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Ma Barker’s Smoking Gun

Mo Dowd, who knows how to fire a broadside if not an AK-47, has likened Hillary to Ma Barker, while grouping Barack Obama with the likes of Michael Dukakis and John Kerry – too far above the fray to get their hands bloody, even when the gore (no pun intended for once) is coming from their own wounds.

So, when Hillary said last week that only she and John McCain are qualified to be commander-in-chief, Barack needed to show his own fighting spirit, in Mo’s estimation, rather than complaining to the media. She may be right that in the convoluted and cynical world of back-room politics, Clinton’s cojones may resonate more with fence-sitting superdelegates than Obama’s detachment, but as usual the complicit media play an unsung role, and not a positive one.

Writing on Huffington’s Post about the ultimate rule in politics never to provide the opposing party with the ammunition to destroy your party’s nominee, Gary Hart scored a direct hit in his perspective on how Clinton violated it with the McCain remark:

“By saying that only she and John McCain are qualified to lead the country, particularly in times of crisis, Hillary Clinton has broken that rule, severely damaged the Democratic candidate who may well be the party’s nominee, and, perhaps most ominously, revealed the unlimited lengths to which she will go to achieve power. She has essentially said that the Democratic Party deserves to lose unless it nominates her.”

I’ll take it a step further: Not only did Clinton provide the ammunition, she stepped so far over the line that she stood next to McCain on the other side, took aim at Obama and pulled the trigger. If Obama prevails against the unscrupulous Clintons, and I’m starting to doubt it, the fall campaign will be rife with sound-bites of Hillary’s ads, and especially that particular bullet into Obama’s heart.

And what do the mainstream media do? Ignore it, report it with no analysis or simply move on to the next headline: Obama adviser quits after calling Hillary a monster.

Where is the scrutiny of her hidden finances, her dysfunctional campaign that virtually ignored the caucus states, her shameless opportunism in putting her ambitions above the unity and integrity of the party?

But then where were the MSM when the Willie Horton ad struck fear into the weak hearts of voters at the unfortunate expense of Dukakis in 1988 or the evil genius of Karl Rove Swiftboated Kerry in 2004?

It’s easy to blame those candidates and their campaigns for not mounting an effective counterattack, but the media must also remember that the return volleys are always filtered through their self-serving and usually distorted lenses.  Maybe editors are overreacting to the Clinton accusations that they’ve been too soft on Obama, or maybe the corporate agendas behind the big news organizations are orchestrating a last desperate thrust to get Hillary nominated because the Republicans are more comfortable running against her and all her baggage.

Either way, Obama is quickly realizing the media honeymoon is over. And for someone not ready to stay home in November or waste a vote on Ralph Nader, I’m getting dismayed at Obama’s  growing predicament: As the candidate of hope and unity, he can’t thrive by wallowing in the muck with Bill and Hill, yet looking weak will hurt his chances too  — and leave him like a deer in the rightwing crosshairs if he survives the spring and summer.

–Steve Klinger

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