The Doubts-About-Obama Industry

The polls show a tightening race, reflecting how perniciously effective smear politics can still be. McCain campaign mud, at least for the time being, is filling in the blanks of an opponent largely unknown to some clueless segment of the electorate.

The dilemma for Obama is how to respond. Trying to stay about it all, as John Kerry did in 2004, is a losing strategy, but full-throttle counterattacks raise the risk of making Obama seem thin-skinned and easily rattled.

Ridicule is iffy. Yesterday the Democratic candidate got some mileage from tweaking McCain about his flipflop on tire inflation for better gas mileage, but too much of that could make him look unpleasantly sarcastic.

For the long haul, Barack Obama has to concentrate on defining himself and his politics for an electorate that wants change but at the same time is wary of risk. He should establish himself as strong enough to withstand smears and then let his surrogates and his eventual running mate deal with the most of the tactical back-and-forth.

Obama has to remember that, as much as he has excited millions of voters, there may be even more who know little about him and can be manipulated into seeing him as a dangerous choice. He has to make them see who he is and what he stands for.

Meanwhile, the doubt-raisers are getting more subtle. Yesterday, one of McCain's potential running mates, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, praised the Democrat ("Say what you will about Barack Obama," he told conservatives, "people gravitate when you have something positive to say"), but then attacked him for inexperience (“It is simply a matter of fact that less than four years ago he was a state legislator”).

Obama should leave it to others to point out that Pawlenty, who could be second in line to an aging president, was only a state legislator five years ago and concentrate on the "something positive" his presidency would offer Americans after eight years of Bush-Cheney negativity.

Gen. Clark's Sound Bites Bite Back

The partisan bickering over Wesley Clark's perceived belittling of John McCain's war service leaves a sour aftertaste all around.

Since entering national politics in 2004, Clark has been victimized by sound bites that bite back, starting with his answers to the question of whether or not he would have voted for the 2002 resolution to invade Iraq, which led to a series of nuanced explanations that were pounced on as waffling before he finally said "no" in a presidential debate.

This Sunday, the General was making a reasonable point about McCain's lack of "executive experience" in military matters when Bob Schieffer interjected that “Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences, either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.”

Politically tone-deaf as usual, Clark responded: “Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.”

The McCain campaign, of course, responded with mock outrage and Obama had to take a step back by saying "No one should ever devalue that service, especially for the sake of a political campaign, and that goes for supporters on both sides."

Clark himself is hanging tough. Yesterday he explained:

"John McCain is running his campaign on...how his experience would benefit him and our nation as President. That experience shows courage and commitment to our country but it doesn't include executive experience wrestling with national policy or go-to-war decisions.

"And in this area his judgment has been flawed--he not only supported going into a war we didn't have to fight in Iraq, but has time and again undervalued other, non-military elements of national power that must be used effectively to protect America. But as an American and former military officer I will not back down if I believe someone doesn't have sound judgment when it comes to our nation's most critical issues."

Well, yes, but coming from someone who until recently was backing Hillary Clinton and who botched his own run for the White House four years ago and is now perhaps touting his own "executive experience" as a qualification for VP, it makes an issue, however false, out of McCain's strongest point and creates a distraction that Obama does not need.

That's not the height of "sound judgment."