Soccer Dad

Surrogate shifting

Four years ago in response to the charges of the Swift Boat Vets, the Washington Post editorialized:

At the same time, the Bush campaign's disingenuous response to the ads -- declining to condemn them but rather calling on all independent "527" groups to cease and desist -- has done no credit to the president, who finally said yesterday that Mr. Kerry "served admirably and he ought to be proud of his record." Resurrecting a tactic wielded against Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) four years ago, Bush surrogates have irresponsibly suggested that Mr. Kerry is dangerously rattled by the controversy, flinging about terms such as "wild-eyed" (Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot) and "losing his cool" (White House press secretary Scott McClellan).

Now the Post's editors don't seem nearly as concerned with attacks by surrogates:

ENOUGH ALREADY! The country's at war, the economy is struggling, oil prices are surging. The Republican and Democratic presidential candidates have dramatically different approaches to all this and more. And we've just concluded Day Three of the latest surrogate pseudo-drama: "Gen. Wesley K. Clark: Stupid Comment or Deliberate Slight?"

Except I think that there was a serious issue with surrogates this time. First of all, James Johnson's role in the Sen. Obama campaign was significant, if only because Mr. Johnson represented the opposite of the new politics that Sen. Obama professes to practice.

But it's also worth pointing out that Gen. Clark's comments suggest that the criticisms of the general are not a problem of surrogates. Jennifer Rubin explains:

Eight times is no coincidence. It is fair to say that the Obama camp has used up its benefit of the doubt with regard to surrogates attacking McCain's military service. This time it is Rand Beers, no novice to government service or campaigns, slamming McCain for missing out on key foreign policy training and knowledge because of his time as a POW. First, the comment is plain ignorant. A reading of McCain's account of his years in captivity would have told Beers just how valuable a lesson it was in understanding the nature of totalitarian evil. Beers might consider what experience his own candidate has that is remotely equivalent.

Gen. Clark's remarks and similar one by others close to the Obama campaign are looking more and more like an orchestrated attack against Sen. McCain, Sen. Obama's disavowals notwithstanding.

If we look closely at who's slinging the mud in this campaign, it's largely been coming from the Democrats. Now the Post isn't much interested in looking too closely at the charges or even expressing its concern that the 527's are almost exclusively Democratic affairs this year.
 
Nor does the Post appreciate that Sen. McCain is making an effort to keep things more civil.

In general the Post rejects mudslinging of a certain sort and would protest those attacks - if they were coming from a Republican. It appears that when a Democrat is implicated in dirty dealing, though, the Post deems it unimportant.

See Cheat Seeking Missiles for related observations.
Posted by SoccerDad at July 3, 2008 5:35 AM | TrackBack