Poli Sci 575 Mud Slinging Masters Course Instructor: Clinton, Clinton et al

The Clinton campaign in the last few weeks have shown to be the masters class in the art of mud slinging. The Clinton campaign has essentially put together a series of verbal kamikazes whose sole purpose is to deliver one inflammatory blast at an opponent and then flame out, while the campaign rolls along, supposedly unscathed.

In December internal polling suggested that the most likely challenger for the Democratic nomination was Barack Obama. Suddenly, this relative unknown was surging in the polls and threatening to upset the primary apple cart. Obama needed to be stopped. Enter Bill Sheehan, the campaign's national co-chair. “The Republicans are not going to give up without a fight ... and one of the things they're certainly going to jump on is his drug use.”

This prompted an improptu exit from the leadership of the Clinton campaign but the purpose was served. It allowed Sen. Clinton to slow the rise of Obama while they prepared for Iowa.
The Iowa Caucus showed that Obama was a threat that needed to be taken out quickly so enter Fmr. President Clinton who was quick to explain how Obama has no real experience to run on and that bump, coupled with citizens from New Hampshire being tired of hearing Chris Matthews telling them that the race was decided before they had a say, gave the win to the Clintons and not a tear too soon.

Now, with a few days before S. Carolina and Hillary having stepped in it deep with her saying that Martin Luther King's dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which has taken on a life of its own without help from the Obama camp. For anyone else, this kind of gaffe would be fatal but for the Clintons it should be survivable, as long as they present someone else to take the heat.

To that end, enter Black Entertainment Television founder Bob Johnson, the latest person to volunteer to be grist for the Clinton attack mill. The first black billionaire and not a man to mince words, Johnson said, "To me, as an African American, I am frankly insulted the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues -- when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood; I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in his book -- when they have been involved." In an attempt to cover himself, Johnson added that he was talking about his time as a community activist and any other reference would be irresponsible and incorrect.

I guess I need to be irresponsible and incorrect because I didn't think being a community activist in the Democratic party was a bad thing and something that has to go "unmentioned" in polite circles. I would think that community activists are deeply and emotionally involved in their work. Surely, Johnson can't be talking about that stage in Obama's life as a point of shame. A thinking individual would infer from the comment that he was talking about Obama's admitted drug use, which in light of President Clinton not inhaling is a quantum leap in honesty.

As with others before him, Johnson will eventually be asked to verbally fall on the sword in order to move Sen. Clinton's campaign forward. But he will have delivered his load of mud as requested. As all of the Clinton's best will eventually this year. Should Hillary Clinton not win So. Carolina, will this sacrifice have been worth it? Who is to say. One thing is certain: When you look up mudslingers in the dictionary, you'll see the Clintons in the periphery of the picture. That's they way they want it