Bob “The Prince of Darkness” Novak reports:
Strategists for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign believe it is imperative to identify her high-flying opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, with the “McGovern wing” of the Democratic Party — but they want to keep their candidate’s fingerprints off the attack.
Presumably, leaking it to Novak would be considered counter-productive to that sort of secrecy.
Now that her cover is blown, perhaps Clinton ought to be more overt about comparing Obama to McGovern.
She can say that the Right is going to compare Obama to McGovern — and the Clintons cut their teeth in national politics working for the McGovern campaign — which compels her to raise the subject.
She knows better than most the story of how Edmund Muskie was the “inevitable” nominee in 1972, only to have the more anti-war McGovern campaign surge past Muskie to capture the Democratic nomination. She can talk about how McGovern did this by winning caucuses in normally Republican states — just like her good friend Barack is doing now.
She can then point out that McGovern went on to lose 49 states to Richard Nixon. She could point out that Vietnam was about as unpopular then as Iraq is now, but McGovern still had his rear end handed to him by… Richard Nixon.
She could point out that nominating the most dovish candidate, even during an unpopular war, generally does not win elections. She could note that ever since Nixon, the Democrats have failed when they nominated candidates that appealed more to liberal elites than to the forgotten middle class.
Bill Clinton did pretty well talking about the forgotten middle class. Hillary used to talk about it when she was the prohibitive favorite. John Edwards — whose endorsement Hillary covets — did much better with focus groups talking about the middle class than he did with his poverty tour on the campaign trail.
Hillary has forgotten the middle class. For a campaign without a theme, she could do worse than to remember them.
(h/t Memeorandum.)
Pingback by Dems 2008: Historians for Hillary [Karl] on 2/16 @ 11:12 pm #
[...] I note that the Perfesser also has a link up about Obama as McGovern, so you might want to check my take on that also. Posted by Karl @ 5:31 pm | Trackback Share [...]
Comment by Topsecretk9 on 2/16 @ 11:12 pm #
Jeralyn at TalkLeft, clearly in the tank for Hillary strangely has a post up today titled– Obama as the Next McGovern? and then goes on to say
 “The TimesOnline says the right wing is set to attack Barack Obama s the ultimate “liberal socialist†in the mold of George McGovern. … Sample attack: … More… I was struck earlier by Obama’s statement that the solution to the Florida primary election is to hold caucuses…”
(cribbed from memorandum, the link to her site isn’t working now) Seems you nailed it…”She can say that the Right is going to compare Obama to McGovern  and the Clintons cut their teeth in national politics working for the McGovern campaign  which compels her to raise the subject.”
Comment by happyfeet on 2/16 @ 11:18 pm #
I think it backed trackwards.
Comment by Karl on 2/16 @ 11:21 pm #
I was working on this already from the Novak piece — and had it set to fire off Sunday morning — when Jeralyn Merritt’s post went big on Memeorandum (I think due to the Insta-link). So I did a quick edit for the ToL story and fired off now, ’cause it’s all about the traffic, baby.
Comment by Karl on 2/16 @ 11:27 pm #
BTW, if this blog was a DVD, that last comment would be the commentary track where I take you behind the blogging.
Comment by happyfeet on 2/16 @ 11:29 pm #
No, for real. I wish I had your email.
Comment by Karl on 2/16 @ 11:32 pm #
hf,
That one went right over my head. Do you want my address?
Comment by happyfeet on 2/16 @ 11:34 pm #
Well yeah but look at my #3. You can send at happyfeet47 at yahoo… so I won’t have to do meta things in comments…
Comment by Karl on 2/16 @ 11:43 pm #
Oh. That trackback was caused by my update, which was caused by your tip. I’ll send you my address though.
Comment by happyfeet on 2/16 @ 11:45 pm #
Oh. Sorry. I couldn’t work that out.
Comment by MayBee on 2/16 @ 11:51 pm #
Jeralyn was one of the bloggers at the Clinton luncheon, fwiw.
I’m not sure if she hung out with Sid Blumenthal at the Libby trial when Jane Hamsher did or not.
Comment by Karl on 2/16 @ 11:52 pm #
No problemo. Sent off that e-mail (in case it ends up in the spam bin).
Comment by happyfeet on 2/16 @ 11:59 pm #
Hasn’t Baracky explicitly budgeted Iraq war money for his changeyness already? If she hasn’t done the same damn dumb thing I think she could probably use that to McGovernize him a bit.
Comment by MayBee on 2/17 @ 12:20 am #
Recall, if you will, how Clinton ultimately treated the middle class:
Does Hillary really have anything to say other than Obama stole her husband’s 1992 play book, and is beating her with it?
Comment by happyfeet on 2/17 @ 12:24 am #
What’s old is new again I guess.
Comment by happyfeet on 2/17 @ 12:31 am #
Oh. I got that from the story MB linked just above.
Comment by happyfeet on 2/17 @ 12:45 am #
Obama is stealing Bill’s penchant for the quotidian as well… In his economic plan he totally reorders the economy but throws in fillips like
Comment by guinsPen on 2/17 @ 6:23 am #
a campaign without a theme
I nominate “Town Without Pity.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUMQ2rJt8-o
Comment by Jec on 2/17 @ 8:24 am #
While she’s at it, Hillary ought to talk about Obama’s connection to the Nation of Islam (he has Nation of Islam members prominently on both his Senate and Presidential campaign staffs,)
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 8:29 am #
well….nixon wasnt very old an prohibitively short.
i think that is the clincher.
do u think dean lost the nom cuz of the deanscream?
nope….its cuz on tv, he was revealled to be the egomanical dwarf his supporters never saw on the web.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 8:35 am #
jec she tried that an it boomeranged on her.
just like mccain an huck cudnt attack romney on mormonism, she cant attack obama on islam.
she cant attack him on race either, hehe.
u kno..she leaks this stuff…and the insta polls turn it back on her.
shes gettin boxed in.
it might be she doesnt want to say mcgovern cuz then ppl know that is where a lot of her “experience” comes from.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 8:36 am #
i thinks that is it, the mcgovern thing
shed get tarred with the same brush.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 2/17 @ 8:43 am #
she starts it, an obama sez..wait….didnt u work on his campaign n shit?
how am I like mcgovern?
Comment by Pablo on 2/17 @ 8:43 am #
Nixon beat McGovern because of the James Brown endorsement. Everybody knows that.
Comment by McGehee on 2/17 @ 12:25 pm #
No, Pablo — it’s because Elvis had a badge.
Pingback by Polimom Says » Who’s Afraid of Barack Obama? on 2/17 @ 7:16 pm #
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