The distinguishing characteristic of the Clintons has always been a reverence for the Republican attack machine, and the concomitant low opinion of the American public it requires.But wasn't Obama's ability to survive the right wing's swiftboating of him (Wright, Ayers, etc.) worth anything? Those were as good as a nasty right-wing attack to me (the latter certainly was), and he was able to sustain them with poise.
I tend to think that the right-wing attack machine's power is overrated. Sure, there's the actual Swift Boat scandal, but I don't think that one thing destroyed John Kerry's campaign. I mean, the guy lost by three points, for God's sake. Had Kerry responded to it more effectively (perhaps, had he actually responded to it?) it might well have been neutralized.
I think the Clintons fear and revere the right-wing machine because they saw what it did to Bill's term in office, but I tend to think that that machine is somewhat less powerful than we might think, and that Bill just gave them a lot to work with. I mean, this guy's skeletons in his closet seemed to have skeletons in their own closets, and to say that he was a flawed man is understatement of the most extreme sort.
Barack Obama seems to lack those flaws. He does not seem to have a penchant for secrecy. He does not seem to have an unconquerable libido or a crippling desire for affection that keeps him from taking hard-edged stances on key issues. He doesn't seem to lust for power after its own sake. All in all, I'd say that Barack Obama has less to fear from the right-wing machine simply because he's a better person than Bill Clinton. But, of course, I could be wrong.
