Sean Hannity calls Clinton a socialist (video).
Neal Boortz and other wingnut talkers rant about Clinton's alleged Marxism.
But now Barack Obama has weighed in calling Clinton "Bush-Cheney lite."
She can't be both, boys.
Barack Obama has decided to discard his above the fray campaign, while simultaneously embracing his personality campaign. Today, not only did he scream that Clinton is basically Republican lite, aka "Bush-Cheney lite," which is the worse thing you can call a Democratic presidential candidate, but Mr. Obama also chose to embrace the cult of Reagan. As a former Reagan Democrat I find this lurch into Reagan worship by a leading Democratic contender frightening. As a Democrat wanting to win in 2008 I find it counterproductive, to say the least.
What is it with the bi-partisan fetish for all things Reagan?
After all these years of Bush-Cheney, personally, I'm lookin' for a little Big Dog.
Then there are the facts revolving around Ronnie. First, Ronald Reagan came to power through the ineffective foreign policy of Jimmy Carter, especially after Desert One. You can disagree with that characterization, but as a recovered Reagan Democrat I can speak to why many of us moved over to vote for Reagan and it wasn't just his optimism. It was his perceived kick-ass toughness. Secondly, Reagan never promised to meet with the Soviets in the first year of his presidency. He would never have uttered such a phrase. But one thing is clear, Ronald Reagan was an ideologue, an avowed partisan conservative, though he'd work with anyone to get the job done. Most presidents do.
Obama is touting a new and unconventional brand of grass-roots politics, but his strategy borrows from precedents set by a previous generation of Democrats such as Jimmy Carter and Gary Hart. His advisers also invoke as inspiration a surprising Republican: Ronald Reagan.
"Now, it is blasphemy for Democrats," Obama pollster Cornell Belcher said of Reagan, "but that hope and optimism that was Ronald Reagan" allowed him to "transcend" ideological divisions within his own party and the general electorate.
The upbeat message, Obama advisers say, won't prevent the candidate from stepping up both veiled and explicit contrasts with Clinton, who he hopes to portray as an old-hat conventional politician whose varied positions on the Iraq war reflect calculation rather than leadership. ... ..
Obama models campaign on Reagan revolt
As for avowed partisanship, Obama, not so much.
"I think that I have the capacity to get people to recognize themselves in each other. I think that I have the ability to make people get beyond some of the divisions that plague our society and to focus on common sense and reason and that's been in short supply over the last several years. I'm not an ideologue, never have been. Even during my younger days when I was tempted by, you know, sort of more radical or left wing politics, there was a part of me that always was a little bit conservative in that sense; that believes that you make progress by sitting down listening to people, recognizing everybody's concerns, seeing other people's points of views and then making decisions." - Barack Obama (on ABC's "This Week")
Obama's Kumbaya
It also seems Mr. Obama doesn't understand what Reagan was all about. But that's not the worst of it. Because of his unmitigated error in saying he was ready for a sit down with Castro, Mr. Obama seems to now have come unhinged from his "above the fray" politics, turning to not only attacking Clinton, which is fair game in a political high stakes race, but damning her with the one phrase no Democrat should ever call another unless they're willing to go full on Joe: "Bush-Cheney lite."
Democratic primary voters put Clinton ahead by double digits in state polling. She's had stellar performances in the debates and other forums, with Obama not coming across well at all; until this week when diplomacy and what a Democratic foreign policy should be took center stage. Clinton saw a weakness in Obama's foreign policy philosphy on the diplomatic side and pounced. Obama pushed back, but went way too far. Now both campaigns are taking turns duking it out on tv, as Obama's "Bush-Cheney lite" sounds more and more strident every time it's played.
Obama's got cash to burn and he's going to have to burn it to take Clinton down. He's out spending her in primary states. Meanwhile, she continues to lead with Democratic primary voters. But Obama grabbing on to Reagan's 1980 train is a walk towards the general election, which is a huge mistake in the midst of a primary battle, especially when you tag on the "lite" line. He's run an impressive campaign in many ways, especially in fundraising. He's a natural on the stump. But this week we have seen something else revealed in Obama's styling. He can fight dirty. That's good. But the different kind of politics Obama once offered, which was his major appeal, has imploded. That' bad. That he's willing to call his chief rival "Bush-Cheney lite" says something else entirely. That protecting the Democratic brand for all of our candidates is not important to Mr. Obama. It's anything but a new kind of politics. If Obama weren't who he is and I wasn't giving him the benefit of the doubt, I'd call it swiftboating.
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