This makes me somewhat hopeful that the pessimism I expressed about the Obama campaign’s initial response to the Clark brouhaha was somewhat uncalled for, as a commenter who shall remain nameless (but she knows who she is and she can do the dishes herself tomorrow) asserted.
According to a Diary on Open Left, the Obama campaign’s initial reaction to the Clark statement was issued by a staffer. Obama himself had this to say:
Obama was asked by a young man, and responded calmly (with pleasant but mild indignation) about apologizing to John McCain:
“Are you going to apologize to John McCain, for what Wesley Clark Said”, Obama responded, “why should I respond to something, that I never said, that happened on some Sunday morning talk show”. Obama continued “I think we have more important things to talk about, and I’m not sure the average person in Ohio is thinking about this”
Here’s the video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if0guuE-HXE[/youtube]
Apparently the craven condemnation was the work of a staffer, or is being attributed to same. This is good, and as the post at Open Left points out, it may be due to the pushback by the left. It’s amazing that McCain actually trotted out a swift-boater to condemn Clark, though it’s not at all surprising that there’s been almost no press comment on that fact.
Now, it’s time for Democrats to start taking a lesson from the Republicans. It shouldn’t be up to Obama to deal with this anymore. Congressional Democrats should engage in a full throated counter attack, aimed at both McCain and the press. The contrast with the press reaction to the Rove engineered attacks on Kerry, which really did attack his military record, couldn’t be starker. The Republicans get the message of the day and the all run with it. The Democrats are like a herd of cats. That’s why they lose.
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