There has been a tide of advice to Barack Obama about what he should emphasize from now until the Pennsylvania primary. But now is the time to focus voters' minds on questions that frame the entire election, in a way that favors him and disadvantages his opponent.
To anyone not programmed to believe everything she says, Mrs. Clinton's behavior has lately been over the top, distorting Obama's record and belittling his eloquence. Since the means you use affect the ends you get, it's likely that this is how she would govern -- denouncing those who get in her way, and twisting and belaboring every point in order to drown out other voices. "She will wear a great nation down," Peggy Noonan has aptly predicted. And in Washington or anywhere else, you don't make problems easier to solve by poisoning the atmosphere in which problems are discussed.
Since Obama stands for changing the way we do politics, he's obligated to make this a major issue -- and it can win the nomination race for him. He can simply say: High-spin, take-no-prisoners politics damages our democracy. It substitutes noise for reason, and accusations for arguments. Distracting and dividing the people is how Bush has governed. Is that what we need more of?
One example: the Clintons' dragging their feet on releasing their income tax returns means they don't want to be held easily accountable for who owes them and who owns them -- and we cannot change politics unless we have leaders who are accountable.
Summing it all up, he could say: Aren't we all sick of the system in Washington? How much longer do we have to wait, to have a president who believes that too? We presume to preach democracy to everyone else in the world, while refusing to make it rational and honest in America. We say we are patriotic, but patriotism means insisting that we have the kind of government that's worth our patriotism.
This would turn the dross of Clinton's attacks into the gold of a higher purpose for Obama, by calling voters to the cause of regenerating our democracy -- and rejecting Clinton's tactics of stooping to conquer.
No comments:
Post a Comment