Hollow scandals and ignored travesties

Ezra Klein on Bittergate:

There's no actual attack being levied [against Obama] that anyone can rebut, or ideas being tossed out that anyone can argue. Instead, Obama has said something Politically Damaging. And it will Damage him. And we'll all watch to see how badly.

But let's be clear: It's not damaging because we think it foretells him doing something harmful to the country. It's not damaging because it suggests his policy agenda is poorly conceived, or his priorities are awry. If you think of policy and politics as two circles in a Venn diagram, this is damage that only exists in the politics circle, and doesn't even come close to the area of intersection. We reporters have to cover it, of course, because it's Really Important, and matters more than the housing plans of all the candidates put together. But it matters in a completely self-referential way, it matters only because it matters, not because it means anything about Obama, or illuminates anything about his potential presidency. It's a hollow scandal. Those housing plans, by contrast, don't "matter" in a way that convinces the media to cover them, or to relentlessly hound McCain about the inadequacy of his proposal. They don't "matter," but they are meaningful. And this is why I don't like writing about the campaign. It's full of hollow scandals and ignored travesties.

Meanwhile, it seems some Pennsylvanians have had enough of Hillary's manipulation of this particular "hollow scandal." Is it possible Hilldog is overplaying her hand here? It's hard to say, but I think she has at least damaged her case by focusing so much on the "bitter" portion of Obama's comments -- clearly the most easily defensible part -- rather than zeroing in, with laser-like focus, solely on the far more problematic comments about religion, guns and (especially) xenophobia and racism. As long as the debate is centered primarily on whether Pennsylvanians are "bitter," a lot of people are going to agree with the best political team on television that Hillary is, at best, cynically making a mountain out of a molehill, and at worst, demonstrating that she's out of touch with how pissed-off voters really are. I have an emerging sense that she has inadvertently thrown Obama a major lifeline with her chosen line of attack.

Comments

[Joe Mama]

I'm weepy.

[Hillary Clinton]

WTF??? Does this guy have to punch the Pope in the face or what??? Like me! LIKE ME!!!!!!

[John McCain]

Hopefully people keep focusing on this crap instead of how i broke my own FEC laws.

[Sandy Underpants]

How bad is McCain going to lose to Obama in the General election? I say McCain should be happy if he gets 30% of the popular vote. Can we do a "UCLA gayboys presents the Irishtrojan's pre-summer election predictions" pool.

Here's my vision: Obama 62%, McCain 28%, Nader 1%, Bloomberg/Trump 6%, unintelligible 3%.

When it comes to elections people aren't going to be voting on Bittergate, Wrightgate, Whitegate, or Watergate, they're going to vote on the 5.5 year (and counting) disaster in Iraq and the disaster that is the US Dollar, the disaster that is the economy, and the disaster that is an 8 year Republican presidency. And maybe they'll vote on the competence of a 72 year old who shouldn't even be driving, let alone holding public office.

[Ratatouille]

Someone should make a funny speech out of all the Obama-made snippets taken out of context or the snippets unfairly attributed to Obama through Wright.

The typical white person created Aids as genocide and is bitter and clings to guns and religion. In November 2008, their chickens are coming home to roost. GDA!

Well, it's a start.

[Idea !]

Obama Mad-Libs: Presidential Primary Edition ! !

Dear _______ (proper noun),
I write to ask you to _______ (verb) in your upcoming _________ (place) primary. Please don't believe the lies of ________ (Hillary Clinton / John McCain / Fox News). I am not a __________ (easily-villified archetype). I am going to bring about change you can ________ (verb) ____ (in or on). Yes, we can, Yes we can, YES, _______ (pander identity group) can !.

[Idea ! (player one)]

Dear ___William Ayers____ (proper noun),
I write to ask you to ___reject and denounce____ (verb) in your upcoming ___San Francisco______ (place) primary. Please don't believe the lies of ___Fox News_____ (Hillary Clinton / John McCain / Fox News). I am not a ____Manchurian Candidate______ (easily-villified archetype). I am going to bring about change you can __poo-poo____ (verb) __on__ (in or on). Yes, we can, Yes we can, YES, ___Questioning-exuals____ (pander identity group) can !.

[JD]

I've been thinking about that all weekend. The problem is NOT with the word "bitter," it's with the word "cling".

[Alasdair]

My own suspicion is that this is Obama's 'out-of-touch' moment, like Dukakis' moment when asked about the death penalty if someone close to him was murdered ... whether Clinton will be able to successfully capitalise on it or not is another story ... the Bosnian sniper-phone-call at 3 AM from the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is still sorta fresh in folks' minds ...

[Stinny Crispapple]

Obama was right, in a way.

When the chips are down, and an economic depression cripples society amidst a government struggling for answers, many cling to guns and religion. We called them the Greatest Generation. They clung to their weapons, prayed to their God, and charged the beaches of Normandy in the name of freedom.

I am sure Obama was thinking of the Greatest Generation.

[PenguinSix]

DRINK - MORE - KOOL - AID

[Pug]

... whether Clinton will be able to successfully capitalise on it or not is another story ...

I don't think we need to worry about that. She finished him off on Super Tuesday, remember? That "Clinton Machine" is awesome to behold.

[thebeef]

I'm sorry, but this is not a hollow scandal. Rather, it is yet another window into the true beliefs of a politician, who, as an Illinois State Senator, was once described by a fellow senator as politically left of Chairman Mao (clearly, the description was a joke and purposefully hyperbolic, but you get the point).

For crying out loud, the man said bundled religion with guns and bigotry. And he did so in the context of saying that people "cling" to these negative crutches as a result of economic depression. What did Karl Marx call that again? Oh yeah: the opiate of the people.

The man is making more and more clear that he is unelectable.

[David K.]

The man is making more and more clear that he is unelectable.

You can continue clinging to this belief, i'm going to have faith that American's are sick of the b.s. the right has been feeding and are ready for a President who gets that their life sucks in many areas and is willing to do something about it instead of continuing to play politics as usual, politics that put these people in the place they are.

Obama phrased things poorly, but his point still stands. Obama is more in touch with the average citizen than either of the other two candidates and of the three he's the one not taking money from special interest groups. Between him and McCain he's the one not breaking campaign finance law. And he's the one willing ot actually be honest with American's. Bush kept telling us nothing was wrong, everything was great. We all saw where that led.

But most telling is how much effort right wingers put into trying to put down Obama and say how unelectable he is. They are scared because they know their flawed party is going to lose its deathgrip on the presidency and their flawed policies are going the way of the dodo.

[Alasdair]

David (and I may hate myself for asking) - how is McCain "breaking campaign finance law" ?

[Condor]

Fox News just posted one of Reverend Wright's recent eulogies. I know it's not the right time to say this, but that guy is one hell of an amazing speaker. You guys should listen to this speech. Wow. He makes Hannity and O'Reilly sound like they've got rocks in their mouths (click at the end of the page):
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/13/jeremiah-wright-sounds-off-at-eulogogy-for-chicago-judge/

[David K.]

Alasdair: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/03/24/mccain_breaks_spending_limits/

[Alasdair]

David

Do the relevant regulatons/laws indeed say "The FEC regulations specifically state that candidates who do not receive public funding payments from the US Treasury are exempt from the primary spending ceiling" ?

If they do, and if his campaign hasn't received any such funds, it would seem that he hasn't broken any campaign finance laws ... right ?

Alasdair, much like with the line-item veto thing, you are using your usual mocking/condescending tone to make fun of David for making a statement that is at least arguably true. There is a raging debate ongoing in political and legal circles about whether McCain broke campaign finance laws. Maybe he did; maybe he didn't. It's unsettled and open to interpretation. You're certainly free to argue that he didn't. But it isn't obvious or self-evident that he didn't, and thus David isn't clearly wrong for claiming that he did, so please, cut the crap.

[Joe Mama]

Obama is more in touch with the average citizen than either of the other two candidates . . .

The average citizen living in the Pacific Heights of San Francisco, perhaps.

[Joe Mama]

American's are sick of the b.s. the right has been feeding and are ready for a President who gets that their life sucks . . .

Speak for yourself, David.

[Joe Mama]

John Judis of TNR is right on: liberals like Ezra Klein trying to downplay the effect of Obama's fundraising speech are engaged in wishful thinking.

[Aaron]

Judis may end up being right, but his argument is pretty weak. Notice, as just one example among many, how he arrives at the rather strong conclusion that Obama "will have to win almost all of these heartland states" - by dismissing Virginia and Colorado with a mere wave of the hand.

[Alasdair]

Closet anonymous at 7:01 AM - David chose to be blunt with "Between him and McCain he's the one not breaking campaign finance law. " - and yet David is being reasonable while *I* am being condescending by being equally blunt (plus supported by current facts) ?

"mocking" - yup, ya got me ... of course, to do so, all I have to do is shine a bright light on David's statement and surrounding reality (which mockingly contradicts David's knee-jerk prejudices and bigotries) ... David may yet become poster-child for MDS - McCain Derangement Syndrome - to add to his charter membership in the BDS D-list group ...

IF McCain broke campaign finance laws, then he deserves to be prosecuted ... a reasonable person, at the moment, is taking a look at the FACT that no-one is prosecuting McCain for campaign finance law-breaking, even though the Democratic leadership would dearly love to be able to do so, and comes to the reasonable conclusion that the reason that the Dems ain't gotten him indicted yet is cuz they cannot legally do so ...

Yup - David is fully-entitled to express his knee-jerk membership in the D-list (and fully-entitled to be defended by others in the D-list (or their covert sock-puppets)), but, puhleeeze, find something more dire of which to accuse me than "mocking" his D-listness !

OY !

[JO]

And in other news, Jimma Carta is over in the middle east kissing Hamas' asses and laying a wreath at Yasser Arafats grave!!! Must be some by-law in the Nobel Peace Prize handbook.

And in honor of tax day, I bring you this gem from none other than Harry Reid himself. Taxes are voluntary