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WASHINGTON – It was inevitable. Hillary Clinton is back, and she’s John McCain’s new, not-so-secret weapon.
The McCain campaign unveiled today the first and, his aides promised, not the last campaign ad touting Clinton’s own words against Barack Obama during the bitter primary season.
The “Praising McCain” ad, posted on McCain’s campaign Web site, features half a dozen prominent Democrats, including Obama, making admiring comments about McCain. Clinton’s comparison of the two men is the pièce de résistance.
“I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience to bring to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002,” Clinton said, referring to Obama’s speech against the war in Iraq.
The Democratic National Committee rushed out a response ad –"Maverick No More" —featuring many of the same Democrats, including Clinton, saying that McCain has changed and now mirrors President Bush. The Democrats’ ad ends with Bush endorsing McCain in the Rose Garden and shaking hands.
Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment – “Thou shalt not speak ill of any Republican” – never caught on with Democrats. Clinton wasn’t intentionally giving McCain campaign fodder, but everybody knew her words would haunt the Democrats.
And it could get better for McCain. Clinton also wants to give her supporters a cathartic experience at the Democratic National Convention.
She says she wants them to have a voice and vent their feelings. She isn’t ruling out putting her name in nomination for president at the convention. And, talking with her supporters, she leaves open the possibility she could still be Obama’s running mate.
“I know from just what I’m hearing that there’s incredible pent-up desire. And I think that people want to feel like, ‘OK, it’s a catharsis, we’re here, we did it, and then everybody get behind Senator Obama.’ That is what most people believe is the best way to go,” she said at a California fundraiser last week.
Obama understandably is less than enthralled with the notion of convention as catharsis. He probably hoped after all the talk of unity that Democrats would go to Denver unified behind him. The point of the four-day confab is to spotlight the party’s presidential nominee and put him forward to voters for the fall campaign.
The last thing Obama or Democrats who want to win in November need is a series of images in the news (and in future McCain ads) of disappointed and angry Clinton supporters getting in touch with their true feelings about the man who defeated their woman for president.
Obama on his campaign plane today, trying to tamp down some of the psychobabble, said, "I don't think we're looking for catharsis. I think what we're looking for is energy and excitement."
Clinton and Obama put out a joint statement that they’re working together to make sure her supporters are respected at the convention. He has offered her a prime-time speech Tuesday night, Aug. 26, on the 88th anniversary of women’s suffrage.
But she says she’s negotiating with the Obama campaign about her convention role. Presumably that includes her husband, who is still working through his issues. Bill Clinton can’t quite say Obama is qualified.
Kate Snow of ABC News asked Clinton in an interview during his Africa trip if Obama was qualified to be president. Clinton sidestepped, making the accurate but beside-the-point observation that the Constitution sets the qualifications for president, and the people decide their preference.
“You could argue that nobody’s every qualified to be president,” he said.
Obama, Clinton said, is running a good campaign. Obama can inspire, motivate and energize. He’s “smart as a whip,” Clinton said, and, damning with faint praise, “There’s nothing he can’t learn.”
Clinton allowed that he’d had a lot to learn when he became president. This hardly is the man Obama needs to have whispering into his vice president’s ear.
Obama is taking a week off for vacation in Hawaii, which is good timing for him. After the wall-to-wall news coverage of all things Obama, it was only a matter of time until voters rebelled. The Pew Research Center reports that nearly half the people – 48 percent -- surveyed say they’ve been hearing too much about Obama lately. And that was in early August.
In his ABC News interview, Clinton insisted that he was enjoying his post-presidency and wasn’t panting to go back to the White House.
“You have to live in the moment,” he said.
Sound advice, but it’s hard for Bill and Hillary Clinton to accept that this isn’t their moment.
***
What do you think? Comment below.
The McCain campaign unveiled today the first and, his aides promised, not the last campaign ad touting Clinton’s own words against Barack Obama during the bitter primary season.
The “Praising McCain” ad, posted on McCain’s campaign Web site, features half a dozen prominent Democrats, including Obama, making admiring comments about McCain. Clinton’s comparison of the two men is the pièce de résistance.
“I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience to bring to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002,” Clinton said, referring to Obama’s speech against the war in Iraq.
The Democratic National Committee rushed out a response ad –"Maverick No More" —featuring many of the same Democrats, including Clinton, saying that McCain has changed and now mirrors President Bush. The Democrats’ ad ends with Bush endorsing McCain in the Rose Garden and shaking hands.
Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment – “Thou shalt not speak ill of any Republican” – never caught on with Democrats. Clinton wasn’t intentionally giving McCain campaign fodder, but everybody knew her words would haunt the Democrats.
And it could get better for McCain. Clinton also wants to give her supporters a cathartic experience at the Democratic National Convention.
She says she wants them to have a voice and vent their feelings. She isn’t ruling out putting her name in nomination for president at the convention. And, talking with her supporters, she leaves open the possibility she could still be Obama’s running mate.
“I know from just what I’m hearing that there’s incredible pent-up desire. And I think that people want to feel like, ‘OK, it’s a catharsis, we’re here, we did it, and then everybody get behind Senator Obama.’ That is what most people believe is the best way to go,” she said at a California fundraiser last week.
Obama understandably is less than enthralled with the notion of convention as catharsis. He probably hoped after all the talk of unity that Democrats would go to Denver unified behind him. The point of the four-day confab is to spotlight the party’s presidential nominee and put him forward to voters for the fall campaign.
The last thing Obama or Democrats who want to win in November need is a series of images in the news (and in future McCain ads) of disappointed and angry Clinton supporters getting in touch with their true feelings about the man who defeated their woman for president.
Obama on his campaign plane today, trying to tamp down some of the psychobabble, said, "I don't think we're looking for catharsis. I think what we're looking for is energy and excitement."
Clinton and Obama put out a joint statement that they’re working together to make sure her supporters are respected at the convention. He has offered her a prime-time speech Tuesday night, Aug. 26, on the 88th anniversary of women’s suffrage.
But she says she’s negotiating with the Obama campaign about her convention role. Presumably that includes her husband, who is still working through his issues. Bill Clinton can’t quite say Obama is qualified.
Kate Snow of ABC News asked Clinton in an interview during his Africa trip if Obama was qualified to be president. Clinton sidestepped, making the accurate but beside-the-point observation that the Constitution sets the qualifications for president, and the people decide their preference.
“You could argue that nobody’s every qualified to be president,” he said.
Obama, Clinton said, is running a good campaign. Obama can inspire, motivate and energize. He’s “smart as a whip,” Clinton said, and, damning with faint praise, “There’s nothing he can’t learn.”
Clinton allowed that he’d had a lot to learn when he became president. This hardly is the man Obama needs to have whispering into his vice president’s ear.
Obama is taking a week off for vacation in Hawaii, which is good timing for him. After the wall-to-wall news coverage of all things Obama, it was only a matter of time until voters rebelled. The Pew Research Center reports that nearly half the people – 48 percent -- surveyed say they’ve been hearing too much about Obama lately. And that was in early August.
In his ABC News interview, Clinton insisted that he was enjoying his post-presidency and wasn’t panting to go back to the White House.
“You have to live in the moment,” he said.
Sound advice, but it’s hard for Bill and Hillary Clinton to accept that this isn’t their moment.
***
What do you think? Comment below.