Friday, January 18, 2008

Barack Lieberman?

Recently, Barack Obama did something that is unthinkable in modern Democrat circles: he praised...Ronald Reagan. Within a day or two of Obama's comments that Reagan was an agent of change (which he was), Hillary Clinton and John Edwards came out and blasted him for it.

This sets up a possible two-prong strategy between Hillary and Edwards. I've long believed that the two of them have been working together behind the scenes to take down Barack Obama. Remember, John Edwards was the one who got Bill and Hillary's support in the 2004 primaries, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that they could be working together.

Especially considering they have a common foe in Obama.

The way I think they'll approach it is the same way Democrats approached Joe Lieberman since 2006. When Ned Lamont came into the picture, Democrats flocked to him to unseat Lieberman because he was anti-war, anti-Bush, and easily more liberal than Lieberman. At the time, and even today, the fringe left consider Lieberman to be nothing more than a Republican pretending to be a Democrat. Lieberman's voting record shows differently, of course, but nobody ever said the fringe left was playing with a full deck of cards.

You can already see a bit of this sentiment creeping into the campaign from Hillary and Edwards. Don't be surprised if one or both of them come out and question Obama's Democrat credentials, and don't be surprised if that puts a crack in the foundation that Obama's started building.

On the other side of this, I have to say it's sad that a Democrat can't praise a Republican like Reagan these days without being seen as a traitor. Obama shouldn't have to defend or clarify his statements to anyone. If he truly believes Reagan was an agent of change, he should have told Hillary and Edwards to sod off. Instead, he's trying to straddle the fence between Old Democrats and New Democrats to give him the best possible shot at winning his party's nomination. It's going to be tough, but it can be done.

Just ask Joe Lieberman.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Baghdad: 3 unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad today by Iraqi Police. . .

Mosul

Gunmen exploded a primary school on the right bank in al-Intisar neighbourhood, east Mosul Gunmen exploded a primary school on the right bank in al-Intisar neighbourhood, east Mosul, late this afternoon. No casualties were reported.

An abandoned carbomb explodes on the left bank of Mosul (west Mosul), in al-Shifaa neighbourhood near al-Tahira church causing the death of 1 policeman and the injury of 1 woman and damage to the outer wall of the church.

Salahuddin

1 policeman killed during clashes with gunmen late last night.

Basra

One of the representatives of Ayatollah al-Sistani in Basra, Sheikh Mohammed Felek escapes from an assassination attempt as gunmen driving two modern cars open fire upon him in al-Zubair city, west Basra at 09:00 this evening.

1 policeman killed and another injured as gunmen open fire upon them near Ibn al-Jawzi shrine, 2 km to the south of Basra city this evening.