When family members back home tell me how much they dislike -- even hate -- politics, I can thank amoral political hacks like Douglas E. Schoen. An adviser to Bill Clinton post 1994 -- the era of Dick Morris -- Schoen today in the Post advocates Hillary Clinton taking a scorched earth policy to somehow breath life into her lost campaign.
Although voters and the media look favorably upon a positive campaign message, and Clinton is acutely conscious that too much negativity and too many personal attacks will hurt her party in November, a positive message is simply not enough to alter the race at this point. It is too late for Clinton to wait for Obama to make another mistake. She must seize the opportunity that Obama's self-acknowledged mistakes last week presented to her campaign; it is almost certainly her last chance.
So the advice is that even though going negative and personal could cost the Democrats the race in November, Clinton should go ahead and do it anyway because this race is all about her, regardless is she's run a losing campaign from Day 1. Of course, this would all just be mildly amusing if it didn't look like she was about to do exactly this.
Leaving aside my biases in this race, I'm not some political Pollyanna who thinks that all campaigns should be conducted at a tone appropriate for serving tea. Politics is a rough business -- it should be, given the importance of the ideas, values and expectations at stake. But that's not reflected in shots of Crown Royal and endless repetitions of "I'm not bitter!" All that's doing is laying the groundwork to -- pardon the cliche, but it's appropriate -- snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
With the issues at stake in this election -- war, executive abuse of powers, suspension of basic civil liberties -- it's disappointing, sad and infuriating that Clinton would choose to run a campaign based on a solipsism.
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