The Clinton campaign was quietly ecstatic over the news this weekend that Barack Obama would “start confronting Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton more directly.” They interpret almost any even vaguely negative remark on Obama’s part as an opportunity to portray the young senator as a hypocrite for failing to keep his promise to hew to a “different kind of politics.” But there’s little evidence that voters see Obama’s questioning of Clinton’s Social Security policy, of all things, as “abandon[ing] the politics of hope.” Saying that Clinton hasn’t been definitive about where Social Security funding will come from just doesn’t strike me as particularly vicious, especially given the material that the Republicans won’t hesitate to use. Press coverage has fallen neatly in line with the Obama-on-attack narrative, we’ll see if his rhetoric ever escalates as high as that of the media.
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Our Pakistani Allies
In another demonstration of diplomatic silliness, the Pakistanis have convicted the doctor who helped us find Osama bin Laden of treason and sentenced him to 33 years in prison. This helps to clarify which side the Pakistanis are actually on. Hint: it’s not ours. I’ll have more about this in my print column tomorrow.
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Morning Must Reads: Revisited
- ”Uncommitted” and a perennial candidate gave Obama a run for his money last night in Arkansas and Kentucky primaries. It’s almost as if he might lose those states, which McCain won by about 20 points in 2008, this fall.
- A WSJ/NBC poll finds that very few people are familiar with or have an opinion about Bain Capital.
- We’ll indulge the private equity debate anyway: Here’s David Brooks, Tim Noah and Steve Rattner.
- It’s well worth re-visiting this New York magazine story from October.
