Obama Calls Clinton’s “Kitchen Sink” Campaign “Republican Tactics”
This time he didn’t mince words: Democratic Senator Barack Obama directly addressed chief 2008 Democratic nomination rival Senator Hillary Clinton’s charges recent charges against him — saying they smacked of the old politics and Republican tactics.
Obama’s language was clear, right to the point — and well “edited”. CBS News reports:
Barack Obama continued to go after Hillary Clinton this evening, accusing her of using “Republican tactics” against him.
“When in the midst of a campaign you decide to throw the kitchen sink at your opponent because you’re behind,” he said, “and your campaign starts leaking photographs of me when I’m traveling overseas wearing the native clothes of those folks to make people afraid, and then you run an ad talking about who’s going to answer the phone at three in the morning, an ad straight out of the Republican playbook, that’s not real change.”
Tonight’s comments were the most direct criticism from Obama regarding the distribution of the photo of him in traditional African garb. The Clinton campaign denied having anything to do with the photos when they were initially published, and the issue seemed to have faded until Obama brought it up tonight.
(One thing remains curious about the African garb photo: it surfaced around the time when the Clinton campaign told reporters they would be doing a “kitchen sink” campaign against Obama, to ensure he didn’t get a free pass any longer.)
And how will this play? By directly pointing to it, and not just taking the punches, Obama can help neutralize it so voters will remember his response if it’s used again.
“Everybody always asks ‘well, how come you haven’t already wrapped this up? Well, it’s because there are a lot of very powerful people who are doing very well under the existing system,” he said. “So they resist. They’ve got power and they’ve got money. But what we’ve got are the American people.”
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Will this kind of response be the kind many pundits has said would work — confronting what was said and done but still trying to remain above the fray by not answering with grandiose charges and being accused of being doing negative campaigning?
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9 Responses to “Obama Calls Clinton’s “Kitchen Sink” Campaign “Republican Tactics””
I may be in the minority, but I'd prefer to see Obama talk as little as possible about Clinton and instead focus his efforts on letting voters get to know him. He obviously has to respond when an attack is made, but some of the things mentioned in this quote are old news and should be allowed to fade into memory.
There is a seven week lull to fill before the next pivotal moment, and it would probably do everyone some good if campaign news was pushed to the back burner for a while. The candidates can spend some time in townhall meetings in Pennsylvania and elsewhere making sure the voters know who they are voting for, and then closer to the elections can ratchet up the campaigns again to make sure we're all still paying attention. The break would be welcome after an exhaustive two months of daily ups-and-downs.
Hillary and Obama sure have one thing in common. When they want to insult each other, they call the other s Republican.
I agree with ryan. If Obama wants to be 'different', then he has to act 'different' and talk 'different'.
He's getting into some tortured commentary now and straying too far from his basic message and his policies.
Btw, some of those 'powerful forces' who don't want the race to end yet are the voters in states like Pennsylvania, who are eager for their share of attention. I've read quite a few comments from locals to that effect. It's a point the news people are studiously avoiding; it's scandal free, so not worthy of mention.
This is about the people, right? Maybe that's something Obama could stress, instead. It's a notion wholesome enough to be right up his alley. At least, I take that view to heart. One such spokesperson for Pa was an avowed Obama fan, to boot.
Thing about “Republican tactics” is that they work …
I guess those who think that these “Republican tactics” are either new to the Clintons or exclusively used by Republicans are too young to remember the 1990's.
I appreciate Obama talking about the tactics in a campaign as reflecting the values and standards of a candidate and an indicator of how they would build bridges and cooperation.
He can stay above the sordid crap by talking about why it is used and how we all want to rise above it.
Paul,
I agree with you. It looks like Obama has condemned the tactics of the campaign rather than going after Hillary herself. I'm very tired of ad hominems, and Obama has avoided that.
It occurred to me that I have a problem with Obama referring to the tactics as Republican tactics. Just as we sometimes overgeneralize and refer to terrorist tactics as Muslim tactics. Republicans are not bad people but rather it is those members of all ideologies who believe that the ends justify the means. For the majority of us the means are the ends.
I second the sentiments of Paul Silver's last comment.
People are not going to 'get it' in a round-about way, though. Obama has to spell it out, again and again.