Clinton Camp: Biden Time on Obama's Patrick Riff
On Friday, I detailed Hillary Clinton's desperate search for a "Where's the Beef" moment to deflate the surging campaign of Barack Obama. As it turns out, it's not 1984 but 1988 the Clinton camp is trying to recreate, casting Barack Obama not as Gary Hart, but instead Joe Biden.
While blogs left and right discuss whether or not Barack Obama's "just words" riff appropriated from his close supporter and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is plagiarism, Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson made the case that it's Biden Time:
"The power of his rhetoric has been much discussed," said Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson, referring to Obama. "So when we learned that he has taken an important section of a speech from another elected official, it raises questions about the premise of his candidacy." It makes those words much less inspiring; less authentic and more political."
"When you are running on your rhetoric and the power of your oratory," said Wolfson, "I think it undermines a central" element "of his candidacy."
Wolfson played cute ("I am not truly familiar enough with the 1988 incident to be able to answer") when asked if Obama had repeated Delaware Senator Joe Biden's 1988 deadly sin of plagiarizing the speeches of then-British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. But as the media run with the Obama-Patrick kerfuffle, voters in Wisconsin and beyond will decide whether or not Obama suffered a merely a momentary setback or a damaging blow that left his campaign staggered:
As I wrote just three days ago after Hillary Clinton unveiled her "solutions, not speeches" attack:
Unfortunately for Senator Clinton, this is hardly the stuff of a knockout blow. The key to Mondale's "where's the beef" jab was not merely that he tapped into instantly recognizable popular culture, but that he hit Gary Hart the policy wonk directly where he was strongest. With the United States at war and the country slipping into recession, Hillary Clinton is going to have to paint Barack Obama not as a transformational leader, but as a fad. Needless to say, equating Obama not to John F. Kennedy but to a winner of American Idol is easier said than done.
No doubt, Barack Obama's inspirational oratory is a pillar of his campaign. But while the "just words" episode has served to put Obama on the defensive in the area of his greatest strength, as a matter of politics it does not rise to the level of Biden Time. In all likelihood, the Clinton camp will still be looking for its "Where's the Beef" moment.
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Energy Independence Now!
No more Oil Wars!
Stop funding the terrorists!
Drill in Anwar.
Build more nuclear power plants
Use More coal.
Use more natural gas
Turn trash into energy
Double the efficiency of windmills and solar cells.
If France can do nuclear power so can we.
If Brazil can do biomass/ethanol power so can we.
Posted by poetryman69 on February 20, 2008 4:18 AMIf Australia can do LNG power so can we.