if you know me and didn't just randomly stumble on this blog, you know i dislike the clintons. In fact, when i lived in jersey and the closest cracker barrel was in Clinton, NJ, even that gave me shivers at times.
As clichéed as the phrase "politics as usual" is getting, a little item in today's press caught my attention. A high-enough but not-too-high campaign official in the clinton camp made remarks about how Obama's drug use in high school may prove to be a major liability. Now, my memory tends to last longer than news cycles. A few weeks ago, I recall a piece where rumor leaked that hillary's folks were digging for skeletons in Obama's closets and were saving things to reveal. Obama and his campaign immediately denounced this, and said they would respond firmly and immediately to attacks. The response from the clintonistas was along the lines of "this just proves he's inexperienced - an experienced politician wouldn't take this kind of thing seriously."
And at an opportune moment as races are tightening, something like this gets floated high enough to gage reactions but still low enough to step away from. Hmm.
Hasn't this been the "usual" in tried-and-true democratic campaigns for years now? Except the big artillery is saved until about three days before an election. Just before the california recall, it comes up that the would-be-Governator said stupid things about the nazis when he was young. A few days before the 2000 elections it comes out that W had a drinking problem.
I remember in 2000 when that stunt was pulled, my sister responded by saying it made her feel more comfortable with W, that he was more human than algore. Not hard, mind you. But the folks running clinton strategy should be thanked. This week's stunt helps highlight that yes, Obama is human, and he's repeatedly discussed his drug use. He's spoken to high schoolers about it and offered himself as a role model, who got into trouble but realized it was a mistake.
So thank you. And may your polling continue to scare you.
