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Krugman Reviews The History Of The 1990s Partisan Wars

By Big Tent Democrat

It is sad that it is even necessary. But Krugman provides it:

Whatever hopes people might have had that Mr. Clinton would usher in a new era of national unity were quickly dashed. Within just a few months the country was wracked by the bitter partisanship Mr. Obama has decried. This bitter partisanship wasn’t the result of anything the Clintons did. Instead, from Day 1 they faced an all-out assault from conservatives determined to use any means at hand to discredit a Democratic president. For those who are reaching for their smelling salts because Democratic candidates are saying slightly critical things about each other, it’s worth revisiting those years, simply to get a sense of what dirty politics really looks like.

Ezra Klein yesterday wrote:

At this point, there are two main electability arguments in the primary. There's Clinton, who assures us that she understands the smear machine, and can match whatever it throws at her, and there's Obama, who assures us that he can make Americans understand the smear machine, and condition them to reject whatever filth it generates. It's hard to believe the latter is viable, but it's certainly better. And, in South Carolina, it appears to have happened.

This is prime example of how the Media and the Progressive Big Media Bloggers (Marshall, Klein, Yglesias, Sullivan, etc) have been playing by the Obama Rules during the primary. It is ridiculous to argue, as Ezra seems to, that Obama is running this wonderfully clean campaign unseen in our history. But that is the entire premise of his post. And it is the entire premise of the Media coverage. The Big Media bloggers will keep doing it in a General Election I imagine, but will the Media? Will the Obama Rules stick? If the Media does, Obama will be a "transformative" figure (in the sense that he will shrewdly be perceived to have run a pristine campaign.) But it will be amazing to me if they do.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 28, 2008 (boomark / email).