For months on the campaign trail, particularly since achieving frontrunner status, Barack Obama has repeatedly faced a dilemma of his own making. On the one hand, much of his popularity stems from his carefully cultivated image as a uniter rather than a divider, as the standard bearer of a new more positive brand of politics. On the other hand, maintaining this image has at times complicated the task of winning office, as it has hamstrung Mr. Obama in countering the attacks of his opponents.
In the past, the Senator has generally chosen to take his licks in the short term in order to protect his above-the-fray reputation for the long haul. His lead in the delegate count and his continued record-breaking success in fundraising appear to validate that strategic choice. Even in Pennsylvania, where for weeks he has been soundly beaten about the head with statements suggesting condescension towards this state’s blue-collar electorate, he has still managed to close a once yawning gap in the polls to come within striking distance of opponent Hillary Clinton. Ms. Clinton is expected to pull out a win here on Tuesday, denying Mr. Obama the knock-out blow that he needs to bring the Democratic nomination contest to a conclusion. But there are signs that the Illinois Senator may now be prepared to take the fight to his opponent – and even to fight a bit more dirty – if that is the price of victory.
“There’s been a lot of discussion over the last several days about how this campaign gets so negative, how we get distracted, how we exploit divisions,” Mr. Obama told a crowd of Pennsylvania voters. “Look, our campaign’s not perfect. There’ve been times where, you know, if you get elbowed enough, eventually you start elbowing back.” (NYT)
The centerpiece of Senator Obama’s new tactical approach is a kind of rumor campaign regarding, of all things, Senator Clinton’s likely choice of running-mate if she succeeds in clinching the nomination. The rumor mill serves to further accentuate what Mr. Obama has long publicly claimed is Ms. Clinton’s Achilles heel: an impaired sense of judgment best illustrated by her vote in favor of the Senate Resolution authorizing the presidential use of force against Iraq.
To drive this point home, the Obama campaign has begun to circulate gossip and to plant disinformation so damaging that it will almost certainly sink Senator Clinton’s run for the White House if it takes hold in the public consciousness. To preserve his image, Mr. Obama is publicly distancing himself from the gossiping, leaving the dirty work to surrogates. Recent days have also seen a proliferation of internet bulletin board postings consistent with the Senator's line of attack. The provenance of these messages is unclear, but they are widely believed to originate from within the Obama campaign machine.
Above: The Obama campaign is pushing to characterize
Senator Hillary Clinton as irrational and incapable of
sound decision-making. This effort has at times
been aided by Clinton herself.
After this already very long campaign, developing a story capable of exercising such an impact cannot have been easy. If Clinton supporters have not found their candidate’s vote on the Iraq War to be a disqualifying indication of her decision-making ability after all these months of discussion, what could change their minds now? Whose name could epitomize flawed judgment to such a degree? What man or woman – besides the current occupant of the White House and his own Vice President – could prove so utterly disastrous when merely floated as a potential number two by a party rival?
Enter Vice Admiral James Stockdale, USN (ret.). A Vietnam War hero and POW, Stockdale was drafted onto the Reform Party ticket by Texas billionaire Ross Perot for the 1992 campaign and is widely blamed for the drop-off in support for the third party in the months leading up the election. His name has been synonymous with “political suicide” ever since his appearance in that year’s Vice-Presidential debate alongside then-Senator Al Gore and then-Vice President Dan Quayle, himself no slouch in the electoral deadweight department.
“I have nothing less than total admiration for Admiral Stockdale’s military service to this country and for his brave conduct as a prisoner of war and victim of torture,” said a political consultant affiliated with the Obama camp and believed to have been involved in crafting the rumor campaign. “But let’s face it, in political terms the man is an albatross.”
On the heels of a strong debate performance by Mr. Perot, Admiral Stockdale’s own debate appearance is now seen as a watershed moment in Perot’s already fairly quixotic quest for the presidency as a third party candidate.
“Who am I? Why am I here?” – the rhetorical questions with which the Admiral opened his introductory statements – proved to be a prophetic summary of the concerns that quickly grew in the minds of voters. The impression that Admiral Stockdale might be a less than ideal choice for the office whose occupant is famously said to be a heart beat away from the presidency, was reinforced by long pauses in his speech as he searched his pockets for his glasses or other objects. Stockdale also appeared at times to lose his train of thought mid-sentence. And intermittent difficulties with his hearing aid did little to help establish the image of a steady and vital leader.
Above: Vice Admiral James Stockdale, USN (ret.),
1992 -- and 2008? -- vice presidential candidate.
The Admiral was quick to admit his own lack of experience in the kind of political jousting called for by the debate. Facing a Democratic contender bursting with information and eager to show it, on the one hand, and an intellectually negligible but voluble sitting Vice-President, on the other, Stockdale’s greenness was evident. His elbows were not sufficiently sharp to consistently win him the floor and his natural style too laconic to drive his points home effectively. The Navy man had trouble getting a word in edgewise and frequently seemed to be attempting to intervene in the discussion in a normal conversational tone while his two opponents shouted over top of him. Even when he did have the floor his comments were often so brief that they quickly got lost in another round of verbal jostling between Gore and Quayle for the remainder of his allotted time.
The public judged his performance to have been at best bewildering, at worst deeply disconcerting. The word “stumbling” appears in many press accounts. A Saturday Night Live sketch depicted an irate Mr. Perot taking his running mate for drive in the country only to shove him out of the car in hopes of improving his own electoral prospects.
There is only one clear advantage to a hypothetical drafting of Admiral Stockdale. As a former POW in Vietnam, the inclusion of Admiral Stockdale could go a long way towards blunting the effect of Mr. McCain’s own war record and POW experience.
Clinton campaign officials have consistently denied that Stockdale is being vetted as a ticket number two and have expressed bafflement at the source of these rumors. A convenient -- but little known -- fact may spare the Clinton camp the full force of affiliation with Admiral Stockdale: he died nearly three years ago.
When reporters called Obama’s attention to the Admiral's demise, the Senator expressed his heartfelt condolences to the Stockdale family but said that this was really a matter to take up with the Clinton campaign. The fact that Admiral Stockdale was dead, he noted, only compounded the illogic of his opponent’s alleged efforts to recruit him to her ticket. “Sure makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Not to mention that I’m pretty sure the man was a registered Republican.”
Despite the use of a ouija board, Admiral Stockdale could not be reached for comment.
In the past, the Senator has generally chosen to take his licks in the short term in order to protect his above-the-fray reputation for the long haul. His lead in the delegate count and his continued record-breaking success in fundraising appear to validate that strategic choice. Even in Pennsylvania, where for weeks he has been soundly beaten about the head with statements suggesting condescension towards this state’s blue-collar electorate, he has still managed to close a once yawning gap in the polls to come within striking distance of opponent Hillary Clinton. Ms. Clinton is expected to pull out a win here on Tuesday, denying Mr. Obama the knock-out blow that he needs to bring the Democratic nomination contest to a conclusion. But there are signs that the Illinois Senator may now be prepared to take the fight to his opponent – and even to fight a bit more dirty – if that is the price of victory.
“There’s been a lot of discussion over the last several days about how this campaign gets so negative, how we get distracted, how we exploit divisions,” Mr. Obama told a crowd of Pennsylvania voters. “Look, our campaign’s not perfect. There’ve been times where, you know, if you get elbowed enough, eventually you start elbowing back.” (NYT)
The centerpiece of Senator Obama’s new tactical approach is a kind of rumor campaign regarding, of all things, Senator Clinton’s likely choice of running-mate if she succeeds in clinching the nomination. The rumor mill serves to further accentuate what Mr. Obama has long publicly claimed is Ms. Clinton’s Achilles heel: an impaired sense of judgment best illustrated by her vote in favor of the Senate Resolution authorizing the presidential use of force against Iraq.
To drive this point home, the Obama campaign has begun to circulate gossip and to plant disinformation so damaging that it will almost certainly sink Senator Clinton’s run for the White House if it takes hold in the public consciousness. To preserve his image, Mr. Obama is publicly distancing himself from the gossiping, leaving the dirty work to surrogates. Recent days have also seen a proliferation of internet bulletin board postings consistent with the Senator's line of attack. The provenance of these messages is unclear, but they are widely believed to originate from within the Obama campaign machine.
Above: The Obama campaign is pushing to characterizeSenator Hillary Clinton as irrational and incapable of
sound decision-making. This effort has at times
been aided by Clinton herself.
After this already very long campaign, developing a story capable of exercising such an impact cannot have been easy. If Clinton supporters have not found their candidate’s vote on the Iraq War to be a disqualifying indication of her decision-making ability after all these months of discussion, what could change their minds now? Whose name could epitomize flawed judgment to such a degree? What man or woman – besides the current occupant of the White House and his own Vice President – could prove so utterly disastrous when merely floated as a potential number two by a party rival?
Enter Vice Admiral James Stockdale, USN (ret.). A Vietnam War hero and POW, Stockdale was drafted onto the Reform Party ticket by Texas billionaire Ross Perot for the 1992 campaign and is widely blamed for the drop-off in support for the third party in the months leading up the election. His name has been synonymous with “political suicide” ever since his appearance in that year’s Vice-Presidential debate alongside then-Senator Al Gore and then-Vice President Dan Quayle, himself no slouch in the electoral deadweight department.
“I have nothing less than total admiration for Admiral Stockdale’s military service to this country and for his brave conduct as a prisoner of war and victim of torture,” said a political consultant affiliated with the Obama camp and believed to have been involved in crafting the rumor campaign. “But let’s face it, in political terms the man is an albatross.”
On the heels of a strong debate performance by Mr. Perot, Admiral Stockdale’s own debate appearance is now seen as a watershed moment in Perot’s already fairly quixotic quest for the presidency as a third party candidate.
“Who am I? Why am I here?” – the rhetorical questions with which the Admiral opened his introductory statements – proved to be a prophetic summary of the concerns that quickly grew in the minds of voters. The impression that Admiral Stockdale might be a less than ideal choice for the office whose occupant is famously said to be a heart beat away from the presidency, was reinforced by long pauses in his speech as he searched his pockets for his glasses or other objects. Stockdale also appeared at times to lose his train of thought mid-sentence. And intermittent difficulties with his hearing aid did little to help establish the image of a steady and vital leader.
Above: Vice Admiral James Stockdale, USN (ret.),1992 -- and 2008? -- vice presidential candidate.
The Admiral was quick to admit his own lack of experience in the kind of political jousting called for by the debate. Facing a Democratic contender bursting with information and eager to show it, on the one hand, and an intellectually negligible but voluble sitting Vice-President, on the other, Stockdale’s greenness was evident. His elbows were not sufficiently sharp to consistently win him the floor and his natural style too laconic to drive his points home effectively. The Navy man had trouble getting a word in edgewise and frequently seemed to be attempting to intervene in the discussion in a normal conversational tone while his two opponents shouted over top of him. Even when he did have the floor his comments were often so brief that they quickly got lost in another round of verbal jostling between Gore and Quayle for the remainder of his allotted time.
The public judged his performance to have been at best bewildering, at worst deeply disconcerting. The word “stumbling” appears in many press accounts. A Saturday Night Live sketch depicted an irate Mr. Perot taking his running mate for drive in the country only to shove him out of the car in hopes of improving his own electoral prospects.
There is only one clear advantage to a hypothetical drafting of Admiral Stockdale. As a former POW in Vietnam, the inclusion of Admiral Stockdale could go a long way towards blunting the effect of Mr. McCain’s own war record and POW experience.
Clinton campaign officials have consistently denied that Stockdale is being vetted as a ticket number two and have expressed bafflement at the source of these rumors. A convenient -- but little known -- fact may spare the Clinton camp the full force of affiliation with Admiral Stockdale: he died nearly three years ago.
When reporters called Obama’s attention to the Admiral's demise, the Senator expressed his heartfelt condolences to the Stockdale family but said that this was really a matter to take up with the Clinton campaign. The fact that Admiral Stockdale was dead, he noted, only compounded the illogic of his opponent’s alleged efforts to recruit him to her ticket. “Sure makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Not to mention that I’m pretty sure the man was a registered Republican.”
Despite the use of a ouija board, Admiral Stockdale could not be reached for comment.
1 comment:
As soon as it said, "running-mate," I knew who we would be hearing from -- from beyond the grave.
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