Barack Obama isn’t gloating over Hillary Clinton’s mounting troubles because his campaign is wary of writing her off before next week’s crucial elections in Ohio and Texas.
“It’s sort of like the movie ‘Jaws,’ ” chief Obama strategist David Axelrod told The Examiner at an Obama rally here. “Just when you think the waters are calm …”
The great white shark of the film seemed an apt metaphor for Clinton’s campaign as it went into attack mode over the weekend.
“Shame on you, Barack Obama,” Clinton scolded in Cincinnati on Saturday. “Enough with the speeches and the big rallies and then using tactics that are straight out of Karl Rove’s playbook. This is wrong, and every Democrat should be outraged.”
She was referring to mailers that Obama sent to Ohio voters criticizing Clinton on trade and health care. Although Clinton’s attack made headlines, some say she missed the mark.
“She needs to take on his qualifications to be president and his qualifications to beat the Republican nominee, not complain about little campaign tactics,” said conservative Bill Kristol on “Fox News Sunday.” “She really just needs to say: ‘Wait a second, Democrats, let’s have a little buyer’s remorse here. That was exciting. It’s an attractive, shiny package. Are you sure you want him as your candidate?’ ”
But there were no signs of buyer’s remorse among the 6,800 blacks and whites who seemed to hang on Obama’s every word at the raucous rally in the Cleveland Convention Center on Saturday night.
“I want change!” a man shouted in the middle of Obama’s lengthy speech. Within seconds, the entire audience was chanting “We want change! We want change!”
A black man in attendance murmured to his daughter, “This is history.” A white Cleveland police officer held up his cell phone and snapped a picture of the candidate who already seemed to have mastered the presidential aura. Afterward, attendees eagerly bought Obama T-shirts being hawked on Cleveland’s frigid streets.
During a conference call with reporters Sunday, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson declined to say whether his boss would reprise her “shame on you” attacks during Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate in Cleveland. Such attacks carry political risks, as Clinton discovered in last week’s debate, when she was booed for insinuating that Obama was a plagiarist.
On the other hand, if she refrains from attack Tuesday, she may miss a fleeting opportunity to change the momentum of the campaign. In recent weeks, Obama has trimmed Clinton’s double-digit leads in Ohio and Texas to single digits.
Former President Bill Clinton acknowledged that both were “must-win” states for his wife. Obama agreed.
“If we win either Ohio or Texas,” Obama said, “that will allow us to make a very strong case that it’s time to bring the nomination to a close.”
