August 12, 2008
Mark Penn and Hillary: Monkey See, Monkey Do (Dick Morris)
By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
On March 19, 2007, Mark Penn wrote a memo to Hillary Clinton saying:
"Every speech should contain a line [saying that] you were born in the middle of America to a middle-class family in the middle of the last century."
On May 10, 2007, Time magazine reported that Hillary's stump speech included the lines:
"I was born into a middle-class family in the middle of the country in the middle of the last century."
After Penn's memos were released to the media this week, Hillary's people spread the word that she did not take Penn's advice. But it is evident that she did.
The strategy Penn recommended was ridiculous. He somehow thought that by stressing Hillary's normalcy, Obama's unusual name, race, origin, parents and skin color would redound to his detriment. In fact, the exact opposite proved to be the case. It has been his very novelty that has underscored his appeal. Penn missed the point.
But the larger point in his memos is that Hillary sought, from the beginning of the 2008 campaign, to use race as an issue against Obama. Her early willingness to wrap herself in the flag and marginalize Obama as an outsider bespeaks her efforts to inject race into the campaign. As soon as Obama emerged as her chief opponent, Hillary and Bill Clinton tried to make the election about race and to contrast her American roots with Obama's otherness.
It would be a mistake to think that Hillary's campaign against Obama is over. She and Bill both realize that if McCain wins, she would be the likely Democratic nominee against him in 2012. At the age of 76, McCain might make easy pickings. Hillary's argument to win the nomination would be simple: I told you so. Her warnings that Obama was unelectable would have proven to have been prescient and Democrats are likely to feel chagrined that they rejected her in 2008.
How will the Clintons undermine Obama? Not by any overt statement. In public, they will appear to be his biggest fans. Hillary does not dare incurring the wrath of Democratic voters if they feel that she abandoned her party's nominee in the general election. But the Clintons will do what they do best: they will hog the spotlight. By speaking on Tuesday and Wednesday, this former first couple will spread themselves over the convention, usurping media, taking face time, and making the convention appear, for its first three days, as a Hillary Clinton gathering.
Remember how, in 2004, Bill Clinton timed the release of his memoir My Life to coincide with the start of the John Kerry campaign? His swings through the nation, attracting lines and crowds at bookstores, drew attention away from Kerry. His strategy of distraction culminated when he scheduled a book signing in Boston during the Democratic convention, drawing mobs and pulling the spotlight away from Kerry.
By hogging the publicity at the Democratic convention and by keeping the spotlight away from Obama, the Clintons are going to do all they can to stop the Democrat from getting a bounce from his convention appearance. How will they hurt Obama down the road? Bill will make offhanded comments, seemingly mistakes. A loose cannon, he will appear to be undisciplined as he follows a game plan to undermine the candidate. Hillary will do her best to avoid campaigning for Obama and will undercut him in any way she can without getting caught.
Obama: Watch your back!
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We'd all be grateful for whatever Clintons do to undermine Obama this election cycle.
Comment by Misha — August 12, 2008 @ 7:23 pm
Obama is an alien, anti-American influence. Hillary will do the world a service by sinking this already sinking ship. Take a look at the family picture and decide for yourself if the "middle of America" spiel was a good idea:
http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/13052.htm
Comment by Igor R. — August 12, 2008 @ 9:16 pm
Barack Obama began his political career in Chicago. After the usual neophyte mistakes in getting to know the lay of the land and key precinct players, so to speak, he quickly learned and rose rapidly through the city and state levels to national — and perhaps historic –prominence. What he knows from his education in Chicago politics, Dick Morris will never understand — namely, what the Godfather advised his son and heir:
"Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."
Too subtle for Dick Morris and the Clinton Partners in Pathos to grasp, perhaps, but true nonetheless. As the Chicago beat cop said to the innocent "untouchable" Elliot Ness after instructing him on the essentials of police work: "Here endeth the lesson."
– Consolation Postscript for the Bawl and Pillory Horror Picture Show (dysfunctional warm-up act for Grandpa McBush and the Geriatric Old Poops):
As the jealous elder Bing Crosby said of the young singer/sensation of the day, Frank Sinatra: "He has a voice that only comes along once in a lifetime. Unfortunately for me, it was my lifetime."
Comment by Michael Murry — August 12, 2008 @ 9:27 pm
Communists endorse alien: is that surprising?
http://wizbangblog.com/content/2008/08/12/obama-gets-the-ultimate-endorsement-the-communist-party-usa.php
Comment by Igor R. — August 12, 2008 @ 9:35 pm
So the Clintons may have a redeeming value after all?
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — August 12, 2008 @ 10:02 pm
Dick, remember George Allen when using the term "monkey"…
Comment by Metamucil — August 12, 2008 @ 10:29 pm
It's time for McCain to rev up the attack machine and start talking about all those questionable characters in Obama's background. People like Rev. Wright, and Father Pfleger who make Obama look like what he is–dangerous and extreme.
I love the expression coined by http://www.notwrightforamerica.com that Obama is not WRIGHT for America. McCain should go with it!
Comment by Gypsy Man — August 13, 2008 @ 3:14 am
Nice analysis Dick. Fits in well with this quote from Hillary:
"You show people what you're willing to fight for when you fight your friends." - (From the book "The Agenda" by Bob Woodward, ch. 14)
Comment by ObamaNOT — August 13, 2008 @ 7:17 am
Check out Dowd this morning…she nails the clintons and points up the old guard's fear of Obama not using DIRTY politics…
Comment by Docb — August 13, 2008 @ 11:04 am
Gypsy Man;
While we are comparing questionable people associated with Obama, lets look at those hanging with John McCain.
Rick Davis - lobbyist, cost Central Ohio 8,000 jobs
Larry Black - Lobbyist, made 1.8 million lobbying for oil and others while working with McCain.
Randy Scheunemann - Lobbyist, lobbied for Georgia and got 200,000 dollar for McCain to make statements that the President of Georgia now wants him to back up with action.
29 lobbyist working for McCain has ties to big oil and after McCain flip-flop on offshore drilling, got 1.1 million dollars in campaign contributions.
So yes, why don't we look at the questionable people associated with the different campaigns, it so be good.
Comment by Mike Coleman — August 13, 2008 @ 1:28 pm
Gypsy Man is way off deep in to the weeds. Rev Wright, yea right, get a life, or at least an issue of substance.
Comment by Jesse Templeton — August 13, 2008 @ 4:21 pm