WASHINGTON — If you stop to think about it, it did not take
much time at all for the Obama-Clinton contest to become the most
overwrought political spectacle since…well, since Independent
Counsel Kenneth Starr was subpoenaing Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s
Rose Law firm billing records and all the rancor that followed
therefrom. Two months back Senator Barack Obama was the genial,
winsome young orator from the Land of Lincoln, and Senator Hillary
Rodham Clinton was the smiling front-runner for the Democratic
presidential nomination. Somehow her double-digit lead over him
vanished and — whammo! Of a sudden, the charges of treachery and
personal destruction were flying.
Thitherto Obama was the anti-war candidate, the herald of
change, the first black candidate to present a plausible campaign
for residency at 1600 Pennsylvania. Almost overnight Boy Clinton
was casting doubt on Obama’s anti-war bona fides, his honesty, and
the viability of his presidential ambition. He called it a “fairy
tale.” Hillary, with her famous tin ear, was slighting Martin
Luther King Jr. and doubting that Obama’s experience was sufficient
for the rigors of the presidency. No one was frank enough to
mention her experience, which includes lying under oath,
obstructing justice, slandering such collateral damage of the
Clinton Saga as Gennifer Flowers, Kathleen Willey, and the fair
Monica, and finally forget not her cattle futures bonanza. For that
matter, no one was frank enough to say that her husband (who in a
plea bargain before leaving office admitted to lying under oath,
gave up his law license, and paid a $25,000 fine) was unfit to
judge Obama’s honesty.
The immediate aftermath of Hillary’s slim victory in New
Hampshire was the Clintons v. Starr all over again. The race card
went into play and the gender card — all this in a
Democratic primary. The only element missing from the
Clintons’ overwrought 1990s was Hillary’s discovery of a “vast
conspiracy,” but there is still time. Wait until the action shifts
to California where the paranoid style inspires some of Hollywood’s
greatest contemporary masterpieces.
Slowly the genial Obama has caught on. He is now gingerly
complaining about the Clintons’ “accuracy.” On ABC’s Good
Morning America he said that the ex-Boy President “continues
to make statements that are not supported by the facts — whether
it’s about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq or our
approach to organizing in Las Vegas.” He has not called the
Clintons liars but that is his implication, and his supporter,
former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, charged the Clinton
campaign with “incredible distortions.”
So here we are back in the politics of the 1990s and the
Clintons have not even gotten into a race with the diabolical
Republicans. Imagine how overwrought that campaign might be. Can
Obama, who calls himself a “transformational” candidate, preserve
the Republic from yet another hysterical Clinton campaign or, even
worse, another hysterical Clinton presidency? I think he can. In
fact, if he and his advisers look back to the weeks before the Iowa
primaries, they will see how that double-digit lead of Senator
Clinton’s vanished.
Obama introduced two themes, both closely related. He
asseverated that the Clintons represent all the bitterness
associated with “the Baby Boomers” in politics. That they do. In
recent weeks we have tasted that bitterness all over again. What is
more, with great subtlety Obama brought up “the 1990s.” Hesto
presto — the Clinton lead vanished among the Democrats who
supposedly adored the Clintons. As Democratic primary voters now
have fresh evidence of the Clintons’ dirty tricks and bitter
charges, Obama should revert to these themes. He now finds himself
on the defensive in the rancorous atmosphere that the Clintons
apparently thrive in. Obama should return to the high ground where
he has already hurt Hillary badly. In claiming he is the candidate
of change he should remind Democrats of the Baby Boomers’ bitter
battles and of “the 1990s.” Clear-thinking Democrats will know what
he means. He will win their presidential nomination, and I will no
longer have the Clintons to kick around. It is about time. Sixteen
years of laughs at their expense is enough.
