations that watered down the bill to the point of meaninglessness. Lastly, he took campaign contributions worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from executives and employees of Exelon (the company the bill was in part meant to regulate). We can all expect to see more of the same as reporters dig deeper into Obama’s record. … ..

One can only hope Ms. Erbe is correct. It’s like the whole “present”
vote story. If you look closely at Obama’s record, like his “hyper-cautious
poll-driven” rhetoric, his record just doesn’t comport with the facts.

As for attacking the only two-term presidency since F.D.R., no doubt Bill Clinton had his faults, especially on movement organization. But he left this country in great financial shape, which cannot be denied. This is just one reason Obama’s losing lunch bucket Democrats to Clinton. What people remember is the impact the Clinton presidency had on their lives. In the end, that’s all that matters to them.