Hillary has made hers clear. She will try to make Obama such damaged goods that the supers will choose her in overwhelming numbers. If that doesn’t work on its face then the threat of taking it to an floor fight that brings the party down with her will be used to try to arm twist her way on the ticket in one position or the other. To her credit she has at least decided on an approach. There are still deep divisions in her team but she is staying with one consistent face now. She enjoys this mode and consequently her smiles seem are less forced. Ironicly enough that makes her more likable.
For his part Obama has decided on how to proceed. He is mumbling a lot these last several days, stalling for time. He knows that in fact he’s got so much of a pledged delegates lead as to be nearly insurmountable if he just wins where he should easily. Does he keep to his above the bickering fray or fight back hard? I don’t think he’s decided yet.
Hillary is vulnerable on the trust issue. Taxes are a good start but said with some oomph. Playing quotes of what she said about Michigan and Florida early on contrasted with now, quotes flashed about NAFTA early on and now, he vote on Iraq then and her stated position now. e can mock her experience claim a bit harder. Will he?
Has hillary actually said that she’ll use a scorched earth tactic and bring the party down if she can’t get the nomination any other way? If so, that in itself would be a good reason for any sane democrat to turn their back on her. Using tactics like that probably won’t endear her to many voters either…well except for McCain voters, since it’d be handing him the election. Maybe its just me, but i don’t think Hillary can beat McCain. I got no love for the GOP but I find Hillary too distasteful to vote for. I don’t want bill back in the WH as the first hubby, I don’t trust Hillary since she’ll apparently say or do anything to get the nomination and i don’t see her mending any fences to make things work with congress. I’d probably vote republican for the first time in my life given the choice between hillbillary and McCain.
I’d hate to see Obama have to get down and ugly about it, but he needs to hit her about NAFTA, and bring up every BS stunt she’s pulled.
No, she has not said that. To be fair, that is an inference. I believe a reasonable one, but an inference never the less.
I think my main question really is about the Obama side though. Does he have more to gain or to lose by approaching Hillary negatively back?
On the side of staying high road is that he maintains his “different kind of politics” storyline and because of his delegate lead is still highly likely to be the nominee. All he needs to do to win where he is expected to and not lose Pennsylvania too big and it is in the bag. Even if he performs less well than that he is still in the lead by a long shot. He sees it as check-mate already even if the move sequence is a few weeks of duration.
But unchecked and unanswered Hillary can make him bleed a lot getting there. And not slapping her back down may increase the risk of her having the kind of good day in Pennsylvania that increases the risk of an ugly floor fight.
I think he needs to take control of the storyline again. Hillary’s two-face two-step on MI and FL needs to be pointed out forcefully along with an eager entreaty for Michigan and Florida to have actual primaries instead of the very expensive public opinion polls they had already (and that is how it should be phrased - they are not “do-overs” or “ignoring a primary” - what was done was outside of the primary process.) She is showing how he will be attacked and he needs to demonstrate that she is very vulnerable too. And that he won’t just take punches without fighting back.