Posted by Jed Lewison on Thu Apr 3, 2008 at 4:41 PM Pacific
Top Clinton surrogate attacks Obama on Wright
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, by all accounts Hillary Clinton's most important surrogate, makes Rev. Jeremiah Wright the centerpiece of Clinton's electability argument against Obama during an interview with ABC's Jake Tapper:
"I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate."
-- Gov. Rendell on Feb. 12
You don't think the Republican 527s are going to leave this stuff alone do you? You don't think you're going to see 527 ads with the explicit comments Rev. Wright said, about Rezko and the land deal? You're going to see 527 ads about all of those things.
This is a classic FUD campaign -- a strategy to paralyze the playing field by spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt. (I first heard the term in the 1990s, when it was used to describe Microsoft's business practices in the 1990s. At the time, I was a marketing executive for one of MSFT's competitors.)
Clinton's FUD attack should help dispel the notion that she is giving up, or that she is going positive. Her candidacy may be doomed, but that doesn't mean her campaign will in any way restrain its attacks against Obama.
Can you imagine if a top Obama surrogate like Bob Casey had said that Republican 527s will raise impeachment or Whitewater investigations? It's one thing to attack Obama's credibility on something like energy policy -- that's totally fair game. But using Wright and Rezko as the centerpiece of a FUD campaign is quite another.
Moreover, on the merits, Rendell's argument is wrong. Obama has actually weathered both the Wright and Rezko flareups quite well -- Clinton, on the other hand, took a serious hit after her bizarre tale of Bosnian sniper fire.
The biggest reason for that? Barack Obama is not Jeremiah Wright, and there's nothing to suggest he believes any of it. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, made the sniper fire claims herself.
Everything we've learned during this campaign suggests Barack Obama is more likely to win the presidency than Hillary Clinton. But don't take my word for it. Here's what the voters say:
