Reply #83: I have many differences with that. [View All]

I am sure you are right, the Clinton campaign is feeling the Obama heat. This of course will cause the Clinton people to panic and start screwing things up. Or not.

H. Clinton's public life has been nothing if not a constant battle. You only have to read about every third post on DU to find out how much of a liability this is seen to be.

What is an "Obama reporter"? Did they think they had a reporter they could trust? That is Team Obama's mistake, not Clinton's.

As far as the issues: Activists and interested parties will find out where the candidates stand on the issues if they want to without having to hear a speech or read a press release. I don't think there is any mystery about where these candidates are coming from. If a candidate came out with some statement dramatically different than their record I would be skeptical of it, and they better be explaining their epiphany too. Brand new candidates who come out of nowhere may have a little bit of a burden here, but anybody like that is highly unlikely to get elected anyway because the voters don't want to be surprised. Ultimately, Howard Dean, who inspired many to give a lot of money and time and effort, could not convince voters that they could trust him with their vote.

The campaign process really is a dog-and-pony show. It's about putting some pressure on these people and seeing how they react, what kind of team can they build, what kind of support they get, that sort of thing. This is about all the other job requirements BESIDES policy. I find it pretty funny that people here claim to not know what H. Clinton stands for because supposedly her website isn't as easy to navigate as they would like. Or that Edwards s the best candidate because he had good info up on his website pretty early. Puhleeze. As if there aren't about a thousand other sources to find out about what they believe and how they behave. It's pretty rare these days to get a candidate- let alone a winner- at this level with no prior public service experience, therefore this process isn't about hiring someone unknown and new, it's about promoting someone from within and giving them more responsibility.

I think this thirst for further statements about policy is really just a desire to see an opponent make a mistake- say something contradictory or even just vague, or anything to parse and be critical of. Every supporter thinks THEIR candidate is the one who has the issues down cold. It's the other candidates who are either vague or disingenuous. The great "swing voter" masses generally don't know or want to know too much detail except for maybe one or two issues that trip their trigger. They mostly want to know if they can trust the candidate, and if they can know what to expect- NOT be surprised.