Obama: No glass jaw
Going into the 2008 presidential election, the mainstream media conventional wisdom (TM) was that Hillary Clinton’s campaign was effectively the gold standard and that it was unlikely that Barack Obama or John Edwards would be able to out-organize or out-strategize her team, and that she would be tougher than the untested Obama.
That, of course, has proven to be utterly false. The Obama campaign has been consistently out-maneuvering Clinton’s all season long. Much has been made about the Clinton campaign’s failure to plan beyond Super Tuesday. Meanwhile, Obama was building a grass-roots campaign in all 50 states. But more importantly from a general election perspective has been Obama’s ability to respond to setbacks or attacks. No glass jaw here.
Obama has shown a tremendous ability to fire back effectively under those circumstances. His handling of the “bitter” comments — mocking Clinton’s re-invention as a whiskey-swilling duck hunter — was brilliant. He handled Wright about as well as could be expected. The Philadelphia speech was excellent, and his disavowal of Wright after the National Press Club largely stopped the story in its tracks.
And, just yesterday, Obama deflates the Clinton win in West Virginia by rolling out the John Edwards endorsement. Is Joe Biden next, after the likely Clinton win in Kentucky?
This effectiveness Obama has shown is going to have to continue until November. McCain will publicly try to claim the high road, but we’ve seen a history in his campaigns that he will get as down-and-dirty as those he claims to despise. McCain went extremely negative versus Romney in the primaries, twisting his words in ways McCain complains about today regarding his own “100 years” comment. The Republican 527s will throw a bunch of stuff up against the wall, too. It’s good to see that Obama (unlike Gore and Kerry) will aggressively fight back.
