Hillary Preempts Obama Attacks

With a 30 point lead and your opponents backed into a corner of forced negativity, the Hillary campaign is on strategic cruise control. This is particularly true when her main opponent has made a career of being on the sunny side of politics. The Obama attack campaign becomes easy to parry with a neat bit of politial jujitsu like this:

Making his national debut as he delivered the keynote address to the Democratic National Convention in 2004, Obama asked: "Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope?"

Clinton's campaign links to a YouTube of Obama at the Democratic National Committee winter meeting last February, saying: "Over the next year of a primary and ... the next two years leading to the election of the next president, the campaigns shouldn't be about making each other look bad. ... [O]ur rivals won't be one another. ... We are tired of a politics of division. We are tired of politics of fear. We want a politics of hope. We want a politics that unifies this country."

The Web feature then links to headlines about the vow by Obama and his campaign to be more aggressive in pointing out differences with Clinton, including "Obama Taking Gloves Off," "Taking Aim at Clinton" and "Obama to Showcase Tough Side."

Hillary didn't really need to do this, but when Obama leaves an opening big enough like this, I'm sure it was her campaign team begging to tie these things together. And I would also have some sympathy for Obama, but let's face it, he was the one who painted himself in the corner. Hillary's weaknesses are well known, but who did Obama think was going to do the dirty work for him?

And to go on the offensive now just looks weak and a tad on the pathetic side. It isn't going to get him anywhere and it's not the way to play it. What he needs to be doing in the next few months is set himself up to be the heir apparent for the Democratic nomination in 2012 or 2016. That means staying on the high road, continuing on the current message, but also giving up any real possibility of winning this cycle. It's not going to happen.