Within the hour, former President Bill Clinton will apply his star power to the Senatorial runoff battle between Democrat Jim Martin and incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss.
As most remember, six years ago, Saxby Chambliss won his Senate seat race against triple amputee, Vietnam War hero, Democratic Senator Max Cleland, with a hateful campaign that included an ad morphing Senator Cleland’s face into Osama bin Laden’s.
Even Senator John McCain condemned Chambliss then and said: “Putting pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden next to the picture of a man who left three limbs on the battlefield — it’s worse than disgraceful. It’s reprehensible.”
But now, McCain has forgotten Chambliss’ shameful behavior, has made this Senate seat his post-election priority, and has been campaigning strongly for the Republican in Georgia.
It is not yet certain whether President-Elect Obama will travel to Georgia to help the Democratic candidate.
Jim Martin is in a tough runoff battle, and Obama’s personal appearance in Georgia certainly would not hurt.
In 1992, the newly elected Bill Clinton campaigned for Democratic Senator Wyche Fowler, also in a runoff election. Fowler lost, and some claim that this was an embarrassment to the new president. There are reports that there are similar concerns in the Obama camp.
I personally think that president-elect Obama is bigger than that.
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.