Starting Gate: Static "Cling"
4012615Despite a stumble which appears destined to drive campaign discussions for the week, Barack Obama may prove again that his is a charmed campaign. Here's why:
Hillary Clinton's rush to seize onto Obama's "bitter" comments may serve the immediate purpose of keeping the controversy at the top of the agenda but she risks taking her criticisms too far. By bringing the issue up at every opportunity over the past several days, the Clinton campaign is making it a campaign issue that allows Obama supporters to rally around their candidate and turning it into just one more back-and-forth on the campaign trail.
And Clinton is increasing the scrutiny on her own ability to connect with small-town Americans on their terms. This is, after all, a woman whose adult life has been spent in politics, including eight years in the most exclusive club in the world, and who long ago put away the rifles and boilermakers until a campaign year. Clinton remains in the race in large part because of the support from the kind of blue-collar, low-income voters she says have been insulted by Obama's campaign but she risks overplaying her hand on this one. She may also be turning off some of those precious superdelegates by appearing to be doing John McCain's general election work for him.
Ironically, Obama may benefit most because most of the focus is on his claim that many voters in places like Pennsylvania and Ohio are "bitter." That in and of itself is not a controversial statement and the evidence is there to support it. In exit polls from Ohio, that picture is pretty clear. Among Democratic voters: Fifty nine percent said the economy was the issue they were most concerned with; 45 percent said they were most looking for a candidate to bring about change; 77 percent were at least somewhat worried about their own financial situation and 91 percent said the national economy was not so good or poor. "Bitter" may be a stretch, but there is plenty of anxiety to go around.
Most damaging about Obama's remarks was the contention that, because of that anxiety, those voters "cling" to cultural institutions like religion, as though they seek refuge from their unhappiness. Interestingly, that's the sentiment seized upon in Clinton's new ad, but not so much her public comments.
What has hurt Democratic candidates in the past (Michael Dukakis, Al Gore and John Kerry) is the perception that they fundamentally did not understand mainstream culture, that people don't "cling" to traditions out of "bitterness." Democrats who have succeeded (Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter) were able to "feel" the pain of anxiety without offending those traditions or the people who hold to them. The more the debate over Obama's focuses on the "bitter," the less damage is likely to be done.
The Economist: It's Tax Day and you know what that means – a lot of talk from the presidential candidates. John McCain will lay out his tax proposals today, which will include a call to suspend the federal gasoline tax for the summer and steps to prevent the credit crunch from affecting college students this fall. McCain will also propose raising the child exemption to $7,000 per child and increasing prescription premiums on wealthier Americans on Medicare. McCain will also suggest a new, simpler tax system with two rates and standard deductions for taxpayers to choose over the current system.
The presumptive GOP nominee will also seek to put some distance between himself and his party's record on spending. "We need to make a clean break from the worst excesses of both political parties," McCain will say according to prepared remarks. "For Republicans, it starts with reclaiming our good name as the party of spending restraint. Somewhere along the way, too many Republicans in Congress became indistinguishable from the big-spending Democrats they used to oppose. The only power of government that could stop them was the power of veto, and it was rarely used." McCain is releasing a new ad on taxes to accompany his speech.
Back At The Trial: Obama's name came back up at the trial of businessman and former benefactor Tony Rezko when a star witness for the prosecution testified that Obama and his wife Michelle were present at a party thrown by Rezko for an Iraqi-born billionaire who was later barred from entering the United States. Obama, who is not accused of any wrongdoing stemming from his relationship with Rezko, does not recall meeting the Iraqi businessman, his campaign said. But the Chicago Sun-Times reports: "According to two sources familiar with the gathering, the Obamas attended the Wilmette reception, which came less than a month after Obama's Democratic primary win for his U.S. Senate seat."
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