Assuming it doesn’t destroy itself at the convention, what will the Democratic party look like in December?
It’s often said that the bitterness generated by fierce campaign attacks fades after the election if common interest sets in. But it’s also clear that antipathies have developed, and ill will has been borne, over long periods by those whose feelings were hurt. Will the Clinton attacks on Obama leave such wounds on the party?
Everyone’s starting from the premise nowadays that Clinton has no realistic path to the nomination. I think that locution is chosen to allow for the possibility that the Clinton machine, having already ineffectively employed the kitchen-sink attack, will proceed to pull out the plumbing behind the sink and throw it, then reach into the pipes and throw whatever it finds there. Whether they’d go to the point of tearing out the walls to have something to throw is uncertain at this point.
Given that the only path to victory for Hillary involves shenanigans at least, more likely outright cheating, and that everyone knows this and is looking for signs of an incipient con, it would seem a task beyond anyone. But that famous Clinton sense of entitlement kicks in; the mental lists of wrongs suffered and disappointments swallowed are rehearsed; and the determination to fight to the end arises. One can admire the discipline and persistence, yet fail to fathom the idea that the individual’s needs override the community’s.
What purpose is served, for example, by the Clinton campaign’s circulation of standard right-wing attacks on Obama to a pro-Clinton email list?
Almost every day over the past six months, I have been the recipient of an email that attacks Obama’s character, political views, electability, and real or manufactured associations. The original source of many of these hit pieces are virulent and sometimes extreme right-wing websites, bloggers, and publications. But they aren’t being emailed out from some fringe right-wing group that somehow managed to get my email address. Instead, it is Sidney Blumenthal who, on a regular basis, methodically dispatches these email mudballs to an influential list of opinion shapers — including journalists, former Clinton administration officials, academics, policy entrepreneurs, and think tankers — in what is an obvious attempt to create an echo chamber that reverberates among talk shows, columnists, and Democratic Party funders and activists.
There’s no question some damage has been done to the party’s probabilities of winning in November; Obama’s likability numbers have dropped, and his national lead over Clinton has nearly disappeared. Most likely, the damage will turn out to be trivial compared to the coming surge of propaganda from the right. Clintonistas might argue that these things were going to come out anyway, and Obama must be able to handle them to deserve the nomination.
But in addition to the counterarguments that attacks from Democrats have a certain kind of legitimacy that attacks from Republicans won’t, and that the Rovians will probably recycle some Clinton ad ideas against Obama this fall, there’s this: in the general election proper there’s only so much time. All the attacking done by Clinton, growing nastier as her chances dim, softens up Obama and obviates the need for that particular attack from the VRWC. It’s as if a deal had been struck between Hillary’s camp and McCain’s to ensure that the pro-war crowd can hold onto the reins.
