One cannot accuse Hillary Clinton's campaign of lacking in tactical wizardry. Case in point: the story, leaked over the weekend to Bob Novak (obviously by a Clinton official) that the Clinton campaign has the goods on an apparent "scandal" involving Barak Obama. The nature of the scandal, however, would not be released by the campaign.
The trap was thus set for Obama, who fell for it hook, line and sinker:
Mr Obama, who is standing on a platform of changing Washington’s adversarial culture, accused the Democratic front-runner of using “Swift Boat” tactics of “innuendo and insinuation” similar to those deployed in the 2004 race when John Kerry’s Vietnam war record as a Swift Boat captain was smeared. “I am prepared to stand up to that kind of politics, whether it’s deployed by candidates in our party, in the other party or by any third party,” he said. “The cause of moving America forward demands that we defeat it.
“She of all people, having complained so often about the politics of personal destruction, should move quickly to either stand by or renounce these tactics.”
The response:
Howard Wolfson, Mrs Clinton’s spokesman, protested that she had “no idea” what the claim — reported by the conservative columnist Robert Novak — was all about. He suggested that Mr Obama had shown his naivety by falling for an old right-wing trick: “A Republican-leaning journalist runs a blind item designed to set Democrats against one another. Experienced Democrats see this for what it is. Others get distracted and thrown off their games,” Mr Wolfson said.
Barak Obama: too inexperienced to be President. Magical work by the Clinton campaign.
