The Kitchen Sink Fussilade
When all else fails, go negative with everything you've got,
After struggling for months to dent Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy, the campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is now unleashing what one Clinton aide called a “kitchen sink” fusillade against Mr. Obama, pursuing five lines of attack since Saturday in hopes of stopping his political momentum.
. . .
After denouncing Mr. Obama over the weekend for an anti-Clinton flier about the Nafta trade treaty, and then sarcastically portraying his message of hope Sunday as naïve, Mrs. Clinton delivered a blistering speech on Monday that compared Mr. Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience to that of the candidate George W. Bush.
. . .
Clinton advisers said the attacks were partly an effort to knock Mr. Obama off balance before the debate on Tuesday.
They also said they were sending a signal to supporters that Mrs. Clinton was still resolutely fighting to win the presidential nomination, despite news reports in recent days about her dispirited campaign operation and her own somber outlook on the race.
Like many other tactics she has been using the past couple of weeks, this has the smell of desperation. She is still in the race, and we won't know for another week if this helps her or hurts her, but it doesn't look helpful to the Democratic Party as a whole.
And as for the major issue of importance for the Democrats, Obama has the edge.
In the past two months, Senator Barack Obama has built a commanding coalition among Democratic voters, with especially strong support among men, and is now viewed by most Democrats as the candidate best able to defeat Senator John McCain, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.
And that is not an isolated poll. Obama does far better than Clinton in a head-to-head match-up with McCain. If the Democrats want to reclaim the White House this November, Obama is the better choice.
