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More good news on the Hillary Rodham Clinton front if you, of course, oppose her bid for President. Scratch that, Bill’s bid for a third term. A recently formed Democratic PAC paying for negative ads against HRC in Iowa and plans for more, Robert Reich, self-proclaimed friend of the Clintons describing some Clinton moves as lies and Jake Tapper at ABC publishing a brief post on Reich’s blog post is really cheery news this Tuesday.

Mounting gaffes by HRC and curious moves by her husband are one thing. But a Dems PAC and a friend or at least former member of Bill Clinton’s administration calling out Hillary can’t be a help to the Queen of Cringe this close to the first votes.

Perhaps one of the most amusing developments was an open letter published in the Financial Times last Sunday to Barack Obama from Karl Rove. Oh sure, the questions and opinions flourish on what is Rove up to and whether the idea is to help or hurt Clinton in the campaign. The take here is that Rove is content to muddy the water and allow the public’s past impressions to do the work for him. Telling Obama how to beat HRC and at the same time publishing comments on where Obama is weak is nothing if not humorous.

Memo to Obama: win Iowa or lose the race
By Karl Rove
December 2 2007
TO: Senator Barack Obama
FROM: Karl Rove
SUBJECT: How to Beat Hillary

Not that you have asked for advice, but here it is anyway: Iowa is your chance to best her. If you do not do it there, odds are you never will anywhere. You are way behind her in most national polls. The only way to change that is to beat her in Iowa so people around America take another look at you. You did a smart thing organising effectively in the early primary states. But you can take advantage of that only if you win Iowa and keep her from building an overwhelming sense of invincibility and inevitability.

In a second excerpt from Rove’s open letter Obama’s efforts get punked:

First, stop acting like a vitamin-deficient Adlai Stevenson. Striking a pose of being high-minded and too pure will not work. Americans want to see you scrapping and fighting for the job, not in a mean or ugly way but in a forceful and straightforward way.

But the more compelling development for HRC beyond the Dems PAC attack and Rove perhaps offering advice to Obama is the Reich post. First a peek at the Tapper post:

How Low Will Clinton Stoop? Her Old Friend Asks
December 03, 2007 1:23 PM

On his blog today, former Clinton Administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich — a longtime friend of both Hill and Bill — takes issue with the campaign and increasingly negative tone coming from his former boss’s wife.

“Why is HRC stooping so low?” he asks.

“I’m becoming increasingly concerned about the stridency and inaccuracy of charges in Iowa — especially coming from my old friend.”

Reich says that when Clinton attacks Obama on raising the cap on Social Security taxes “she’s simply not telling the truth.” On health care, he says, Clinton “has no grounds for alleging” that Obama’s plan “would leave out 15 million people.”

‘She’s simply not telling the truth’? C’mon Robert, say it isn’t so. And there is Reich’s post itself.

Yesterday, HRC suggested O lacks courage. “There’s a big difference between our courage and our convictions, what we believe and what we’re willing to fight for,” she told reporters in Iowa, saying Iowa voters will have a choice “between someone who talks the talk, and somebody who’s walked the walk.” Then asked whether she intended to raise questions about O’s character, she said: “It’s beginning to look a lot like that.”

I just don’t get it. If there’s anyone in the race whose history shows unique courage and character, it’s Barack Obama. HRC’s campaign, by contrast, is singularly lacking in conviction about anything. Her pollster, Mark Penn, has advised her to take no bold positions and continuously seek the political center, which is exactly what she’s been doing.

All is fair in love, war, and politics. But this series of slurs doesn’t serve HRC well. It will turn off voters in Iowa, as in the rest of the country. If she’s worried her polls are dropping, this is not the way to build them back up.

Reich’s repeated use of the identifier ‘O’ could make someone wonder if he is referring to Obama or Oprah. It is a reasonably safe bet the reference is for Obama. And the main thrust here is that a former member of the Bill Clinton administration is describing at least one instance of Clinton ‘not telling the truth’ and calling her out for ’stooping too low’ with her tactics in the campaign. The only question left is why this surprises Reich unless he is still suffering the ill effects of ingesting the Clinton Kool Aid.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Public Affairs, wordpress, Politics, campaign, election, blog, Clinton, disclosure, ethics, hillary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.