[Obama] paid the obligatory homage to Mr. McCain’s military service and sacrifice as a Vietnam prisoner of war, but then raked him for impugning his motives and patriotism. …
“I have never suggested and never will that Senator McCain picks his positions on national security based on politics or personal ambition. I have not suggested it because I believe that he genuinely wants to serve America’s national interest. Now, it’s time for him to acknowledge that I want to do the same.â€
Enough with the high road already. It doesn’t work. Obama is trying to play Bill Clinton to John McCain’s Bob Dole, “honoring his service” and thereby implying that the old coot’s day has passed. But this isn’t 1996 and you’re not Bill Clinton, an incumbent president in good economic times.
And McCain isn’t honoring you at all. McCain is doing what he needs to do. Going on the attack day after day is working for him and hurting you.
Nate Silver at Fivethirtyeight.com — which has become one of my daily political reads — puts it well:
[I]t’s worth remembering that McCain won the Republican primaries in large part because the other candidates were so deferential to him. Rudy Giuliani praised McCain incessantly during the debates of last summer, at which point McCain’s campaign was in tatters and didn’t seem like much of a threat. But guess where Rudy’s supporters went once McCain won New Hampshire?
The Republicans, of course, have no such inhibitions when it comes to Democrats, which is why they went right at Al Gore’s strengths, and right at John Kerry’s strengths, and are going right at Barack Obama’s strengths — and, importantly, did so early in those respective campaigns. It’s one of the big reasons that they win elections.
I almost hope Obama picks Hillary as his running mate. At least she’d go on the attack. At least she wouldn’t have compunctions about smearing McCain. At least she understands Republican politics.
Obama needs to stop trying to use the American people as a laboratory for his ideas about political theory. He needs to actually try to win this thing.
The guy is driving me nuts.
I think that too often, the Democrats try to be Republican Lite, which only ends up hurting them in the end because it blurs the distinction between the two parties.
Hmm…actually, I thought that was really a pretty sharp remark from Obama, and I think it has the benefit of being true. McCain should address Obama the candidate on the issues, not make baseless playground taunts, and bravo to Obama for not playing along (well…mostly; the “celebrity” ad exchange was incredibly depressing). I think Obama is going to come out strong after the convention (well…after the GOP convention ends) and we’ll see him particularly on point in the debates. And (God willing) he’s not going to point out John McCain’s $500 loafers; if there’s ever an election year in which to test to see whether the ‘high road’ works, it’s this one. I think McCain is a fundamentally decent person and I think he just isn’t going to have the heart to sling mud if Obama continues to respond as he has. Of course, I have been wrong before…