Mid-day News
16 April 2008 11:27 am by Taylor Marsh
Today a writer from TNR (Joe Mathews, who is also a senior fellow at the New America Foundation) is in my home studio for the show. This is part of a profile The New Republic is doing of me. Fun stuff.
This
poll has some very disturbing news for Hillary Clinton, whose unfavorables have risen considerably, but so have Obama’s, though not nearly as much. However, as I’ve said a million times,
those numbers had only one way to go and that was up. Here’s one section:
Her advisers’ efforts to deal with the problem — by having her acknowledge
her mistakes and crack self-deprecating jokes — do not seem to have succeeded.
Privately, the aides admit that the recent controversy over her claim to have
ducked sniper fire on a trip to Bosnia probably made things worse.
USA
Today busts Obama on lobbyist money today:
Barack Obama often boasts he is “the only candidate who isn’t taking
a dime from Washington lobbyists,” yet his fundraising team includes
38 members of law firms that were paid $138 million last year to lobby the
federal government, records show.Those lawyers, including 10 former federal lobbyists, have pledged to raise
at least $3.5 million for the Illinois senator’s presidential race. Employees
of their firms have given Obama’s campaign $2.26 million, a USA TODAY analysis
of campaign finance data shows. … ..
But the column
of the day is by Maureen Dowd. It’s an example of why I never write anyone
off when they criticize Clinton, because there are moments that create windows
into something that hits a chord that goes beyond usual prejudice. Obama’s “bitter”
and “clinging” comments was one of them. Dowd is a reminder of why
Democrats loose elections. With Obama’s numbers rising in some polls, it’s a
lesson that Democrats never seem to learn:
… .. At match points, when Hillary fights like a cornered raccoon, Obama
retreats into law professor mode. The elitism that Americans dislike is not
about family money or connections — J.F.K. and W. never would have been
elected without them. In the screwball movie genre that started during the
last Depression, there was a great tradition of the millionaire who was cool
enough to relate to the common man — like Cary Grant’s C.K. Dexter
Haven in “The Philadelphia Story.”What turns off voters is the detached egghead quality that they tend to equate
with a wimpiness, wordiness and a lack of action — the same quality
that got the professorial and superior Adlai Stevenson mocked by critics as
Adelaide. The new attack line for Obama rivals is that he’s gone from
J.F.K. to Dukakis. (Just as Dukakis chatted about Belgian endive, Obama chatted
about Whole Foods arugula in Iowa.)Obama did not grow up in cosseted circumstances. “Now when is the last
time you’ve seen a president of the United States who just paid off
his loan debt?” Michelle Obama asked Tuesday at Haverford College, referring
to Barack’s student loans while speaking in the shadow of the mansions
depicted in “The Philadelphia Story.”But his exclusive Hawaiian prep school and years in the Ivy League made him
a charter member of the elite, along with the academic experts he loves to
have in the room. As Colbert pointed out, the other wonky Ivy League lawyer
in the primary just knows how to condescend better. … ..
The debate tonight is important for Clinton in many ways, not the least of
which is that she’s got nothing to lose right now. Because without Michigan
and Florida her path to the nomination remains difficult. Without the popular
vote to push back against Obama’s delegate lead, superdelegates will remain
nervous about overturning the advantage Obama has built up, as they should.
Whoever is the nominee needs to win fair and square, which is why Barack Obama
is going to have real problems uniting Clinton supporters behind him if he doesn’t
agree to do something about Florida and Michigan. That said, many Clinton supporters
will simply not support him no matter what, which is a real issue now. (I’ll
be talking about this today on the show.)
A fine mess Democrats find ourselves in. The way out is rocky.
